Here is another account, that directly touches on MAPC’s own history, from William Yoo’s book, “What Kind of Christianity”. Racial Justice Task Force member Nickie Christin summarizes the story:

Have you ever wondered how the Phillips Chapel got its name?  It was named in memory of William Wirt Phillips, the beloved pastor of First Church in New York City from 1826 to 1865, where James Lenox who gave us the Phillips Chapel in 1869 worshipped and was an elder.  In “What Kind of Christianity”, William Yoo relates the story of how Rev. Phillips, the moderator of the 1835 General Assembly,  opened the proceedings of the 1836 General Assembly with a sermon from Romans 1:16–17, a text emphasizing that Christians must not be ashamed of the gospel of Christ and imploring them to live by faith.  The General Assembly then began deliberations on the Chillicothe resolutions which condemned slaveholding by church members and would have made slaveholders subject to censure and exclude them from Communion.  The majority of the committee empowered to bring these resolutions to the General Assembly recommended “that it is not expedient for the Assembly to take any further order in relation to this subject.”  The vote on the resolutions was postponed for two weeks so the Assembly could deliberate for a week on a disciplinary matter involving a pastor’s preaching on original sin and other matters. Finally, as the General Assembly was drawing to a close, the committee recommended and the General Assembly voted in agreement  that “’this whole subject be indefinitely postponed’ for three reasons: (1) an interpretation of the constitution of the PCUSA  (Presbyterian Church in the United States of America) that prevented the construction of ecclesial laws binding the individual conscience; (2) the ‘urgency’ of other remaining ’business’; (3) the ‘shortness of the time’ permitting to ‘deliberate and decide judiciously on the subject of slavery’. 

Where was the Presbyterian Church when over two million enslaved Black persons were being abused, raped, and oppressed?”* Rev. Phillips voted in favor of postponement.  The Presbyterian Church would not officially condemn slavery until 1857.

During this season of Lent, join us as we wrestle with the ongoing challenges of what it means both to be an ally and to repent of the role Presbyterians and other Christians played in the enslavement and oppression of people of color. 

*Yoo, William. What Kind of Christianity (pp. 14-17). Presbyterian Publishing. Kindle Edition.