Religion Timeline

Sunday schools are a way to teach literacy as well as religious concepts. The first Indianapolis Sunday school follows this model, which early settlers have brought with them from elsewhere. 

A group of Presbyterians organize the Presbyterian Church of Indianapolis in the carpenter shop of Caleb Scudder, on land where the Indiana State House would later be built. Previously, they shared a preacher with Presbyterians in Bloomington. The church admits its first African American member in 1827. 

William E. McLellin, a missionary of the recently established Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Days Saints, commonly known as Mormons, arrives in Indianapolis and holds a meeting before moving on to Ohio. 

Although they hold meetings throughout the 1820s and 1830s, Indianapolis Episcopalians finally organize Christ Church as their first official Episcopal parish. 

Roman Catholics establish their first church in the city, eventually known as St. John the Evangelist. The church still exists at 126 West Georgia Street.

A general denominational disagreement over the role of revivals and voluntary associations leads to a division within the First Presbyterian Church. The evangelical or New School Presbyterians defect from the congregation and form Second Presbyterian Church. 

Rev. Henry Ward Beecher becomes the first minister for Second Presbyterian. The son of the Rev. Lyman Beecher, a force behind the Second Great Awakening, the younger Beecher becomes known for his captivating sermons. He leaves Indianapolis in 1847 to serve in New York, where he becomes a national figure.

Indianapolis’s Central Christian Church hosts the first statewide gathering of the Disciples of Christ. One of the denomination’s founders, Barton Stone, speaks during the four-day event.  The Disciple’s national headquarters are located in the city from 1928 until 1995.   

Methodist leaders establish a second congregation that opens for services at Pennsylvania and Market Street. Named for Bishop Robert P. Roberts, it becomes known as Roberts Park when it moves to Vermont and Delaware streets in 1876.

Eighteen members meet in the home of Anton Friederich Bade, a laborer, to establish the congregation. The first church building is located on Alabama Street.  

Second Presbyterian’s Reverend Henry Ward Beecher speaks along with Wesley Chapel’s Reverend Lucien W. Berry for the funeral of former Indiana governor Noah Noble. Methodists and Presbyterians argue about the propriety of the two congregational leaders sharing a pulpit.

Known for their peace testimony and antislavery, the Society of Friends formally organizes its first permanent Meeting in Indianapolis. Quakers had settled in southwestern Hamilton County during the 1830s and established the towns of Bethlehem (now Carmel) and Westfield. A short-lived Meeting had operated in Indianapolis in 1834. 

Classes begin at North Western Christian, affiliated with the Disciples of Christ and located at what is now 13th Street and College Avenue. Unlike most American colleges of the period, the university, later known as Butler, admits both African Americans and women. 

Civil War Democrats make up most of the membership of the second Episcopal church in the city. Horace Stringfellow, who was forced from Christ Church’s pulpit for suspected pro-Southern leanings, is its pastor. 

The Second Presbyterian Church leaves its home on the Circle and moves to a larger building on Pennsylvania and Vermont streets, located on land that later will become Indiana War Memorial Plaza in the 20th century. 

In the midst of the national financial panic, the Little Sisters of the Poor begin providing charity services to the elderly poor, and the House of Good Shepherd is established to take in “erring” women and girls. Protestant churches form special committees to deal with the economic depression that follows the panic. 

Plymouth Congregational welcomes Reverend Oscar McCulloch. An advocate of the social gospel, he inspires the formation of the Indianapolis Charity Organization Society in 1879. The organization operates out of Plymouth Church and coordinates poor relief efforts in the city.

At the annual meeting of the WTCU (Oct. 29-Nov. 3) in Indianapolis, Frances Willard, who goes on to become one of the leaders of the national anti-alcohol movement, is elected president of the organization. The WCTU was allied with Protestant denominations nationally and locally. 

Central Avenue Methodist, then the largest congregation of the denomination in Indiana, moves into a Romanesque Revival-style building located at 12th and Central Avenue. It remains there until 1999, after which Indiana Landmarks buys and refurbishes the structure to serve as its headquarters. 

William Wheeler, a local businessman, begins a rescue mission to help people who are destitute. Supported primarily by Protestant churches, it becomes incorporated as the Rescue Mission and Home of Indianapolis in 1905, with Wheeler’s name attached after his death in 1908. Today it operates as Wheeler Mission Ministries and is the city’s largest mission.  

Bishop Silas Chatard establishes St. Agnes as a boarding school for girls. It opens with 12 members of the Sisters of Providence and 3 students. 

Following a proposal from the International Convention of the Epworth League of the Methodist Episcopal Church, the Indiana Secretary of State’s office files the Articles of Association for Methodist Hospital. The hospital becomes one of the largest in the state and currently is part of IU Health.

The United Brethren Church selects the city’s south side for a new school of higher education, Indiana Central College. The school’s name is changed to the University of Indianapolis in 1986. 

To overcome ethnic divisions, the United Hebrew Congregation forms. It becomes the largest and most influential Orthodox congregation in the city and state.

First Presbyterian opens a new building at 1505 N. Delaware Street after construction of a new federal courthouse forces its move from the corner of Pennsylvania and New York streets. Plymouth Church also leaves its building at Pennsylvania and Ohio streets with construction of the courthouse. 

Maria Beulah Woodworth-Etter’s series of revivals on the city’s south side leads to the establishment and growth of Pentecostalism in Indianapolis. A healing evangelist from Ohio, in 1918 the revivalist helps to found what is today the Lakeview Church on Beachway Drive.

Shumaker, a Methodist minister, becomes a leader in the fight for statewide prohibition. Indiana goes “dry” on Apr. 2, 1918, nearly a year before the Eighteenth Amendment is ratified.

Governor J. Frank Hanly, a staunch member of Meridian Street Methodist Church, rails against the dangers of “demon rum” and pushes for a county option law. Over 70 of Indiana’s counties go dry as a result. 

Congregations Sharah Tefilla, Ohev Zedeck, Knesses Israel, and United Hebrew Congregation cooperate to establish the school. Its afternoon classes take place at Sharah Tefilla synagogue on the south side. It becomes Hasten Hebrew Academy, a day school, at B’Nai Torah in 1971.

St. Vincent Hospital, founded by the Catholic Daughters of Charity of the St. Vincent de Paul Society in 1881, opens on Fall Creek Parkway. St. Vincent moves to West 86th Street in 1974, and Ivy Tech takes over the site to create its Fall Creek Parkway campus in 2008. 

St. Francis Hospital, first organized in 1909 by the Sisters of St. Francis, is dedicated in Beech Grove and becomes an important health care facility for the south side of Indianapolis. St. Francis opens a new hospital on the southeast corner of Emerson Avenue and Stop 11 Road in 1995 and abandons its Beech Grove facility in 2012. 

The all-boys school begins with 90 students in temporary quarters on the second floor of the Cathedral grade school. The school moves into a new million-dollar facility at 14th and Meridian streets in 1927.

English evangelist Gypsy Smith runs a city-wide revival. The temporary tabernacle constructed for the revival’s headquarters inspires E. Howard Cadle, a Christian evangelist, to create a permanent tabernacle with seating for 10,000. 

By repurposing messages of support for anti-Catholicism, Prohibition, and 100 percent Americanism, the Ku Klux Klan, led by D. C. Stephenson, dominates Indiana. The Klan boasts a large membership among Indianapolis residents, most of them Protestant.

Reverend Garfield T. Haywood moves Christ Temple to 430 West Fall Creek Parkway. The new location provides more space for the growing integrated congregation of over 1,000 Black and white members.

Tabernacle Presbyterian creates its recreation program, with a $50 gift, to help meet the needs of children of the church and community. It is one of the first church recreation outreach programs established in the U.S.

The Sisters of Providence purchase property owned by Stoughton A. Fletcher II  and open Ladywood School for Girls with six students. After the Sisters of Providence close the school, the property becomes the new campus of Cathedral High School in 1976.

Resulting from a merger of Congregation Beth-El and Congregation Ohev Zedeck, the new Reconstructionist/Conservative congregation is “hospitable” to all Jewish traditions, revealing a melding of the community as immigration slows and German and Eastern European Jews begin to intermarry. 

After a decade away, E. Howard Cadle retakes control of the Cadle Tabernacle. Under his direction, the venue continues to host evangelists and becomes home to “The Nation’s Family Prayer Period” radio program. 

A cloistered order of nuns, the Carmelite Monastery takes up residence in a medieval-style, castle-like convent. The nuns remain on the property until the facility closes in 2008.

Calvary Temple, the largest congregation of the United Pentecostal Church, welcomes Nathaniel Urshan as its new minister. He and his wife Jean launch a radio ministry on WIBC and increase church membership.

Reverend Jim Jones founds the Wings of Deliverance, a Pentecostal church later known as the Peoples Temple. The congregation is integrated and made up of working-class residents of the city’s south side. Jones later moves the church to San Francisco and then to Guyana, where he leads 900 members to commit mass suicide.

Central Hebrew Congregation and United Hebrew Congregation merge to become the largest Orthodox Jewish congregation on the south side of Indianapolis. A year later, the congregation moves to the new Jewish Community Center campus on the city’s far north side. 

The Indianapolis Church Federation launches a television program aimed at children called “Timothy Church Mouse,” later renamed “Time for Timothy.” The program airs on local stations until 1999.

Affiliated with Trinity Episcopal Church, St. Richard’s opens as Indiana’s only independent Episcopal day school.

Mayor Charles Boswell appoints the People’s Temple’s pastor, the Reverend Jim Jones, to direct the city’s human rights commission because of his commitment to civil rights for African Americans. 

Reverend William Hudnut moves to Indianapolis to become the pastor for Second Presbyterian. He proclaims that racial segregation will not be tolerated in the congregation. Upon leaving the pastorate in 1972, Hudnut becomes a one-term US congressman and four-term mayor of Indianapolis. 

Members of Christ Church Cathedral leave the congregation after Reverend Peter Lawson holds a forum about the Vietnam conflict, preaches a sermon against the war, and takes part in protests.

The Indianapolis Church Federation moves into the Indiana Interchurch Center at 42nd and Michigan roads. The new building also becomes the offices of several denominational headquarters. 

Father Boniface Hardin, assistant pastor of Holy Angels Catholic Church, emerges as a civil rights activist when he leads opposition to I-65 construction through his parish in the United Northwest Area. He later establishes the Martin Center, which becomes Martin University.

As pastor of Second Christian Church, T. Garrott Benjamin prioritizes the expansion of its interdenominational initiatives as well as the uplift of young African American men. The church becomes Light of the World Christian Church in 1984, with Benjamin named as bishop. 

Sandy Sasso is the first woman ordained by the Reconstructionist Movement and the second woman rabbi in the United States. She and her husband Dennis Sasso become the first married rabbinical couple in world Jewish history in 1977.

St. James, St. Patrick, Sacred Heart, Holy Rosary, and St. Catherine parish schools merge to form one education complex. Central Catholic School first locates on the grounds of St. Catherine of Siena.

After leaving the pulpit of Second Presbyterian Church and serving one term in Congress, Hudnut becomes mayor, vowing to transform the city from “India-no-place” to a first-rate city.  

Cathedral High School moves to the site of the former Ladywood school at 56th Street and Emerson Way. For the first time, girls are included in its student body.

The Society, which becomes the largest dues-paying Muslim organization in North America, provides training and other services to large numbers of new mosques in the U.S. It organizes the first Muslim library in the United States in 1981.

After moving to a new building located at 5640 East 38th Street, Second Christian Church, one of the fastest-growing congregations in the city, becomes Light of the World Christian Church.

A group of 40 people assemble in Carmel, Indiana, and forms a new Conservative Jewish congregation where members could lead services and read Torah. In 1999, the congregation grants equal participation to women and, in 2007, moves to Carmel.

Due to the decline in Catholic membership in urban parishes, St. Catherine of Siena and St. James parish consolidate to become Good Shepherd parish.

Eastern Star Church holds its first service in its new building at 5750 E. 30th Street, which is constructed to accommodate a membership that has increased from 900 to 4,000 people.

Mayor Stephen Goldsmith enlists religious organizations to his Front Porch Alliance, an initiative intended to address neighborhood issues and foster a better sense of community.  The Alliance stemmed from a national trend to use faith-based partnerships to provide government-funded services.

For the first time, all agencies affiliated with the Jewish Federation of Greater Indianapolis are united on one campus, including the Jewish Community Center, the Jewish Community Relations Council, the Hooverwood retirement community, and the Jewish Education Bureau.

Clergy groups in the city found the Indianapolis Ten Point Coalition to help curb youth violence by building bridges among communities, police officers, and juvenile courts. 

The Dalai Lama gives a public address during a welcoming ceremony at Market Square Arena. He returns to Indianapolis on May 14, 2010, and June 25, 2016.

Redeemer Presbyterian Church, formed in 1998, purchases the former First Presbyterian Church building to use as its home and organizes the Harrison Center for the Arts as a nonprofit that provides artists studio and gallery space.

Housed at the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy,  the Lake Institute fosters a greater understanding of how faith inspires and informs giving through research, education, and public conversation.

Iman Muhammad Ndiaye, who came to Indianapolis from Senegal in 2001, establishes the Al-Haqq Foundation as the first Qur’an school in Marion County. 

Functioning as a worship and cultural center, the An Lḁc temple moves to a large, Vietnamese-style Buddha Hall, led by a community of Buddhist nuns.

Reverend David A. Hampton becomes pastor of Light of the World Christian Church and moves the congregation into social justice and civil rights conversations. His work leads to a position as deputy mayor for neighborhood engagement.  

Claiming protection under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) Bill Levin founds the First Church of Cannabis. The courts grant the church protection under RFRA, but legal authorities do not approve the use of cannabis as a sacrament. 

Traders Point Christian Church (TPCC), located in Whitestown, opens a second site in Carmel. TPCC soon establishes four more campuses. Other independent Christian megachurch congregations, including Grace Church, College Park Church, Northview Church, and Common Ground Church, also establish multiple sites.