Two Centuries on Washtenaw Avenue
First United Methodist Church of Ypsilanti stands just north of downtown Ypsilanti at 209 Washtenaw Avenue, where it has worshipped for more than a century and a quarter. Its roots reach back to 1825, when the circuit rider Elias Patee gathered a society of five members in Woodruff's Grove - the settlement that would become Ypsilanti. The congregation marked its bicentennial in 2025 with a series of events opened by a city proclamation. That long arc, stretching from frontier cabins to a streamed Sunday worship service, frames everything the church does today.
A Sanctuary That Has Endured
The building now used for Sunday worship was built and consecrated in 1892 on the same footprint as an earlier chapel that had collapsed during a 1843 revival when an overloaded floor and a wood stove met in a memorable way. The 1892 structure remains the home of the congregation, and the building's care is an active ministry of its own. A special giving fund supports ongoing renovations - among them recently updated restrooms that have allowed the educational wing and nursery to be used more fully, along with parking, signage, and building security upgrades that serve the many community groups who also use the space.
The main entrance today is the Washtenaw West Entrance, reached from the church parking lot at the corner of Washtenaw Avenue and Adams Street. Two sets of double doors with automatic openers lead onto the elevator level, where a greeter is usually on hand before worship. From there, an elevator serves all three floors: the lower-level social hall, the middle level with the sanctuary, infant changing room, nursery, offices, and lounge, and the top level with classrooms and music rooms. A second set of doors on the east side of Washtenaw Avenue also opens into the building for those arriving on foot or by parish parking along the street.
Sunday Morning Worship
Worship happens at 10:30 a.m. on Sunday mornings. The service tends toward the traditional and lasts about an hour. Hymn singing is led from the organ and piano, the choir offers special music, and a sermon and prayers round out the hour. Holy Communion is celebrated on the first Sunday of each month, with additional communion at other special times during the church year. Communion is offered at an open table - anyone who wishes to receive is welcome, whether or not they are a member of the church or of any church at all.
The service is livestreamed on YouTube, so members who are traveling or homebound can keep up with what is happening from week to week. After worship, the fellowship hour begins around 11:30 a.m. with coffee and treats downstairs in the social hall - a time the congregation considers essential for getting to know newcomers. Worshippers dress in everything from blue jeans to coats and ties; the only expectation is that visitors come as they are.
A Building Made for Music
Music is woven deep into the identity of the church. The music and arts program is led by Nicholas Martin, who directs three distinct ensembles that all serve the Sunday morning service and the wider life of the congregation.
The Chancel Choir sings weekly during the 10:30 service for nine months out of the year and presents major choral works at Advent and Lent - among them the Vivaldi Gloria, Britten's Ceremony of Carols, the Rutter Requiem, and the Mozart Requiem. Its section leaders are often freelance musicians or vocal music majors from the University of Michigan and Eastern Michigan University. The Carilliers Handbell Choir is a twelve-member ensemble on a five-octave set of Schulmerich handbells with a three-octave set of hand chimes; it performs about once a month, sometimes joining with other instruments, with First Spirit, and with the Chancel Choir. Two of its members also perform with the Detroit Handbell Ensemble. First Spirit, the contemporary music group, brings a band of twelve to fifteen singers, drums, piano, bass, and guitar to lead the congregation in newer songs of praise.
Casey Baker continues to lead congregational singing and to play preludes, postludes, and offertories on the organ and piano each Sunday. He also plays for weddings, funerals, and other events such as the annual church conference.
Children, Youth, and Adults Learning Together
Christian formation for every age happens at 11:00 a.m. on Sunday mornings, after the congregation has worshipped together. Children in Pre-Kindergarten through fourth grade are invited to Sunday School following the Children's Message in worship. The nursery is staffed from the start of the service for infants and toddlers. Children who are eight years old and older are invited to serve as acolytes, lighting the candles at the beginning and end of each service; youth and adults also take on this role.
Youth in grades 6 through 12 meet in the Youth Lounge for a class of their own that gives them a safe place to ask questions and grow in faith. These young people also form a broader Youth Group that meets beyond Sunday mornings to build friendships, plan mission trips - past trips have included the Upper Peninsula, downtown Detroit, and Appalachia - and serve the church and community. They help lead Vacation Bible School each June and the Lenten Fair, and they sell Souper Bowl chili to benefit missions.
Adults gather in the parlor at 11:00 a.m. for the Adult Challenge Class, which moves through social issues, Bible study, and comparative religions with what the description calls "lively discussion." Visitors are welcome at any time.
Lent brings two additional rhythms. Neighborhood Lenten Bible Studies gather in the homes of church members for spiritual growth and fellowship in the weeks before Easter, and one Sunday during Lent the Children's Ministry team hosts a Lenten Fair after worship with egg dyeing, pretzel dipping, face painting, and other activities, along with a shared lunch.
A Network of Care
Congregational Care is taken seriously at every stage of life. Pastors, staff, and volunteers visit the homebound, deliver Communion, send cards and notes, arrange meals during stressful times, and offer transportation assistance to those who can no longer drive. The Caring Connection maintains this contact with members who are unable to attend services, and a grief ministry component of the same team provides printed booklets at key points during the first year after a significant loss. The Mobility Assistance ministry places a volunteer at the West Door on Sunday mornings to help anyone who needs a hand getting into the building.
Small groups, formal and informal, meet regularly to share life and faith. Several of them are open to members and non-members alike, offering one of the more accessible paths into the life of the church. A pastor can be reached at 734-482-8374 to schedule appointments, including for baptisms (which are offered to infants, children, youth, and adults) and for weddings.
Missions Beyond the Walls
Outreach is described as being in the congregation's DNA since its frontier days, and a long roster of local partnerships reflects that conviction. In a single recent year the church supported Cass Community Social Services, Christian World Service, Dawn Farm, Food Gatherers, Friends In Deed, God's Country Community Ministries, Growing Hope, House by the Side of the Road, House N2 Home, IHN/Alpha House, Ozone House, the Shelter Association of Washtenaw County, Ypsilanti Meals on Wheels, and Ypsi Steps (an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting). Donations of food and clothing, monthly collections, fair-trade shopping at the Small World Shop, and volunteer hours all flow through the Missions Team.
The building itself is part of this outreach. When the church's own activities do not require a space, the Trustees make rooms available to not-for-profit organizations whose missions align with the church's, including ESL classes, Girl Scouts, and Justice For Our Neighbors - Southeast Michigan. Volunteer opportunities inside the church are also part of the same fabric: greeting, ushering, running the sound system, reading scripture, and singing in one of the choirs all count as service.
An Open Welcome
The Statement of Welcome on the church's walls and on its site is unambiguous. "The people of the Ypsilanti First United Methodist Church welcome and affirm all persons. We embrace and seek to preserve the amazing diversity of God's creation. We believe God's welcome is not limited by age, race, ethnicity, culture, citizenship, language, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, marital status, economic condition, and physical or mental ability."
That welcome takes institutional form through membership in the Reconciling Ministries Network, a United Methodist network that works for the full inclusion of LGBTQ persons in the life of the church. The rainbow flames logo identifies the congregation as a Reconciling Congregation without replacing the traditional cross and flame of the United Methodist Church.
Practical hospitality flows from the same conviction. A T-coil loop system assists those who use hearing aids (ushers at the audio desk can help), large-print bulletins and hymns sit at the entrances to the sanctuary, assisted listening devices are available on request, courtesy wheelchairs are kept next to the elevator on the ground floor and in the narthex, and a walker is also on hand. The building is peanut-free, gluten-free crackers are available for communion, and pew cuts near the front of each side of the sanctuary offer extra room for wheelchairs, scooters, and walkers with companion seating in the pew. Service animals are welcome to attend worship.
Beliefs and Heritage
The congregation is open about its theological center. "As United Methodists, we believe that faith is really about love." Worshippers look to John 3:16 for the story's starting point and to Romans 8:38-39 for the assurance that nothing can separate a person from the love of God in Christ Jesus. That unfailing love is called grace, and it cannot be earned. In response, the church follows Jesus's summary of the law: love God with everything and love the neighbor as oneself. The congregation is candid that it does not have all the answers but that it is learning, by grace, to grow in love a little more each day.
The heritage matters too. The 1825 beginnings in Woodruff's Grove, the 1843 River Street chapel with its collapsing floor, the rise of the 1892 sanctuary - these milestones are recounted not as a museum piece but as a foundation for the present. "Mission is in our DNA" is the framing the church uses for itself, and the present-day ministries on Washtenaw Avenue aim to honor that inheritance.
Pastoral Leadership
Pastor Cori Clevenger serves the congregation as its appointed pastor, coming to Ypsilanti from earlier service in The Michigan Conference at Colon and Battle Creek: Newton United Methodist Churches and at Pine River Parish (LeRoy, Ashton, and Luther). A Licensed Local Pastor in the elder ordination track of the United Methodist Church's candidacy process, she earned her Master of Divinity from Southern Methodist University's Perkins School of Theology in 2020 and previously served an internship with The Methodist Church of Great Britain. Rev. Richard E. Burstall is also associated with the church and can be reached through the church office.
The office is open Monday through Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., closing from noon to 1:00 p.m. each day for staff lunch. The office closes for weather when Ypsilanti Community Schools close. Visitors can stop by the visitor center at the back of the sanctuary for name tags and information about child care and Sunday School.
A Place for Everyone
The phrase the Accessibility ministry uses for itself is "A Place for Everyone," and it works to live up to that name through physical access, welcoming, advocacy, education, and awareness. Nearly one in five people in the United States lives with a disability, and the church notes that about ninety percent of them do not attend church - a gap its accessibility and outreach efforts aim to address. Person First Language is taught as part of that work: the disability comes after the person, never the other way around.
Supporting the Work
Giving to First United Methodist Church of Ypsilanti is possible in several ways. Online donations are accepted through a PayPal button on the site for one-time gifts, recurring electronic giving can be set up by contacting the Church Administrator, and checks may be mailed to the Washtenaw Avenue address. Donors may designate their gifts to the Operating Fund, Special Giving (such as disaster relief, local charities, or memorial gifts), or the Building Fund. A SCRIP gift-card program lets regular shoppers turn everyday purchases into a contribution to the operating budget by buying gift cards from the SCRIP table during Social Hour or through ShopWithScrip. The Small World Shop in the rotunda by the main entrance sells fair-trade products from SERRV International and Equal Exchange on Sundays after the 10:30 service - one of the quieter, ongoing ways the church connects its members with the global market and its concerns.
Just north of downtown Ypsilanti, set back from Washtenaw Avenue behind its parking lot and its century-old limestone walls, First United Methodist Church keeps the rhythm of Word and sacrament that first took shape in a frontier cabin in 1825.