Morningside Presbyterian Church has stood on N. Morningside Drive in Atlanta for a century, drawing together a congregation that worships in the Reformed tradition, sings some of the finest choral music in the city, teaches its children with care, and walks out its doors to serve neighbors from Clifton Sanctuary to Memorial Drive Ministries. From its park-like setting on a single Atlanta block, the church has built a reputation for intelligent preaching, intergenerational programming, and a warm welcome that the pastors describe in a single phrase: "We welcome everyone without reservation." The guiding theme across all of Morningside's life is Journey Together, and the building itself, its music, its classrooms, and its far-reaching partnerships are the road signs along the way.
A Century on N. Morningside Drive
Morningside Presbyterian Church was established in November 1925 as a mission of the Atlanta Presbytery Home Mission Committee and First Presbyterian Church of Atlanta. For two decades the congregation worshipped in temporary quarters before breaking ground on its current home in 1946. The building was designed by the noted church architects Thomas and Waggoner of Philadelphia and completed in 1949; the steeple was added in 1955. Set on a five-acre campus framed by North Morningside Drive and Wessyngton Road, the church sits in a park-like setting surrounded by tree-shaded residential blocks of the Morningside neighborhood.
Two booklets issued around the building's construction and completion are still treasured by the congregation. A later booklet, produced in 1964 once the steeple was in place and the building paid for, includes a section on the church and its symbols, including a description of the symbolic mural in Fellowship Hall. A separate booklet, written by Philip Hawkins and titled A History of Organ Music at Morningside, documents the Wickes-Coulter organ and its long place in the church's musical life.
The church seeks to be a faithful steward of that campus. Through its MPC C.A.R.E. team, Morningside has been certified as a wildlife sanctuary by Birds Georgia (formerly the Georgia Audubon Society), is pursuing certification as a Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Earth Care Congregation, and partners with Trees Atlanta, the South Fork Conservancy, and Georgia Interfaith Power and Light to tend its grounds as an outdoor sanctuary for native plants, pollinators, and birds.
Sunday Worship and the Lord's Table
On any given Sunday, Morningside Presbyterian's worship is built around five pillars: beautiful music, rich liturgy, powerful preaching, intergenerational involvement, and visual expression of the liturgical seasons. Worship begins at 11:00 a.m. throughout most of the year, with a 10:00 a.m. service during the summer months. Sunday school for children, youth, and adults meets beforehand at 9:45 a.m., and infant and toddler care is available throughout the morning.
Children are welcome in the sanctuary every Sunday. Worship bags sit outside the doors with coloring sheets and children's bulletins, and a brief Time with Children draws the younger worshippers forward before children's church for ages two through second grade convenes in Fellowship Hall. First and second graders return to the sanctuary after the sermon; third graders and above remain in worship. After worship on the second and fourth Sundays, the Fellowship Hall or the Welcome Center patio fills with light refreshments as the congregation lingers over conversation.
The Lord's Supper is celebrated on the first Sunday of each month, and baptisms are offered often because of the congregation's steady growth. Morningside describes its services as walking "the fine line of traditional worship flexible enough to accommodate fresh expressions of giving glory to God," a posture that allows for ancient prayers and original litanies alongside children's voices and the handbell choir. Seasonal services include two Christmas Eve services, an early child-friendly gathering and a later candlelight Service of Lessons and Carols, an Ash Wednesday service, Maundy Thursday potluck suppers with communion in members' homes, a Good Friday service often shared with other churches, and two services on Easter Sunday. Morningside also gathers for a Service of Healing and Wholeness and for the beloved Moravian Love Feast, and the year includes lighter moments such as Blessing of the Pets and Blessing of the Backpacks.
Every Sunday worship service is livestreamed on YouTube, so those who cannot attend in person can still join the liturgy. Giving is handled online through the Realm platform, and a podcast of recent sermons is available through a feed maintained by the church.
A Music Program Worth Singing About
Morningside's Chancel Choir has been called "one of the best-kept secrets in Atlanta," and the wider music program lives up to that billing. The Chancel Choir sings regularly in worship and provides special music during Advent, on Palm Sunday, Easter, and All Saints Sunday. Many of its singers also perform with the Atlanta Opera Chorus, and several pursue music as a vocation. Alumni of the choir are now studying and performing in music programs across the country. The Chancel Choir culminates each Advent season with the candlelight Christmas Eve Service of Lessons and Carols at 4:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m.
The Handbell Choir, formed in 2009, rings several times a year and rehearses on Tuesday evenings. The ensemble welcomes both experienced and novice ringers and serves as an unusually welcoming entry point for adults who want to learn to read music or join a small ensemble. A four-octave set of Schulmerich handbells and a three-octave set of Malmark chimes make up the choir's instrumentation.
The Children's Choirs, which meet on Wednesday evenings throughout the school year, begin with a pizza dinner at 5:45 p.m. and split into two ensembles afterward. The Melody Makers (pre-K through first grade) rehearse from 6:10 to 6:30 p.m., and the Harmony Makers (second through fifth grade) rehearse from 6:30 to 7:00 p.m. The children learn hymns and anthems that they then sing in worship, and they lead the congregation in the Children's Christmas Pageant each December and in the Children's Sabbath worship service each spring.
Across all these ensembles, Morningside's musical reach is unusually wide. The music page catalogs dozens of recent anthems and organ voluntories, from Handel and Mendelssohn classics to commissioned works by Jonathan Crutchfield, the church's own Organist/Choirmaster. Guest artists, brass ensembles, a handbell choir, a chamber orchestra, vocal soloists, and instrumentalists in oboe, violin, flute, cello, double bass, trumpet, and saxophone all appear across the year. The Morningside Chancel Choir performed Mozart's Requiem with chorus and orchestra in 2019, and a series of themed choral concerts - "Morningside Sings Over the Rainbow," "Morningside Sings Rodgers and Hammerstein," and the like - has built a long public record of the choir's artistry.
Learning at Every Age
Morningside's Christian education program is organized under the umbrella of "Grow Together" and reaches from infants through adults. On Sunday mornings the children of the church follow a clear path. Infants and toddlers up to age two are cared for in the nursery in Room 105, available between 9:30 a.m. and noon. Children ages two through pre-K gather downstairs on the preschool side of the building. Kindergarten through second grade meet in Room 001, and third through fifth grade meet in Room 003.
For older students, Morningside's Youth program covers grades six through twelve and gathers on Sunday evenings from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. during the school year. Dinner is provided, and the agenda mixes fellowship, games, conversation about faith and current events, and time with caring adult advisors. Sunday school for youth meets from 9:45 to 10:45 a.m. in the youth lounge. Beginning in January each year, seventh and eighth graders are invited into a fifteen-week Confirmation program that walks them through how the Bible was written, who Presbyterians believe God to be, and what it means to become a full-fledged member of Morningside. Each confirmand is paired with a mentor who walks the journey alongside them.
Adult Christian education takes several shapes. The Faith Development class meets Sundays at 9:45 a.m. in Room 201, with rotating topics that range from biblical book studies to discussions of forgiveness and the intersection of faith and politics. A Devotional Drop-In meets in the Session Room for a more conversational check-in built around highs and lows of the week. On Mondays at 9:00 a.m., the Partner with the Preacher group meets online over Zoom to explore the coming Sunday's scripture alongside Pastor Katie Owen Aumann. On Thursdays at noon, anyone is welcome to a session of Centering Prayer in the sanctuary, an ancient practice of silent intention that is followed by an optional brown-bag lunch and time for fellowship. Morningside also runs a Lenten small-group program and an Advent Festival.
Children's Ministry operates under a carefully crafted Child Protection Policy. Every leader and caregiver is trained, vetted through background checks, and equipped before working with children, so that families can leave their youngest members in good hands.
Middle Ground: Dinner, Discussion, and Worship
On the first and third Wednesdays of each month, the fellowship hall fills with the smell of a shared meal as Morningside gathers for Middle Ground, its short-form intergenerational worship service. Dinner is served at 5:45 p.m. for everyone who comes, and at 6:30 p.m. the room shifts into a discussion-based worship built around the scripture of the week or a chosen seasonal theme. Children's choir and MPC Kids programming run concurrently so that parents and their children can share the evening in the same place.
Middle Ground is intentionally brief and informal. Rather than a sermon, the format is built around conversation at tables, with the pastors and other leaders guiding the discussion. It has become one of the most reliable midweek touchpoints at Morningside, and a place where newcomers and longtime members often end up in conversation before the food is cleared.
The Matthew 25 Mission: Serving Atlanta Together
Morningside is a Matthew 25 congregation within the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), a designation that shapes the church's commitment to addressing food insecurity, homelessness, education, the environment, and care for refugees. The church partners with a wide range of local organizations through grants, supply drives, work days, and volunteer hours.
For nearly thirty years, Morningsiders have provided dinner on the fourth Saturday of every other month at Clifton Sanctuary Ministries, Atlanta's oldest shelter operating in a house of worship, offering rest and support to homeless men. Morningside also collects everyday cleaning items and assembles Welcome Home baskets for Clifton graduates, and members pitch in on work days at Clifton's campus. Morningside supports Intown CARES, which runs a weekly food pantry and a Housing First outreach program for those experiencing homelessness in Intown Atlanta. Morningsiders deliver groceries, build hygiene and snack kits, and channel the proceeds from the Youth's Souper Bowl of Caring collection to the pantry.
Since 2016, Morningside has adopted J. W. Dobbs Elementary School, a S.T.E.M.-certified school about twenty minutes by car on Atlanta's southwest side. Volunteer Reading Buddies meet one Wednesday a month with the same students to build literacy skills, and Morningsiders host lunches and coffees for the school's faculty and staff, hold annual school-supply collections, and pitch in during work days at the school.
Further east, Memorial Drive Ministries serves refugees in what is often called the most diverse square mile in the country. Memorial Drive Ministries operates Amani Women's Center, Global Growers, the Solid Foundation Christian School, the Inspire After-School Initiative, and Refugee Family Literacy, an English-as-a-Second-Language program. Morningsiders volunteer on the Memorial Drive campus, support the work through grants, and contribute goods collections. Each November, Morningside also takes up a special offering for Thornwell Home for Children, a Presbyterian-affiliated ministry serving children and families across South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida.
Mission trips extend Morningside's reach beyond Atlanta. Many trips are coordinated with Presbyterian Disaster Assistance and travel within the Southeast to help communities recover from hurricanes and other natural disasters. Others have ventured as far as Washington, D.C., Central America, and Haiti. Most are family-friendly long weekends, leaving Thursday or Friday and returning Sunday.
The church also takes its environmental commitments seriously. The MPC C.A.R.E. team has been active since 2020 in protecting Morningside's five-acre campus as an outdoor sanctuary. In addition to its wildlife sanctuary certification from Birds Georgia, the church has planted native trees with the help of Trees Atlanta, completed an energy audit with Georgia Interfaith Power and Light, and led congregational field trips to wildflower hikes in the Chattahoochee National Forest, to the Len Foote Hike Inn, and to Georgia Tech's Kendeda Building for Innovative Sustainable Design.
Affinity Groups and Community Life
Beyond its formal ministries, Morningside nurtures a constellation of affinity groups that reflect the breadth of its congregation. Couples & Friends hosts informal dinner gatherings, usually on the second Saturday of each month, at homes or neighborhood restaurants, and welcomes couples of every age and configuration as well as friends of couples. LGBT & Friends hosts quarterly dinner-and-discussion evenings and other special events, and runs a booth at Atlanta Pride each October. Lunch Bunch gathers for an informative program and lunch in Fellowship Hall on the third Wednesday of odd-numbered months (excluding July). RHO Readers, a relaxed book club open to members and neighbors, meets on the third Sunday of each month at 12:30 p.m. in Room 201.
Theology on Tap is Morningside's men's group and meets at 7:00 p.m. on the third Tuesday of each month in various homes, with conversation about topics related to faith and the church's missions. Men's Coffee gathers at Press and Grind in the Virginia Highlands neighborhood from 8:00 to 9:00 a.m. on Fridays. Women's Roundtable is intergenerational, usually meeting on the fourth Monday of every month from September through April to share food, wine, and speakers who illuminate opportunities to serve. Friends at Morningside (FAM) hosts a monthly brunch for the young adult community, and Movies @ Morningside meets on the second Sunday of each month after worship to discuss a film chosen to provoke meaningful conversation.
The Annual Fall Retreat takes members to the mountains of Montreat, North Carolina, usually in late October, for a weekend of fellowship, study, and play. Morningside Mingle is an annual off-campus gathering for members, new members, and visitors hosted by the deacons. Special fellowship events through the year include a chili cook-off, a Shrove Tuesday pancakes supper, the Atlanta Pride booth, Christmas caroling in the neighborhood, and an all-church potluck picnic at a local park.
Morningside Presbyterian Preschool
Morningside Presbyterian Preschool is a play-based preschool located on the church's campus. The preschool enrolls children from toddlers through pre-kindergarten and uses the church's classrooms on the preschool side of the building. Morningside and current preschool families receive priority enrollment, with general public enrollment opening each January. The preschool shares the building with the children's Sunday school classrooms and partners with the church on a number of intergenerational events.
Beliefs and Governance
Morningside's identity rests on the Reformed tradition that traces back to John Calvin (1509 to 1564) and the broader Protestant Reformation. Four principles from that heritage shape the congregation: the sovereignty of God, who created all people equally in God's image; the authority of scripture, which testifies to the power and love of God, the lordship of Jesus Christ, and the constant presence of the Holy Spirit; justification by grace through faith, which proclaims salvation through Jesus Christ as God's generous gift and not the result of human accomplishment; and the priesthood of all believers, the principle that ordains the church's shared governance by clergy and laity alike. Morningside is a member congregation of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), a denomination with roots reaching to the Sixteenth Century, and finds an additional summary of its convictions in the denomination's recent A Brief Statement of Faith. The fuller range of Presbyterian teaching is found in the PC(USA) Book of Confessions, a collection of eleven Christian and Presbyterian affirmations of faith spanning the Third through the Twentieth Centuries.
The congregation takes its cues from the six Great Ends of the Church enumerated in the PC(USA) Book of Order: the proclamation of the gospel for the salvation of humankind; the shelter, nurture, and spiritual fellowship of the children of God; the maintenance of divine worship; the preservation of the truth; the promotion of social righteousness; and the exhibition of the Kingdom of Heaven to the world. Morningside's mission statement gathers these commitments into a single sentence: to respond joyfully to God's call in a changing world through worship and study, through sharing the good news of Jesus Christ, and through being good stewards of God's gifts, addressing the challenges of this present age with hope, grace, compassion, and wisdom.
Governance at Morningside follows the classic Presbyterian pattern. The Session, the church's governing body made up of ordained clergy and elected elders (the meaning of the word "presbyters"), oversees the life of the congregation. Members of the congregation nominate candidates for the position of elder annually, and the congregation as a whole elects them. Elders serve three-year terms, though their ordination is for life. The Board of Deacons, elected by the congregation and ordained during a worship service, provides congregational nurture and spiritual care, welcomes new members into their church home, and pays special attention to shut-ins and others in need of care.
The current pastoral leadership includes Rev. Katie Owen Aumann as Pastor and Head of Staff, Rev. Kim Rubish as Associate Pastor for Engagement and Family Ministries, and Rev. Dr. Jonathan Crutchfield as Organist/Choirmaster. Jean Shults serves as Interim Youth Director, and Michaela English is the Worship and Arts Intern. Rev. Dr. Joanna M. Adams, who died in 2026, is honored as Pastor Emerita. Together with the Session, the Deacons, the choir directors, the preschool staff, and the many volunteers who lead affinity groups, classes, and service teams, they keep the path open for the next leg of the journey together.