Known across the city as Big Wesley. Founded 1820. Frederick Douglass spoke from its pulpit against slavery. Philadelphia’s first Black hospital opened next door with its support. The jobs movement of the civil rights years was organised here. Still here. Still open. Still working.
Whether you have worshipped your whole life or have not set foot in a church in twenty years, there is a seat for you at Big Wesley. Sunday school is at half past nine and morning worship is at eleven. Midweek, we gather for prayer at noon and Bible study in the evening.
Parking is on the street. The Broad Street Line and several bus routes stop within a few blocks. If you need a ride or a hand getting in, call the office and we will make a way.
To advance the Church of Jesus Christ, maintain Christian fellowship, edify the believer, convert the world and transform society for the glory of God — until His kingdom comes on earth as it is in heaven.
Sunday is the centre, but the building does not sit idle. Families mourn and are carried. Neighbours meet. And there is more on the way.
Dignified funeral and memorial services, with repast in the fellowship hall and a staff that handles the details.
How we help →Music, youth, seniors, health, men’s and women’s fellowship, scholarship and prison ministry.
Find your place →Two hundred years of ministry, and the work is not finished. These are the plans being prayed over, planned and prepared right now — watch this space as each one opens its doors.
A small, licensed early learning program taking shape in our lower level, for the families of Southwest Center City.
See the plan →A neighbourhood pantry and a hot community meal midweek. No appointment, no paperwork, no questions.
See the plan →Marry in a 1926 Gothic Revival sanctuary with stained glass the length of the nave, members and neighbours alike.
See the plan →Sanctuary, fellowship hall, kitchen and meeting rooms for rehearsals, recitals, trainings and receptions.
See the plan →Bedtime prayers for the children. The psalms for a long night. A guide to studying the Bible, answers to honest questions, and the story of this church. Free to read, print and share.
Visit the library
The congregation began in 1820 in a carpenter’s shed on Lombard Street. Frederick Douglass spoke against slavery at its earlier home on Lombard Street. It hosted the opening of the city’s first Black hospital, next door, in 1895. By one account it fed thirty-four thousand people in the worst year of the Depression, and it helped launch the jobs movement that became OIC.
The sanctuary you walk into was designed by George Espie Savage and finished in 1926 — a corner bell tower, a spire, and pointed arch windows with stone tracery. It has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1978, and a Pennsylvania state historical marker has stood out front since 2020.
Read the full storySeventy years apart, the families still climb the same steps at 15th and Lombard on Sunday morning.
Come Sunday. Bring someone. Or call the office and tell us what you need — a meal, a hand, a quiet place to sit.
