Our History

From the very early days, Meridian Street has had a history of mission and outreach. Trips to places as far as Zimbabwe to as close as Chatham, Illinois, as well as local service opportunities have touched and helped the lives of people around the world and right here in Indianapolis.

 

We know that we have been blessed and must share that blessing around the world. Over the past few years, we have partnered with the Fairfield Children’s Orphanage in Zimbabwe, Africa, the Andean Rural Health Care Program in Bolivia, and Mission Guatemala. Locally we support Fletcher Place Community Center, and we are proud to be among the founding congregations of Family Promise and Soup’s On at Roberts Park.

 

Our children’s ministry is designed to help children experience the love of Jesus through study and play. Our youth ministries allow the youth to wrestle with their faith in a loving, caring environment.

 

And right in our own home at 5500 N. Meridian Street we are in service to one another. Whether it is providing meals for families mourning the loss of a loved one, celebrating a new birth or baptism, or special luncheons for our senior members, we are connected to one another through fellowship and faith.

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Celebrating Our History

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Meridian Street UMC celebrated its 175th Anniversary in 1996. Long-time member, Daniel F. Evans, wrote At Home in Indiana for One Hundred and Seventy-Five Years: A Comprehensive History of Meridian Street UMC. Evans wrote:

[Our church’s] voice and influence through [its] long history has ebbed and flowed, but there has never been a time when the church now known as Meridian Street United Methodist Church has not been a significant presence in the religious life of Indianapolis. And there has never been a time when its minister and members have not sought to preach and practice that linkage of the heart and head that from John Wesley’s day to our day has been characteristic of Methodism at its best."   

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And in 2021, the congregation celebrated 200 years of worship and service. In spite of the COVID pandemic, celebratory events were held throughout the year, culminating with a banquet at Meridian Hills Country Club. Members and friends of the congregation attended, including Mayor Joe Hogsett. Andrea Neal and Jason Lantzer wrote Great is Thy Faithfulness: A Bicentennial History of Meridian Street Methodist Church, which chronicles two centuries of worship and ministry.

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