Founded in 1857, the Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church in the heart of Fort Greene was known in its early days as a "temple of abolition." The church's first pastor, Theodore Ledyard Cuyler, was one of the most outspoken and radical opponents of slavery of the time. Indeed, Cuyler would relentlessly hound President Abraham Lincoln about aboloshing the "peculiar institution." Later, Culyer would invite the Quaker Sarah Smiley to preach in the church. Parishioners proudly say she was the first woman ever to preach in a Presbyterian church. The church still strives to maintain the inclusiveness and diversity that was fundamental to its founding.