Docherty succeeded
Peter Marshall as the pastor of the historic
New York Avenue Presbyterian Church in
Washington D.C., just a few blocks from the
White House.
Abraham Lincoln routinely attended church there while president. It was customary for later presidents to attend
New York Avenue Presbyterian Church on "Lincoln Sunday," the Sunday nearest Lincoln's birthday, and sit in the pew that had been rented by Lincoln. When President
Dwight Eisenhower attended on Lincoln Sunday, February 7, 1954, Docherty preached a sermon calling for the addition of "under God" to the Pledge. As a result of his sermon, the next day President Eisenhower and his friends in Congress began to set the wheels in motion to amend the Pledge of Allegiance to include the phrase. On February 8, 1954, Representative
Charles Oakman (R-Mich), introduced a bill to that effect. Senator Homer Ferguson, in his report to the Congress, March 10, 1954, said that "the introduction of this joint resolution was suggested to me by a sermon given recently by the Rev. George M. Docherty, of Washington, D.C., who is pastor of the church at which Lincoln worshipped." This time Congress concurred with the Oakman-Ferguson resolution, and Eisenhower opted to sign the bill into law appropriately on Flag Day (June 14, 1954). The fact that Eisenhower clearly had Docherty's rationale in mind as he initiated and consummated this measure is apparent in a letter he wrote in August, 1954. Docherty's sermon was published by Harper & Bros. in New York in 1958 and President Eisenhower took the opportunity to write to Docherty with gratitude for the opportunity to once again read the fateful sermon. Docherty continued at New York Avenue Presbyterian Church for 26 years. During that time he became active with
Martin Luther King Jr. in the
civil rights movement. He developed relationships with later Presidents, as well as noted theologians such as
Karl Barth and
Billy Graham. For 22 years, Docherty had a television program in Washington, D.C. A book of his sermons entitled,
One Way of Living, was published by Harper in 1958, and his biography,
I’ve Seen the Day, was published by Eerdmans in 1984. His sermon collection is now in the stewardship of the
Robert E. Speer Library at
Princeton Theological Seminary. A collection of original recordings of his early sermons are now in the care of the Harvard Divinity Library in Cambridge. ==Retirement and death==