In 1947, a group of students at Union Theological Seminary (UTS) became concerned over the middle-class nature of Protestant Churches in America, believing that the Protestant faith was reserved for those who could financially support their religion. The East Harlem Protestant Parish (EHPP) was founded in 1948 through the efforts of Truman B. Douglas and Stanley U. North of the Board of Home Missions of the Congregational Christian churches, and Donald W. Strickler of the New York City Association. Three UTS graduates were also important to EHPP's founding: Donald L. Benedict, George Williams (Bill) Webber, and J. Archie Hargraves. The supporting organizations for the EHPP were: Methodist, Presbyterian, Congregational Christian, Baptist, Evangelical and Reformed, Reformed, Evangelical United Brethren, New York City Mission Society, Union Theological Seminary, Protestant Council, and the National Council of Churches. Two basic ideas were important from the beginning: that to approach an area like East Harlem must be through a group ministry within specific geographical limits; and that the churches and ministers must be more accessible. EHPP was a ministry to an inner-city community which received local, national and international attention. Instead of spending money on expensive buildings, EHPP thought money should go towards personnel. EHPP rented vacant stores in the areas and used them for worship and youth centers. The store fronts were more accessible and brought the Parish closer to the people. The East Harlem churches that were originally involved with the Group Ministry were Elmendorf Reformed Church; Church of the Resurrection; 100th Street Church; East Harlem Interfaith; Church of Our Redeemer; Church of the Son of Man; and Church of the Ascension The parish founders designed and implemented a model for urban congregational witness using experimental modes of ministry. The modes of ministry used by the parish included: the storefront church, the group ministry with its disciplines, the agape meal, social action, community activism, worship as the center of community life, and much more. Struggling urban congregations, aspiring seminarians, and concerned denominational leaders placed great hope in the work of the parish ministers. They mobilized interdenominational resources to evangelize a poor multi-racial community and wrote an important chapter in American urban church history.

EHPP was active in helping with the needs of the community, including helping with the heating situation in apartments, finding summer camps for youths, friendly hospitalization for people were afraid of the city hospitals, and relief funding. Social action was another important activity of EHPP and it was considered part of Christian Action. The parish advised parishioners on Union strikes and activities, marches, protests and other petitions. The EHPP valued taking social action in the East Harlem community because the Parish could move quickly when cases of injustice arose. In the monthly report to the Administrative Board in February 1952, Donald Benedict recounted some of the dramatic actions taken by the EHPP over the past three years: He told of marches on the police station protesting police brutality, the protest meetings and petitions for better housing, the vacant lot drama showing the evils of narcotics, the relocation of dispossessed and poorly housed families, the use of thermometers to get heat in apartments, and recounted many more stories of work on individual welfare, court, family, health, housing, education, and employment cases. While the EHPP was taking action to protest these injustices, they were doing their part to help those affected. Many of the programs led by the EHPP came out of their social action work.

In 1962, the organization sent a memorandum to the Board of Directors requesting that they study the role and structure of the Parish in its Mission to East Harlem, future directions the program could take, and its relationship to the total mission of the church in East Harlem. The Board was asked to review what the Parish was organized to be and do. This memorandum examined what the EHPP had done well, but also its failures – some of those being the limitations of the storefront church and the group ministry model; that the Parish would need to relate to the social work profession rather than be a substitute for it, and other experiments that never got off the ground. The EHPP questioned if it should continue or evolve into a new vehicle for cooperative mission for East Harlem. The EHPP as originally conceived ended in 1968, and became decentralized units with individual congregations, not linked by the central Parish. The Board of Directors continued into the mid-1970s and would report on the individual units. Original members such as Peg Eddy and Bill Webber resigned in their official capacity in the organization, as the EHPP that continued in name at that time was quite different than what is was originally intended to support. The East Harlem Protestant Parish officially dissolved in 1977.