It is the headquarters for the international humanitarian ministry Church World Service, and also houses a wide variety of church agencies and ecumenical and interfaith organizations as well as some nonprofit foundations and faith-related organizations. The National Council of Churches also occupied the building from its inception, but in February 2013, the NCCC consolidated its offices on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, and vacated its New York headquarters facilities. NCCC's sister agency, Church World Service, remains a tenant in the building.Its concentration of religious organizations has led some to nickname the building the God Box. Samuel G. Freedman describes the building as “the closest thing to a Vatican for America’s mainline Protestant denominations.” The mainline churches include the Episcopal, Lutheran, Presbyterian, Reformed Church in America, Methodist and United Church of Christ denominations. But across the years many of them moved their headquarters closer to the majority of their constituents, leaving only certain divisions or offices in the New York facilities.
