Celebrating Our Double Anniversary Year

The 325th Anniversary of Our Parish: 1688-2013

The 150th Anniversary of Our Current Church Building: 1863-2013

Dear Friends in Christ,

We are blessed in this Parish with an incredibly rich heritage that spans three and a quarter centuries.  We are further blessed that our current church home has been our center of worship for a century and a half.

Those numbers are hard to take in, so let me connect this heritage to our national history.  When George Washington was inaugurated as the first President of the United States, in New York City in 1789, this Parish was already 101 years old!  When the doors of our current church (our fourth church building) opened in 1863, Abraham Lincoln was President.

Longevity, however, is merely the tip of the iceberg here.  The true riches of our heritage are found in matters less tangible than dates or buildings.  This place has been sanctified by 325 years of prayer, by scripture and sacrament, by the continuous stream of weddings, baptisms and funerals.  To walk into this church is to experience a place made sacred by the lives and prayer of many generations. 

People have come through the doors of four church buildings on this site and have found God and a community here.  From this place, generation after generation have reached out to meet the changing needs of their times.  We began as a refuge for those fleeing religious persecution.  Very soon the rectory became a boarding place for students when there were yet no public or private schools in the area. When the Parish House was built in 1892, it consolidated in one place the wide variety of ministries of the parish that had developed over a long time.  This building was envisioned as a place to bring together the life of the parish; it was to be a community center to the wider community as well.  Here the parish provided religious education for children and adults, but also broadly accessible musical, literary, social and recreational options.  After World War II, we became a center to collect non-perishable food to send to Japan.  Later a thrift store provided clothes to those of limited means and raised money for outreach.  As community needs changed, we provided space for a moveable shelter and a theater, and established our own Brown Bag lunch program that now serves those in need five days a week.

The beauty and depth of our worship combine with our education and outreach programs, and our focus as a center for the arts, to make this a truly blessed parish.  We come from the Caribbean, from Africa, and from all over the States to connect to a rich heritage and to build something wonderful for God as a Parish Family.  We have so much to celebrate!  Please join in the events celebrating this terrific year!

In Christ’s love,
Fr. Robert E. Gahler- 2013