‘Concert for Hope’ sets tone for South Church’s 200th year

Pastor Margery Rossi noted that the church hopes to conduct additional events throughout the year, with an overarching theme called “200 Years of Hope Through Service.” As it marks its 200th anniversary, South Church, as the house of worship is known colloquially, is upholding a commitment to community service that has defined its entire history.

On Christmas Eve, South Church parishioners drove to Manhattan with food, clothes, gifts, songbooks of carols, and even a holiday tree, to co-host a Midnight Run Christmas party on the streets.

Midnight Run is an outreach program that started at the church in 1984 and seeks to help New Yorkers experiencing homelessness. Today, Midnight Run coordinates over 1,000 relief events every year, emphasizing not just an exchange of goods but a human exchange between volunteers, drawn from all walks of life, and the people they seek to help. 

On Dec. 24, according to Rossi, “It was extremely cold, but [the parishioners] brought warmth and kindness to nearly a hundred people who otherwise would have had a lonely, frigid, and hungry night sleeping on the sidewalks of New York City.”

Midnight Run is one of the inclusion efforts associated with South Church. South Church was active in the abolitionist movement and in the civil rights movement. According to Ernie Howell, a parishioner since 1966, South Church sent parishioners to the American South to march with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. South Church parishioners also organized to protest against the Vietnam War and housing discrimination in Dobbs Ferry. 

In 1984, South Church became the first “More Light” Presbyterian church. More Light is a nonprofit organization that seeks to welcome people from the LGBTQ community into the Presbyterian denomination. 

The nonsectarian Community Nursery School has operated at South Church since 1945. 

Every Wednesday, South Church hosts the Dobbs Ferry Food Pantry. The church also has a vegetable garden on its grounds. In addition to teaching parishioners sustainable gardening techniques, the church uses the garden to provide organic produce to the food pantry. 

Rossi, who has led the church since succeeding Rev. Drew Paton in May, has long been aware of its commitment to service. 

“I have known about South Church's extraordinary social justice work since the early 1990s, and have always been impressed with this congregation's willingness to stand up for strongly held convictions, care for the most vulnerable, take risks and offer creative solutions to vexing social problems,” Rossi said. “It is my great honor to serve this vibrant community as we celebrate the church's 200th anniversary, spending a year looking back at all the ways that South has impacted the community, and, at the same time, celebrate our current ministries and make plans for future generations of South Presbyterians.” 

When asked about what the church’s commitment to service means to parishioners, Howell noted that it was always about community. 

“It’s brought together many people of different ethnic groups and backgrounds,” Howell said, “and people who want to work for social change and community. Which is, in my view, the Christian ministry.”