ST. THOMAS CHURCH
1 W. 53rd St.
Visit St. Thomas Church on Dec. 16 at 1 p.m. to see the annual Christmas pageant, put on by the Youth Group and Sunday School. The play is A New York Carol by Lucky Gold; admission is free and everyone is welcome.

TEMPLE EMANU-EL
1 E. 65th St.
A tradition at Temple Emanu-El is attending the lighting of candles during Chanukah. Starting on the night of Dec. 8 and going through Dec. 15, you can attend the lighting of the last candle at 4:30 p.m. on Dec. 15.

ALL SOULS UNITARIAN CHURCH
1157 Lexington Ave.
Enjoy unique Christmas music when All Souls Unitarian Church hosts the concert “Creator of the Stars: Christmas Music from the Old World,” on Dec. 18 at 7:30 p.m. The music will be joyful hymns and chants that can transport listeners to the Renaissance. Tickets are on sale and can be purchased on their website at www.allsoulsnyc.org

CHURCH OF ST. JEAN BAPTISTE
184 E. 76th St.
After the weekly 10:30 a.m. and 12 p.m. masses on Sunday, Dec. 16, the Church of Saint Jean Baptiste will be hosting a Christmas Brunch for everyone who attended.

CHURCH OF ST. AGNES
143 E. 43rd St.
Get ready to sing on Dec. 19 at 6 p.m., when the Church of St. Agnes hosts its annual hourlong sing-along, which will feature Advent and Christmas songs and hymns with Schola Cantorum and the Parish Choir.

ST. PATRICK’S CATHEDRAL
460 Madison Ave.
Another Christmas tradition is the annual “A City Singing at Christmas” on Dec. 20 at 7 p.m. Listen or sing along to classic and modern Christmas songs and hymns with the St. Patrick’s Cathedral Choir, the Young People’s Chorus of New York City, New York Master Chorale and New York Symphonic Brass. General seating is free and open to the public.

ST. BART’S
325 Park Ave.
Head over to St. Bart’s Church for a night of singing Christmas songs outside and drinking hot cider, on Dec. 17 starting at 5:30 p.m. Another special event that St. Bart’s is holding is the Adoration of the Magi, which takes place Dec. 21 at 7:30 p.m. in the chapel.

LINCOLN SQUARE SYNAGOGUE
200 Amsterdam Ave.
The Lincoln Square Synagogue is holding a Chanukah Dinner on Dec. 14 and people can enjoy great food and desserts and listen to guest speaker Dr. Yoram Hazony. Then on Dec. 15 there will be a Chanukah Party for the youths of the community. Starting at 4:15 p.m., children can enjoy music, cookie decorating, applesauce making, latkes, dreidel making and menorah lighting.

ST. CATHERINE OF SIENA
411 E. 68th St.
Be a part of some joyous singing on Dec. 15 at 7 p.m. when you visit St. Catherine of Siena. The annual candlelight and sing-along service is always a tradition in the community.

ST. IGNATIUS LOYOLA PARISH
980 Park Ave.
Visit St. Ignatius on Dec. 16, and see their annual Christmas concert, “Gloria!” People can enjoy some Christmas classics, such as “O Holy Night” and “Bambino.” The main presentation is John Rutter’s “Gloria,” which includes a brassy and extroverted masterwork.

HOLY CROSS CHURCH
329 W. 42nd St.
On Dec. 16 at 7 p.m., Holy Cross will be hosting its annual Christmas concert, and the proceeds raised will go to benefit the victims of Hurricane Sandy. This year the concert features renowned American soprano Aprile Millo. Tickets can be purchased at www.holycrossnyc.com
MADISON AVENUE
PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
921 Madison Ave.
In the weeks leading up to Christmas, numerous events are being held at Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church. Carol singing takes place Dec. 16 at 4 p.m., and features the New York City Chorus. Rev. Dr. Fred Anderson will give a special sermon Dec. 23 at 11:15 a.m.

ST. FRANCIS DE SALES
ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH
135 E. 96th St.
Celebrate the season with their hourlong Christmas concert that includes sounds of the season on Dec. 18 at 7 p.m. Right after the concert, there will be a reception and a “surprise” visit by St. Nick.

CHURCH OF THE ASCENSION
221 W. 107th St.
After every mass on Dec. 16, downstairs in the church there will be breakfast with Santa. Children will have a fun-filled morning when they meet with Santa and take pictures with him.

CHURCH OF THE TRANSFIGURATION
1 E. 29th St.
Celebrate a baroque Christmas at the Church of the Transfiguration on Dec. 14 at 7:30 p.m. With a selection of Christmas hymns and carols sung and performed by the Choir of Men and Boys, Girls, Camerata and Early Instrument Chamber Ensemble. Tickets are $25 for adults; $15 for students and seniors.

IMMANUEL LUTHERAN CHURCH
122 E. 88th St.
Ever wonder what Christmas is like in different countries? Immanuel Lutheran Church will be hosting a concert Dec. 16 at 11 a.m., featuring the children’s choir performing Christmas songs from numerous countries. After the performance there will be an international buffet, and people are encouraged to bring their own cultural dishes.

CHURCH OF THE EPIPHANY
1393 York Ave.
Enjoy a morning of lessons and carols on Dec. 16 at 11 a.m., with the Church of the Epiphany. Throughout the morning, attendees will be doing readings, prayers and listening to seasonal music sung by the Cherub Choir and Epiphany Choir.

Dr. James Cooper leads by example

As the rector and chief executive of New York City’s venerable Trinity Wall Street Church, Dr. James H. Cooper has overseen all aspects of the organization, from Trinity Church and St. Paul’s Chapel to St. Margaret’s House, since his appointment in 2004.

Cooper, who received his Master of Divinity and his Doctor of Ministry from the Virginia Theological Seminary, has a long and distinguished record of service which spans more than 30 years in the clergy.

Among his past accomplishments, Cooper helped to grow his parish in Ponte Vedra, Fla., from a membership of 700 to more than 5,500, and he founded a nonprofit to provide quality health care to the region’s aging population.

In addition, he helped provide growth money for new churches in Nigeria, Kenya and Spain while also establishing missions and other facilities in Tanzania, Bolivia, the Bahamas and Cuba.
As the current head of Trinity, Cooper has helped to carry on the church’s original mission to serve the poor and isolated. The church was established in 1697, predating the city of New York.
Cooper has worked tirelessly alongside groups including the Downtown Alliance, an organization that provides funding to house the homeless in lower Manhattan. The church also gave a leadership grant to the Downtown Alliance’s Back to Business grant program, which is focused on helping small businesses in Zone A and lower Manhattan recover from the effects of Hurricane Sandy.

In addition, Cooper helped to steer funding of $250,000 to the Robin Hood Foundation, supporting the transition of veterans returning from active duty in Afghanistan.

Other initiatives Cooper has lent his time and talent to include a Relief Bureau to counsel the sick and jobless, food pantries and soup kitchens at Trinity chapels around the city, global grant programs that award millions both abroad and to vital programs in New York as well as the massive relief effort and shelter the church provided to the rescue workers at Ground Zero after 9/11.
When the John Heuss House, a day shelter for the homeless, was forced to close several years ago, Cooper and the church responded by opening Charlotte’s Place, a drop-in and welcome center for all visitors to the community. Further, a brown-bag lunch program was started on the front steps of Trinity, which distributes hundreds of bag lunches each week to anyone in need.

Also of importance is Cooper’s skill as a financial manager, carefully managing Trinity’s Grants Program, which has funded more than $72 million in programs in some 85 countries around the world since 1972.

But of all his responsibilities, perhaps the most important is the management of Trinity Real Estate, which handles the parish’s 6 million square feet of commercial real estate in Lower Manhattan. The income generated from the church’s real estate holdings, which Trinity has held for more than 300 years, enables the organization to sustain and develop programs and ministries around the world.
Honored recently at a Manhattan awards ceremony, sponsored by the Federation of Manhattan Welfare Agencies, Cooper made some thoughtful remarks.

“We have great expectations of each other,” Cooper said. He noted that while Trinity has “wonderful ministries, grand programs and buildings,” they will ultimately be known “not by those ministries and programs or buildings; we will be known by the love we have for one another.”

He added that “love endures all things, and it is only love that never ends. God will make the path straight again, will rise up the valleys and take boulders and mountains and throw them into the sea. … We are part of it simply because we love one another.”

Cooper is also known in the interfaith community for the work he began shortly after his arrival to push for increased communication and understanding of differences that arose among persons of differing faiths after 9/11.

He continues to reach out to those who speak out about both economic and social injustices.

But first to say thanks to our political leaders for being up to this Herculean task, which won’t let up anytime soon. And to the armies of people who continue to risk life and health, evacuating the stranded, keeping the peace as best they can, providing shelter, food and water, restoring transit and so much more. And to the record number of volunteers, including some marathon runners who used their training to run up and down stairs to give aid to the homebound.

Bravo to those who struggled for hours to get to nonessential work, such as offering to help out in unscathed apartment houses like mine. You provided assurance to the anxious and alone, and got more residents interacting. That relates to a maxim found in the East Sixties Neighborhood Association Fall Bulletin: “When strangers start acting like neighbors … communities are reinvigorated.”

They’re safer and healthier, and civic and faith groups should make “good neighborliness” a primary long-term goal.

But now priority attention must be paid to the countless thousands of victims of this unbelievably widespread and destructive natural disaster and those also threatened by pathological human nature, which terrifies and loots even in low-crime-area buildings and shops. In times of disaster, such dastardly deeds should be considered acts of treason.

Although protecting public safety is government’s first duty, was the hurricane-spawned lawlessness assailed in the last days of the election campaigns? There’s no greater good than making peace on the home front a bipartisan priority with election winners and losers working together. Everyone wins if they do.

And let’s revive faith group protests, like Monsignor Harry Byrne did in high-crime times against the violence that threatened his own congregation; we can at the very least revive his “First Civil Liberty” essay protesting the widespread threat of crime.

The standing-room-only crowds in places of worship seen after 9/11 did not reappear this time, although some regulars were doing recovery work at Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church last Sunday. Faith groups help, in general, far more than most people who walked right by the church are aware. I went needing comfort and strength—and yes, giving thanks for being spared.

And I was righteously angry to learn later that nearby Central Park was “awash with tens of thousands of runners from all over the world running around the loop and marathon levels of spectators too.” Again, those who joined the recovery effort are the winners.

Ah, and bless the countless who share their homes with the new homeless. Long overdue in the myriad style, home and food sections and programs, not to mention our formal education system, are lessons in communication skills to help “the getting along”—in general. Hallmark Channel dropped reruns of The Waltons, about the only TV fare role-modeling such behavior, and where people took helping their neighbors for granted.

Related is the Museum of Natural History’s exhibit of how New Yorkers coped in World War II. If ours was called “the greatest generation,” it’s due to a Waltons-type ethos then found in ethnic and faith groups nationwide—not to mention movie and radio fare. And, if ever something needs reviving, it’s that in our primary educators—TV and music and now cyberspace.

But now the most immediate and ultimate need is helping storm-decimated communities and individuals survive and revive—it can be done if enough of us try. Keep trying as never before.

Botched "Ecce Homo" Courtesy of Wiki Commons

“Despite Good Intentions,” states the headline of a New York Times piece about the elderly woman in Spain who performed an amateur “restoration” of a century-old church fresco, “a Fresco in Spain Is Ruined.” Good intentions or not, the woman destroyed a priceless, irreplaceable work of art.

80-year-old Cecilia Gimenez took to the more than 100-year-old representation of Jesus in a church in the town of Borja to “repair” the image, which had partially succumbed to moisture on the church walls, reports the Times. 

Would the subject of her intentions be so thoroughly broached if she were, say, a middle-aged amateur painter who brazenly took to the fresco, armed only with paints and her own ego? Would we be discussing her “Surprisingly Avant-Garde Results,” as Art Info describes, for which she is all but entirely unapologetic?

To suggest Gimenez’s actions are whimsically ignorant is to infantilize someone who knew full well what she was doing, what the piece represented and her own abilities (or lack thereof). She was not a child who unknowingly went at the piece with crayons, though that’s what the final product suggested.

Art Info details the result: “The direction of his eyes has shifted to a preposterous angle, down and to the left towards the beholder, rather than looking to the upper right. The nose is flattened like that of an African mask. Next to the chimp-like headgear, the new painting’s mouth is potentially the strangest alteration: The jaw appears slack with Jesus’s tongue seemingly sticking out in either lifelessness or mockery. All in all, what was a minor work of traditional iconography has become a masterpiece of contemporary surrealism.”

A masterpiece? Contemporary surrealism? She did not merely touch the painting up, she completely altered its appearance. While there is undeniably humor to the situation, to paint Gimenez’s act as excusable or sweetly naive because of her age is to engage in ageism, and ageism is damaging to society. She had the presence of mind to pre-meditate and carry out the act, and we must not react as though she were an infant.

Instances of art vandalism are harshly punished, whatever the person’s intentions. Earlier this year, a man walked up to a 1929 Picasso in Houston, and flagrantly spray-painted it. He was an artist, making an artistic statement, reports the art blog Hyperallergic.com.

The man then released a manifesto, detailing the purpose behind his actions: “I dedicate this to all the people out there who have suffered for any injustice of every kind. To those abused by their loved ones. For those abused by their government. For those who were abused by organized religion. And to Picasso from artist to artist. The beast is meant to be conquered. Picasso loved bullfighting because he knew at the end of the dance, someone had to die and on the day it was his turn.”

The 22-year-old was later charged with criminal mischief and felony graffiti, reported the Houston Press. 

CHURCH OF OUR LADY OF THE ROSARY 7 State St. (at Battery Park), 212- 269-6865.
Christmas Day service Sunday, Dec. 25, 11 a.m.

JOHN STREET METHODIST CHURCH 44 John Street (betw. Dutch & Nassau Sts.), www.johnstreetchurch. org.
Christmas Eve Mass: carols, candles and Holy Communion Saturday, Dec. 24, 7 p.m.
Christmas Day Mass: celebration of God’s word and table Sunday, Dec. 25, 11 a.m.

LOWER MANHATTAN COMMUNITY CHURCH P.S./I.S. 89 Auditorium, 201 Warren St. (at West St.), www. lowermanhattanchurch.com.
Second annual Candlelight Christmas Eve Service Saturday, Dec. 24, 4 p.m.

ST. PAUL’S CHAPEL 74 Trinity Place (betw. Rector & Barclay Sts.), www.trinitywallstreet.org.
Christmas Eve midnight Mass Saturday, Dec. 24, 11 p.m.-12:30 a.m.
Christmas Day Holy Eucharist Sunday, Dec. 25, 8-8:45 a.m.

ST. PETER’S ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH 22 Barclay St. (betw. Church & Broadway Sts.), 212-233-8355.
St. Peter’s Church Mass Saturday, Dec. 24, 8 a.m. & 4 p.m., Sunday, Dec. 25, 8:00 a.m., 9:00 a.m. & noon.

ST. JOSEPH’S CHAPEL Gateway Plaza 500 (near World Financial Center), 212-466-0131.
St. Joseph’s Chapel Mass Sunday, Dec. 25, 10 a.m. & noon.

SYNAGOGUE FOR THE ARTS 49 White Street (betw. Church & Broadway Sts.), www.synagogueforthearts.org.
Chanukah services Tuesday, Dec. 20–Tuesday, Dec. 27 at 7 p.m.

Photo By Patrick Rehm

The century-old West Park Presbyterian Church will benefit from a June 23 fundraiser to renovate its crumbling façade.

The expensive restoration project was one of the reasons Rev. Robert Brashear opposed historic preservation, arguing that landmark regulations would make it difficult to work with a developer to fund such repairs. Now, his goal is to get his congregation back into the West 86th Street church, at Amsterdam Avenue.

“It is our intention to reestablish our own congregation in our own building,” Brashear said. “We are looking for compatible nonprofit partners. Something that involves education and/or the arts.”

Council Member Gale Brewer, who was the target of protests from church members and congregants, kicked
in $1,000.

The money raised will go to the New York Landmarks Conservancy, which set up a special account for West Park as part of its Sacred Sites program.

Brashear called the fundraiser a good first step.

“There has to be an overall strategic plan that has a timeline and targets to establish how we move forward,”
he said.

With the money, the Landmarks Conservancy, a nonprofit that gives grants and assistance to owners for rehabilitating historic property, will provide an up-to-date assessment of the building’s exterior, identify and prioritize specific problems and figure out the price tag.

“It’s a beautiful church and it has a lot of needs,” said Peg Breen, president of the conservancy. “I hope we can start addressing them.”

The City Planning Commission voted unanimously March 9 to make the century-old church a landmark. The City Council will now hold a public hearing on the designation and will have a final vote in the matter. But that seems to be a formality.

Council Member Gale Brewer, whose support is crucial for a full Council vote, has advocated for landmark protection for the church.

But Rev. Robert Brashear has opposed granting the church landmark status. He told West Side Spirit in January that he feared landmarking would have a “chilling effect” on negotiations with developers to help restore the aging, deteriorating building.

But if that plan falls through, Brashear may put the church up on the market, possibly turning the historic building into a commercial space.

“If there are no other possibilities of restoring the building and reopening it for the congregation in some form, then there will be no choice but to see what could be gained on the market,” Brashear said. “Once again it would be a very sad change for the community.”

As the basement door opens, other young people mill about inside. This is Trinity Place Shelter, a safe-haven for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender

Heidi Neumark, pastor at Trinity, is looking to fund a rehabilitation project estimated to cost $1.6 million to $2 million. Photo by Andrew Schwartz

(LGBT) homeless youth between the ages of 18 and 21. Both the shelter and Trinity, an “activist immigrant congregation” established in 1888, are housed in a church that is in desperate need of repair.

“The building is in distress,” said Heidi Neumark, pastor at Trinity. “One hundred years of wear and tear are beginning to show.”

Like many struggling churches, Trinity doesn’t have the resources to fix its historic home. The church collects about $100,000 each year in donations, an amount that’s less than the average salary of the new residents moving into this gentrifying neighborhood. But in an unexpected twist, the shelter, which Trinity created, might now help to rebuild the church.

The shelter’s roots date to 2005, when the Metropolitan Community Church hosted a meeting of the Interfaith Assembly on Homelessness and Housing, and made a plea for houses of worship to open their spaces to LGBT youth for one week during the peak of winter.

“Trinity answered the call,” said Kevin Lotz, the shelter’s director and ex-vice president of Trinity Church.

At the time, state and city resources for all social services were diminishing and city homelessness was on the rise, according to the Coalition for the Homeless, a group that tracks homelessness in New York City. The coalition estimates that 16,000 youth are homeless in the city every night; 20 to 40 percent of them, according to the National Lesbian and Gay Task Force, are believed to be LGBT. Many have been kicked out of their homes because of their sexual orientation, and they are often the victims of violence and discrimination at city-run shelters.

“We lament the fact that churches and religious bodies contribute to the abuse that gays have experienced,” said Lotz, “and we wanted to be a positive witness to dispel and protest that position.”

Within six months, the congregation had voted unanimously to create a permanent LGBT shelter in the building, receiving initial funding from the task force.

At that point, though, the church was already in disrepair. The most obvious signs began to appear in 2004, when a piece of slate fell off the cylindrical steeple, landing dangerously on the sidewalk in front. Cracks that allowed water to leak into the building near the pipe organ and choir room also began to show. Church leaders were concerned about the condition of the windows and frames. To protect pedestrians, scaffolding and nets were erected in front of the building and around the steeple, costing the church an estimated $1,500 a month.

After considering all options, including tearing down the building and constructing affordable housing, the congregation voted to fight to keep its home. The rehabilitation is estimated to cost between $1.6 million and $2.0 million.

Recently, Trinity embarked on a capital campaign to raise those funds, identifying three sources of support: the congregation ($300,000), grants available to buildings on the National Register of Historic Places ($600,000 to $1 million) and the shelter, which is hoping to contribute $500,000.

To help reach that goal, shelter leaders formed an advisory committee, co-chaired by Nicholas Forge, a shelter volunteer since 2007. The committee plans to raise funds by “cultivating new donors and reaching out to those who have helped in the past,” Forge said. “There is no shelter without the church.”

That may be how Assembly Member Daniel O’Donnell, who represents the area, sees the situation as well.

“I want Trinity to stay,” said O’Donnell, who has pledged to support the project with $125,000 to $250,000 from a discretionary capital fund. “The needs of LGBT youth don’t get addressed. They suffer great dangers, exposure to HIV, violence.”

The only obstacle remaining, the assembly member said, is for the shelter to meet the standards for capital state allocations.

Already incorporated as a 501(c) 3 non-profit organization, the shelter is a separate entity from the religious arm of the church and receives most of its $130,000 budget from the New York State Department of Health’s AIDS Institute (additional funds come from events, individual donors and foundations). Now, a lease agreement between the shelter and the church is needed to receive the capital state allocations, according to O’Donnell’s office. At press time, Neumark said the lease would be signed in the next few days.

To complicate matters, plans are being drawn to renovate the Department of Health and public library building that sits on the other side of Trinity, opposite the Columbus Square development. There have also been discussions about the construction of a 22-story nursing home for Jewish Home Lifecare, currently on West 106th Street, next door to Trinity. Any excavation near the church has the potential to further damage it.

In a hopeful sign, the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation recently awarded the church a $112,000 reimbursement grant to be used for continued rehabilitation planning. The award marked the first step in an often-lengthy process to get state dollars for preserving historic landmarks.

In from the cold and safe at Trinity Place shelter, homeless LGBT youth can develop the skills to become independent, productive adults. Neumark hopes a similar transformation can happen to the shelter’s home.

“In the end,” Neumark said, “we want the outside of the church to match the inside.” 

———–

Window Project On Hold

In 2007, developer Joseph Chetrit prepared to excavate land next to Trinity Church for Columbus Square, a 15-story mixed-use development. Rather than risk damage to its hand-painted Birkenstock Studio windows, Trinity asked Chetrit to pay to have them removed, covering those that were left, including the large rose window above the church’s entrance, with plywood. Chetrit agreed and paid Trinity $155,000 for the work.

Now, three years later, some think the agreement might have been shortsighted on Trinity’s part: reinstalling the windows is a costly project, and one that makes little sense to complete unless larger church renovations are done.

“He is not legally responsible to reinstall them,” Neumark said, “but the church doesn’t have the resources to do it.”

So most of Trinity’s windows remain in storage, at an estimated cost of $600 per month, and plywood continues to shield the rest.

“In light of the building’s other problems,” said Neumark, “the windows aren’t a priority right now.”

—JM