Parish Profile

The Parish

Liturgy and Music

Holy Apostles Soup Kitchen

Finances

Buildings

Programs Other Than HASK

A New Rector

The Parish

Holy Apostles is a diverse community which glorifies God with elegant liturgy, inspiring music and thoughtful preaching; strives for social justice; and operates the Holy Apostles Soup Kitchen (HASK), one of the largest programs in the country providing a free meal to anyone who is hungry. On September 30, 2008, the Rev. William A. Greenlaw, Ph.D., retired as rector of the Church of the Holy Apostles, after 25 years of service to the parish and the soup kitchen, including 23 as rector.  This period has seen the change from a small and struggling community to a thriving parish with a renowned outreach.

Our liturgy, centered in the Book of Common Prayer, features grace and reverence, rich choir and spirited congregational singing directed and accompanied on our 1994 Van Den Heuvel organ by Dr. David Hurd, and preaching that reflects the Anglican ethos of Scripture, tradition and reason – recognizing the struggle of most of us to make sense of an imperfect world.

Holy Apostles was founded in 1844 as the result of an outreach by Trinity Church to immigrants who worked on the Hudson River waterfront to the west of the Church’s location in the Chelsea section of Manhattan, and social activism and the desire for social justice continue to be integral to our identity as a parish. In 1977, two of the first women priests in the Diocese of New York, one openly gay, were ordained at Holy Apostles. In 2003 many Holy Apostles members marched in opposition to the invasion of Iraq. In 2006, Bishop Gene Robinson of New Hampshire preached to an overflow crowd on Gay Pride Sunday, and Holy Apostles has been an opponent of efforts to deny him, or any other gay priest, the right to be treated in accordance with our baptismal vows.

Although uniquely united in our commitment to inclusion and justice in and outside the church, the congregation is diverse in incomes, ages, careers, marital status and sexual orientation.  Average Sunday attendance has been steady at 106-108 for 2005-2007 and membership has hovered at about 160 for the same period.  About a third live in the immediate neighborhood and the balance elsewhere in Manhattan, the outer boroughs, or the suburbs. A significant number have graduate or professional degrees, but the Sunday congregation includes every educational level.


 Our principal outreach ministry in the last two decades has been the Holy Apostles Soup Kitchen. HASK provides a nutritional meal to all comers at mid-day every Monday through Friday. In 2007 HASK served 303,633 meals, an average of 1,163 per day. HASK celebrated its 25th anniversary in October, 2007.  No proselytizing occurs as part of HASK’s program.


Holy Apostles is a community that tries to live out the Gospel, and this effort guides our liturgical life, our social activism and our presence in New York City. We refer to the people fed by HASK as our “guests” and mean it. We have worked to extend “radical hospitality” in a variety of other ways, as well.

The church’s location in Chelsea reflects the dynamism, diversity and resources of midtown Manhattan.  Housing for all income levels surrounds the church property.  Four blocks away are Penn Station and Madison Square Garden.  With ten minutes’ walk in the opposite direction is General Theological Seminary, situated in a nineteenth-century historic district.  Our neighborhood offers easy access to cultural, educational and entertainment opportunities, with tremendous growth recently along the far west side where one finds new galleries and restaurants, the Chelsea Piers and Hudson River Park.

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Liturgy and Music

The center of community life is the Sunday Parish Eucharist. Our liturgy features high standards of musical excellence with strong congregational participation in a Rite II setting. The services are primarily chanted or sung, including the Nicene Creed and the Lord’s Prayer. Our congregation loves to sing. The Healing Rite is offered on the third Sunday of each month. Our approach to the liturgy might be described as “high church” with a sense of inclusiveness and warmth.

In recent years, the clergy leadership has included the rector, associate rector and a paid part-time priest associate, who rotate through the celebrant, deacon and preacher roles. Several non-paid assisting priests participate or substitute on a scheduled basis. Seminarians from General Theological and Union seminaries also assist in liturgy planning, acolyte and preaching tasks.

Dr. David Hurd, a noted composer and educator, leads the music program, directing a choir of 16 voices which includes both professional vocalists and volunteer singers from the parish. The choir season extends from September to late May or early June, depending on the liturgical calendar, and the choir also supports services on feast days, major holidays and Holy Week. Feasts such as All Saints and Epiphany often are celebrated at an evening Eucharist with full choir, festive procession, and after-service fellowship and hospitality.


During the Sunday Parish Eucharist, Church School for toddlers through early adolescents is led by the paid, part-time director of children’s ministries.  The program is structured to allow the children to rejoin their families before Holy Communion.  The Church School meets on all Sundays of the school year, and a more informal program continues through the summer.

Additional weekly services include a spoken Eucharist on Tuesday evenings followed by study of the lectionary for the coming week or other presentations in adult education. Morning Prayer is offered each weekday morning, led by a licensed lay person or seminarian.  A recent development is an early “Kids’ Church” Eucharist one Sunday a month, serving families with children under five.

Lay involvement in the Liturgy includes masters of ceremonies (MCs) who coordinate and direct services and who serve on the Liturgy Planning Committee with the clergy and Dr. Hurd. This committee meets quarterly to review past services and plan for the upcoming church seasons. Lay chairpersons manage teams of sacristans and ushers. Lay people read the lesson and epistle at every service and lead the Prayers of the People on all but festival services. The MCs manage and train teams of acolytes, comprised of persons of all ages from teens to retirees, male and female.

Parish members have recently provided other contributions of talent and treasure to our liturgy, including a beautiful set of white vestments made by one member, Prayers of the People for the Easter season written by other members, and selection and arrangement of flowers and greenery for our services by a small group of volunteers.

The Sunday service is followed by a coffee hour that provides the opportunity for announcements, fellowship and conversation.

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Holy Apostles Soup Kitchen

A few minutes before or after 9:00, every Monday to Friday morning, a HASK guest starts a line outside the church. The line grows steadily, stretching up Ninth Avenue to 28^th Street and several hundred feet around the corner. The line begins to move at 10:30, when HASK opens the door and begins serving its guests for the day.

Significant work has been performed before that door opens. The chef and the sous chef have planned and prepared a meal including an entrée, two vegetables, a dessert, bread and butter and a beverage of the day. Other HASK staff has set up tables and chairs in the church nave to provide a place for the meal and organized the food for dispensation to the guests as they come though for their meal.  Volunteers do most of the serving, assigned to their roles by either the associate program director or one of his volunteer assistants. After all have been served, including the staff and volunteers, a task that usually takes two hours, the volunteers and HASK staff clean up, wash trays, pots and pans, and prepare the church for its next use.

In addition to feeding its guests, HASK collaborates with city social service agencies to provide support services and potential activities for them: medical and dental services, legal help, referral to substance abuse treatment, help with public assistance entitlements, shelter placement, and other case management needs. HASK also offers a writers workshop, weekly Bible study for those interested and a drumming and art group.

While HASK’s mission is to feed its guests, it also offers its volunteers the opportunity to participate in an activity that gives them satisfaction in return for their efforts in the feeding program. The program utilizes about 50 volunteers each day. The volunteers include many from the immediate neighborhood who are at HASK every day, others who come from greater distances on certain days each week, groups from New York City schools, visiting church groups from across the country and the occasional prominent public figure.

HASK marked its 25^th anniversary in October, 2007, unwanted evidence of the persistence of poverty, homelessness and hunger. There is no indication this need will disappear soon. Holy Apostles remains committed to this mission.

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Finances

The Church and the Holy Apostles Soup Kitchen are part of one legal entity, the Church of the Holy Apostles. There are, however, clearly delineated, separate budgets, accounts and records, designated as “the Church” and “HASK.”

For 2008, the HASK budget projects income of approximately $2.6M and expenses of essentially the same amount, the present numbers assuming a slight year-end deficit of $70,000. HASK has a reserve fund with a value of $1.16M at the start of this year. This reserve amount is lower than HASK’s goal of having reserves equal to one year’s expected expenditures. HASK’s income is derived from the donations of individuals, foundations, corporations, and, to a small extent, federal, state and municipal government grants.

The Church has a much smaller budget than HASK. The Church’s 2008 budget projects revenue of $460,000 and significantly higher expenses, resulting in a deficit of $168,000. Church revenue comes from pledges and plate collections, income from rental of the church to Congregation Beth Simchat Torah (the largest GLBT synagogue in the country) for Friday night services, a lease of an apartment on the 3rd floor of the church’s Mission House and other space use fees (e.g., weddings, concerts, recitals and community events), and transfer fees from HASK pursuant to an allocation of costs for the church space used by HASK for its feeding program. The Church has an investment account with a value of slightly over $1.6M at the end of 2007 and a Building Fund account of $581,000 at that date.

The Church and HASK currently have 26 full-time and three part- time employees. Compensation costs for each employee are allocated to either the Church or HASK budget based on the employee’s duties. The costs of those solely involved in the HASK program (e.g. the chef) are carried by the HASK budget, the reverse is true for individuals with solely Church responsibilities (e.g., the director of music) and for others (e. g., the rector, the associate rector, the director of administration, the operations manager and the sexton) the costs are divided between the two budgets to reflect the individual’s work for each program.

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Buildings

The church property, located at the southeast corner of Ninth Avenue and 28^th Street in the Chelsea section of Manhattan, includes the church itself and the adjoining Mission House. The city has designated the church structure and its fence as a historic landmark. The Mission House, a three-story building, was formerly occupied by clergy.  Today it houses our industrial kitchen, staff offices and meeting rooms.  The top floor has an apartment that is currently rented to a non-parishioner who serves some security functions. There is no rectory, and the current rector and associate rector both receive housing allowances as a significant part of their compensation.

The church building is a clean-lined brick structure with a lofty spire. The white interior looks like a modest-sized Tuscan church with a decidedly open feel.  The absence of pews enhances the openness.  The stained-glass windows are works of art, most having been designed by John Bolton, the first stained-glass artisan in the U.S.  (See other links in this website for photos and additional architectural information.)

 The buildings are in good condition and there are no immediate and compelling needs for capital improvement.

 A 1990 fire that damaged much of the church led to the decision to feed HASK’s guests in the nave. Rather than rebuilding pews, the rector and vestry consciously decided that parish worship and HASK’s meals would take place in the same space.

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Programs other than HASK

In addition to the Soup Kitchen and the groups involved in the liturgy, the parish offers other opportunities for involvement, including: a varied adult education program; the Hospitality Guild (parishioners who bring food for the coffee hour that follows the Sunday service); Plant Parenthood ( people who tend the church’s gardens); the Social and Economic Justice Committee ( which makes the parish aware of ways to make our world a better place); Knit Indeed (a group of parishioners who knit scarves that are blessed and given to HASK guests); and Flora Labora (responsible for flowers and greenery for services).

The parish’s increasing number of families with young children has allowed the programs led by the director of children’s ministries to grow.  Thirteen children began the current year in the Church School.  Adult volunteers assist the director regularly in caring for children of varying ages, and others join for a particular season or activity.

Other parish activities include an annual retreat, a newcomers’ party, occasional cabarets, foyer groups (people who get together for meals from time to time) and the annual meeting.

At the annual meeting in January, the parish elects its vestry, comprising twelve members in three-year classes and two wardens.  The vestry reflects the active involvement, commitment, and rich diversity of backgrounds and experiences in the parish.  HASK is within the scope of the vestry’s responsibilities.  The vestry’s leadership is complemented by the work of committees on finance, stewardship, buildings, and liturgy planning.

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A New Rector

Holy Apostles seeks a rector who is an ordained Episcopal priest of high intellect and energy, with solid experience demonstrating these attributes and commitment to inclusivity, social justice, and the dignity of every person both within and outside the church.

The rector should be a person of prayer, prepared to bring spiritual leadership to a diverse community; and a lover of liturgy and music who can respect what Holy Apostles has created, can discern whether and where change from present practices will add to the quality of our communal life in worship, and can lead us in any changes in those practices. Engaging and relevant preaching is essential.

The new rector should be a pastoral leader and community builder within the parish. The parish has achieved an environment that welcomes participation and respects diverse gifts; the successful candidate will bring a style of leadership that is relational and respects these values.  In addition, the ideal person would be someone who can increase Holy Apostles’ role in the church’s immediate neighborhood.

Finally there is the need to lead HASK and the fundraising effort required to finance HASK. This is a significant challenge. The donors are changing and several foundations that have been substantial contributors to HASK have altered their charitable focus. Our present rector has been both an excellent chief executive of HASK and its principal raiser of major donations.

At the beginning of the search for a new rector, the parish self-study demonstrated great consensus about the mission, worship, programs, inclusiveness and commitments to social justice that we cherish, and also identified areas for possible growth:  increased outreach to young adults and families with children, as well as to the immediate neighborhood; growth and greater diversity in our membership, programs, worship and pastoral care; and sustainability of the parish’s ministries, including HASK.  The vestry anticipates that, in the first years of her or his appointment, the new rector will guide a planning process, seeking to build on the parish’s strengths in a dynamic environment.

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