Covering Religion in New York (2025)
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The Sound of Scripture: Evangelical Preacher Immerses Worshippers on the Upper West Side
NEW YORK — The preacher gathers a pool of saliva to the back of her throat and sends a wet suction sound booming through the speakers — hwauuuuk, pftooh. “If you’re in New York, this sound should be familiar,” she says. Thankfully, Yen-Yen Chiu is not actually spitting on the Evangelical congregation gathered in Hope Church…
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All We Need Is … a Miracle?
NEW YORK — Cecil B. DeMille knew the cinematic power of the biblical story of Moses parting the Red Sea. The Hollywood director depicted this awe-inspiring moment, when the Israelites dash across dry ground to escape the Egyptian army, with epic special effects in his 1956 Oscar-winning film The Ten Commandments. To the fleeing Israelites in…
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A Multicultural Conversation on Immortality at the Vedanta Society of New York
NEW YORK — In a brownstone on West 71st Street, just off of Central Park, inside the Vedanta Society of New York’s prayer and lecture space, a livestream is set up. Swami Sarvapriyananda, the spiritual leader of the society, is about to give his weekly Sunday lecture. The swami takes a seat at the front…
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New Converts and Longtime Members Learn Byzantine Chant
NEW YORK — On a recent Tuesday night at Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church on the Upper West Side, six students gathered in a basement classroom to learn a skill integral to Orthodox liturgy: Byzantine chant. The singers’ voices rose and fell in unison. They had no instruments, save their hands, which they lifted and dropped…
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Suspend the Urge to Understand: Lessons from a Heart Sutra Book Club at the Korean Buddhism Jo-Gei Temple of America
On a frigid February afternoon, six students sat cross-legged on jade-colored cushions atop creaky wooden floorboards inside a Manhattan brownstone. They had come for a Buddhist scripture study group, advertised plainly as “Book Club,” at the Korean Jo-Gei Temple of America. “I consider myself quite shy,” said Bosung, the monk who leads the weekly gathering.…
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A Discussion on Parenting in the Anglican Church
NEW YORK — For Pastor Jim Salladin, connecting with congregants goes beyond leading worship services in the West Village every Sunday morning; it extends from the pulpit to Zoom, where nearly 20 members of Emmanuel Anglican Church gathered virtually on a recent Tuesday evening. Salladin organized a curiously intimate conversation for teachers and parents to…
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Fashioning Wheat Stalks into Brigid’s Cross, An Imbolc Tradition
NEW YORK — On a chilly Saturday afternoon in February, a dozen people from all over New York City gathered in The Meadow, a creative arts studio under the Manhattan Bridge overpass in Brooklyn. The practitioners of Celtic spirituality sat around a wooden table littered with half-eaten cookies, teacups of wildflower tea and piles of long…
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A School Hall Becomes a Sanctuary: Evangelical Worshippers Find Rhythm and Reverence on the Upper West Side
NEW YORK — A young man in a green beanie has both arms outstretched to the sky, palms open to receive, the top of his iPhone poking out from the back pocket of his jeans. He rocks back and forth on Nike runners, swaying to the steady strum of acoustic guitar that floats around the…
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An Imbolc Ritual: Quiet Reflection and Flowers of Ireland
NEW YORK — A hush settles over the room at The Meadow, the expressive arts space in the northernmost Brooklyn neighborhood of Dumbo. Men and women sit cross-legged on the floor, and the studio is quiet except for the sound of breaths. Gaelic embroidery of green fields and birch trees are strung from a branch…
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‘None of us is getting it quite right all the time’: Methodists Confess in Fidi
NEW YORK — Midway through the Sunday morning service at John Street United Methodist Church in Lower Manhattan, Pastor Stephanie Bennett asked members of the church to partake in a prayer of confession. She noted it was a Communion Sunday, and the confession prayer is a moment to recognize that “none of us is getting…
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Finding Stillness in the City: A Glimpse into Zen Practice in New York
NEW YORK — Nestled in a nondescript charcoal building at 400 E. 14th St., the Chogye International Zen Center of New York welcomes its members as early as 5:30 a.m. for the Buddhist practices of bowing, meditation and chanting. Upon entrance, members slide off their shoes, place their belongings in white wooden cubbies and trade…
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Hearing the Shema Prayer in a New Way
NEW YORK — “Hear” as a command conveys one meaning. “Pay attention” signifies yet another idea, one that goes beyond the ear canal. Especially to a Deaf person. During a recent “ReSoul” Saturday morning Shabbat service at Congregation Rodeph Sholom on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, most of the song and prayer lyrics were projected on a…
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God Works Through Generations in the Anglican Church
NEW YORK — The wooden pews at Emmanuel Anglican Church in Manhattan’s West Village are filled with people of all ages on a recent Sunday morning. But once the worship service begins, some of the youngest congregants, too small to sit still, are carried to the aisles and the back of the sanctuary by their…