Covering Religion in New York
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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…
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In a Brooklyn Synagogue, a Rare Space to Grieve Both Palestinians and Israelis
NEW YORK – Over the last seven months, there have been numerous vigils for the Israelis killed in the Hamas-led massacre of October 7. There have also been many memorials for Palestinians killed by Israel since the country launched its retaliatory assault on Gaza. But the event on May 12 in Brooklyn was different. It…
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Teaching Vedanta Through Metaphor in The Upper East Side
NEW YORK — Each person views the world through a lens of their own understanding and experience, a Hindu swami told his followers at a February service at the Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Center of New York. The teacher, who goes by the name Minister Swami Yuktatmananda, likened each person’s worldview to a pair of sunglasses. “If you…
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In Soho, a Puja Fit for Modern Times
NEW YORK – In a pastel room in downtown Manhattan, Hindu worshippers took turns Friday evening throwing a handful of rose petals onto the statue of a god. Ganesha, the Hindu god of prosperity, appeared regal sitting on a throne in a baby blue shrine at the center of the temple. His head, shaped like…
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Dharma Wisdom: Lessons From Zen Mountain Monastery
SHANDAKEN, N.Y. — On a recent Sunday morning at the Zen Mountain Monastery — nestled in the Catskill Mountains — more than a hundred worshippers gather for a service of chanting and meditation. Light floods through the windows of the lofted wooden room, illuminating the space. After two hours of chanting liturgy and sitting in…
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Rhythms of Reverence: Chanting and Meditation at Fire Lotus Temple
NEW YORK — On a recent Sunday morning, amid intermittent rain, worshippers leapt around growing puddles on the sidewalk outside Fire Lotus Temple in Brooklyn before entering through the large wooden doors. Located on the corner of Third Avenue and State Street in Park Slope, the temple’s aged brick facade and wooden placards stood out…
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‘Pray With Everything in You’: The Physical Matches the Spiritual at the Pentecostal Anointing Church of God
NEW YORK — On a misty January morning, an unassuming building located southeast of Brooklyn’s Prospect Park rumbles with the sounds of voices, crying out to God. Based solely on the volume, one would never guess the small congregation that makes up the Pentecostal Anointing Church of God. Inside the building, the aggressive sound is…
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May the Peace Be With You
NEW YORK — “La Paz sea contigo.” This phrase, La Paz sea contigo, means “may the Peace be with you,” and may have been the only time the churchgoers at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City interacted with each other on a recent Sunday. With a capacity for approximately 2,400 people, the cathedral attracts…
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An Afternoon of Katha
PLAINVIEW, N.Y. — The voice of the priest at the Sikh center grew louder on a recent Sunday afternoon as he delivered his final message. “God doesn’t reside in the room; God resides within us,” he said. As he spoke, the Guru Gobind Singh Sikh Center on Long Island was filled with approximately 200 people.…
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Observing the Akhand Path: A 48-Hour-Long Reading of Sikhism’s Holy Book at a Temple in Queens
NEW YORK — In the heart of Woodside, Queens, a pink building stands out against the gray January sky. The busy road outside contrasts the serenity inside the building. The Shri Guru Ravi Dass Temple is a Sikh temple, but here, next to praying to Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism, people pray for Guru…
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A Sunday Children’s Quiz With a Twist, Ft. Imams, Namaz & Ethics
NEW YORK — A children’s quiz is on, in full swing. A dozen or so kids are seated on the floor in a semicircle in front of the quizmaster, answering his questions with aplomb. The rapid-fire questions, however, are not about current affairs or state capitals. Instead, they are about the names of revered imams…
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In the Candlelight: Reflections & Remembrance at a Roman Catholic Church in the Bronx
NEW YORK — An elderly woman stood over an array of mostly unlit candles at St. Barnabas Roman Catholic Church, which is located in a heavily Irish neighborhood on the border between The Bronx and Yonkers. Dusk hung heavy inside the nave as the raw, rainy evening filtered through dark stained glass. Three or four lit…
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Sacred Streams: Awareness and Intentionality in Druidry
NEW YORK – It was 1 p.m. in New York City and 6 p.m. in the United Kingdom, when Nick Gent, 44, a Druidic sound healer, began his virtual Druidry class on Friday, Feb. 2. The class was small — just one woman from Connecticut signed on — so Gent started right away. The class,…
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“Let Everything That Has Breath Praise the Lord”: Chanting in the Orthodox Church
BROOKLYN — The Divine Liturgy at St. Nicholas Antioch Cathedral in Brooklyn on a recent rainy Sunday morning overwhelms the senses. Incense hangs heavily in the air, and the icons are everywhere, painted on the walls and the ceiling. Sacred relics are set aside for viewing. Candles decorate the whole space. There are yellow candles…
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Desire for God: A Teaching on the Story of Zacchaeus
NEW YORK — The Rev. Thomas Zain of St. Nicholas Antiochian Orthodox Church in Brooklyn faces his congregation as the choir sings, “Intercede with Christ, He will save our souls.” Everyone is standing. A letter from Scripture is sung by one of the chanters after which, Zain sings, “The Holy Gospel” and makes the sign…
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Becoming an Adult at Temple Emanu-El
NEW YORK – “We are on the corner of Fifth and 65 Street in 2024. But now, we are going back to Mount Sinai,” Rabbi Sarah Reines said from the pulpit of Temple Emanu-El during a Shabbat service. For at Mount Sinai, said Reines, Moses received a sacred scroll that would be passed down through…
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Besties in Biblical Times
NEW YORK – Between two Christian spirituals, a rowdy group of seven kids run onto the stage during Sunday morning service at St. Paul & St. Andrew United Methodist Church on 86 Street on the Upper West Side. A boy with a shaved head in a pink button-down takes the microphone and tells the congregation…
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Teaching the Zoroastrian Youth: The Navjote Ceremony
SUFFERN, N.Y. — Just before noon on a recent Sunday, about 50 Zoroastrian men and women stood in a circle clasping hands inside of the Dar-E-Mehr fire temple in this village about a 40-minute drive north of Manhattan. It is here, at 106 Pomona Rd., where Zoroastrians in the tri-state area meet monthly to pray…