Our task this month is to unlearn a long practice of forgetting. This practice started with the families who listed these names and numbers in their wills alongside livestock and furniture, forgetting their humanity in order to enslave them. It continued as our congregation left out the memories and stories of these people from our church’s history over the decades and centuries that followed. This […]
Our task this month is to unlearn a long practice of forgetting. This practice started with the families who listed these names and numbers in their wills alongside livestock and furniture, forgetting their humanity in order to enslave them. It continued as our congregation left out the memories and stories of these people from our church’s history over the decades and centuries that followed. This […]
Our task this month is to unlearn a long practice of forgetting. This practice started with the families who listed these names and numbers in their wills alongside livestock and furniture, forgetting their humanity in order to enslave them. It continued as our congregation left out the memories and stories of these people from our church’s history over the decades and centuries that followed. This […]
Our task this month is to unlearn a long practice of forgetting. This practice started with the families who listed these names and numbers in their wills alongside livestock and furniture, forgetting their humanity in order to enslave them. It continued as our congregation left out the memories and stories of these people from our church’s history over the decades and centuries that followed. This […]
The Muste brothers were born in Holland and emigrated to Grand Rapids with their family in the 1890s. Both brothers (A.J. was the elder) graduated from Hope College and New Brunswick Theological Seminary. As a student A.J. held a summer pulpit job at Middle Collegiate among the poor of the Lower East Side, around 1904-05, which changed his life. He went on to Union Theological […]
In the reopening of our sanctuary this past Easter, we celebrated, and announced, “All Are Welcome” with banners and programs. While researching Old First’s collaboration with Centennial Chapel in the 19th century, it was discovered that they too declared, “All Are Welcome” in the news. Newsboys of the Late 1800s Perhaps you have read or seen a photography exhibit of Lewis Hine’s about the newsboys, […]
On June 16, Old First will host an Untapped Cities Insiders tour for members of the tour company dedicated to unearthing New York City’s most unique and surprising places, stories and events. Untapped Cities tours are walking tours led by licensed NYC tour guides for visitors and New Yorkers alike who are curious about sights off the beaten path, with a strong focus on history […]
The donor of two communion beakers to the Reformed Dutch Church of Breuckelen in 1684, Maria Badie, was named, but more than that was unknown, according to our Pastor Meeter a few Sundays ago. Challenge: who was the woman behind our communion beakers? Research led us to Maria Thomas Badie, a wealthy woman who was married three times. In surviving legal documents, Maria used Thomas or […]
When Pastor Daniel Meeter joined Old First in 2001, he had read in one of the church’s histories that there existed an antique communion cup (Avondmaalsbeker in Dutch. Avondmaal means Lord’s Supper). It’s whereabouts: unknown. Pastor Meeter asked around, but nobody had heard of it or even seen it. A true mystery. “I saw a picture of a former pastor from 40 years ago holding one,” […]
Yesterday on our 364th Anniversary, we enjoyed the presence of Old First’s Staten-Bÿbel or States-Bible. One of the heirlooms of Old First’s history, it’s a massive book. Our copy was printed in the city of Dordrecht in 1737. A States-Bible is the Dutch equivalent of the King James version, and it was first published in 1621 by order of the Netherlands’ States-General (the Staten-General for which Staten Island is […]