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 […]
Dear Old First congregation: We miss you. We thank you for your prayers for us, and we love you. So we want to tell you about the next step in our lives, which has come to us more suddenly than we ever imagined. We will be moving out of Brooklyn. By November we expect to move to an apartment that we are leasing in Poughkeepsie, […]
Dear Friends & Members of Old First, We are pleased to welcome our Interim Pastor, Jane Ann Groom, who will be joining us at Old First as of October 1st. Below is a letter from Pastor Groom: Dear Congregation of Old First, What a double delight for me to come home to live in Brooklyn after a long stint working all over the place and to […]
In the two decades that Pastor Meeter has tirelessly and lovingly served the Old First and Brooklyn Community, we have shared many wonderful memories with him. Please enjoy the slideshow below, highlighting just some of these great memories.
Recently, one of our members, Dr. Jessica Van Voorhees, was interviewed by WNYC about her experience as an E.R. doctor on the frontlines of the COVID-19 crisis in New York City. If you would like to listen, click below:
Regarding navigating an organ as complicated as the one at Old First, summer music director Pavel Bogomyakov says, “I had some experience playing organs, but there are other things happening in church.” To say the least! Much multitasking goes on when you are leading an Old First service in music and song. Pavel, who did a stupendous job of subbing for our Aleeza Meir during our summer services, was […]
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,” […]
Each Sunday leading up to Consecration Sunday, we invite community members to share why they give to Old First. Karen Bulthuis shared her reflections this past Sunday. When Christine Scheibl asked me to speak as part of the preparation for Consecration Sunday, I immediately said yes. Because I feel so privileged to be part of this church community, and I have a lot to say […]
You’ve probably seen Michael Reeves’ work if you’ve crossed the George Washington Bridge or rode toward the Lincoln Tunnel from Hoboken (he’s a commercial artist and a sign painter). However, if you want to see some of his crowning glories, simply look up while standing in our sanctuary. Actually, standing and looking up is what he has been doing every day for the last six […]