Chelsea Community Church

When Alana Atterbury moved to New York, she wanted something more than just a good job and a nice apartment.  Originally from Philadelphia, she settled in Harlem two years ago to pursue her career.  But she wanted to find a place of worship and needed a strong sense of community. 

She found both at Chelsea Community Church.  CCC has no pastor and is an entirely lay-led congregation.    The services follow a traditional Christian format, with hymns and readings from the New Testament.  But rabbis, imams, Buddhists, Hindus are just as likely to give sermons as ministers and priests.  The members are not asked to think a certain way about God.  John Magisano (pictured below), the Pastoral Counselor, said there are agnostics and even atheists in their congregation.  Atterbury grew up in a very conservative Christian household.   She said, “This church has made my faith more multi-faceted. Here I can learn from others rather than have a narrow view of religion.”

CCC got its start in the fall of 1975.  Paul Gay thought his Chelsea neighborhood lacked a spiritual community.  At the time, Chelsea didn’t have any mainline Protestant churches.  Gay, a Presbyterian, mailed out 500 letters to friends and neighbors about the need for a community church.  Church members described Gay as a natural community builder.  He was a real estate developer, a former director of the McBurney Y.M.C.A. and a trustee of the Hudson Guild.    He managed to gather like-minded people who established the order of the service, wrote church by-laws and forged Chelsea Community Church. St. Peter’s, a church on West 20th Street, was a small congregation and amenable to a sharing arrangement.  Clement Clarke Moore, Biblical scholar, linguist and poet (probably best known for writing the classic Christmas poem that begins Twas the night before Christmas…) leased and later deeded the land for the church and the General Theological Seminary.  In fact, Moore’s home and estate, which roughly encompassed the area from the Hudson River over to what is now Sixth Avenue and from 19th to about 25th Streets was named Chelsea and the name stuck.  Two months later, CCC held their first service at St. Peter’s. 

For a short time, beginning in 1980, a scheduling conflict arose at St. Peter’s and CCC was unable to hold services there.  Eventually they obtained space at the Seminary.  It was not fancy.  The space was more like a storage area than a church.  Thad McGar remembers having to move a lot of heavy furniture each week to make space for the congregants.  “We just had a stand for the pulpit,” he said.  They were ‘dispossessed’ from St. Peter’s for two years.  By the fall of 1982, they were invited back.

Services are held each Sunday (except for the month of August) at 11:45 am.  Before the service, interested participants can meet for the book club.  They have been discussing What Paul Meant by Garry Willis.  “Or, we are parsing out what Garry Willis thinks Paul meant,” said Magisano.  Book club participants all agreed that Paul inspired lively and complex discussions.  After services, congregants can talk and linger over coffee and pastries.

Members come for the full spectrum of religious views that the church embraces.  Merle Lister was initially invited by a friend to hear a rabbi speak at the church.  Lister, who is Jewish, realized that the church was a place where she could freely express all of her religious beliefs and interests.  As a choreographer, she incorporated spiritual practices like yoga, tai chi and Zen into her work.  Since attending the church, she has a renewed interest in the bible, particularly in the New Testament.  She also has a greater appreciation for the variety of faiths that are represented by the different speakers each week. 

While the freedom of religious experience is intellectually rewarding, all the members I spoke to expressed their deep gratitude for community the church offers.  Atterbury merely showed up for a Sunday service and felt completely welcomed by the members.  She said, “It was easy to meet people and form relationships. If you don’t show up for one or two weeks, people worry about you.  You matter to people.”

Lister agreed, saying one night she had an emergency with a beloved pet.  It was midnight and her cat was extremely sick. She called Katherine, another member, who came right over and helped her take the cat to a vet.  The cat eventually recovered.  Lister has never forgotten that act of kindness.  She said, “People need this kind of community in this city.”

Magisano said the community is strong at CCC because the members do everything and are very involved.  “You can’t get lost in the congregation.  People pay attention to each other.  There is no cult of personality around a pastor.”  Magisano has a Master of Divinity and can officiate at all of the sacraments like baptisms, communion, weddings and funerals.  He is available for all manner of spiritual counseling as well.  But the members turn to each other for counseling and support as much as they do to him. He added that members gave him invaluable advice about practical issues like real estate, reputable contractors and who to call for oil heating. “These people listen to each other,” he said.

When Magisano assumed his post as Pastoral Counselor just over two years ago, he did not want to make changes right away.  He spent his first year just getting to know the members and assess what they wanted.   Many of the long time members were the ones originally invited by Gay.  After Gay died in 1987 of a stroke, membership slowly began to dwindle.  The remaining congregants want to reinvigorate the church by adding new members. 

They are also looking for new ways to be active in the community.  Church member Kathleen Reid (pictured left) works with The Rising Hope Program at the Woodburne Correctional Facility in Sullivan County.  Micheal Wilcher, (center) is the inside coordinator at Rising Hope and a guest speaker at the church.  Wilcher earned a Master of Professional Studies Degree in the New York Theological Seminary program at Sing Sing. Roger Manning (on the right) is also from Rising Hope.  He graduated in December of 200 with a Certificate in Ministry and Human Services. 

Magisano said that eventually he’d like to have a Sunday school for children, an active choir and lead spiritual retreats for church members. “There is a lot of room for a wider vision of what Chelsea Community Church could be.  Spiritual curiosity and questions are welcome here,” he said.  “There is a great hunger for a church like this."-Sherry Mazzocchi

photo: (left to right) Kathleen Reid, Michael Wilcher and Roger Manning. All photos courtesy of Robert Mitchell, Jr.

Chelsea Community Church
Services each Sunday at 11:45 am (except August)
346 West 20th Street (between 8th and 9th Avenues)
Coffee Hour after Services