WELCOME

Thank you for your interest in St. Michael’s Church, and in the search for the 11th rector in our 200-year history. Our goal is to discern what God is calling St. Michael’s to be, and to find and welcome a rector with the spirit, skills and experience to lead us and support us in understanding and answering God’s call.

Worship ServicesAt the heart of St. Michael’sshared journey are our worshipservices, which strive for a genuine Christian spirit that encompasses the needs of all.We worship in an extraordinarilybeau!ful sanctuary space.

Holy Eucharist is celebrated atthree services on Sundays: at7:45 a.m. in the Chapel of the

Angels; at 10 a.m. in the nave; and at 6 p.m. in the chancel.

The two Sunday morning services typically follow Rite II in The Book of CommonPrayer. Alternative liturgies such as those in A New Zealand Prayer Book,The South African Book of Common Prayer and Enriching Our Worship arealso used on occasion.

Music plays an important role in the 10 a.m. service, featuringone or more of the choirs. Lay ministers lead the Ministry ofLaying On of Hands during this service, and young childrenattend the Word Made Young and join the congregationduring the Peace.

“Intersec!on” at 6 p.m. is an informal service with contemporarymusic, and o"en includes a shared meal.

Morning Prayer is o#ered at 7:45 a.m. on weekdays (9 a.m. on Saturdays), withHoly Eucharist on Wednesdays and feast days. The church is open for prayerand reflec!on weekdays from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. On Wednesdays from Septemberthrough May the St. Michael’s Choir sings the o$ce of Compline at 8:30 p.m.

Location

St. Michael’s Church is located at the corner of West 99th Street and AmsterdamAvenue in Manha%an. This loca!on is at the crossroads of several overlappingneighborhoods in an increasingly complex section of the Upper West Side.We are bordered on the east by two dis!nct communi!es created by 1950s&eraurban renewal, one whose residents are predominantly middle&class with asignificant graying population aging in place, and another consisting of NewYork City Housing Authority rent&subsidized units. We are bordered on thewest, north and south by an increasingly gentrified population, many in pre&WWII apartment buildings and townhouses.

The mission ofSt. Michael’s Church is to witness —

through worship,ministries andcommunity activities —to the spirit, teachings and love of Christ; to offer strength andlove to each other; and to reach out and draw others into our diverse parish family.

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Parishioners at Absalom Jonesservice, St. John the Divine

While this area is aptly considered to be amid the Upper West Side’s a'uence(and enhanced real estate values), St. Michael’s is also a short walk fromManhattan Valley, a neighborhood that is home to working poor familieswhose needs can be profound but are often not seen or met.

The church is well served by public transportation, including subway linesunder Broadway and Central Park West, bus lines on Broadway, Amsterdamand Columbus Avenues, and crosstown buses on 96th and 106th Streets.Parking is scarce.

Parish Demographics

St. Michael's is a diverse, multi&generational parish. Our database reflects 640individuals in 318 households identified as parishioners, 1,623 “prospects”and 939 “constituents.”

Overall, our average householdsize is 2. There are 112 familieswith children (35%), 211 without(65%). Median age of all parish&ioners is 47, and apart from familieswith children our parish is rela!vely“gray” as compared to the na!onaland Manhattan averages. As forgender: 37% of respondents aremale, 48% female, 15% did not specify.

For obvious reasons our database does not track information about race orsexual orientation. Casual inspection of a Sunday congregation suggests thatthe parish is between one&half and two&thirds Caucasian. Since the early1980s, gay individuals, couples and families have been a significant part ofour congregation.

St. Michael’s Church History: the Spirit of Place

St. Michael’s is dis!nguished by its great age, its mission tradi!on and its worshipspace’s beauty.

Since 1807, the church has remained on the same site where Trinity Wall Streetpew&holders founded it as a white&frame chapel near their summer homes in thethen&countryside. From 1820 to 1920, an extended family of rectors — theRichmonds and the Peters — presided over St. Michael’s, seeding other churchesin the city, state and beyond, and launching social ministries whose legacycontinues today. During the 1850s, St. Michael’s purchased land for a cemeteryin what is now Astoria, Queens.

Rector John Punne% Peters, the last of the dynasty, and architect Robert Gibsonenvisioned the third and present church in a Byzan!ne style (dedica!on: 1891).Louis Comfort Ti#any created the church’s seven lancet windows and the marblealtar below, together with the sanctuary environment. Ti#any’s design culminatedwith the Chapel of the Angels reredos. 2

Easter 2012

Rev. John Punnett Peters

The third church, rising from the second

In 1909, responding to a “colony of colored people in West 99th Street,”St. Michael’s and the diocese estab&lished an African&American missionchapel at 27 West 99th Street. In1921, St. Michael’s built St. Jude’sChapel. The Rev. Floarda Howard, anAfrican&American priest, served asvicar un!l 1957, when the chapel wasrazed to make way for an urban&re&newal project. The St. Jude’s parishionerswere welcomed by St. Michael’s.

During the 1960s, St. Michael’s waned with its in&flux neighborhood, and thediocese considered shu%ering the church. Then, amid a 1970s Upper West Sideturnaround, the parish rallied.

In 1983, the Saturday Kitchen and the Pilgrim Resource Center were launched,reflec!ng the long St. Michael’s tradi!on of community service.

As part of our bicentennial celebra!on in 2007, the St. Jude’s altar was restoredand reconsecrated within the sanctuary space.

St. Michael’s Is Blessed With Many Assets

! People and Programming

While the physical assets of the St. Michael’s parish are considerable, its truewealth lies in the spirit, talent and generosity of its members. One of the remarkableaspects of the parish is that there has been no loss in programming or pastoralcare following the retirement of the last rector in June 2011. To the contrary,under the sensi!ve direc!on of our interim pastor and associate clergy, and thee#orts of our vestry and laity, St. Michael’s has enjoyed the con!nua!on of itsmost cherished programs.

! ! Music

Music has always been important at St Michael’s, par!cularly since the renais&sance of the parish during the tenure of the Rev. Frederick Hill (1970s&‘90s).We regard it as a significant aspect of outreach.

The church employs a full&!me organist/choirmaster and a half&!me director ofthe children’s choirs. Together they lead an adult choir that includes volunteerswith a core of eight paid professional singers; an early childhood choir; a choirfor pre&teens and tweens; and a high school choir. All four choirs sing musicof various periods and styles.

The adult choir usually presents two concerts a year, o"en with orchestra. In recentyears, the children’s choirs, joined by children from neighborhood schools and others, have presented such substan!al repertoire as Benjamin Bri%en’s “Noye’sFludde,”“The Li%le Prince” and “Alice in Wonderland.” The church also frequentlyhosts concerts by outside groups, and has been home to ar!sts in residence thathave included Anonymous 4 and Artek.

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Rev. Floarda Howard St. Jude’s Altar reconsecration

The church contains two organs by Rudolf von Beckerath: the main gallery instrument, a 1967 tracker of 3 manuals, 38 stops and 55 ranks, generally consideredamong the finest examples of this well&known builder’s work, and a smallerinstrument in the chapel (one manual and pedal, 8 ranks). More informa!on is on theNew York AGO’s web page: h%p://nycago.org/Organs/NYC/html/StMichaelEpis.html.

! ! Sunday School

Nearly two dozen volunteer teachers and associated supporters ensure that thechildren of St. Michael’s from pre&K through high school have age&appropriate andfocused Christian formation lessons after the main Sunday service during theacademic year. The teachers and assistants, in collaboration with the clergy, develop curriculum and teach lessons that introduce our children to the joys andresponsibili!es of a robust rela!onship with God, and an understanding of thefounda!ons of our faith.

Weekly a%endance has fallen o# a bit from its high&water mark in the mid ‘00s,in part due to the ebb and flow of families with young children joining theparish, and in part due to compe!!on for the children’s !me from sports teamsand other ac!vi!es.

The Sunday school teachers, along with those responsible for the choral musicprogram and the Saturday Kitchen, are among the most numerous and mostconsistently ac!ve volunteers in the congrega!on. The Sunday school and ouryouth music programming remain key attractions to families with childrenseeking a church home.

! ! Community Outreach and the Saturday Kitchen and the Pilgrim Resource Center

The Saturday Kitchen and thePilgrim Resource Center are social ministries addressed tothose in material need. Theyserve hundreds of guests eachweek. The Saturday Kitchen hasbeen open every week since itsinception in 1983 and fulfills avital role as the only meal pro&gram in the neighborhood thatserves every weekend. The PilgrimResource Center provides muchneeded referrals and informa!on

on social&assistance programs. St. Michael’s outreach to nearby Trinity LutheranChurch supports our neighbors’ ministry to families who are in material needand by preparing monthly meals for the residents of Trinity Lutheran’s shelter for homeless LGTBQ youth. These programs are remnants ofSt. Michael’s rich heritage of active leadership on the Upper West Side andspringboards for expanding such ministries. They seek to promote healthand wholeness, and the building of community. Through these ministries we 4

“strive for jus!ce and peace and respect.” Par!cipa!on o#ers each person andgroup a way of walking in the path Jesus set for us.

! ! Communal Fellowship and Service Opportunities

We have been very blessed at St. Michael’s to have many talented parishionerswho have offered their gifts to others in the community. There is somethingfor everyone.

In addition to the music opportunities, Saturday Kitchen, Sunday School andoutreach highlighted above, St. Michael’s fellowship and service groups include:Episcopal Church Women; Sisters of the Circle; The Men of St. Michael’s; TheKnitwits; Gardening/Flower Guild; Bistro (Wednesday evening communal meal);Hospitality; Welcoming Commi%ee; Altar Guild; Lectors; Ushers; Acolytes; WordMade Young; Nursery; St. Michael’s Music and Arts; Healing and Centering Prayer; Lectio Divina; Social Concerns Committee; and Education for Ministry.Other lay leadership opportunities include the Vestry and Wardens and lay Eucharis!c ministers.

! Physical Assets

! ! The Church Building, Rectory and Parish House

The physical fabric of the churchconsists of three 1890s Victorianbrick buildings faced with lime&stone: the church itself, the parishhouse, and the rectory. All threeare in fair condi!on, though therehave been periods of deferredmaintenance that have necessi&tated expensive interven!ons inmore recent years, with moreneeded in the near future. In particular, non&ADA&compliantramps provide wheelchair access

to the church nave and the first floor of the parish house.

The parish house contains more program space than the church is able to useat present. Several nonprofit tenants, including a private pre&school and music and theater groups, put us on the neighborhood map and fill some of the gaps inour budget. Currently, the organist/choirmaster, the children’s choirmaster andthe parish administrator reside in apartments located within the parish house.

The parish house includes an auditorium with excellent acous!cs, which couldbe used more frequently for non&church events, although the accessibility issuesmentioned above restrict the capacity of the space. The electrical and soundsystems in the auditorium will eventually need a%en!on.

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Rectory

Parish House

The rectory retains an elegant main floor. The remainder was reconfigured someyears ago to include a basement apartment for the maintenance superintendent,a middle&floor apartment for the rector and family, and a third suite, all of which will eventually need upda!ng or improvement.

! ! The Corner Lot

St. Michael’s owns a vacant lot to the north of the church building, which it ishoping to develop.

! ! St. Michael’s Cemetery

The church owns andoperates St. Michael’sCemetery in Queens,near La Guardia airport.

In the 1850’s, with thechurchyard running out of space, the Rev.Thomas McClure Petersand more than 50families of African descent from Seneca

Village (in what is now part of Central Park) funded the purchase of the originalcemetery property. The cemetery provided appropriate and a#ordable burialspaces for parishioners as well as dedicated areas assigned to other churchesand ins!tu!ons to provide dignified burial places for the poor.

St. Michael’s gradually acquired addi!onal land to increase the cemetery’s sizeto about 88 acres, and continues to explore options to expand or repurposespace to extend its operating lifespan. The cemetery also offers mausoleumcrypt spaces, and the on&site All Soul’s Chapel and Crematory o#ers crema!ons,chapel rental and inurnment services that accommodate prac!ces from variousreligions and customs.

Annual observances at the cemetery include a concert honoring rag!me pioneerScott Joplin (buried there), a remembrance honoring police, fire and firstresponders lost in the 9/11 a%acks, and a fundraiser to support the children ofthose who died from working on the cleanup of the World Trade Center site.

Our Parish in Our Own Eyes

Nearly 150 parishioners, or one&third of our ac!ve congrega!on, responded tothe search commi%ee’s recent survey, providing invaluable insight into both thesearch and our approach to our life and work together. The survey asked whatwe are doing well, what is important to us, areas where we need to improve,and a%ributes we hope to find in the next rector. Some key results of the surveyinclude the following:

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September 11 memorial

! The people of St. Michael’s are generally happy with who we are and are proud of our worship and programs.

! We see our diversity in age, race and personal backgrounds asa strength.

! We believe we offer a welcoming atmosphere for both newcomersand long!me parishioners, and appreciate the warmth of the church as a whole, although some respondents saw room for improvement.

! An overwhelming number of congregants have a strong apprecia!on for the beauty of the space in which we worship and the music that surrounds us.

! We cherish spiritual guidance from the clergy, with the quality of sermons and the warmth of pastoral care drawing par!cular men!ons.

! We see our Sunday School and children’s choirs as a significant a%rac!onto new members.

Our vision for the future is not as clear. We yearn for a deeper connec!on witheach other and the church. The survey revealed many suggestions about howto achieve this goal, including hos!ng parish&wide events like par!es and fairs,and forming groups with common religious or social interests. We also expressa desire to increase our outreach to the wider community, but are not sure towhom or how.

The survey drew some creative suggestions, including establishing a parishschool; using tac!cs for gaining new members by “borrowing” them from otherdenomina!ons; adding ac!vi!es focused on newcomers; and using social media,flyers, signage, and TV and radio.

Challenges Facing St. Michael’s

Ironically, the level of comfort many of us share with our worship, service andprogramming at St. Michael’s may present one of our most profound challenges.We recognize a need to stretch beyond our areas of comfort, to seek out andembrace new ideas, and to find ways to make our experiences at St. Michael’srelate both to the present and the future. We need to ensure that the visionexpressed in our mission statement is a living and evolving commitment.

Some of the challenges in this regard include:

! Growth and Welcoming New MembersImproving our outreach is cri!cal to our spiritual mission. Serving the surrounding community is both a challenge and an opportunity. We also recognize the need to a%ract new members both to increase the pool of parishioners engaged in the various aspects of our ministriesand to sustain us financially.

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We are a congrega!onwith many voices,and we value that!

! DiversityWhile our rich diversity is a strength, it cannot be taken for granted. The challenges presented by our diversity include continually beingrelevant to a broad spectrum of potential parishioners, and ensuring that our worship and programming serve all whom we a%ract.

In addition, the financial aspects of our parish present certain challenges, including:

! Stewardship at a Turning Point After a long run of lackluster years, the 2013 stewardship campaign topped its goal for pledges, a first in recent memory. The number of pledges is up, with a heartening increase in first&time pledgers. A re&energized St. Michael’s is poised to realize its poten!al for stewardshipin the pledge envelope and beyond. This turnaround presents an opportunity for new leadership to extend the momentum and strengthen the culture of giving.

S!ll, pledges and plate don’t cover the St. Michael’s budget. We have drawn on revenue from the cemetery and other sources, which is notsustainable in the long term, and the vestry has taken steps to scaleback that prac!ce. The median pledge has remained about the samefor a decade. For the church to maintain its programs, the Parish mustgrow, and its culture of giving must improve.

! CemeteryBalancing the parish budget s!ll requires a substan!al por!on of the opera!ng surplus earned by the cemetery. Since St. Michael’s is obligatedto fund ongoing maintenance of the cemetery for 99 years past the last burial, a dedicated endowment for that purpose must be replenished. The cemetery operating surplus would be able to generate sufficientfunds over the next decade to meet that obligation, but only if the parish weans itself from its reliance on those funds.

! Corner LotThe corner lot is expected to contribute to the parish finances at some point but will provide no short&term relief to our operating budget shor(all.

! Condition of the Church, Rectory and Parish HouseMaintenance of older buildings is always difficult, exacerbated in ourcase by the intervals of deferred maintenance mentioned above. Our buildings will continue to require attention and substantial capital expenditure.

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CONCLUSION

St. Michael’s, like the city inwhich it is located and which it has served for over 200 years,presents both enormous opportuni!es and significant challenges.

We are blessed with the abidingfaith and spirit of a commi%ed

congrega!on that consistently meets its challenges. We look forward to meetingthe rector who will support and enhance our current mission and ministries,and present new opportuni!es to understand and answer God’s call to us.

Application Instructions

Please send your resume and cover le%er to Peter Ennis, chair of our search committee, at search@saintmichaelschurch.org or c/o St. Michael’s Church, A%en!on: Search Commi%ee, 225 West 99th Street, New York, NY 10025.

We look forwardto meeting the rector who will

support and enhance ourcurrent ministries, andpresent new opportunitiesto understand and answer God’s call to us.

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Parish Garden