Hitchcock Church Begins a Year of Centennial Celebration

Hitchcock Presbyterian Church began their centennial year on Sunday, January 6, with "Celebrate 100!", a program for its Centennial Year.  The "symbol" of the Celebrate 100! program was rendered as a banner (see picture) and presented at the Chancel as the Choristers and Clergy processed.

Holding the banner was a Co-Chair of the Celebrate 100! program, assisted by Pastor John Miller. During announcements, the basic outline of the year's special program was listed. Though no fundraising will be done and no regular programming will be replaced, many additional activities will be developed as celebrations during the year. In addition to the customary banners, name tags, photos, videos and visual celebrations, there will be a trip to Israel in February, major new works of music, the return of former senior pastors of the Church and the generation of new books to capture high points of the Church's history and a treasury of testimonials of appreciation by former and current members of the Church.

The high point of the year will be a Celebrate 100! Weekend, beginning on Friday, October 4. After two days of activities that will engage former members and current members, a grand banquet on October 5 will be followed by a Celebratory Sunday Service on October 6.

Hitchcock Memorial Presbyterian Church was organized in 1913 and remains the only religious institution in the Greenacres neighborhood of Scarsdale. The Greenacres Association had been formed the previous year in 1912, and the Church became a neighborhood house for a wide range of activities by residents of Greenacres, Hartsdale and Edgemont as the population in those areas grew over the next fifty years.

Religious backgrounds of all kinds have been welcomed from the Church's founding and members represent many religious and ethnic groups. Today, the only other institutions in the Greenacres neighborhood are the school and the public safety building. Members and visitors to the Church today come from Scarsdale, Hartsdale, Edgemont, White Plans, Elmsford, Pleasantville, Dobbs Ferry, Ardsley, Bronxville, Eastchester, New Rochelle, Yonkers and beyond and the congregation includes Caucasians, Asians and African Americans. A Japanese language congregation also worships at the Church.

At the Church's founding, the congregation and Pastor George Smyth believed outstanding music was required. Over the intervening century outstanding musicians have been drawn to the Church. It is considered in historic character to give special emphasis to music for the Church's several choirs in the Centennial Year, to Celebrate 100! under the direction of Dr. John King.

Merrell and Lynne Clark are Co-Chairs of the Celebrate 100! program, joined by a steering committee of long term and relatively new members and clergy. Members of the steering committee are John Clapp, Marla Dierking, Bill Doescher, Dr. John King, David Kroenlein, Dr. John Miller, Gensina Olson, Kea Park and Beverly Thornhill.

The first sermon of the Celebrate 100! Year was preached by Rev. Elizabeth Smith-Bartlett, the Church's Minister of Christian Formation and Nurture. People who are interested in religion may enjoy the sermon as it illustrates a line of Christian thought associated with Epiphany Sunday (12th Day of Christmas) and encompasses the "interruptions" implied in the Epiphany and in "Celebrate 100!" themes. Read it here.

Hitchcock Presbyterian Church
6 Greeancres Avenue
Scarsdale NY 10583
914-723-3311
http://www.hitchcockpresby.org/

This article was contributed by Merrell Clark
Photo of Elizabeth Smith-Bartlett, credit Lawrence Tsuyuki