Christ Church NYC

06/19/2026

This Weekend in Worship at Christ Church NYC:
Fourth Sunday After Pentecost—June 21, 2026

We would love to see you in person at one of our Sunday Morning worship services this Sunday (9:00 AM and 11:00 AM) at Christ Church NYC, a United Methodist congregation on the corner of Park Avenue and 60th Street. If you are far outside of the city and in need of a church connection, we invite you to participate in the 11:00 AM livestreamed Sunday service via the church’s website: christchurchnyc.org. (Experience the livestream in real time on Sunday morning or watch the recording later on.)

• At 9AM, we will worship in the meditative intimacy of our chapel and gather around the table of Holy Communion.

• At 11AM, we will worship in the sanctuary, with music offered by Dr. Steve Pilkington (organist) and Paul Speiser (soloist). Sunday School is offered for children as part of the 11AM service.

•At 11AM, we will celebrate and honor our church’s 2026 high school, college, and graduate school graduates.

• At both Sunday worship services, Eric Park will offer a sermon entitled, “Going Outside the Family” which will focus on two passages of Scripture: the first is a disruptive and painful family story found in Genesis 21:8-21; the second is an unsettling declaration from Jesus found in Matthew 10:34-39 (“I have not come to bring peace but a sword…and one’s foes will be members of one’s own household.”) Yikes! So much for Happy Father’s Day! Unnerving as the two scriptures may be, perhaps they proclaim, in their essence, the very same truth: When family systems and structures fail, harm, or reject us, the tender grace of God will find a way to embrace us in the wilderness outside of the family, leading us into a love and community that will not send us away.

•At 10AM, between the worship services, join us for our summer Faith Forum on the 4th floor as we continue in our dialogue about the Bible, its content, and its application.

Join us this Sunday as the liturgy and music elevate our souls, as the spirit of community nurtures our sense of connection, and as Scripture leads us into a deeper appreciation of God’s tender and transformative grace.

(Artwork: “Hagar and Ishmael” by Lauren Wright Pittman)

06/19/2026

Thoughts from Eric Park on the celebration of Juneteenth:

Permit me once again, friends, to share a few thoughts about the significance of Juneteenth. Given current realities, including the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Louisiana v. Callais, which effectively gutted Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act and severely diluted (or perhaps obliterated) the Act’s commitment to racial equality in elections, the commemoration of Juneteenth carries additional weight this year, along with a heightened sense of urgency.

Let us pause, then, to remember a momentous segment of our history.

“Juneteenth” (“June” + “nineteenth”) commemorates the day of June 19th, 1865, when African Americans in Texas first learned about their freedom from slavery. News traveled slowly across a divided nation in 1865, and a resistance among those in power to the abolition of slavery hindered the implementation of emancipation.

Consider the situation: President Abraham Lincoln issued Proclamation 95 (known as the “Emancipation Proclamation”) on September 22, 1862. It became effective on January 1, 1863. The war between the states raged on, with the institution of slavery standing as a tangible reminder of what was at stake. General Robert E. Lee surrendered his Confederate troops to the Union General, Ulysses S. Grant, at the courthouse in Appomattox, Virginia on April 9, 1865, marking the beginning of the end of a bloody four-year civil war.

Over two months later, resistance in the Trans-Mississippi Theater (including Texas) continued, perpetuated by portions of the Confederacy that either had not yet received the news of General Lee’s surrender or who rebelled against its implications. Slaves in various portions of the southwest had not yet received the news about a burgeoning emancipation that African Americans in other portions of the country were already beginning to experience.

On June 19, 1865, over two months after the events at Appomattox, federal troops under the command of Union Major General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas. One of General Granger’s first orders of business in Galveston was to read to the people “General Order No. 3,” which included these words:

"The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired labor."

Eventually named, “Juneteenth” and now an official federal holiday in the United States, June 19th has been observed as “Freedom Day” or “Emancipation Day” by many Americans for well over 150 years.

The announcement of emancipation at the heart of “Juneteenth” resonates with continuing clarity on June 19, 2026, as our nation and its various institutions and faith communities press onward in the perpetually urgent struggle to realize fully the liberation announced in “General Order No. 3.”

Personally, I find it disturbingly easy to become sidetracked in this struggle—sidetracked by a privileged cynicism toward hard and unsettling conversations about racial justice; or sidetracked by resentment over the naming of racial realities that, while very real, are more comfortably denied or ignored; or sidetracked by a preserved allegiance to a status quo that elevates some and diminishes others.

This year, my commitment on Juneteenth will be at least threefold: to repent of my tendency to allow distraction to become my norm; to utilize my voice and agency consistently in the work of naming, illuminating, and dismantling all forms of racism and mobilizing others to do the same; and to give my best energy to the comprehensive realization of a moral vision that found powerful expression on June 19, 1865—“an absolute equality of personal rights.”

Come, Holy Spirit.

Eric Park

06/14/2026

A note from Eric Park about this year's clergy appointments at Christ Church NYC:

This weekend, during the official fixing of clergy appointments at Saturday afternoon's plenary session of the New York Annual Conference, Bishop Thomas Bickerton reappointed three United Methodist clergy to Christ Church NYC (Washington Heights and Park Avenue Campuses) for this next appointment year, effective July 1:

Rev. Dr. Denise Smartt Sears
Rev. Mickey Correa
Rev. Dr. Eric Park

These three United Methodist ministers join Rev. Tyler Heston Wolf, who is ordained in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), in forming Christ Church’s clergy staff for this next year of ministry.

I am honored beyond words to be alongside such brilliant, deep-hearted, and abundantly-gifted colleagues. I hold them in my prayerful heart with gratitude, even as I type these words.

I am grateful also to be part of a church like Christ Church NYC, where people are inspiringly committed to loving God above all things and loving neighbor as self.

Great things are in store in the ministry of Christ Church. I am convinced of it.

05/29/2026

This Weekend in Worship at Christ Church NYC:
Trinity Sunday—May 31, 2026

We would love to see you in person at one of our Sunday Morning worship services this Sunday (9:00 AM and 11:00 AM) at Christ Church NYC, a United Methodist congregation on the corner of Park Avenue and 60th Street. If you are far outside of the city and in need of a church connection, we invite you to participate in the 11:00 AM livestreamed Sunday service via the church’s website: christchurchnyc.org. (Experience the livestream in real time on Sunday morning or watch the recording later on.)

In the life of the church, this Sunday is known as Trinity Sunday. Celebrated on the first Sunday following Pentecost, Trinity Sunday is a unique opportunity for the church to reflect upon the mysterious, beautiful, and irreducible nature of God, whose character is so thoroughly relational that it finds its fullest expression in an intimate and dynamic communion—a communion that perpetually characterizes and energizes the Divine Heart.

• At 9AM, we will worship in the meditative intimacy of our chapel and gather around the table of Holy Communion.

• At 11AM, we will worship in the sanctuary, with music offered by the Christ Church Choir and Bell Choir. Sunday School is offered for children as part of the 11AM service.

• At both Sunday worship services, Eric Park will offer a sermon entitled “Something Out of Nothing,” which will focus on the story of creation found in Genesis 1 and 2. Beyond all our modern efforts to debate scientific questions that the Genesis story of creation was not even asking, there is profound theological truth at the heart of the Creation—specifically the truth of an astonishingly creative grace whose nature is to create something beautiful out of what may look like nothing at all.

• At 10AM, between the worship services, join us for Faith Forum on the 4th floor as we continue in our dialogue about the Resurrection and its continuing impact.

• Following the 11AM service, join us in Phillips Hall for a special “Sundae Bar” Coffee Hour honoring Lydia Prather, our Director of Ministry for Children, Youth, and Families, who was recently affirmed as a Certified Lay Minister in the United Methodist Church.

• Following the coffee hour, join us on the 4th floor at 1PM as Colleen Moore, from the United Methodist General Board of Church and Society, facilitates a dialogue on the continuing crisis involving Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories. The dialogue will focus on the history of the crisis, how the United Methodist Church is responding, and what local churches can do to be of help.

Come and experience a busy and wonderful Sunday at Christ Church NYC!

(Michelangelo: “The Creation of Adam”—painted 1508-1512)

05/22/2026

This Weekend in Worship at Christ Church NYC:
Pentecost—May 24, 2026

We would love to see you in person at one of our Sunday Morning worship services this Sunday (9:00 AM and 11:00 AM) at Christ Church NYC, a United Methodist congregation on the corner of Park Avenue and 60th Street. If you are far outside of the city and in need of a church connection, we invite you to participate in the 11:00 AM livestreamed Sunday service via the church’s website: christchurchnyc.org. (Experience the livestream in real time on Sunday morning or watch the recording later on.)

In the life of the church, this Sunday is known as Pentecost in the Christian tradition—a unique opportunity to remember and celebrate the Holy Spirit’s trajectory-altering engagement with Jesus’ disciples at a Jewish harvest festival in Jerusalem a couple thousand years ago.

At 9AM, we will worship in the meditative intimacy of our chapel and gather around the table of Holy Communion.

At 11AM, we will worship in the sanctuary, celebrating the baptism of an 8-month-old infant and standing supportively and prayerfully with her family.

At 11AM, Sunday School for children will be offered as part of worship, and the ministry of music will be provided by the Christ Church Choir.

At 10AM, between the worship services, join us for Faith Forum on the 4th floor as we continue in our dialogue about the Resurrection and its continuing impact.

At both Sunday services, Eric Park will offer a sermon entitled “Assisted Respiration,” which will focus on John 20:19-23—a moment of Scripture in which the resurrected Christ “breathes” the Holy Spirit onto and into the gathered disciples. After breathing the Holy Spirit, Jesus then strangely and abruptly begins to speak about the urgency of forgiveness. Why? Perhaps because Jesus understands that the hard and essential work of offering and receiving forgiveness requires nothing less than assisted spiritual respiration. In short, it requires breathing the Spirit that Jesus breathed.

It is going to be a wonderful celebration of Pentecost!

Come prepared to celebrate the Holy Spirit’s continuing work in and through the ministry of our church.

Come to support and encourage one of our church’s newest couples as they celebrate the baptism of their infant daughter.

Come to add your hearts and voices to the glorification of our faithful God who, through the Holy Spirit, never stops transforming hearts and lives.

(Artwork: "Come, Holy Spirit" by Yvonne Bell)

05/21/2026

A Note from Rev. Eric Park:

While I am gratefully and joyfully serving in United Methodism's New York Conference, my clergy membership remains in the Western Pennsylvania Conference. My heart was meaningfully stirred when I received this communication from my home conference.

I am grateful to Bishop Jonathan Holston for his prophetic and timely words about civic engagement and voting, and to Bishop Sandra Steiner Ball for commending his words to us. I look forward to experiencing Bishop Holston's preaching at the upcoming session of Conference in June.

I encourage every congregation and every believer to remain engaged. Pray for our courts, our elected officials, and our communities. Educate yourselves about the issues before us.

05/15/2026

This Weekend in Worship at Christ Church NYC:
Ascension Sunday—May 17, 2026

We would love to see you in person at one of our Sunday Morning worship services this Sunday (9:00 AM and 11:00 AM) at Christ Church NYC, a United Methodist congregation on the corner of Park Avenue and 60th Street. If you are far outside of the city and in need of a church connection, we invite you to participate in the 11:00 AM livestreamed Sunday service via the church’s website: christchurchnyc.org. (Experience the livestream in real time on Sunday morning or watch the recording later on.)

This Sunday is a beautifully multilayered occasion in the life of Christ church:

• It is Ascension Sunday, meaning that we will be pondering that mystical moment in Scripture in which the resurrected Jesus enters the spiritual realm of God’s very being.

• It is also Youth Sunday, meaning that our church’s children and youth will lead the liturgy at the 11AM service.

• At 9AM, we will celebrate the baptism of a 5-month-old infant and stand supportively and prayerfully with her family.

• At 11AM, we will welcome 12 new members into membership.

• At 11AM, the ministry of music will be offered by the Christ Church Choir and Parish Choir.

• At both services, we will celebrate the Miracle Sunday
offering—a unique one-time opportunity for United Methodist congregations to support the theological education of our clergy siblings in other portions of the world.

• At both services, Eric Park will offer a message entitled “Politics As Unusual," which will be a reflection on the disciples’ inquiry of Jesus in the moments before the Ascension—“Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?” The disciples were caught up in politics as usual—treasured political ideas about the Messiah restoring governance and power to a particular nation. Jesus, however, expands their vision, helping them to understand that their primary work as his followers is not politics as USUAL but rather politics as UNUSUAL. Their primary work, in other words, was to relinquish fantasies of political power so that they might instead bear steadfast witness to the often-countercultural priorities of God.

Does that sound like enough?! What a grand Sunday it is going to be! Join us as the youth give voice to the liturgy, as the music helps our souls to sing, and as the story of the Ascension reminds us to get our heads out of the clouds that we might be about the unusual “politics” of a Christ-shaped life.

(Artwork: “Ascension” by Angela Taylor Perry)

05/14/2026

A few thoughts from Eric Park on the Ascension:

Today is known as Ascension of the Lord in the Christian calendar.

The day reminds us that, whenever a Christian congregation recites the Apostles’ Creed, a peculiar biblical moment is briefly but clearly referenced:

“He [Jesus] ascended into heaven and sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty.”

The birth and crucifixion of Jesus receive a substantive portion of the church’s theological attention, as they should. The Resurrection receives even more. The Ascension, however, is frequently treated by Protestant churches as a mystical and hastily acknowledged side note that exists somewhere in the margins of Jesus’ larger narrative. We may know the theological reference, yet we rarely probe its depth. Why, then, might the Ascension continue to merit the church’s observation and celebration?

I suppose there are many reasons, not the least of which is that the Ascension, if true, brought Jesus into a state of being that is no longer limited by either time or space and no longer confined by either geography or the laws of physics. As a result, the Ascended Jesus, unlike us, can be present simultaneously in all the world’s circumstances and engaged concurrently with each person’s joys and sorrows.

The imagining of such a thing boggles the mind and enlivens the heart, does it not? Far from being a dramatic exit, the Ascension expands Jesus’ transformational intimacy with the world he loves, enabling him to rejoice with the family of a newborn child as he simultaneously weeps over the death of a cancer-ridden matriarch down the street. That Jesus went “into heaven,” in other words, is not an indication of movement away from us. Quite the contrary, it is an Ascension into a Divine Heart that is devotedly engaging, embracing, and enfolding the entirety of creation.

Ascendancy and intimacy. They speak to us of who Jesus is and what Jesus does. He occupies both the majestic space “at the right hand of God” and the messy chambers of a broken heart.

The challenge for us, I believe, is the same challenge that faced the first disciples—specifically, resisting the temptation to fixate so exclusively on lofty thoughts about the heaven into which Jesus ascended that we fail to join him in the earthly places of profound suffering and injustice where Jesus continues to do some of his most redemptive work.

This year, may the Ascension be a fresh opportunity for us, not to look up, but to live forward, recommitting ourselves to personal involvement in mission and ministry so that hurting souls will not have to wait until heaven to experience the love and goodness that Jesus continues to offer.

May we all ascend into such a way of living.

(Artwork: “The Ascension” by Iryna Solonynka)