St John’s in the Village has been a notable and distinct (Episcopal) Christian presence in Greenwich Village since the 1850s. St John’s was an important provider of both pastoral care and practical assistance during NYC’s cholera outbreak in the 1860s, the Spanish Flu pandemic following the First World War, and the AIDS crisis of the 1980s. More recently St John’s played its part in the COVID-19 pandemic in providing free hand-delivered groceries to the elderly and vulnerable of NYC, allowing them to remain indoors and away from physical contact with others while danger remained. We are a diverse, inclusive, and welcoming community of faith known for hospitality, dignified liturgy, beautiful music, intelligent preaching, care for the needy, and engagement with the arts and our local community.
Worship is at the heart of all we are and do. The Eucharist is celebrated twice on Sundays and the daily ‘offices’ of Morning, Midday Prayer, Evening Prayer (‘Evensong’), and Compline are prayed through the week. Due to the pandemic the SUnday Eucharists and Morning Prayer & Evensong are also streamed on our YouTube Channel. As a parish of the Episcopal Diocese of New York, and thus part of the world-wide Anglican Communion, our faith and practice are grounded in Scripture, Tradition, and Reason, with the Book of Common Prayer as the foundation of our worship. Confidently in the Anglo-Catholic tradition within Anglicanism we seek to ‘worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness’ using vestment, iconography, hymnody, choral music, silence, incense, and gesture to express our adoration of God in Word, in Sacrament, and in the gathered brothers and sisters of Christ.
Our professional choir enriches the liturgy with a wide range of sacred music: from plainsong, through Renaissance polyphony, the baroque, classical, and romantic periods, to choral music of the 20th and 21stcenturies. We commission new works of sacred and secular music, taking seriously our patronage of the arts.
From our worship of God in the liturgy arises our service of his children in the world. During the worst times of the pandemic we offered free groceries and house-hold goods, hand delivered, to the elderly and vulnerable, to allow them to remain indoors . We offer welcome and counsel and will soon re-instate ‘a meal on us’ to those who know various kinds of hunger. Our six weekly twelve-step programs address the needs of those who suffer the unhealthy forces of addiction or dependence. Our professional counselling service, the Psychotherapy and Spirituality Institute, offers face to face counselling and the same virtually. Most distinctively, St John’s is a beautiful and inviting space where the artistic endeavors of Green Village’s diverse community can find expression and growth. St John’s fine acoustic makes the church an ideal space for concerts and recitals of sacred and other music. Most of these are presently ‘hybrid’, both in-person and also webcast. Home to the Greenwich Village Chamber Singers, The Lost Keys, Tapestry, the Strathmere Ensemble, and other ensembles, we present a series of high-quality concerts throughout the year. Our resident theater company, Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, adds drama and dance to our arts repertoire.
Tucked away behind our 11th Street and Waverly Place historic facades nests St Benedict’s Courtyard, a ‘hidden garden’ in the heart of the Village. Its peace and tranquility provide an oasis of calm in this busy part of the city. It can be accessed via Revelation Gallery (224 Waverly Place) and has the same regular opening hours: 11am to 3pm Monday through Thursday.
We hope you have the opportunity to visit St John’s in the Village
Fr Graeme
The Reverend Graeme Napier MA MPhil (Oxon), CAS (Nashotah), ARCM, KSJ
Rector
St John’s in the Village
