Four times a year, this publication tries to give you a small snapshot of all the many activities that go on in this church throughout the year. The most important event of this past quarter has certainly been the solemn installation of the Rev. Dr. Galen Guengerich as the tenth Senior Minister of this congregation. If you missed the special occasion, you can read an account of it in this issue. We are enriched by the fact that Dr. Church will continue to play a role in our midst even though he has gracefully passed the baton of office to his successor.

We are highlighting only a few other events in these pages. A program sponsored jointly by the Peace Task Force and the Women’s Alliance presented an extraordinary woman who survived the horrific conditions of human trafficking and lived to become active in the work to prevent this form of modern slavery that claims huge numbers of victims every year. An article about our Historical Society lets you look behind the scenes of our remarkable archives in the hope that all church members will become interested in our very long history. Some news about the upcoming all-church event called Fun Day, now in its early planning stages, and some information about the way we govern ourselves through our congregational meeting processes are just samples of everything that has been going on during our busy Fall season.

So much else should have been reviewed but could not fit into this issue: The book party honoring Forrest’s new book So Help Me God; The insightful Lifelines talk by the Rev. Paul B. Raushenbush about his great-grandfather, Social Gospel theologian Walter Rauschenbusch’s religious influence; The spirited Gospel concert presented to benefit the Booker T. Washington Learning Center, and a number of important presentations by the Peace Task Force. Unfortunately, only so much can be squeezed into sixteen pages.

—Marietta Moskin

In future issues of the Quarterly, we would like to highlight special achievements in the lives of our members: books, articles, awards, performances, etc. Please let us know about your recent achievements, creative or otherwise. Please contact Marietta Moskin at 212-289-7900 or by e–mail at m.moskin@verizon.net.

Contributors to this issue:
Lois Chazen
Phoebe Hoss
Marietta Moskin