A free Christian, womanist worship service centered on love, justice, peace, and disruption of the status quo that is open to all.

On Friday, September 29th The Riverside Church will welcome the Beyoncé Mass back to New York City. The worship service uses the music and life of Beyoncé as a tool to cultivate an empowering conversation about Black women—their lives, bodies, and voices—and create an experience of story, scripture, and song that calls for the liberation of all people. Beyoncé Mass will begin at 7:00pm.

The womanist ethic that undergirds the mass will explore the ways that communities find strength, joy, and ingenuity in spite of the obstacles in society. The mass focuses on how marginalized communities, especially Black women, are a manifestation of God’s love in the world.

Created and curated by Yolanda Norton, Visiting Professor at Wesley Theological Seminary and founder of the Global Arts and Theology Experience (GATE), the inaugural Beyoncé Mass drew roughly 1,000 people at its inaugural event at San Francisco’s historic Grace Cathedral in April 2018. Since then, the worship service has traveled to Los Angeles, Calif, Lisbon, Portugal, the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., etc.

The October selection for Books that Bind is:

The Book Eaters by Sunyi Dean

Meeting Date: TBD

The meeting will be a hybrid meeting.

About the Book:

Out on the Yorkshire Moors lives a secret line of people for whom books are food, and who retain all of a book’s content after eating it. To them, spy novels are a peppery snack; romance novels are sweet and delicious. Eating a map can help them remember destinations, and children, when they misbehave, are forced to eat dry, musty pages from dictionaries.

Learn more about The Ruth Stafford Peale Library by clicking here.

Books that Bind Building Bonds through books and conversation. Our club reads a wide range of authors and genres. Books that Bind is the official Book Club of the Interchurch Center located in the Morningside/ Harlem area of New York City, NY. The club was established in 2011 to build bonds and friendship through a shared love of books among the various tenants of the building and neighbored. Due to the Pandemic the Club is currently meeting on Zoom until further notice.

New members are always welcome! Click here to join the club.

Free E-Books!

OverDrive for the use of e-books is now available at interchurchcenter.overdrive.com. You can download books to your phone and other devices through the Libby option, Kindle, or Kindle app. For more information, please contact Tracey Del Duca via phone at 212.870.3804 or email at tdelduca@interchurch-center.org.

Campaign Code for Mobile Card: interchurchspring22

Maxim Anikushin, solo piano

Wednesday Noonday Concerts
October 4, 2023
Maxim Anikushin, solo piano

Maxim Anikushin, Russian pianist, started studying piano at the age of five and entered the local music school at the age of six where he studied with L.A. Andreyeva.  In 1987, at the age of 11, he entered the music school of the Music College of the Moscow Conservatory.  Here he studied with Y.I. Batuyev.  Maxim immigrated with his family to the USA in 1991 and entered the San Francisco Conservatory where he studied with Milton Salkind.  In 1992 he was accepted on full scholarship to the Juilliard School of Music, studying under Oxana Yablonskaya, and received his Bachelor’s (1996) and Master’s (1998) degrees. He has won prizes in several international piano competitions. In 1993, he won the first prize in
the Long Island’s “Five Towns Competition”.  In 1995, he was awarded third prize in both the International Senigallia Piano Competition in Italy and the third prize in the International Prokofiev Competition in St. Petersburg, Russia.  In 1996, he won the second prize in the International Vincenzo Bellini Competition in Caltanissetta, Sicily and in 1998 he received a Diploma in the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow.  The same year he was awarded the Artist International Auditions and gave his New York recital debut on May 9, 1999 in the Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall. Maxim Anikushin has already performed with a number of renowned international orchestras and conductors in America, Russia and France including Yuri Bashmet with Moscow Soloists and Dmitry Yablonsky with the Moscow Symphony Orchestra.  Maxim regularly participates in international master classes.

Bret Williams, solo guitar

“The Music of Bret Williams has it all: fantastic playing, great recording quality, and compositions that will please classical, jazz, and general listeners alike.” –ThisIsClassicalGuitar.com. Classical Guitar Magazine profiled his work as “alluring” and “accomplished.” Tony Morris of NPR’s Classical Guitar Alive! praised his music for it’s “energetic, warm and polished sound.” Soundboard Magazine credits him with “wonderful precision.”

Books that Bind

A Dickens Christmas Tea Party

Be the first to sign up

Learn more about The Ruth Stafford Peale Library by clicking here.

Books that Bind Building Bonds through books and conversation. Our club reads a wide range of authors and genres. Books that Bind is the official Book Club of the Interchurch Center located in the Morningside/ Harlem area of New York City, NY. The club was established in 2011 to build bonds and friendship through a shared love of books among the various tenants of the building and neighbored. Due to the Pandemic the Club is currently meeting on Zoom until further notice.

New members are always welcome! Click here to join the club.

Free E-Books!

OverDrive for the use of e-books is now available at interchurchcenter.overdrive.com. You can download books to your phone and other devices through the Libby option, Kindle, or Kindle app. For more information, please contact Tracey Del Duca via phone at 212.870.3804 or email at tdelduca@interchurch-center.org.

Campaign Code for Mobile Card: interchurchspring22

The Gospel Choir offers a range of styles spanning both traditional and contemporary Gospel music.

Calling All Vocalists

Become an Interchurch Center Gospel Choir Member!

If you have a spirit of praise and a song in your heart, The Interchurch Center Gospel Choir is looking for you.

The Gospel Choir offers a range of styles spanning both traditional and contemporary Gospel Music. Although sight-reading skills are not necessary, some choral experience is desirable, given that the rehearsals are relatively short.

Rehearsals are on Tuedays from 12PM to 1PM. All rehearsals and most performances are at the Interchurch Center Chapel. For more information contact rrivera@interchurch-center.org.

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Join us for the 2024 Week of Prayer for Christian Unity

By Fr. James Loughran, SA, Director of Graymoor Ecumenical & Interreligious Institute

Graymoor Ecumenical & Interreligious Institute is pleased to announce the international scriptural theme for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, January 18 – 25, 2024: “You shall love the Lord your God… and your neighbor as yourself.” (Luke 10:27)

This year’s theme comes through the combined efforts of the Pontifical Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity, the World Council of Churches and the Christian churches of Burkina Faso. Much of the coordination of this ecumenical project was done by the community of Chemin Neuf, a French Catholic and ecumenical community of vowed and lay people, particularly through their local community in Burkina Faso, a country in the Sahel region of West Africa.

Luke 10:25-37 tells the story of how Jesus is asked by a lawyer, “What must I do to inherit everlasting life?” and Jesus responds, “What is written in the law? What do you read there?” The lawyer responds, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.” Then Jesus says to him, “You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live.” But then in order to justify himself, the lawyer says, “And who is my neighbor?” which leads Jesus to tell the parable of the Good Samaritan.

It is a theme rich in charity, mercy, justice and unity. We hope it will facilitate powerful ecumenical prayer and homilies in the 2024 commemoration of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. Hard copy and online materials for the USA Week of Prayer for Christian Unity will be available at www.geii.org beginning in October 2023.

Hsin-I Huang, Solo piano

About

Taiwanese pianist Hsin-I Huang captivates his audiences with his virtuoso performances, in which he exhibits masterful playing and profound musical sensitivity. His impressive range has attracted much praise, and his illustrious career has earned him many awards. As a soloist and chamber musician, Mr. Huang has performed throughout Asia, Europe, and the United States and continues to hold recitals around the world.

Ralph Vaughan Williams, piano quintet

MUSIC ON WEDNESDAYS

From mid-September through May, The Interchurch Center sponsors a series of programs by professional artists from the New York metropolitan area and beyond. Programs range from string quartets to woodwind ensembles, traditional African folk music to Celtic songs and dances, medieval to jazz, vocal soloists to choirs, and emerging artists to established professionals. Director of Chapel Music Christopher Johnson arranges a broad spectrum of quality programming that is designed to appeal to the widest possible audience. The programs, which last one half hour, take place during the lunch hour beginning at 12:05PM. While the primary purpose of the series is to provide a cultural respite for the Tenants of The Interchurch Center in the midst of the workweek, all are welcome.