Holyrood Church: Restoration and Renaissance in Washington Heights

On a recent Sunday afternoon the Holyrood Episcopal Church on 179th Street and Fort Washington Avenue bustled with activity. Members lingering after the Spanish language mass, the second service of the day, dotted the aisles and pews discussing work weeks and congregation issues. Young children ran about playfully, weaving hide-and-seek fashion amongst adults as a parishioner led me through the sunlit vaulted main room to a back office.

Peeking into the kitchen I glimpsed a group of well-dressed adults sharing comfortable conversation and refreshments around a long family-style table.

In the hallway we bumped into singers from the Cornerstone Chorale just arriving for their winter concert performance later that day. The acoustics are great for musicians and singers. Someone informed me that Mariah Carey shot a video here once. The choir’s rehearsal songs were rousing soundtrack for the remainder of my short visit.

But though Holyrood appeared a vibrant Northern Manhattan community hub at first glance, The Reverend Martha Anderson, the priest in charge of the congregation for over five years, shared that the church had experienced fluctuating stages of expansion and shrinkage throughout its long history and was now at an all time low point.

A bilingual church for over forty years, Anderson emphasizes that the congregation works as a unified entity. “Even though we do services in Spanish and English, our governing body, the vestry, is intentionally made up of members representing both groups,” she says.

And while boasting a modest 250 individual members, a lean 20 to 30 of them attend the Sunday morning English language mass and another 20 to 50 attend the Spanish language mass.

“It’s just a matter of waiting it out,” Anderson offers as explanation for the church’s current low attendance. She believes the numbers reflect a crisis that the larger Episcopal Church and other more liberal protestant Christian denominations are experiencing nationally.

Stained Glass Window in Holyrood Episcopal Church, Washington Heights, New York City

Credit: Cori Morenberg

Copyright: Cori Morenberg