In the Beginning Our history goes way back before history was written. It goes even before Time, since God created "time" along with everything else that exists! But our tradition holds that even before the universe came into being, God knew who each of us would be, and destined us to live in a relationship of love with Him.
   
Circa 1400 B.C. When Moses went to the Egyptian Pharoah and said "Let my people go" he was speaking for God! God chose the children of Israel in a special way, so that they came to see God's love for them revealed in their own story, and we see God's love for all humanity revealed in the same story even to this day.
   
Did you know?....The word "church" comes from the Greek word kyrios, meaning "Lord." Church people are "the Lord's."(The Spanish word for church, iglesia, is from the original Greek word for a church, ekklesia, meaning "those who are called out" from the world.
   
Circa 6-35 A.D. The story of Israel becomes focused like a laser in the story of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazereth. Christian belief sees God revealed so clearly in Jesus Christ that he is proclaimed to be one with God and the Creator and with God as he is present in human hearts as the holy spirit. It is this belief in Christ that brings into being what we call "The Church".
   
Catholic adj. Universal. We do not recognize the authority of the Pope in Rome, but we are part of the "Holy Catholic Church" as we say in the Apostles' Creed.
   
35 A.D. On a day called Pentacost, God sent his Spirit into the hearts of Jesus' disciples in a way that transformed them. They went from being tongue-tied, clumsy peasants to become eloquent, persuasive peasants. What they said under the Spirit's influence changed the course of civilization. With them began the history of the church with its various branches. One of the main branches became known as the Roman Catholic church
   
Protestant adj. Well, protesting. Protesting such things in the 1500's as the sale of "indulgences", a kind of "get-out-of-jail card" to spring a loved one out of purgatory. Luther couldn't find such a thing in his Bible.
   
1517 A.D. Corruption and complacency collided with new social structures and wider learning in the Renaissance world. Martin Luther said that if the Catholic Church's tradition ran counter to what any educated person could read for themselves in the Bible printed on Gutenberg's press, then the scripture alone should rule. Luther tried to bring Rome around to his way of thinking. When Rome wouldn't budge, Luther's teaching had the unexpected result of creating the Protestant church.
   

Reformed adj. Formed again, re-started. Calvin used the Bible to try to bring the Church back to its original form. See Home Page. Not to be confused with Reform School.
   
1536 A.D. Another Protestant reformer, a Frenchman named John Calvin,
published his theological beliefs and headed a kind of social experiment centered in Geneva, Switzerland. His Church had its fingers in everything....but in a good way(!?!). Anyway, a lot of folks liked it because Calvin's REFORMED churches spread through the world to become the largest single branch of Protestantism. In Scotland the Calvinists were called Presbyterians, in England, Congregationalists. When the movement reached the Netherlands, its adherents were simply called Reformed.
   
1576-1609 A.D. The Netherlands won their independence in a long struggle with Spain. Their victory assured that the Reformed faith could continue to be practiced.
   
1628 A.D. Dominie Jonas Michaelius celebrates Holy Communion and organizes our first American congregation, in a loft above a mill in Manhattan.
   
1694 A.D. Dutch farmers in the valley of the Hackensack River form the Tappan Reformed Church, out of which our church was born
   
1839 A.D. Eleazer Lord, entrepreneur and Reformed Church elder, is the key mover in bringing a Reformed church to Piermont, which he had made the eastern terminus of the Erie Railroad. The first minister is Dr. Cornelius C. Vermeule.
   
1944 A.D. The church building erected in 1853 burned to the ground. With support from the community, and the leadership of the Rev. Dr. William V. Berg (served 1931-1957), the congregation came through this "trial by fire" with increased faith in God. A plaque in our sanctuary memorializes Dr. Berg's first sermon after the fire, on the text: "Speak to the children of Israel, that they go forward." The new building was completed in 1946.
   
1988 A.D. Our 24th and current pastor, the Rev. John Vanden Oever, took the pulpit on the first Sunday in December.
   
 

 

 

 
 
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