Ministries and Mission

Ministries arise naturally from the generous range of gifts among us. We offer a fine Church School for children and a senior high youth group; worship centered on biblical preaching; a spirited music program for children and adults; care for the sick, grieving and homebound among us. We eat, study and play together; offer hospitality to neighborhood groups and regularly engage in service to the community around us.

The Board of Deacons

Our deacons’ ministry is to offer hospitality and care for the congregation. This is what our deacons do: provide for greeting and ushering during worship. Provide for fellowship hour after church. Set the table with bread and wine (juice) for communion. Distribute sanctuary flowers after worship. Reach out to the sick, the lonely and those in distress. The Deacons’ Fund is a discretionary fund made up of donations from congregation members and friends, and used in situations of need and emergencies in the community.  The deacons also administer the Master Fund that provides financial help (“camperships”) to enable children and youth to attend the Presbyterian Camp at Holmes each summer. A representative of the Board of Deacons sits on the Worship, Mission and Congregational Life committees.

Mission and Outreach Opportunities

Through our Mission Committee, We have supported and continue to support projects beyond our city and beyond the Presbyterian Church. This support has taken the form of assisting churches needing funds to make their buildings accessible so that all may worship. Examples of our continued outreach include providing school supplies for Philadelphia preschoolers, helping provide services for refugees fleeing turmoil Africa through the good works of “Ya We None”.

Every Sunday, RPC members help alleviate hunger locally by bringing food for the
Kingsbridge-Riverdale-Marble Hill Food & Hunger Project that is located at the Church of the Mediator.

We actively support the Love Kitchen in the Inwood neighborhood of Manhattan and Bronx AIDS Service.

Presbyterian Senior Services. The RPC Mission Committee invites you to the Presbyterian Senior Services/Riverdale Presbyterian Church Family Picnic, Riverbank Park in Manhattan, August 21, 10-4. RSVP to Carolyn Fluckinger 914-525-7475, cfluckinger@gmail.com

Midnight Run. Vans of our youth and adults go into the streets of Manhattan to give food and clothing to the homeless poor. For more information, go to www.midnightrun.org or speak with Sixto Medina of our Mission Committee.

The Fuller Center for Housing of Greater NYC. The RPC Mission Committee is pleased to announce a partnership with the Fuller Center for Housing of Greater NYC that will be known as Second Saturday. On the second Saturday of each month, RPC youth and adults will meet in the RPC parking lot between 8:15 and 8:30 a.m.to drive to a work location in Yonkers (and eventually the Bronx, too). THERE IS NO AGE MINIMUM for participation in these volunteer days, which is very different from our work in Newburgh’s PresbyBuild program. Youth under age 16 can work in community gardens and/or paint benches and planters that the Fuller Center builds to be placed on the streets of Yonkers.

In addition to renovating and building homes for sale to the working poor, the Fuller Center also has a Home Repair component that assists working poor families repair homes they already own if they cannot afford the repairs.

Millard and Linda Fuller co-founded Habitat for Humanity and then split off to do the identical work amid ideological differences

The Riverdale Kingsbridge Marble Hill Food and Hunger Project is always in need of food staples for the those in need. The pantry is located at the Church of the Mediator, just down the hill from RPC. We collect food every Sunday in the shopping cart by the chancel. Our Presbyterian Men’s group organizes its delivery to the pantry. For more information, speak with Zaida Garcia.

Alternative Gifts Catalogue
At Christmas our members use our “Alternative Gifts Christmas Catalogue” to honor those they love by purchasing goods and services for those in need.

Youth Mission 
In spring of 2009, our youth participated in a mission trip to an inner city Washington, DC neighborhood. In past years, our youth have helped rebuild homes in post-Katrina New Orleans and rural Appalachia. This coming year’s mission trips are likely to be both closer to home and further away. We anticipate working in concert with an upstate NY Presbyterian church, working with Habitat for Humanity in Newburgh, NY, using the Presbyterian Camp at Holmes, NY as a base. We are planning hands-on work with the Women’s Housing & Economic Development Corp. in NYC. And we are looking into sending several of our young people to serve for a week with Bridges to Community’s outreach with the poor in Nicaragua