A Brief History of the Queens Federation of Churches

The Queens Federation of Churches is an ecumenical organization committed to ministry in the communities of Queens. The Federation reaches out to more than 700 Christian congregations in the Borough and is supported by more than 390 member and participating congregations representing every major Christian community – Adventist, Assemblies of God, Baptist, Christian Science, Congregational, Disciples, Episcopal, Lutheran, Methodist, Nazarene, Orthodox, Pentecostal, Presbyterian, Reformed, Roman Catholic, Salvation Army, Unitarian, United Church of Christ, and independent Christian congregations – as it seeks to deal with the society from the perspective of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. A voluntary Board of Directors governs the Federation; each member is elected to a three-year term by delegates from member congregations who meet in an annual Assembly.

The Federation was organized in 1931 during the Great Depression as an outreach of the Greater New York Federation of Churches (the predecessor of the Council of Churches of the City of New York) which had ministry in Manhattan and the Bronx. The Rev. William C. Bennett was named as the first Executive Secretary and he served for 30 years until his retirement in 1961. During the Depression years, food and clothing were collected to help needy persons. One service led to another and soon many ways were found for the churches to cooperate with each other. In the early years, the Federation’s total operating budget was $7,000 and the extensive efforts of concerned individuals raised this amount largely through personal appeals to friends and business associates. This method of financing the Federation continued for many years until the churches themselves began to appreciate the value of the organization. When membership became meaningful and important to the churches, they were willing to contribute to its financial support.

In 1941 the Federation opposed the enactment of a proposed city tax on church property. So effective was this opposition that the tax was never enacted and congregations have been the beneficiaries ever since.

Once having felt its strength to influence public action, the Federation gave leadership to the enactment of legislation creating the hour for Released Time Religious Education. Building on this involvement with religious education, the Federation began various Christian education programs among the churches such as leadership training, the establishment of a film strip loan library and meaningful observance each year of Anniversary Day.

From its beginning in 1931, the Federation shared office space with the Greater New York Federation of Churches in the Masonic Grand Lodge Building on West 23rd Street, Manhattan. In the mid-1940s the Federation moved its office to the Borough it serves. A home was purchased for $9,000 in Richmond Hill that became the office of the Federation and the living quarters of the executive director – dual uses that continue to the present.

In 1945, a weekend conference was held for laymen from the various churches who came together for fellowship, training and inspiration. These conferences continued for over three decades at locations outside Queens.

Another early effort in cooperative work was the organization of the Protestant Committee on Scouting that gave emphasis to the spiritual side of the Boy Scout program. This emphasis on youth soon led to other ways to serve the young people of the Borough.

With funding provided by the New York City Youth Board in the 1950s and 1960s, the Federation employed youth workers and opened centers in nine churches. This staff, supervised by a qualified social worker, served nearly 1,000 young people each week in various activities and programs. A part-time court worker was later added to the staff and the emphasis on service to youth continued.

Bill Bennett retired in 1961 and the Rev. Grant F. Anderson was named the Executive Director of the Federation. The spirit of ecumenism was evident and growing. More churches gave evidence of being willing to work together. The Federation undertook the responsibility to certify chaplains for employment in the city hospitals and correctional institutions located in Queens.

For three years, with funding provided by five denominations, the Federation conducted an experimental pastoral ministry to the residents of Rochdale Village, a large apartment complex built in Queens.

Church Women United was organized with seven local area units in Queens. Programming involved an annual Women’s retreat, a spring assembly for the women of the churches and many volunteer services in Federation programs.

Sensing the need of persons for counseling at the Family Court, the Federation opened the Protestant Counseling Services that continued for two decades with a volunteer staff of clergy. The Counseling Center for Human Development was organized jointly by the Federation and the Blanton-Peale Graduate Institutes for persons needing professional counseling. A cooperative church-based Blood Bank program was established.

In the mid 1970s, denominational pleas for international assistance inspired the Federation’s Board of Directors to feed the hungry. Upon investigation, the problem of hunger was clearly not a respecter of national boundaries – it was here in Queens as well. In 1976, the Emergency Food Service began distributing food to persons in crisis. It was one of the first “pantry” programs in New York City and it is still the only such program that targets an entire Borough on a daily basis.

The Federation’s second major leadership transition occurred at the end of 1977 with the retirement of Grant Anderson after 16 years of service. The Rev. N. J. L’Heureux, Jr., was called to be the Federation’s third Executive Director and he assumed these responsibilities in February 1978. An early initiative brought Roman Catholic and evangelical participation to what had been a “mainline” Protestant and Orthodox constituency of the Federation.

In partnership with Catholic Charities in 1983, the Federation organized the Queens Interfaith Hunger Network that now coordinates the work of more than 115 pantries and soup kitchens in Queens. Network pantries provide more than seven million meals annually.

Pastoral Care continues as a major emphasis of the Federation. The Campus Ministry at York College was opened in 1982, reaching out with counseling and a Christian witness to students, staff and faculty of this senior college of the City University system. The Federation partnered with six organizations representing different Faiths to create a new Interfaith Campus Ministry at LaGuardia Community College,. which we expect to be a model for other campuses. In cooperation with the Council of Churches of the City of New York, the Federation interviews and certifies clergy to serve as chaplains in Queens institutions of the Health and Hospitals Corporation, NYC Department of Corrections and NYC uniformed services.

The Federation regularly provides leadership training for clergy and lay leaders of local churches. Through a program of seminars and workshops, and direct consultation, we give assistance in areas of church management, professional growth, and skills development. Information resources sent regularly to all Christian clergy in the Borough provide the basis of an important network for church leaders. Recent seminars have focused on the foreclosure crisis, church management accounting, and tax exemption issues, among many others.

Beginning with the radical changes in the early 1980s in the handling of tax exempt status in New York State, the Federation again assumed the role of Church advocate and counselor for churches caught in a morass of government red tape. In 1987 and 1988, the City of New York took legal action, based on myriad errors by City agencies, that threatened the title to property owned by nearly 30% of all religious congregations. The Federation’s efforts resulted in the formation of a joint task force with the City’s Department of Finance to resolve this crisis and to amend the process by which exemptions are granted and monitored.

The Federation speaks for issues of religious liberty to protect the Church’s right to be free of entanglements of government interference and from the limitations which persons unsympathetic to religious ministry would impose. The Federation’s defense of religious liberty is not limited to institutional ministry concerns, but extends as well to advocacy for members of new or minority religious movements that they may be secure to practice their faith without negative sanction at the hands of government or individual detractors. The Federation has joined many amicus curiae briefs to the U.S. Supreme Court and other courts to emphasize the value of a robust support for religious liberty in the civil society. We have defended the right of churches to select and certify their own clergy and to protect churches from predatory zoning and landmarking regulations, among others.

Embracing the importance of celebrating leadership that builds up community, the Federation has expanded its program of recognitions. The Federation has established a number of different awards, beginning with the Shepherd Emblem (1979), Outstanding Leadership in Queens award (1982), the Grant F. Anderson Citation for Meritorious Ministry (1983), Citation for Faithful Service (1993), Interfaith Leadership Award (2000), and the John W. Jerome Lifetime Achievement Award (2010).

The outreach of our youth ministry expanded as the original Scouting Committee became more interfaith as the Ecumenical Committee on Scouting and Youth Ministry. The Committee works with adult leaders to assist scouts in earning their religious badges. In 1999, it established an annual interfaith Ten Commandments Hike drawing hundreds of youth to visit different houses of worship in Queens to hear a discussion of the Ten Commandments and learn about each denomination and Faith from its clergy.

On Easter Sunday 2000, the Federation began publication of The Nexus of Queens, a newspaper devoted to bringing readers news of people of faith locally and around the world. The newspaper, published every three weeks and delivered by mail, informed nearly 4,000 church leaders in Queens and ecumenical leaders across the nation. Local Queens churches were invited to receive copies for distribution after worship services and over 3,000 additional copies were distributed by 60 congregations. The size of the paper grew from 16 pages in the first issue to 24 pages after only one year of publication.

In 2002, the Federation’s website – www.QueensChurches.org – opened on the World Wide Web. In addition to a weekly edition of The Nexus of Queens and information about the Federation’s ministry and events, the website hosts a full Directory of Congregations in Queens including information of special ministries offered by each and the language and time of worship services.

In the new century, Federation Forum meetings focused on important needs and questions in our common life together. These have included “Our Immigrant Neighbors,” a look at national policy on immigration, a “Homeowners Awareness Forum” which examined issues of predatory lending and other scams to identify and avoid, a screening of the HBO movie Ghosts of Abu Ghraib, looking at the use of torture in the so-called Global War on Terror, and a forum on Religious Liberty in celebration of the 350th anniversary of the Flushing Remonstrance.

In May 2013, members of the Federation’s Board of Directors traveled to Turkey for an inter-cultural dialogue in a place holy to both Christians and Muslims. The trip was hosted by the Peace Islands Institute and the Turkish Cultural Center Queens.

The Clergy Identification Card which the Federation provides each year to over 1,200 Christian clergy serving in Queens assists their entrance to hospitals and other institutions where their ministry is needed.

Through it all, the Federation seeks to be a responsible agent for Ecumenical Ministry in Queens, bringing an emphasis on ministry to all persons of the household of God. To this end, the Queens Federation of Churches has provided leadership in reorganizing the Council of Churches of the City of New York (1987-91) and in bringing into being a new interfaith organization, the Commission of Religious Leaders in New York City (1999), involving the top leadership of long-term partners in many ventures: the Council of Churches of the City of New York, Islamic Leadership Council of New York City, New York Board of Rabbis, Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York, and Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn.