Grant F. Anderson Citation for Meritorious Ministry
2009 Honoree of the Queens Federation of Churches

The Reverend Dr. Noel D. Vanek

Rev. Dr. Noel Dean Vanek serves as pastor of The Church in the Gardens, a 300 member community church affiliated with the National Association of Congregational Christian Churches and the Metropolitan Association, United Church of Christ, since his call there in early 1992. The highlight of his interfaith work came in 2000, when the Forest Hills Interfaith Clergy worked with The Church in the Gardens to fund-raise for the building of a Habitat for Humanity house in Jamaica, Queens. This interfaith coalition raised over $57,000 for the Habitat project. A second very successful interfaith activity of the church has been the Summer Food Drive, which involves four to eight religious organizations each summer in a week-long intensive food solicitation of both members and community, to re-stock the Queens Federation food pantry when it is at its lowest level.

Rev. Vanek serves as co-chair of the Forest Hills Interfaith Clergy along with Rabbi Mayer Perelmuter (Reform Temple of Forest Hills), which designs and produces a very successful Thanksgiving Service every November. The Interfaith Clergy group also creates and sponsors occasional educational discussion seminars which have spanned the gamut of topics: the death penalty, immigration, stewardship, and even interfaith Bible studies. Rev. Vanek spent ten years on the Board of Directors of the Queens Community House, chairing that board for four years. Other community involvements include work with Scout Troop #96, active participation in the church’s own Community House recreation center, and with children and parents from the church’s Nursery School and Universal Pre-K program.

While serving his first church, the Olive Congregational Church in Olivet, Michigan, he worked with the school district adult education director to co-found a not-for-profit community emergency fund called the Olivet Good Neighbor Program, which helped meet the emergency food needs.