On a quiet block across from the Cornwall-on-Hudson Elementary School and a few doors down from the old Storm King Engine 2 firehouse, the white clapboard church at 222 Hudson Street has welcomed generations of worshipers from the river village of Cornwall-on-Hudson and the surrounding Orange County hills. Cornwall Presbyterian Church - members call it CPC - gathers each Sunday morning around Word and Sacrament, and from that center its people fan out through the Hudson Valley with food, friendship, hammers, and quiet prayer.
Sunday Mornings at 10:00
Worship is the heartbeat of the congregation. Each Sunday at 10:00 a.m. the sanctuary fills for a service that follows the Reformed liturgical tradition of the Presbyterian Church (USA). On the first Sunday of every month the table is set for Holy Communion, and the children stay in the pews with their families to share the meal. Communion is also celebrated on World Communion Sunday in October and at the Cornwall Ecumenical Thanksgiving Service, which the chancel choir joins with singers from neighboring churches.
The service is livestreamed on the church's YouTube channel and shared on Facebook, where recordings of prior services are archived for anyone who cannot be present. During July, the congregation shifts to the air-conditioned Fellowship Hall downstairs for a more casual summer setting. Visitors are openly welcomed, and the church describes itself as an open and affirming community of Christians seeking to enliven the world.
What to expect on a first visit
The church office is open Tuesday and Friday afternoons from 1:00 to 2:00 p.m., and pastoral care is always available through the main number, (845) 534-2903. The building is wheelchair accessible. There is a small parking area behind the sanctuary, and street parking along Hudson Street is easy to find on Sunday mornings. People come as they are; dress ranges from jeans to Sunday best. Visitors are invited to introduce themselves to Pastor Jeff after worship, and prayer requests can be shared privately with him, with Marion Thomas, or with Jim Leiner.
Children, Youth, and the Village Nursery School
CPC takes seriously its vocation to form the next generation of disciples. After the Children's Message each Sunday, students in Kindergarten through seventh grade head downstairs to the Couser Room for Sunday School, where teachers work through the multi-age Feasting on the Word curriculum that parallels the lectionary heard in worship. On the first Sunday of each month the children remain upstairs to receive communion with their families. Childcare is available for children two and older throughout the service.
The Sunday School has its own tradition of mission giving. For more than twenty years the children have participated in Souper Bowl of Caring on Super Bowl Sunday, raising money for the Food Bank of the Hudson Valley. Recent offerings have topped $1,200 plus dozens of pantry items. For several years running, the children voted to direct their weekly offerings to Heifer International, supporting farming and entrepreneurship training around the world. Special seasonal events - the Christmas Pageant, Youth Sunday each June, a Narnia Night that retells C.S. Lewis's Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe with crafts and Turkish Delight - round out the church school calendar. A time capsule buried by a 1998 Sunday School class was opened in January, and the children read letters from their predecessors about what they hoped to become.
Confirmation Class is offered every other year for youth in eighth grade and older, meeting on Sunday mornings with denominational curriculum, Confirmation mentors, and service projects. Confirmands assist with the livestream, sing in the choir, design cards for the congregation and for Meals on Wheels recipients, and help lead worship on Youth Sunday.
The same building that hosts Sunday School also houses the Village Nursery School, a preschool directed by Amanda McCleary. The nursery school combines an early-childhood focus on nature and child development with an arts-based curriculum and serves families from across Orange County.
Handbells, Chancel Choir, and BachFest
Music has long been a signature of worship at CPC. Music Director and organist Dr. Ruthanne Schempf, who also teaches piano on the faculty of SUNY New Paltz and co-founded the Hudson Valley Society for Music, leads two ensembles that rehearse most Thursday evenings from September through June.
The Rejoice and Ring handbell choir rehearses first and aims to perform roughly once a month - with the Christmas Eve, Easter, and BachFest services as anchor dates. New ringers are always welcome to substitute; the only requirement is a healthy sense of humor. The Chancel Choir follows immediately, singing a four-part SATB repertoire of favorite hymns and recent anthems. The choirs combine with singers from other Cornwall congregations for the annual Ecumenical Thanksgiving Service, and in the summer they are joined by guest musicians for the Hudson Valley BachFest, a project of the Hudson Valley Society for Music that Schempf helped create.
On the Fourth of July the musicians of CPC set up folding chairs on the front lawn and play favorites for neighbors gathered to watch the parade. Visitors and prospective choir members can reach the music director at musicdirector@cornwallpresbyterian.org.
Adults in Formation
The Adult Formation program is built around three regular rhythms and one contemplative gathering.
- Lunch Bunch meets at 12:30 p.m. on Wednesdays in the Couser Room and on Zoom, gathering for snacks, fellowship, and conversation.
- Monthly Bible Study meets on Monday evenings at 7:00 p.m. on Zoom. Pastor Jeff introduces a passage - often from the Acts of the Apostles - and participants take turns reading aloud, then share questions and reflections.
- Book Group meets after worship to discuss works of fiction and non-fiction. Recent reads have included Elizabeth George Speare's Newbery-winning The Bronze Bow; copies are typically available free at the back of the sanctuary.
- Immanuel - God with Us meets on the first Wednesday of each month via Zoom for a quiet hour of contemplative prayer.
Congregants also share a Black History Month reading list each February, gathering after worship to talk about books that have shaped their understanding of race, faith, and American history - from Michelle Alexander's The New Jim Crow to Isabel Wilkerson's Caste to Howard Thurman's Jesus and the Disinherited.
Mission Beyond the Walls: Newburgh, Backpacks, and the Rural and Migrant Ministry
If worship is the heart of CPC, mission is its outstretched hand. The congregation maintains deep, decades-long relationships with several Hudson Valley partners.
Newburgh Ministry
Twice a month, mission member Rick Hoff leads a team of volunteers who deliver basic food items to Newburgh Ministry, a multicultural, grassroots organization that grew from the work of five Catholic sisters who began listening to neighbors in 1983 after the city's race riots. In the cold months, CPC holds a winter coat drive of new or gently used coats for the shelter.
Backpacks for Food
Backpacks for Food (BFF) is the church's signature community-based mission: a weekend food program for children in need in area schools. Volunteers shop, pack, and deliver food each week during the school year, and the church provides office space, volunteers, and a steady stream of donations. BFF operates with its own volunteer leadership and a separate email address at cornwallbff@aol.com.
Rural and Migrant Ministry
When Rural and Migrant Ministry - a statewide nonprofit that has stood with rural and migrant communities across New York since 1981 - relocated its administrative offices, youth programs, and summer camps to The Grail on Duncan Avenue in Cornwall-on-Hudson, CPC's long relationship with the organization moved into a new phase. The Session, the Mission Committee, and a newly formed RMM Partnership Team are exploring what a deeper, shared ministry might look like, under the heading of "transformational hospitality." A visioning team continues to invite new volunteers into the work.
Habitat for Humanity and PresbyBuild
For more than twenty years, CPC has contributed to PresbyBuild, a partnership between Hudson River Presbytery and Habitat for Humanity of Greater Newburgh that brings Presbyterian volunteers together to build and rehabilitate homes in the city. The congregation has formed Walk for Housing teams and directed proceeds from the annual Lasagna Dinner to Habitat Newburgh.
Loaves & Fishes and the Thanksgiving Basket Drive
Each November, CPC joins the Loaves & Fishes program coordinated by Newburgh Ministry, which provides more than 650 Thanksgiving baskets a year to families in need. Congregants donate non-perishable items, and every $50 covers a full holiday meal for a family. Additional mission partners include the Hudson Valley Food Bank, Presbyterian Disaster Assistance and Cents-Ability (through the Presbyterian Church USA), Northeast Gateway to Freedom, Calvary Presbyterian Church in Newburgh, and a Coins for Cents and Cents-Ability collection that gathers spare change for local hunger relief.
A Year Shaped by the Season of Creation, the Apple Time Fair, and a Blessing of the Animals
The liturgical year at Cornwall Presbyterian is marked by seasonal touchstones that draw neighbors in from the wider community. Each September the church observes the ecumenical Season of Creation, with the four Sundays of September and the first Sunday of October devoted to readings, prayers, and outdoor worship focused on the earth. On River Sunday the congregation has met at Donahue Memorial Park beside the Hudson River, weather permitting, to sing of water and creation. When the weather does not cooperate, the service moves indoors but keeps the theme.
The annual Apple Time Fair fills the lawn and the Fellowship Hall on a Saturday in mid-October with pies, crafts, a cookbook sale, lunch on the lawn, and children's activities. Pie orders are placed weeks in advance, and proceeds support the church's ministries. The same weekend often brings the Blessing of the Animals, when cats in travel cases, dogs, birds, reptiles, chinchillas, and chickens are welcomed into the sanctuary for a joyful cacophony of praise - photographs are accepted for those who cannot attend in person. The annual Lasagna Dinner in late winter or early spring brings the community into the Fellowship Hall for homemade lasagna, salad, and dessert, with gluten-free options and take-out available; recent proceeds have benefited Habitat for Humanity of Greater Newburgh.
Throughout the year, congregational life includes a Transfiguration Sunday hike into the Hudson Highlands, a Fourth of July concert on the lawn, a Black History Month reading list, a Narnia Night for families, and Palm Sunday instructions for folding a palm cross at home.
Governed by Elders: Session and Pastoral Leadership
Like every Presbyterian congregation, CPC is governed by elders elected to the Session. The Greek word presbuteros - elder - is the root of "Presbyterian," and at CPC the Session organizes itself through committees for Worship, Christian Formation, Finance, Property, and the Village Nursery School. Elders serve three-year terms and are arranged by Class of 2027, 2028, and 2029. The pastor serves as Moderator and Lori Ransom as Clerk of Session.
Pastor Jeff - the Reverend Jeffrey A. Geary - was ordained in 1996 to serve the historic Setauket Presbyterian Church on Long Island and previously pastored White Plains Presbyterian Church for twelve years. A Princeton Theological Seminary graduate with certificates in trauma healing, adolescent studies, drug and alcohol counseling, and climate science, Jeff pursued doctoral studies in medieval history at SUNY Stony Brook and has carried his ministry for justice for earth and its peoples to Cuba, Central America, Israel and Palestine, and the 2016 gathering of clergy at Standing Rock. In 2021 his sabbatical walk of 700 miles on the Potawatomi Trail of Death explored the intersection of colonialism, racism, indigenous rights, and reparations. He has served four times as a commissioner to the General Assembly of the PC(USA) and is the historian for the Hudson River Presbytery's Racial Justice Partnership. He is married to the Reverend Noelle Damico.
Music Director Dr. Ruthanne Schempf brings a doctorate from the Manhattan School of Music, undergraduate degrees from Michigan State University, and a solo piano recording, An American Mirage: Exotic Piano Images, to her work at CPC. Robin Hastey serves as bookkeeper, administrative assistant, and web manager. Eli Barry, a Cornwall Central High School student, serves as the church's videographer for the livestream.
How to Get Involved
The congregation welcomes anyone who wants to be part of its life, whether as a member or as a "friend" of the church. Membership in the Presbyterian Church (USA) requires only a public profession of faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior or a letter of transfer from another Christian congregation. Periodically the church hosts a "Welcome" gathering for those interested in learning more.
There are many ways to serve on Sunday mornings - as an usher, lay reader, communion preparer, or Sunday School helper - and during the week through the Prayer Team, Sunshine Team, Care Tree, or Prayer Shawl Ministry. The Mission Committee welcomes new volunteers for Backpacks for Food deliveries, Newburgh Ministry food drives, the Rural and Migrant Ministry partnership, and Habitat for Humanity build days. A simple online interest form collects names and contact information for any of these opportunities. The church's weekly email announcements keep everyone posted on upcoming events, and giving is available through online banking, the church's online giving platform, or by mail to 222 Hudson Street, Cornwall-on-Hudson, NY 12520.
Members of the wider Cornwall-on-Hudson community - and anyone who finds themselves driving past the white church on Hudson Street between West Point and the river - will recognize Cornwall Presbyterian by its open doors, its choir, and the steady traffic of volunteers carrying groceries, hammers, and hope out into the Hudson Valley.