Delmar Presbyterian Church stands at the corner of Delaware Avenue and Cherry Avenue in Delmar, a hamlet in the town of Bethlehem just south of Albany. Organized on November 18, 1956 with 76 charter members, it began as a mission church of the Presbytery of Albany, planted to serve the rapidly expanding suburban community of Delmar. The block on which the building sits was purchased with gifts from the churches of the Presbytery, a fitting origin for a congregation that has spent the seven decades since then devoted to reaching out in service to the Bethlehem community, the Capital District, and partners across the country and around the world.
A Congregation Defined by Mission
The church's mission statement is to be a congregation, growing in faith and living out the two Great Commandments: to love God with heart, soul, mind and strength, and to love neighbor as self, energized by God's love. The core values that flow from that statement are equally outward-facing: open hearts and doors to all people, devotion of resources to helping neighbors near and far, education that makes the teachings of Jesus relevant, celebration of personal gifts, and worship that deepens relationship with God.
Delmar Presbyterian is part of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), commonly called PC(USA), and a member of Albany Presbytery, which sits within the Synod of the Northeast. The congregation is also a Matthew 25 church, which means it has formally committed itself to engaging social, economic, and environmental justice as central acts of discipleship. The Matthew 25 invitation centers on Jesus' parable of the sheep and goats in Matthew 25:31-46, and the congregation takes seriously the call to serve the most vulnerable in rural and urban communities alike.
Sunday Mornings at 10 a.m.
Worship begins at 10 a.m. in the Sanctuary, with a Children's Church School and an adult class called Connections meeting first at 9 a.m. in the Fellowship Hall and library. The Connections class looks at the lectionary passages of the day over coffee and conversation, preparing participants to enter worship with a deeper understanding of the texts they will hear.
Communion is celebrated on the first Sunday of each month, served with gluten-free bread and juice. The church is fully accessible with no steps required to enter or move around inside, and ample parking is available on both sides of the building, with entrances off Cherry Avenue, Delaware Avenue, and Custer Road. A nursery with an audio feed to the sanctuary is available for families with young children, and visitors are invited to come as they are, with no expectation around dress. The service is also livestreamed.
Music Ministry: Pipe Organ, Piano, and Handbells
Music is a longstanding strength of the congregation. The Chancel Choir rehearses each Sunday at 9:15 a.m. in the Sanctuary, and new singers are always welcome. The Bells of Praise handbell choir rehearses each Thursday at 3:15 p.m., and new ringers are welcome as well. Sunday worship features traditional hymns led on the Rosenberry pipe organ alongside more contemporary hymns played on the Baldwin grand piano, with special music, including instrumental and vocal solos, bluegrass and folk groups, offered frequently as part of the service.
Julia Omelko has served as Music Director since September 2025. She came to Delmar Presbyterian from Clinton United Methodist Church, holds a bachelor's degree in Communication and Information Design from SUNY Polytechnic Institute in Utica, and studied at the Eastman School of Music. She continues to work as a music teacher alongside her role at the church.
Faith Formation for Every Age
The Christian Education program, known as Faith Formation, is structured to nurture the minds and hearts of the congregation with faith and spiritual development at every stage of life. The Children's Program covers kindergarten through twelfth grade and meets on Sunday mornings, while the congregation's library is being updated with current books and magazines for use by members.
Youth ministry is split by age. Middle schoolers generally meet on the second and fourth Sunday afternoons of each month for learning, food, and fun. Senior high students meet once a month for a service project of one kind or another: making meals, running shopping challenges for local food pantries, or helping the gardeners at the Regional Food Bank farm nearby. Youth fellowship extends beyond the congregation itself: Delmar Presbyterian joins with neighboring Reformed and Methodist churches, which means there are always more young people and more energy at gatherings.
For adults, a Bible study meets each Monday morning at 10 a.m. via Zoom, and a men's group gathers biweekly on Friday mornings during the school year for breakfast, fellowship, and book discussion before work. Throughout the year, additional Bible studies, book studies, and conversations on how faith intersects with the wider world are offered.
Earth Care and Creation Care
In 2020 Delmar Presbyterian became a certified Earth Care Congregation through the PC(USA), and the Earth Care Task Force now leads the community in ethical and moral ways to care for all of God's creation. In November 2020 the task force created a church resolution followed by a petition asking the State to consider moral and social reasons rather than financial ones when weighing discount rates on carbon emissions. In 2021 and 2022 the Church School incorporated extensive modules on creation, and in 2021 the children led an initiative to reduce the church's use of plastics by forming teams and collecting ideas. The congregation has also hosted a Climate Change Challenge event.
Earth Care work spills outward into the neighborhood. Phoebe's Walk, organized by a young member of the Church School, sends groups out from the church to pick up litter around the surrounding streets. A Saturday walk held ahead of Earth Day 2026 saw teams collect roughly a thousand cigarette butts along with bottles, cans, bags, and more unusual finds, including a slate roofing sample, a rusted aerosol can, a plastic bat, and a tire, turning a simple cleanup into a lesson on single-use plastics and microplastic pollution. The church also participates in Phoebe's Walk events at other points of the year.
Local and Global Outreach
Outreach at Delmar Presbyterian aims to feed, house, support, and advocate. The congregation partners with a wide range of organizations in the Capital District and beyond. Family Promise works with families experiencing housing instability. Unity House and Troy Area United Ministries serve people in need in nearby communities. Parsons Child & Family Center supports children and families. The Interfaith Partnership brings congregations together on shared concerns, and the Bethlehem Community Fund supports neighbors in the surrounding town. Rise Against Hunger mobilizes meal-packaging events, and Presbyterian Disaster Assistance responds to emergencies at home and abroad.
Internationally, the congregation is part of Albany Presbytery's long-standing partnership with the Mam Presbytery in Guatemala, more than thirty years of shared faith and friendship with La Iglesia Presbiteriana El Verbo Divino in San Martin Sacatepequez. The relationship is also tied to PAZAPA in Haiti. Closer to home, the congregation participates year after year in the John U. Miller Memorial CROP Hunger Walk, sponsored by Church World Service. Twenty-five percent of the funds raised locally stay in the Capital District to combat food insecurity; the remainder supports long-term development work in places like Paraguay, Honduras, Cambodia, Moldova, and beyond.
Church Governance
The church is governed by a board called the Session, composed of Ruling Elders elected by the congregation with the Teaching Elder (or pastor) as its moderator. The Session has oversight of all the work and resources of the church and organizes its work through five ministry teams. A Board of Deacons reports to Session through the Care Ministry team and carries a ministry of caring for people both within and beyond the community of faith.
Pastoral Leadership
Rev. Matt McGraw currently serves as Pastor of Delmar Presbyterian Church. The congregation is grateful for the two years of ministry recently completed by Rev. Ken Applegate, whose Pastor's Notes through 2026 reflected on community, peacemaking, and walking faith together. The church office is staffed Tuesday through Friday from 9 a.m. to noon, and messages sent to the office email are answered during those hours.
A Building Being Refreshed
The church has been undertaking a building refurbishment campaign under the banner "Let Us Build a House." With a target of $150,000, the congregation pledged roughly $187,000 and brought $60,000 into hand early in the campaign. Work has already begun on new shades, boilers, a water fountain, and outdoor lighting, with more improvements to come. The effort reflects the same spirit that founded the church in 1956: a community investing in its building so that it can continue to serve Delmar and the wider world for years to come.