At 27 Albany Street in the heart of the village of Cazenovia, New York, First Presbyterian Church of Cazenovia has a history reaching back to 1799 and a church life shaped by worship, music, Christian education, and practical service. The congregation's motto, “All Are Welcome,” captures a church that seeks to hold open its sanctuary and its other rooms. Sunday worship begins at 10:00 a.m.; families stay together at first, children hear a story, and the congregation offers both Sunday School and fully staffed nursery care. Beyond Sunday morning, the Meeting House hosts classes, recovery meetings, and youth activities, while mission partners help carry the church's concern for people beyond its membership. It is known for more than two centuries of Presbyterian life and for joining a strong tradition to hospitality, music, education, and service.
Two Centuries and a Quarter in the Village
Founded in 1799, First Presbyterian Church of Cazenovia has marked 225 years of congregational life in the village. The church describes itself as “a community of faith in the heart of the village, with the village in its heart.” That phrase captures the way it joins an inherited Presbyterian identity to an active role in village life. Inspired by its history, the congregation embraces the future with confidence in God's purposes and seeks to share God's grace through worship and preaching, fellowship and education, service, and mission.
At 27 Albany Street, the congregation's spaces reveal how many kinds of gathering happen under one roof. The sanctuary centers worship around the pulpit, organ, choir, and communion table. The narthex welcomes people arriving from Albany Street and serves as a transition into worship. The Wendell House provides classroom and nursery space for children. Across the property, the Meeting House offers a large, wheelchair-accessible room for classes, meetings, and community activities, while the library, board room, and adjoining fellowship areas support teaching, discussion, and shared meals. The result is a church campus organized not only for Sunday morning, but also for education, fellowship, service, and conversation throughout the week.
The church's welcome is not confined to one service or one generation. Its mission calls for open hearts, open minds, and open doors, and it explicitly seeks to welcome people of all races, nationalities, ages, and orientations. That welcome is presented as an active practice rather than simply a statement: families share the opening of worship, the choir and organ lead sung praise, children are taught in their own groups, and neighbors are invited to use the building for recovery meetings, classes, music, and service.
Sunday Worship at Ten
Sunday worship runs from 10:00 to 11:00 a.m. and combines Scripture, preaching, congregational participation, and substantial musical leadership. Children remain with their families for the opening of worship and hear a children's story before moving to their Sunday School classes. The service includes the corporate recitation of the Apostles' Creed before the Scripture readings, followed by a children's sermon and the main sermon. Music is woven throughout the gathering through the organ, Senior Choir, and Bell Choir, with Youth Music also part of the church's broader music program.
Pastor Anna C. Gheen describes her weekly sermon preparation as an eight-to-ten-page research paper, a detail that reflects the congregation's expectation of serious preaching without separating it from pastoral concern. Her teaching connects biblical interpretation with questions of everyday life: neighbor love, honesty about human limitations, disagreement, reconciliation, the dignity of every person, and the responsibility of faith to produce service. The church's preaching tradition does not treat doctrine and life as opposites. Its stated aim is to share God's grace through both preaching and the work that follows preaching.
The communion table is a strong visual expression of that teaching. Gheen says the church proclaims Christ's body broken and blood shed for the reconciliation and redemption of the world each time the congregation gathers at the table. The table also symbolizes a decision about hospitality: “God's table is a place where all are welcome.” For a congregation that names openness, mutual acceptance, and respect as central values, the table is not a decorative feature but part of the mission itself.
Worship can also be joined through the church's YouTube channel, which carries the live service and an archive of past worship. For people unable to be in the sanctuary, the church's music, preaching, and communal participation remain available online.
Learning From the Story to the Shorter Catechism
Sunday School is available for children starting at age four. Young worshippers first sit with their families for the opening of the service and hear a children's story, then go to the Wendell House for study in multi-age groups. The nursery welcomes babies and young children in the same building and is fully staffed during the church service. This arrangement lets a family begin worship together before children move into age-appropriate learning, rather than asking parents to choose between attending and providing religious education.
Christian education at the church extends beyond classroom lessons. Sunday School children take part in mission projects including Operation Christmas Child, the Souper Bowl of Caring, and assembling hygiene kits for Church World Services. Those projects connect biblical learning with practical acts of packaging, collecting, and sharing. The children also prepare an annual Christmas Pageant performed during worship, giving them a role in the congregation's musical and seasonal worship life.
The children's sermon has also used the Westminster Shorter Catechism as a teaching framework. Its 107 questions and answers cover basic Christian doctrine in a form intended for memorization, and the church has presented them with updated language and Scripture references. The catechism gives children a way to examine words they hear in worship rather than simply memorize disconnected ideas. For adults, the same emphasis on learning runs through Bible study, conversation after worship, choir participation, and the pastor's practice of grounding difficult questions in relationship and careful listening.
Gheen also teaches that Scripture should not be reduced to isolated proof texts. In discussing Paul's statement that he can do all things through Christ, she places the words within their context of pressure, conflict, unity, and love. That approach acknowledges Scripture as the word of God while insisting that a passage must be read with attention to its original setting. For a church that teaches children and adults, this is a distinctive blend of memory, interpretation, and openness to questions.
The Opus 70, Senior Choir, and Bells
Music is one of the clearest expressions of the church's identity. Its C. B. Fisk Opus 70 organ anchors worship, while the Senior Choir, Bell Choir, and Youth Music provide opportunities for people of different ages to sing and serve. Music Director and Organist Vince Guarneiri leads the program, which combines a substantial pipe-organ tradition with choral participation. The church describes this as “Joyful Worship” that opens hearts and minds through music and preaching, and the music schedule supports that aim with regular rehearsal throughout the church year.
The Senior Choir rehearses Sunday morning before worship from September through June. The Bell Choir rehearses on Thursday evenings during the same season, and the Youth Music program gives younger singers a place in the congregation's musical life. This arrangement gives the congregation time to prepare while allowing worship to draw on the people who regularly sing. The result is a service in which music is not a brief opening act but a substantial part of the congregation's praise.
God's Table and the Work of Belonging
Four commitments shape the church's life: compassionate leadership, beloved community, joyful worship, and vital mission. The church describes each commitment in terms of action, not aspiration alone.
- Compassionate Leadership honors the church's strong faith traditions while seeking new ways to support the congregation and serve the wider community.
- Beloved Community celebrates life together while fostering faith through openness, inclusiveness, mutual acceptance, and respect.
- Joyful Worship opens hearts and minds to God's presence and the gospel's challenge, inspiring through music and empowering through preaching.
- Vital Mission builds partnerships with other faith communities and compatible organizations that seek to improve quality of life and lift up individual lives.
Belonging is central to the church's understanding of faith. Its vision declares that every human being has intrinsic value and worth and that God calls people to share the spiritual pilgrimage with all. The church names love and justice as central to that welcome. It also connects faith with reconciliation through Christ's mission in the world, which gives its local service a wider theological purpose.
A gathering organized by Cazenovia Welcomes Refugees brought that theology into the sanctuary in a particularly visible way. Organizers placed the participants around the communion table rather than at another table in the Meeting House. Gheen says the arrangement made the church's claim tangible: the table that proclaims reconciliation and redemption is meant to be a place where all are welcome. The scene connected Christian worship to the work of listening to neighbors whose lives may be very different from those of church members.
That combination of welcome and practical responsibility also explains why the church makes its facilities available to community groups and maintains relationships with organizations working around Madison County. Its mission is not confined to programs bearing a Presbyterian name. It takes the form of food, clothing, recovery support, education, music, hospitality, and shared space.
CazCares, Mustard Seed, and a Circle of Care
CazCares is among the organizations the church is proud to support. It serves low-income residents of the Cazenovia School District and surrounding parts of Madison County with food, clothing, and other necessary services. The church supports CazCares through material collections and ongoing congregational involvement, including food donations connected with its Christmas giveaway. In this work, the congregation's concern for neighbors becomes specific and tangible: cereal boxes, clothing, and food are gathered and placed into the hands of local families and individuals who need them.
The Mustard Seed, the local outreach program of St. James, is another important partner. It supports people in Madison and Northern Chenango Counties and shares the church's commitment to witnessing a Christian message of hope while serving those in need. The church also supports Operation Christmas Child, the Souper Bowl of Caring, and Church World Services. These relationships allow the Sunday School and wider congregation to participate in work that reaches children, families, and people experiencing hardship.
Some mission work is carried out by church members in very practical ways. Ruling Elder Steve Raymond and his wife Amy coordinate monthly food preparation for the Syracuse Ronald McDonald House. Food prepared for families staying at the Ronald McDonald House becomes a direct extension of the church's concern for people in difficult circumstances. The church's support for the Cazenovia Chamber of Commerce and relationships with other faith communities further broaden the network through which it serves the village.
Pastoral leadership makes the mission relational. Hilda Chappell seeks unity and a willingness to serve Christ together. Steve Raymond wants to help the church grow and stabilize. Arlen Denny hopes to help the church move forward. Carol Buckhout emphasizes finding common ground and bringing people together to share their talents. Joan DeFrees works to keep Christian education informative and fun, Beth Freedman seeks to unite the congregation while honoring tradition and adapting to change, and Carla Kinney wants to encourage people in their walk with God and help the community heal. The Alice Edwards Circle and Women's Association add further opportunities for fellowship and service among women in the congregation.
The Meeting House as a Neighborhood Room
The Meeting House is one of the clearest expressions of the church's village-centered mission. Its regular gatherings include exercise, music, crafts, recovery support, and youth activities. Because the building belongs to a Presbyterian congregation but is used for so many purposes, it functions as a shared room in the life of Cazenovia rather than simply an accessory to the sanctuary.
- Tai Chi begins Tuesday morning at 9:30 in the Meeting House. Sponsored by CASA at no cost, the class welcomes people over 55 in the Cazenovia School District. It teaches slow, simple movements and shows how those movements can be applied to everyday activities.
- Alcoholics Anonymous meetings are held Tuesday and Friday from noon to 1:00 p.m., Thursday from 9:00 to 10:00 a.m., and Saturday from 9:00 to 10:00 a.m. A meeting also follows Sunday worship from noon to 1:00 p.m.
- Music Together meets Wednesdays from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m., while a Knitting and Crocheting Group meets Thursdays from 10:00 a.m. to noon.
- Cub Scouts gather Monday evening at 6:00 p.m. in the Meeting House.
Other community organizations have also used the sanctuary and adjoining rooms for gatherings connected with welcome, learning, and service. Cazenovia Welcomes Refugees hosted a panel in the sanctuary, and the arrangement of its communion table demonstrated how even the physical arrangement of worship can communicate a theology of inclusion. The Meeting House's wheelchair accessibility also allows more residents to take part in classes, meetings, and congregational life.
The range of activities reflects the church's “Vital Mission” value, which places partnerships beside direct congregational service. A person might first encounter the church through Tai Chi, a recovery meeting, a Scout meeting, Music Together, or a knitting group. That person may then enter the sanctuary for worship, study Scripture with children or adults, volunteer in a mission project, or simply come to know the church over shared meals and conversation.
Pastor Anna C. Gheen and Ruling Elders
Rev. Anna C. Gheen leads the church as pastor. Her pastoral work includes preaching, teaching, administration, counseling, and comfort, and she speaks of availability and genuine care as central parts of ministry. A former hospital chaplain, she also describes years of teaching Hebrew at Princeton. Those experiences help explain the character of her teaching: rigorous attention to Scripture, sensitivity to the context of a question, and a conviction that pastoral care is not separated from ordinary life.
Gheen's theological writing repeatedly returns to the idea that context matters. In teaching about Scripture, pastoral judgment, human worth, and disagreement, she stresses listening before speaking and the need to understand another person's position accurately. Her account of the church's mission emphasizes a table open to every neighbor, while her teaching on Christian maturity warns against making perfection an end in itself. The goal, she says, is a life formed in relationship with God and marked by love, joy, service, and faithfulness.
The staff and lay leadership add specialized work to that pastoral role. Vince Guarneiri serves as Music Director and Organist, leading the Senior Choir, Bell Choir, and broader music program. Shelly Brooks coordinates Christian Education, helping connect children's learning, Sunday School, and the wider educational life of the church. Together with the pastor, they support worship, teaching, music, administration, and the daily care of the church's programs.
The Session is made up of Ruling Elders who guide the congregation's spiritual and governmental life. Hilda Chappell, Steve Raymond, Roseanne Courtade, Carla Kinney, Arlen Denny, Joan DeFrees, Beth Freedman, Carol Buckhout, and Jim Palmer serve in this body, with Kinney also serving as Clerk of Session. The church also maintains a Board of Deacons and a Board of Trustees, creating additional structures for service, support, and responsibility. The mix of pastoral and lay leadership reflects the Presbyterian model in which spiritual care and organized communal life belong together.
Gospel Truths in an Open Community
The church's beliefs are grounded in enduring Gospel truths and a confidence in God's purposes. Its language centers on God's grace, the gospel of Christ, reconciliation, the presence and power of the Holy Spirit, and the joy of salvation. The Apostles' Creed gives worshippers a shared account of these central Christian commitments, while the Westminster Shorter Catechism gives the church a common vocabulary for teaching and learning. At the same time, the congregation welcomes people who disagree on particular issues, emphasizing that shared faith does not require uniform opinion on every question.
This combination of conviction and welcome is central to the church's identity. The congregation does not minimize the significance of belief; it makes clear that every person has intrinsic value and that the spiritual pilgrimage is not meant to be kept private or restricted to a favored group. The church's welcome is grounded in the Christian story of God's love and justice, not offered as a detached gesture of hospitality.
Its Presbyterian heritage is likewise presented as a living inheritance. Compassionate leadership should honor strong traditions while finding new ways to support the congregation and serve the community. Worship should remain rooted in Scripture, creed, preaching, and music while making room for children and for questions. Mission should build partnerships with other faith communities and organizations committed to improving individual lives. These commitments connect the church's history to the work visible throughout Albany Street and the surrounding community.
A Church With the Village at Its Center
First Presbyterian Church of Cazenovia continues to connect a long Presbyterian history with a varied present. At 10:00 a.m., families enter worship together, hear Scripture and preaching, and share song led by the organ and choirs. Children continue into Sunday School in the Wendell House, while the nursery welcomes the youngest members of the congregation. The communion table makes welcome and reconciliation visible, and the conversation following worship gives people room to think together about faith and its implications.
Around that Sunday rhythm are mission projects, recovery meetings, exercise classes, music gatherings, youth activities, and partnerships with CazCares, The Mustard Seed, Church World Services, Operation Christmas Child, and other organizations. Online giving through Tithe.ly supports the church through credit card or bank account gifts, including weekly or monthly automated giving. First Presbyterian Church of Cazenovia remains a community of faith in the heart of the village, with the village in its heart: a Presbyterian congregation rooted in enduring Gospel truths, making room at its table, and carrying its mission from Albany Street into the wider life of Cazenovia.