In the heart of Bronxville, a short walk from the village's downtown and the Bronxville train station, Christ Church Bronxville fills a 50,000-square-foot campus at 17 Sagamore Road. The Episcopal parish has grown since 1901 into a congregation that is racially, ethnically, and economically diverse, with members from Westchester and New York City. It is known for worship that is both deeply traditional and unexpectedly lively: a spoken Rite I Eucharist at eight in the morning, a choral family Eucharist shaped by the English Sarum Use at ten, and contemplative services with Choral Evensong at five. The same spirit runs through its formation for children, its youth pilgrimage to Taizé, and its work with food pantries, soup kitchens, and people experiencing homelessness in New York City.
A Dawn Eucharist in the Lady Chapel
Sunday begins early at Christ Church Bronxville. The 8:00am service is a Spoken Holy Eucharist that lasts about forty minutes. It uses the traditional Elizabethan language of Rite I, includes a sermon and Holy Communion, and carries no music at all. The service is held in the Lady Chapel, the front-right corner of the church, a quieter and more intimate setting for worshippers who prefer the early shape of the liturgical day. Across the year, the church also keeps its doors open for prayer, with extended hours on Sunday, and printed worship bulletins are provided for anyone who wants to follow the order of service on paper.
Sunday at Ten: The Choral Family Eucharist
The 10:00am Choral Family Eucharist is what the parish calls Christ Church at its most lively. It follows Rite II in contemporary language, but the music, the movement, and the volume of congregational singing give it warmth and energy of its own. People of every generation take part, the choirs supply what the parish describes as extraordinary music, and the service is built around the Sarum Use, the distinctive English liturgical tradition this church helped shape. This is also the service that is livestreamed, so family and friends far from Bronxville can join in. Afterward, the whole parish gathers for Coffee Hour.
A Century and a Quarter on Sagamore Road
Christ Church began in 1901 with a sanctuary at the intersection of today's Kensington and Sagamore Roads. The first building could barely hold the congregation: by 1907 it had to be expanded, and growth continued until a new sanctuary was built in the late summer of 1925. That building remains the heart of the church. In 1960, after acquiring the neighboring parish house, the parish added a semi-circular drive and a covered walkway to connect the two structures. The original 1901 church building was demolished, and the columbarium now stands where it once stood. Those additions gave Christ Church a 50,000-square-foot campus for parish activity, and that is the footprint the church continues to grow into today.
The story of the first century was told in a hard-cover book published in 2004, Built Upon A Rock: The First 100 Years of Christ Church Bronxville, New York, written by former parishioner David T. Andrews with contributions from members of the present congregation, including history consultant Patricia Owen, copy editor Elizabeth Folberth, graphic designer Hershell George, and Eugene Elliott, who created the illuminated chapter initials. A second volume, American Sarum, documents the parish's liturgical experiments and their influence on the wider Episcopal Church.
The English Liturgy Christ Church Made Its Own
The Sarum Use is the reason visitors who know their Anglican history pay attention to Bronxville. In the 1930s, Rector Harold Hohly and Associate Rector Morton Stone, a liturgical scholar, wanted a solemn liturgy that was truly English rather than Roman in its shape. They traveled to England more than once and studied the ceremonies used at pre-Reformation Salisbury Cathedral, adapting them for the new space. Sarum is the ancient name for Salisbury, and the resulting use took its name from that source. Clergy from far and near came to Christ Church to observe what was being done there, and through the parish's close affiliation with General Seminary in New York City, some of these practices eventually became mainstream in the Episcopal Church. That inheritance is still audible and visible in the ten o'clock service every Sunday.
Music as a Form of Ministry
Music is not worshiped here, but it is treated as a conduit for Scripture and worship. The parish states plainly that music is integral to the worship, liturgy, spiritual development, and common life of Christ Church Bronxville, and that its ministry, grounded in the Episcopal choral tradition, seeks to offer ways for children, youth, and adults to grow in faith, develop musical skills, and serve in worship through concerts and outreach. Nathan Lively-Greyling, Director of Music and Organist, oversees the adult choir, the chorister program, and the Anglican worship tradition. A native of southern West Virginia, he began piano studies at six and was serving as an organist in local churches by ten. Most recently he was Cantor and Ministry Associate at St. John's Lutheran Church in Stamford, Connecticut, where he led adult and children's choirs, directed choirs on cathedral residencies and international tours, and cultivated a strong tradition of congregational singing. He is an active recitalist and clinician, particularly drawn to French Romantic organ repertoire, contemporary sacred music, and collaborative music-making.
Children's choirs are part of the program under his direction, and a new community handbell choir is taking shape with three octaves of handbells and handchimes. It is open to adults and older youth from Christ Church and the wider community, and no previous handbell experience is necessary, only a willingness to learn and some ability to read music. The ensemble rehearses regularly and takes part occasionally in worship and seasonal programs.
Choral Evensong, the traditional Anglican sung Evening Prayer, is the contemplative counterpoint to the morning services. Based on the daily offices held in the medieval Church and sung regularly since the sixteenth century, it gathers the distinctive parts of Vespers and Compline, including the Magnificat and the Nunc dimittis. It typically falls on the 5:00pm service once a month from September through May, sung by the Christ Church Choir and often followed by a reception. Many people new to Christ Church are drawn to the contemplative feel of Evensong.
Children: From the Undercroft to the Altar
Church School begins at 9:55am in the Undercroft for children preschool through sixth grade, running from mid-September through mid-June. Afterward, children join parents, grandparents, or other caregivers in the church for communion. Nursery care, staffed by a professional child care attendant, is available every Sunday from 9:30 to 11:30am for children from birth to three years old.
The curriculum is tiered by age and follows a carefully described arc:
- Godly Play, ages 3 through grade 1, a program developed by the Episcopal priest Jerome Berryman that teaches the art of religious language through parable, sacred story, silence, and liturgical action, followed by art and craft work that lets children integrate the stories into their own imagination and daily life.
- Communion, grade 2, a year with an adult mentor working through This Bread and This Cup, which explores the Eucharist from the Book of Common Prayer through age-appropriate individual and shared activities, prayers, and reflections, along with a guided tour of the church building and sacristy and an instructed Eucharist led by a member of the clergy.
- Godly Dialogue, grades 3 through 6, a discussion-style class using Weaving God's Promises to explore the biblical story of salvation in the Old and New Testaments, connecting lessons to the seasons of the church year and weaving in Episcopal prayers, history, sacraments, and traditions through storytelling, community prayer, crafts, drama, and games.
Children also take part in worship itself. Every second Sunday, students in grade two and above serve as choristers, read the lessons, usher, and bring up the gifts to the altar. At Christmas, the annual pageant reenacts the events of Jesus's birth in Bethlehem as told in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, with the children as the primary actors playing lambs, shepherds, angels, innkeepers, Mary, and Joseph. The parish's long commitment to young children began with the Eliza Corwin Frost Child Center, founded in 1973 as a living memorial to the young daughter of Bronxville residents Randy and Corwin Frost.
Confirmation, EYC, and the Taizé Pilgrimage
Confirmation preparation for seventh and eighth graders meets on Sundays at 6:00pm from September through May for a two-year curriculum. The parish treats confirmation as a mature reaffirmation of baptismal promises, and it is neither demanded nor automatic at the end of two years; students decide with their parents and the clergy what is best for them. Classes explore Scripture and how to interpret its truth in the twenty-first century, the choices people make and how those choices affect others, and how faith and action inform each other. Students are encouraged to share statements of faith along with questions, doubt, skepticism, and dismay.
Service is built into the program. Confirmands serve as torchbearers in the Holy Eucharist, assist with Church School on Sunday mornings, and gather for opportunities to serve the wider community.
The Episcopal Youth Community is the high school group, made up of young people from many different schools, towns, and churches. It meets most Monday evenings from 6:30 to 8:00pm in the Youth Room, with dinner provided. Beyond the weekly meetings, EYC takes part in service projects, social events, retreats, and support for one another's performances and teams. The year is anchored by an annual pilgrimage to the community at Taizé in France in February for prayer, reflection, reconciliation, and personal growth, and the group also has a short Compline prayer for use at home.
Formation and Fellowship for Adults
Adult Formation classes meet after the 10:00am service in short cycles of three to six weeks on a range of topics, offering reflection, fellowship, education, and spiritual growth for people at different stages of their spiritual pilgrimage. The Young Families group supports parents with child-friendly events six times a year, built on the fact that nursery care and children's formation are available on Sundays year-round so that parents can be fed spiritually in worship.
The Young Adults Fellowship includes single and married young adults, with and without children, from Westchester and New York City. It meets once a month to serve the community together, study scripture, and spend time together, and ideas for outreach, social, and worship events are welcome.
LGBTQ+ and Friends is a group of parishioners and non-parishioners within the LGBTQ+ community. Since 2011 it has gathered in church and at members' homes for food, fun, and fellowship, and it hosts events that raise awareness about LGBTQ+ issues while reaching beyond the church community.
The Women's Guild welcomes women of the parish at any time of year and meets the second Monday of each month, usually at three in the afternoon from September through June, to discern ways to contribute to the well-being of the parish family and the surrounding community. Members volunteer at HOPE Soup Kitchen, support the parish's refugee family, sponsor an Advent bake sale and a Lenten quiet day, share lunches together, and visit museums and cultural events.
Food, Warmth, and the Streets of New York
On the first Sunday of each month, from 11:30am to 2:30pm, the narthex at 17 Sagamore Road becomes a collection point for the food pantry at St. James Church in Fordham in the Bronx. That pantry began in October 2017 when a woman came to the parish asking for help feeding her family, and it now opens its doors on the second Saturday of every month, providing fresh produce and non-perishable groceries to roughly 375 to 400 families. The church delivers its donations after each first Sunday, and the shopping list is specific: cans of fruit, corn, peas, black beans, or pinto beans, 6- to 8-ounce cans of protein such as tuna or chicken, one-pound packages of rice or pasta, boxed macaroni and cheese, low-sugar or no-sugar oatmeal, and quart-sized shelf-stable milk. Boxed cereal is no longer requested because the boxes take up too much room in the paper grocery bags.
Christ Church partners closely with HOPE Community Services, which opened its first soup kitchen in 1984 and has grown into the largest emergency food pantry and soup kitchen in the region. HOPE now provides clothing, language skills, emotional support, immigration services, and other daily necessities in addition to food. Parish volunteers cook for and serve in the soup kitchen, volunteer at special events, and organize the food pantry.
The church also joins Midnight Run, a volunteer organization dedicated to finding common ground between the housed and the homeless, distributing food, clothing, blankets, and personal care items to people experiencing homelessness on the streets of New York City in the late night hours. The human exchange, not simply the exchange of goods, is the heart of that mission. Several times a year the parish's middle schoolers join Breakfast Runs, distributing breakfast and essential items to people experiencing homelessness and hunger.
The parish Refugee Committee works with Hearts and Homes for Refugees to sponsor a family from Myanmar, two parents and two adult daughters, and volunteers are asked for practical help such as driving and rent support. On Friday evenings the parish also hosts free movie nights in the Crispell Lounge, with a screening, a lecture by an award-winning documentary filmmaker who is a parishioner, and a lively group discussion over refreshments.
Baptism, Weddings, and the Columbarium
In the waters of baptism, the parish teaches, people are lovingly adopted by God into God's family, the Church, and given God's own life to share, and are reminded that nothing can separate them from God's love in Christ. Holy Baptism may be performed by pouring of water or by immersion, marks a formal entrance to the congregation and the wider Church, and those being baptized make a series of vows that include an affirmation of the Baptismal Covenant. People of any age are welcome to be baptized, and parents and godparents make the vows on behalf of infants and younger children. Apart from emergency baptisms in a health crisis, baptisms are held within the Eucharist at a regularly scheduled Sunday or feast day service, with the traditional baptismal Sundays being the Easter Vigil, the Day of Pentecost, All Saints' Sunday, and the Baptism of Jesus on the first Sunday after Epiphany.
Marriage is treated as a sacramental rite, an outward sign of the invisible work God accomplishes in joining two lives in one common bond. Members of the parish in good standing may be married at Christ Church, and couples who are not members are also welcome with the Rector's permission. The Episcopal Church requires that at least one of the parties be baptized, and weddings must be officiated by a priest in good standing in the Episcopal Church or in one of the churches in full communion. Preparation normally takes three one-hour sessions with the priest, covering the church's theology of marriage and specific arrangements, giving the priest an opportunity to know the couple and assess their readiness to enter a lifelong covenant. Same-gender couples are welcome and follow the same steps. Ceremonies follow the regular pattern of worship in the Book of Common Prayer 1979 with only minimal customization; unity candles, unity sand, and writing their own vows are not allowed, elaborate floral displays are discouraged, and aisle runners are not encouraged. Two forms are offered: the Marriage Office, a service of about twenty-five minutes with procession, readings, prayers, a homily, the exchange of vows and rings, and a blessing, and the Nuptial Eucharist, which continues with a celebration of the Eucharist. Musical arrangements are made in consultation with the Director of Music. The seating capacity of the church is about 300, the Lady Chapel cannot comfortably seat more than 20 people, and a rehearsal of about forty-five minutes with the officiating priest is normally held the evening before the wedding.
Burial and remembrance connect back to the beginning of the parish: the columbarium occupies the ground where the original 1901 church building once stood, just across from the sanctuary built in 1925.
The Clergy Team and Music Leadership
The Rev. Kurt Gerhard, D.Min., has served as the tenth Rector of Christ Church since May 2022, coming to Bronxville after twelve years as Rector of St. Patrick's Episcopal Church and Day School in Washington, D.C. There he served on the Diocesan Council, chaired the Commission on Ministry, and served as a deputy to General Convention. Before that he was chaplain and Religious Studies Department chair at St. Andrew's Episcopal School in Austin, Texas. He holds a Master of Divinity from the Seminary of the Southwest and a Doctorate of Ministry from Virginia Theological Seminary, and he often preaches about the effect of current events on spiritual lives and the Christian responsibility to bring about heaven here on earth.
The Rev. Kathryn Reinhard, Ph.D., joined as Assistant Rector in September 2023 and oversees parish fellowship and spiritual development, which includes strengthening parishioners to pastor each other and facilitating service partnerships with neighbors. She was ordained in the Diocese of New York in 2008 after earning her Master of Divinity at Yale Divinity School, and completed a Ph.D. in Systematic Theology at Fordham, where she also taught. Before entering ordained ministry she worked as an actor in New York City and holds an undergraduate degree in fine arts from NYU.
The Rev. Leanne Dodge, Ph.D., joined the clergy team following her ordination to the priesthood in September 2023. She serves as chaplain at a behavioral health hospital and assists at Christ Church with young adult and college ministry and liturgical training, and she preaches and leads liturgy with the team.
Laura Fairchild, the youth minister, works with EYC on Monday evenings and chaperones the annual Taizé pilgrimage. She holds a Master of Divinity from Princeton and a bachelor's degree from Kean, and serves as Associate Director of Mission and Ministry at Iona University.
Planning a First Visit
Christ Church sits steps from Bronxville's downtown and the Bronxville train station at 17 Sagamore Road. Metered parking is available to the public in the garage at 15 Kensington Road, free on Sundays and metered the rest of the week, and metered parking along Sagamore Road serves families with small children and people with mobility issues. There is no dress code; come dressed as you feel comfortable and appropriate.
Step-free access to the main church is available via the circle drive and the side door under the covered front patio. Wheelchair users can also enter through double doors on the right-hand side of the main entrance at 17 Sagamore Road, or use the elevator from the entrance at 18 Kensington Road. Accessible routes lead to each Coffee Hour location, and ushers and clergy are glad to assist.
Ushers and greeters meet people at the door every week, help visitors find seats, direct children to Church School, and answer questions. Coffee Hour follows every 10:00am service, with a muffin and conversation with parishioners, and a different group of volunteers sponsors it each week. Visitors are encouraged to introduce themselves to the ushers and clergy after the service, and a newcomer form allows the clergy to follow up with a welcome and answers to questions. The church can be reached at 914-337-3544 or christchurch@ccbny.org.
What holds this Bronxville church together is not a single program but a rhythm: Rite I at eight, Sarum Use and a full choir at ten, Evensong at five, children gathered in the Undercroft, EYC over Monday dinner, and a monthly collection of food in the narthex for families in the Bronx. For more than a century, Christ Church Bronxville has grown around that rhythm, holding a racially, ethnically, and economically diverse congregation together across Westchester and New York City, and welcoming each person who arrives with the same words it places at the center of its life: You Belong Here.