On Main Street in the harbor village of Northport, New York, the white steeple of First Presbyterian Church has marked Sunday mornings for nearly two and a half centuries. Known affectionately as the "little white church on Main Street," the congregation is one of more than 11,000 churches of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the 2.4 million member Reformed body to which it has been tied for most of its history. Each Sunday at 10:00 a.m. the doors open for worship in the Reformed tradition, and from the same building the church runs a food pantry that has fed the surrounding community for more than thirty years.
Sunday Worship at Ten
The congregation gathers throughout the year at 10:00 a.m. for a service shaped by the Presbyterian Directory for Worship. Music is led by choir, organ, piano, and other instruments, and a visitor friendly bulletin is provided each Sunday. Holy Communion is celebrated on the first Sunday of every month and at other special services, with the table open to all who trust in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, including baptized children of any age. The service is also livestreamed on YouTube for those who cannot be present in person.
Worship is at the heart of the congregation's identity. "Worship is at the heart of any Christian congregation, and FPC is no exception," the church says. "We gather each Sunday at 10:00 a.m. throughout the year to offer our thanks and praise to God while seeking peace, comfort, encouragement and guidance."
Children, Youth, and the Promises of Baptism
At baptism, the congregation promises to nurture each child in the Christian faith, and a wide range of programs carry that promise into practice. Nursery care is offered every Sunday morning during the 10:00 service for babies and toddlers three years old and younger. The nursery, staffed by certified staff from the Weekday Nursery School, is on the lower level just off the elevator and is equipped with an iPad so the worship service can be followed there. Care runs from 9:45 to 11:15 a.m.
Children in pre-kindergarten through fifth grade gather for Sunday School each Sunday morning following the children's sermon, using the Holy Moly curriculum from Sparkhouse. Lessons move through four parts: watching an animated Bible story, talking about it together, engaging the story again in their Bibles, and completing a hands-on activity. Because the congregation values families being together for communion, there is no Sunday School on the first Sunday of the month. On those Family Sundays, children remain in worship for the entire service and participate in the Lord's Supper.
Every year in the early fall, the Children's Ministries Committee presents Bibles to second graders. The chosen translation is The Deep Blue Kids Bible, which lines up with the Deep Blue Sunday School Curriculum. For children in first grade and older who want to know more about the sacrament, Rev. Rachel Vione holds Communion Classes throughout the year with parents invited to attend alongside. Other offerings include Carol Choir and Worship in Motion, an annual Christmas Pageant held during worship on the third Sunday in December, and opportunities for children to lead in worship through liturgy, prayers, and music.
For middle and high schoolers, the youth ministry welcomes students in grades 6 through 12. During the school year, mid-high (grades 6 to 8) and senior high (grades 9 to 12) meet each Sunday morning from 10:00 to 11:00 a.m. for Sunday School. Confirmation is offered to ninth and tenth graders as a chance to explore the Christian faith alongside peers and to mark an important milestone in their spiritual journey.
The Food Pantry on Main Street
For more than thirty years, First Presbyterian has housed the area food pantry, which currently serves roughly 150 individuals each week. Operated in partnership with the Ecumenical Lay Council, the pantry sits on the lower level of the church at 330 Main Street and is open Monday through Thursday from 10:00 a.m. to noon. Donations can be dropped off at the church, and a separate phone line (631-261-4357) handles inquiries. The recent $2.3 million building renovation included an expansion of the pantry space, and the congregation also runs a school supply drive each summer and fall.
The church extends a welcome beyond the pantry as well. Free meeting space is offered to local Boy Scout and Girl Scout troops, and on a weekly basis the parking lot is shared with the Engeman Theater, an Off-Broadway quality theater just down Main Street whose productions draw audiences from across the village. Together these partnerships make the church a working hub of community life.
Beyond the Harbor: Mission Partnerships Near and Far
The congregation's reach extends well beyond Northport. About thirty-five years ago, with the support of the Presbytery of Long Island and of First Presbyterian itself, a small group of Spanish speaking believers began to gather for worship in the chapel of Christ's First Church in Hempstead. That group, known as Iglesia Presbiteriana Hispana, later became partners in ministry with the Malverne Presbyterian Church and was formally commissioned as an organized PC(USA) congregation known as Iglesia Evangélica Presbiteriana Nueva Vida. Deacons and elders were installed, and First Presbyterian members were on hand for the celebration. Recent gifts from the church's Pentecost Offering have funded scholarships for three young people to attend Triennium.
Since the 1980s, First Presbyterian has maintained a covenant relationship with the Nueva Paz Presbyterian Church in Cuba. The Cuban congregation receives an annual donation from the benevolence budget to support its outreach ministries, and several years ago a partnership of PC(USA) churches raised enough money for Living Waters for the World to install a water purification system on the grounds of the Nueva Paz church. Clean water from the system is freely distributed to residents of the surrounding town who line up with jugs each day.
In March of 2019, six members traveled to Monteflores, San Juan, Puerto Rico, to participate in a Presbyterian Disaster Assistance project. Staying at the Monteflores Presbyterian Church manse, the volunteers installed sheet rock, did spackling, and painted the walls so that a family whose home had been severely damaged during Hurricane Maria could move back in. Other long-standing partnerships stretch to India and Nicaragua.
Closer to home, when the weather turns cold, members of First Presbyterian prepare a full course meal once a month for homeless guests spending the night at St. Peter's Evangelical Lutheran Church in South Huntington. Volunteers from Northport help serve the food and clean up afterward.
A History of Two and a Half Centuries
The story begins on Long Island's North Shore in a remote corner then known as Fresh Pond. The first mention of a meeting house there in the surviving historical documents is an 1822 accounting that lists "100 feet of boards taken from Fresh Pond Meeting House" as losses from British construction of a fort in Huntington between September 1782 and February 1783. The presbytery directed Joshua Hartt to form a church "agreeable to the constitution" and to supply them as he could. Not until October 1796 did Hartt report that he had organized the church. By a listing assembled in 1809, at least twenty-seven people had become members by 1796.
The nineteenth century brought its share of turmoil. Between 1830 and 1860 little changed in the church itself, but Presbyterianism in America was riven by the Old School - New School schism. In Northport the division arrived late and lasted nearly fifteen years. After the two sides reunited, the church never again faced an existential threat.
Improvements to the building came in waves. Electric lights were installed in 1894. Running water came to the parsonage in 1898 and to the church in 1903. In 1907 the Parish House was completed behind the sanctuary, providing a pastor's study and rooms for the choir and Sunday School. That same year the sanctuary was redecorated with new cushions and windows. In 1914 the church received new carpeting in the sanctuary, improved kitchen and dining facilities, and a Moeller pipe organ. Many of these improvements were financed by women's groups such as the Ladies Aid Society and the Stitchers.
A major sanctuary renovation came in 1972 at a cost of $89,000. Then on Saturday, August 27, 1993, at about 5:10 p.m., lightning struck the ninety-five foot steeple during a violent rainstorm. The rest of the steeple was damaged and had to be removed, and the Roman Catholic parish across the street, St. Philip Neri, sent $1,000 toward replacing it. More recent improvements include a complete repainting of the sanctuary and steeple, reconstruction of the front steps, rebuilding of the basement foundation walls, new basement windows, new brick pavers in the Memorial Garden, and the recent $2.3 million renovation.
"The work we have completed will benefit us, our children, their children and the community of Northport for generations to come," the Rev. Dr. Tim Hoyt Duncan, the church's pastor from 2006, observed at the time. Membership now stands at 514, with roughly 120 children enrolled in Sunday School.
Adults, Women, and Men
Wednesday belongs to the Pioneers, who meet from 10:00 a.m. to noon each week for a program, chapel time, and lunch. Participants bring their own sandwich while coffee, tea, and dessert are provided. Adult Education has offered one-day programs on Bible stories and themes, such as a study built around the film "The Road to Emmaus," which imagines the conversation between Jesus and the two disciples on the road.
Presbyterian Women, the church-wide organization of the PC(USA), is active here. The local circle follows the Presbyterian Women mission statement of being "forgiven and freed by God in Jesus Christ, and empowered by the Holy Spirit," committing itself to nurture faith through prayer and Bible study, support the mission of the church worldwide, work for justice and peace, and build an inclusive, caring community of women.
The men's ministry is, in the church's words, "an active community." The ROMEOs (Retired Old Men Eating Out) meet every Thursday at 8:00 a.m. for breakfast at a local diner, sharing food and pastoral concerns. Quarterly, an All Men's Breakfast Plus One draws men and boys for an extensive Saturday morning meal prepared in the church kitchen by volunteer chefs and led by a devotional from Pastor Rachel. In warmer months the breakfast gathering moves to Scudder Beach, the local pavilion on the harbor.
Music, the Building, and the People
Music is woven through the worship service, with choir, organ, piano, and other instruments providing accompaniment. The sanctuary itself reflects more than a century of attention, from the 1914 Moeller pipe organ and 1972 refurbishment to the recent comprehensive renovation that refreshed the interior, rebuilt the front steps, and renewed the Memorial Garden.
The staff is led by the Rev. Rachel Vione, who serves as Pastor and Head of Staff. Rachel began her ministry at First Presbyterian in August 2013 as Director of Children, Youth, and Family Ministries, was ordained at the church on March 1, 2015 (in a snowstorm), and was named Assistant Pastor for Children, Youth, and Families before becoming Interim Pastor in August 2016. In November 2020 the congregation voted to call her as the next installed Pastor and Head of Staff. A graduate of Princeton Theological Seminary with a Master of Divinity, she earned awards for excellence in both preaching and homiletics. A native of the Midwest and a devoted fan of Chicago sports, she came to ministry after a career in the New York City business world.
Karen Twitchell serves as Office Manager, Kevin McKerr as Finance and IT Manager, and John Kennedy as Facilities Manager, all working together to keep the building open for the many ministries of the church.
Stewardship and the Weekday Nursery School
Members and friends of the church support its ministries through online giving, pledged giving, and text-to-give. Online giving is processed through Realm, and those wishing to give by text can send "fpcnpt" to 73256. Checks may be mailed directly to the church. For gifts of securities, IRAs, or estate planning, Kevin McKerr, the Finance and IT Manager, can provide transfer and account details, while Harold Armet of the Finance Ministry Team assists with wills, living trusts, charitable gift annuities, and Qualified Charitable Distributions from IRAs.
Sharing its lower level with the food pantry, the church also operates a Weekday Nursery School staffed by certified early childhood educators. That school, in turn, provides the caring staff for Sunday morning nursery care, creating a seamless bridge between weekday education and Sunday worship.
First Presbyterian Church of Northport remains what its pastor calls "the little white church on Main Street": a Reformed congregation in worship each Sunday morning, a food pantry open four days a week, a partner to churches in three more, and a steady neighbor in the village it has served for more than two hundred and forty years.