Set on Harbour Drive in the Moorings neighborhood of Naples, less than a mile from the Gulf of Mexico and just west of US-41, Moorings Presbyterian Church has been a fixture of Southwest Florida worship and sacred music since its founding service in 1965. The congregation, organized on November 3, 1966, is best known for its traditional Presbyterian liturgy lifted by a 75-rank pipe organ, four grand pianos, a handbell program that dates to the early 1980s, and the Hyacinth Concert Series, Southwest Florida's longest-running church concert series.
Sunday Worship at Ten
Worship at Moorings gathers at 10:00 a.m. each Sunday in the 800-seat sanctuary. The liturgy is rooted in the Reformed tradition and Presbyterian heritage and includes joyful praise, contemplative prayer, a children's message, a sermon, and a time of confession and assurance of pardon. The semi-professional Chancel Choir sings every Sunday of the year, joined by the Sterritte Family Organ and the Fazioli F278 concert grand piano. Handbell choirs add their voice about twice a month from October through May, and the children's choir leads worship roughly once a month.
There is no dress code. While many members dress somewhat formally, attendees are warmly welcomed in everything from a suit and tie to jeans and a T-shirt. Activity bags are available at the back of the sanctuary for young children, and nursery care opens at 9:45 a.m. Children in PreK through fifth grade begin in worship with their parents, gather at the chancel steps for the Word for Children, then head to Sunday School. Parents pick them up after the service in the Children's Center.
On the first Sunday of every month, middle and high school youth stay in worship with their families to share in the sacrament of communion. The service is also broadcast on a livestream, allowing members who are away for the season or homebound to take part.
The Instruments: Organ, Four Pianos, and Bells
Music has been at the heartbeat of Moorings since the very first service was held in the music room of Naples High School. Today the centerpiece of the sanctuary is the Sterritte Family Organ, a gift of the Marjorie Sterritte family installed in 2008, with a Solo Organ and Grand Cornet later added through a bequest from Ruth McNeal. Across 57 stops and 75 ranks, the 4,315-pipe instrument produces an unusually rich tonal palette, crowned by an elegant five-rank Grand Cornet. Its colorful reeds include English Horn, French Horn, Tuba, Solo Diapason, Gamba Celeste, and Flauto Mirabilis.
Four grand pianos live on the campus. The 9-foot Fazioli F278 concert grand was acquired in 2017 through member gifts and serves worship and the Hyacinth Series. A Steinway Model A, donated in 1998 in memory of Dale and Marcia Darland, anchors the Webster Chapel. A Yamaha C6, given in 2025 by an anonymous donor, lives in Moss Hall. And a Steinway Model B, presented in February 2026 by Roger and Michele Burgis, supports the choir in the rehearsal room.
The handbell tradition is just as storied. Founded in the early 1980s by then-Directors of Music Dick and Martha Crofts, the program now holds about six and a half octaves of Malmark handbells, a second three-octave set, and six and a half octaves of Malmark handchimes, supported by a music library of roughly 1,000 handbell titles.
The Chancel Choir, the Children's Choir, and the Ringers
The Chancel Choir is a spirited, semi-professional ensemble of professional and volunteer singers that leads worship all 52 Sundays of the year. Its repertoire ranges from modern American composers such as Stephen Paulus to English Cathedral standbys by C.H.H. Parry, Renaissance polyphony, and the occasional gospel anthem. From October through May the choir rehearses Wednesday evenings at 7:00 p.m. and again before the Sunday service; a summer choir rehearses only on Sunday mornings. Music-reading ability is preferred but not required.
The Moorings Children's Choir is open to all children preschool through fifth grade and sings in worship several times a year. There are no musical prerequisites, and the congregation enthusiastically supports the children whenever they step forward.
Two handbell ensembles ring under the direction of Tom Sletto. The Moorings Ringers, a 13-member group, rehearses Sunday afternoons from October through May and joins worship about once a month. The Morning Bells, about a dozen ringers, rehearse Thursday mornings at 9:30 a.m. and also serve about once a month. All who love ringing are warmly welcomed.
The Hyacinth Concert Series
Founded in 1982 by Directors of Music Dick and Martha Crofts, the Hyacinth Series is the longest-standing church concert series in South Florida. Now entering its forty-fourth season under the artistic direction of Dr. Christopher Dekker, it continues to bring internationally acclaimed musicians to the Moorings sanctuary, free of charge and without tickets, sustained entirely by donor support.
The 2026 to 2027 season features a Piano Extravaganza with Dr. Michael Baron and three other pianists on all four of the church's grand pianos, the return of organist Nathan Laube on the Sterritte, an afternoon with the vocal ensemble Chanticleer, the Grammy-nominated Borealis Wind Quintet from the Juilliard School, the Dordt University Concert Choir, and the FGCU Chamber Choir. Recent seasons have also welcomed Olivier Latry, Seraphic Fire, and the Camerata of Naples.
Companion to the Hyacinth is Sacred Sounds at Noon, a weekday concert series of about 35-minute programs presented on Tuesdays at 12:00 p.m. in the sanctuary from January through mid-April. Featuring local pianists, organists, and other instrumentalists, the noon series is offered in memory of William Lindsay and remains free to the public.
Children, Youth, and Parents
Children are an essential part of the Moorings community. The nursery, located in the Education Building in room 104, opens 15 minutes before worship and welcomes children up to age four with play, music, Bible story, crafts, prayer, and a snack. Children in PreK through fifth grade attend the Word for Children moment in worship, then move to age-appropriate Sunday School classes during the school year, with classes combined in summer. The Director of Christian Education for Children and Youth, Alicia Rowland, oversees the program.
Middle schoolers gather for fellowship on Sunday nights from 5:00 to 6:30 p.m. in the Youth Center, building relationships through games, small-group discussion, and shared meals, with mission projects, retreats, and off-campus events throughout the year. High schoolers meet from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m., beginning with dinner, moving to time in the gym, and ending with Bible study. Students are also invited to serve as acolytes, ushers, readers, and even teachers for children's programming, and the older students may serve on church committees.
Family life beyond Sunday includes an annual Fall Family Festival and Trunk or Treat, a Family Movie Night under the stars, a Family Retreat at Camp Cedarkirk with archery, zip lining, and s'mores, and a Young Adults and Couples Fellowship that gathers about once a month for events from tiki boat tours of Naples Bay to evenings on Fifth Avenue.
Presbyterian Women and Fellowship
Women's ministry at Moorings goes back to 1969, when seven women met with founding Pastor David Moss to form the first Circle. Today, the Presbyterian Women organization is led through four Circles and has, over the past decade, donated more than $132,000 to mission causes dear to the congregation. Over the years the women have funded a church kitchen, a commercial dishwasher, and helped furnish the Moss Hall kitchen in 2002.
Fellowship happens often. The first Wednesday of every month from November through June, singles, couples, and families share an inexpensive catered dinner in Moss Hall at 5:30 p.m. A Women's Bible Study meets Thursdays in the Parlor, and a Men's Bible Study Breakfast gathers every other Tuesday at 7:00 a.m. Monthly Ladies' Luncheons, small-group dinners for six or eight, and a new Faith, Film and Fellowship group round out the social life, along with Game Gatherings for bridge, canasta, mahjong, and bingo.
Mission: Local and Global
Moorings takes seriously the call of Jesus in Matthew 25 to feed the hungry, welcome the stranger, clothe the naked, care for the sick, and visit the imprisoned. Locally, the church supports Guadalupe Social Services, which provides feeding programs, material assistance, immigration services, and an English school; Helps Outreach, which supplies goods and services to those in need; New Horizons, which tutors and mentors at-risk youth in grades K through 12; and St. Matthew's House, which provides housing for the homeless and food for the needy and holds three recovery graduations at Moorings throughout the year.
Globally, Moorings partners with Echo, supporting sustainable agriculture and a seed bank for small-scale farmers; the Jim Smith School and Scholarships in Balcones de Palin, Guatemala; Love the Children, Inc., which feeds about 1,300 schoolchildren daily in rural Haiti and recently dedicated the Taryn Educational Resources Center; the Medical Benevolence Foundation's nursing scholarships and women's clinic in Leogane, Haiti; and Miracles In Action, which supports Guatemalan communities through education, nutrition, and vocational programs.
What Moorings Believes
Moorings Presbyterian Church is a member congregation of the Presbyterian Church (USA), part of the Peace River Presbytery within the Synod of the South Atlantic. The church's mission is simply stated: Love God, Love Others, Make Disciples. Its core values are unity in biblical faith, worship as a lifestyle, service as a life pattern, integrity in relationships, and dedication to the next generation.
The church confesses belief in one God who eternally exists in three equally divine persons, in the Bible as the inspired and infallible revelation of God, in human sin and the conviction of the Holy Spirit, in Christ as the only way to the Father, in the church as the gathered body of Christ, in the proclamation of the gospel to all nations, in baptism and communion as visible signs and seals of the gospel, in the governance of the church by the Word of God, and in the resurrection of the body and the hope of a new heaven and a new earth.
Six Decades on Harbour Drive
The story of Moorings begins with the Presbytery of the Everglades, which in 1964 asked the Reverend David C. Moss to leave Miami and plant a new congregation on Florida's west coast. The first worship service was held on November 14, 1965 in the music room of Naples High School with eight people, five of them named Moss. Eighty-six members attended the groundbreaking for the new sanctuary, with the first service there on June 12, 1966 and the formal dedication on November 27, 1966. Pastor Moss died unexpectedly in January 1975 after heart surgery, and the Reverend Dr. Charles S. Webster was called as the second pastor, leading the church until 1986.
Over the years, the campus grew alongside the congregation. Sunday School rooms, a nursery, choir rooms, and wings to the west and east were added in the 1970s. A fellowship hall, parlor, Christian Education Building, music center, chapel, and columbarium followed. The Webster Chapel was dedicated in honor of Dr. Webster, and Moss Hall, completed in 2002, was named for the founding pastor. The current sanctuary opened in 2008, the year the Sterritte organ was installed. In March 2026, the congregation celebrated its sixtieth anniversary.
The Campus Today
The present-day campus includes the 2008 Sanctuary, surrounded by ten traditional stained-glass windows and a focal chancel window, seating about 800 worshippers; the more intimate Webster Chapel, which seats around 120 and serves as overflow for Sunday worship; the Crofts Music Center, opened in 1997 and connected to the Christian Education Building on both floors; the two-story Christian Education Building, remodeled in 2008 and home to the Moorings Presbyterian Preschool; the Baker Family Life Center, with a large multipurpose room, basketball and volleyball courts, a youth center, and offices; Moss Hall, with flexible space for fellowship events, a stage, an elevated audio and video booth, and a commercial kitchen that seats 250; and the Memorial Garden, a secluded columbarium between the Sanctuary and Music Center with 269 interment spaces.
The 23,000 square feet of meeting space are also available for weddings, concerts, meetings, parties, and sports club practices, with rental inquiries handled by Tricia Rowles. Weddings and memorial services are held in both the Sanctuary and the Webster Chapel, and the Memorial Garden offers columbarium interment for members.
Foundations of Faith and Stewardship
The congregation has recently launched a two-year capital campaign called Foundations of Faith, with a total fundraising goal of 2.5 million dollars, including 1.23 million allocated to the Christian Education Building that houses the Moorings Presbyterian Preschool. Through periodic updates, the church reports more than $281,000 already in hand, plus a lead gift of $300,000 and an additional matching grant of $100,000.
Annual giving supports the General Fund, local and global missions, the Hyacinth Concert Series, and stewardship pledges, with secure online giving available through the church's giving page. Gifts of time are also celebrated: from greeters and ushers to choir and handbell singers, from Presbyterian Women circles to the missions prayer team, there is a place for nearly every interest and ability.
Accessibility and First-Time Visitors
Moorings welcomes visitors of every ability. Handicap parking, accessible entrances and restrooms, elevators, and hearing assist devices are available throughout the building, and greeters are ready to direct visitors to the sanctuary, nursery, restrooms, or any other destination. Services are broadcast on a livestream that can be watched from anywhere. Whether a guest is a lifelong Christian, new to the faith, or simply looking for something deeper, the congregation's hope is that each person who walks through the door encounters the warmth of a community that has been worshipping together on Harbour Drive for sixty years.