On Chapel Street in the village of Cobleskill, the brick walls and stained glass of Cobleskill United Methodist Church have anchored a congregation since 1894. Today the church gathers Sunday mornings at 10:30 and is known across Schoharie County for three things above all: a radical welcome that names itself, a food pantry that has kept going since 1986, and a Sunday morning rhythm that still feels like the spiritual home of a small community even as it streams across the world.
A Reconciling Congregation on Chapel Street
Cobleskill United Methodist Church calls itself a Reconciling Church, one of a fellowship of United Methodist congregations that publicly affirm the full participation of LGBTQ people and others who have been marginalized. The decision was made together in 2022 after the congregation gathered in person for the first time following the long pandemic separation. The Welcome Statement, posted inside and outside the building, names race, ethnicity, age, faith history, economic status, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, physical and mental ability, education, and any other difference the world uses to sort people, and it says all of it is a gift.
The statement is plain about the world it lives in: "We acknowledge that we live in a world of profound social, economic, and political inequities." Then it makes a promise in the language of belonging. "We affirm that all people are created in the image of God - and as beloved children of God, all are worthy of God's love and grace." Pride Sunday is observed here each June, new nametags in worship give visitors an easy in, and the Inclusive CUMC team keeps the work going between Sundays.
Sunday Mornings at 10:30
Sunday worship begins at 10:30 AM in the sanctuary and runs about an hour. The space matters here. Big wooden doors off Chapel Street open directly into the entryway beside the sanctuary, and the room itself is a quiet stunner of stained glass and old wooden pews, the same spiritual home it has been for a hundred and thirty years. A handicap-accessible entrance on the side of the building leads to automatic doors, ramps, accessible restrooms, large-print bulletins, and an assistive listening system for anyone who needs them.
The service is a blend of older hymns and newer songs, anchored in piano and organ, with the occasional surprise of a ukulele, euphonium, or tin whistle from members who love to play. Dress is "come as you are," from a favorite Hawaiian shirt to a pressed dress, and the congregation is intentional about it. Communion is celebrated on the first Sunday of each month with gluten-free bread and grape juice, served at an open table where anyone who wishes to receive is welcome, children included.
For those who cannot be in the sanctuary, every Sunday service is livestreamed on Facebook and YouTube, and sermons are posted on the church blog for later reading. The investment in online worship began during the pandemic and has stayed, so a viewer in any time zone can pull up last Sunday's message or join live from a hospital room or a kitchen table.
Children, Youth, and Compassion Camp
Cobleskill UMC holds that to enter the kingdom of God one must become like a child, and the building is set up to honor that. Children are welcome in worship from the start. After the Children's Message during the 10:30 service, children in grades K through 5 are invited to Children's Church with Ms. Lisa in the social hall for the rest of the service. Younger children, from newborn through age 5 or 6, can be dropped in the staffed nursery down the hall beginning at 9:15. Nursery Manager Hilary Taylor brings a background in early childhood work, and all nursery staff and volunteers follow the church's Safe Sanctuaries policies, are CPR certified, and have passed background checks. For children who stay in the pews, activity bags with toys and crayons sit just outside the sanctuary doors, and sensory bags are available in the pews for any worshipper who finds them helpful.
Each summer the church runs Compassion Camp, a four-morning program for children who have completed kindergarten through fifth grade, with a different theme each year and curriculum built by teachers within the congregation. The camp uses drama, art, games, and mission to grow love of God, neighbors, and the earth, and recent summers have welcomed about twenty-five children. The 2026 theme is "All God's Creatures!"
The senior youth group, called Suddenly Sunday, gathers twice a month on the second and fourth Sunday afternoons from 4:00 to 6:00 PM. It is open to students in grades 5 through 12 and includes dinner, games, faith conversation, and service projects. The youth are also beginning a formal partnership with the surrounding Mosaic of United Methodist churches to share gatherings between congregations, co-led by the pastors.
Bibles, Covenant Groups, and the Welcome Mat
For adults, the congregation runs a stack of formation opportunities through the program year. Tuesday mornings at 10:00 in the conference room, a lectionary Bible study led by Rev. Tom Carney works through the scripture that will show up in the next Sunday service and is open to anyone who wants to dig deeper. A second Bible study meets Tuesday evenings on Zoom for those who would rather join from home. There is a Wednesday-morning fellowship group, a Tuesday evening prayer group on Zoom, and a Men's Group that meets the third Saturday of each month at 9:00 AM.
Two newer small-group formats are central to the church's Belong Team work. Covenant Groups bring five to seven people together weekly to hold one another in love and practice core habits that align a life with Christ. Fellowship Tables gather seven or eight people around a monthly meal, with new tables starting up throughout the year. The Welcome Mat Group, a three-week session offered each spring and fall, walks newcomers into the life of the church and is often a path toward membership.
Seasonal studies run in Advent, Lent, and summer. Recent titles together have included Kate Bowler's "Everything Happens," Brian McLaren's "Do I Stay Christian?," "The Road Back to You," "The Book of Job," "Staying Awake," and Amy Jill Levine's "Witnesses at the Cross." Grief Support, sponsored by Helios Care, meets in the conference room on the fourth Wednesday of each month from 10:00 to 11:30 AM and is open to anyone in the community walking through loss.
Music, from Choir Loft to Tin Whistle
Music has been a long thread at Cobleskill UMC. The organist, Betsy Walsh, grew up outside Philadelphia, attended several colleges including Bard and Temple, and began playing the organ at age 45 after nearly two decades of piano accompaniment at the church school. The Music Director, Lenna Darbin Andrews, leads both the choir and the handbell program. The choir rehearses Wednesday evenings at 6:30 and Sunday mornings at 9:00 during the school year and welcomes all voices.
Bell ringing is a real ministry here. The church is blessed with a two-octave set of hand chimes and a four-octave set of handbells, and the handbell choir rehearses most Sundays after worship from September through May. Special Music invites members to bring whatever instrument they love, from cello to ukulele to flute, and the church has a way of surprising a congregation with a tin whistle in the middle of a familiar hymn. Youth string ensembles, Christmas cantatas, and the legacy of legendary organist Miss Edna Mereness keep the music room connected across generations.
The Food Pantry, the Thrift Store, and Summer Lunch
The CUMC Food Pantry, established in 1986 on referrals from social services and Head Start, opened its doors to serve two or three days of food to 53 families in its first year. Today it serves on average 90 households a month and is open Friday mornings from 9:30 to noon for any Schoharie County resident in need. Families can come twice a month, leave with three to four days of food, and pick up personal care and paper products that cannot be bought with food stamps. A backyard church garden now grows fresh vegetables for the program.
The Road to Jubilee Thrift Store fills the floor below the food pantry with gently used adult and children's clothing, accessories, toys, books, and some household items. It is open Fridays and Saturdays from 9:30 AM to 1:00 PM and is run entirely by volunteers, with proceeds supporting the church's mission both inside and outside the building. Donations of clean items are accepted on the wooden pew just outside the store Tuesday through Friday mornings between 9:00 AM and 1:30 PM, or during Saturday store hours.
Each summer the church hosts a free summer lunch program Monday through Friday from noon to 1:00 PM, coordinated by Michelle Arrowood and staffed by volunteers who serve from 11:00 AM to 2:00 PM. Lunch is open to any child or family in the community who walks through the door.
Reaching Beyond the Building
Operation: Home Repair is an annual week of mission that sends volunteer crews out to perform critical repairs for neighbors across the county. Homeowner applications are due in early March and volunteer team applications in early May. The work is lay-led across the Mosaic of cooperating churches after a year of preparation.
Flood Bucket Ministry fills cleaning buckets for the United Methodist Committee on Relief, working alongside sister congregations to throw Bucket-Building Parties, most often in the deep of winter. On the first Sunday after school starts in September, the front lawn of the church becomes a Community Block Party with free food, ice cream, local musicians, crafts, games, and the famous Bouncy Slide. Halloween brings Halloween Hollow, a candy chute dropped from the third-floor balcony, a jack-o'-lantern display, and Trunk or Treat for the hundreds of families who walk past the doors that night.
The church also underwrites Camperships, scholarships that send children and youth to weeklong programs at United Methodist camps across the Adirondacks and Catskills, including Aldersgate, Casowasco, Sky Lake, and Skye Farm. Campership Coordinator Lori Lasher walks each family through the registration, the family pays the initial deposit, and the church covers the balance.
Beloved, Belong, Be the Difference
The congregation organizes much of its life around three lay-led teams built from a mission statement of three short words: Beloved. Belong. Be the Difference. The Beloved Team tends the inward life of welcome and worship. The Belong Team, formed in 2025, surveys the congregation, designs small groups, and helped launch Covenant Groups, Fellowship Tables, the Welcome Mat, and a new Prayer Group and Grief Group. The Be the Difference Team keeps the outward-facing ministries, the food pantry, the thrift store, the summer lunch, the camperships, and Operation: Home Repair, all running smoothly.
A formal Confirmation Cohort began in 2025 with eight youth from the congregation and will journey together for a year. Lay-led planning committees shape the church's community events. The pastors and the lay leadership hold sabbatical space for rest and renewal, and the most recent pastor's pilgrimage took a group of ten members to the Isle of Iona in Scotland for a week of study in Celtic Christianity and another week of peacebuilding work with the Iona Community.
Worship, Welcome, and What Visitors Should Know
Visitors who are new can expect to be greeted warmly, given a brief Connect Card at the back of the sanctuary if they would like one, and invited to share a name if they wish. Children's Ministry and Nursery staff will help orient families to the children's programs. Two parking lots, a smaller one with handicap spaces off North Grand Street and a larger one three doors down on Chapel Street, plus street parking on Chapel, mean there is usually a spot close to the big wooden doors. The side door is handicap accessible.
The most faithful summary of who this church is comes from its own welcome page: "We hope Cobleskill UMC is a safe place for you to meet God and explore matters of faith and life." The covenant the church extends to anyone walking through its doors is older than the building and at the same time new every Sunday morning.