St. Michael's Church, Manhattan

St. Michael’s Church offers a completely free Youth Choir Program for schoolchildren of every age. Fostering community, leadership, and Episcopal identity through choral singing, the Youth Choir Program at St. Michael’s provides choristers with a solid foundation in healthy vocal technique and comprehensive musicianship training as well as friendships to last a lifetime.

Hours of operation: Wednesday afternoon, Sunday morning

This committee works on various issues, primarily by providing educational opportunities for parishioners and others, but sometimes with direct advocacy.  Our task force on Palestine/Israel has sponsored the Tree of Life Conference for two years, and also promoted solidarity trips to Palestine.

Our weekly meal and grocery program has fought food insecurity for over 40 years. About 350 guests get healthy meals and pantry items every Saturday morning. We frequently hand out clothing too.

Our diverse team makes it happen – Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, humanitarians – If you like to serve, this is the place.

Volunteer Opportunities:

Friday sandwich prep – 11:00 am – 1:00 pm

Saturday prep & distribution – 8:00 – 11:30 am

Founded in 1807 by wealthy families, some of whom owned slaves, St. Michael’s Church grew over its first century from a small rural parish into an influential institutional urban church. St. Michael’s prosperity emerged in a society whose economic structure depended on slavery and, after the Civil War, on racist inhumanity and exploitation. In its second century, St. Michael’s explicitly preserved slavery’s legacies – the cruelties of segregation and disenfranchisement – in the maintenance of a segregated mission-chapel, St. Jude’s Chapel, and in subsequent patterns of spiritual exclusion. Though St. Michael’s Church has made progress recently in confronting social injustices and in offering inclusive welcome, it has only just begun a deep discernment of its own complicity in slavery’s legacies and in racism. Begun in 2019, the work of the Reparations Committee unfolds from deep discernment processes.      

Honoring that part of the Baptismal Covenant in which we promise “to strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being,” St. Michael’s Church commits every effort possible to repair the sin of slavery and its legacies in our church. Our reparations commitments extend beyond allocation of financial resources for new programs and include continued discernment about our church community’s spiritual purpose and identity. ​

Homework Help provides free “kitchen table” help for grades 1-8. Tutorials take place in person or online on Mondays at 6:00 pm from October through May. We match students with consistent volunteers to encourage strong relationships. The pairs work together for an hour each week, primarily on school homework assignments.

Additional volunteers are always needed:

• People willing to commit an hour each week to a student
• Substitutes who can help once or twice a month
• Administrators to help run the program

Every Saturday at 10:00 am, tutors provide one-on-one help for conversational practice and reading to individuals who speak English as a Second Language (ESL).

¿Quisiera mejorar su inglés?

Todos los sábados a las 10:00 am, los tutores brindan ayuda personalizada para la práctica de conversación y lectura a personas que hablan inglés como segundo idioma.