Earlier this month on a hazy Sunday, while visiting an elderly and ailing friend Stateside, smoke from Canadian forest fires drifted across the St. Lawrence. It clung to the humid air over New York’s North Country. After a 45-minute drive down the 416 and having crossed the Ogdensburg-Prescott International Bridge, I turned right and drove into Ogdensburg, this small riverfront border town of 9,000 residents. It’s home to an art museum focused on the work of Frederic Remington, a pretty Neoclassical library, a bustling family-owned diner by the name of Phillip’s, and a small handful of heritage churches.
One of these is the First Presbyterian Church, which I had the chance to visit just in time for their 10:00 am Sunday service. I slipped in and took my place in a pew near the back. I counted around 30 people present that morning in what is a grand nineteenth century church that had clearly undergone some twentieth century interior “pruning.” It once served as the spiritual home to hundreds of families. The current church dates back to 1825 and underwent an expansion in 1848. But that wasn’t the last of the major changes to the church building, with rebuilding and renovations in 1866, as well as redecoration in 1924, followed by a redesign in 1966. Nothing living stays the same and churches are living works in progress — First Presbyterian being a good example of this!
Everyone knew — or at least knew of — everyone else, so it was evident that I was a visitor. Several members of the congregation greeted me and introduced themselves — it was an entirely hospitable experience. The 25-minute service was among the briefest I’ve attended, but the sermon offered a timeless message. The Gospel doesn’t command us to live in poverty nor to eschew all comforts of life. It’s okay to desire and to attain a certain level of comfort. But we’re not to hoard our wealth and our assets to the exclusion of the needs of others all around us. It spoke to a belief common among many Christians, namely that the world’s wealth is finite — the more one hoards necessarily means that less remains for others.
I was delighted to read this article. I was born, baptized , raised and married in this church. We have lived away from Ogdensburg but are now in the area and retired.
This article was very thorough and although our numbers are smaller especially in summer we are a vibrant chirch famiky with lots of outreach to the community.
You and your readers are always welcome!