ELLENVILE- In 2024, the St. John’s Memorial Episcopal Church on Market Street in the Village of Ellenville will be celebrating its 150th anniversary. The current church building is located next to the original building, which is now a music school. The soon-to-be-retiring Pastor Jeff Golliher spoke about the history of the congregation.
“This church, which was begun in 1873, was consecrated and was being used in 1874,” said Golliher. “Music has been central to the life of this congregation in different ways. The pipe organ, for example, the way the sound vibrates through the wood, it’s almost like the church itself becomes like a musical instrument. There’s something, it resonates.”
Golliher also explained the significance of the architecture of the church building.
“The architecture of this building is older, meaning, the people back in the 1800s would have understood is like its an upside-down ship. It’s a vehicle to carry our soles, not from this world to another world exactly, but from one state of being, in the present, to another.”
Golliher said that while the church building itself is beautiful, it is the living presence of the space that makes it so beautiful.
“The living presence of the sacred space that it is is not found in the material church, but it is found in the place where people are called together to remember what is important in life,” he said.
