Olivet's Mission
Olivet Church began in 1913 as a mission outreach of nearby Calvary Presbyterian to Italian-speaking immigrants, remaining a mission congregation until 1946, when it became a fully independent congregation, taking the name of Olivet. We will thus be celebrating our 60th anniversary as Olivet next year. The founding pastor, Dr. Joseph DeRogatis was a seminarian when he started the mission. The work prospered and he ended up staying 45 years, retiring in 1958. His work grew not only among Italian immigrants, but also among people of many ethnicities and set the tone for the multi-cultural congregation that Olivet has become today.
In 1970, the congregation fulfilled a long dream and moved from its previous site on a hidden side street to the building where we now worship, on property that the church had purchased for $19,000 at a tax auction in 1956.
Our present pastor, Lee MacCallum, was called two years later in early 1972, and he has served the church for the last 33 years. During his tenure Olivet has had a small but steady growth, growing from 200 in 1972 to the present 269. The greatest growth has been in the ethnic diversity that defines us now, and in the scope of our mission.
Olivet is a place of welcome for all God's people. It is a place where we work very hard at making people from all backgrounds and situations feel at home. This welcome is undergirded by a strong worship and educational experience. We have a wonderfully diverse congregation, which sees worship as an interactive experience, not a spectator sport. We have a strong music program with a chancel choir, gospel choir, children's choir and some superb soloists. For youth, there is a lively Church School with between 40-50 active children up to the 8th grade, and three youth groups for elementary, intermediate and senior high youth. In addition, we have the oldest continuing Vacation Bible School on Staten Island, operating every summer since 1923. For adults there is a regular adult education and retreated program. We also have a strong sense of stewardship that has allowed us to be completely self-supporting through our offering income, with no endowment principal or interest ever going to current expenses and about 18% of our offerings going to mission outside our walls. Through the generosity of our members, our church building and manse became debt-free in 1986. In 1990 we began a scholarship program to provide help for our young people going on for higher education. From small beginnings we now give almost $10,000 a year to our students - with each one receiving a $1,000 award and in addition, being eligible for special merit awards totaling $2,500.
In 1986, in cooperation with a local Catholic hospital, we built Joseph House on our church property, providing much needed housing for low income seniors. There are 75 apartments in the building next door, all of which provide affordable, subsidized housing for seniors from all over New York. We were instrumental in the start of Neighborhood Housing Services of Staten Island, which helped to stabilize the local housing stock, not only in this West Brighton section of Staten Island, but in neighborhoods across the island.
We were also instrumental in the start of Project Hospitality, our island-wide inter-faith ministry to people who are homeless and those living with HIV/AIDS. We presently have a shelter for 7 women in our church building every night of the week. We also provide monthly meals for 50-60 men and women living with HIV/AIDS. A team of 25 church men and women cook regularly. In addition we have a year-round food pantry and provide food baskets with a week’s worth of food at Thanksgiving and Christmas for approximately 75 families.
We have given leadership to ecumenical and inter-faith worship and community improvement events. We have been the principal organizers of annual Lenten and Advent services that draw between 20 and 30 Protestant and Roman Catholic churches for worship and fellowship. In addition, for the last 7 years we have been the principal organizers of an annual island-wide ecumenical worship during the week of prayer for Christian unity that draws between 700-800 people.
Three years ago, our Pastor, in his role as President of the Staten Island Council of Churches organized an interfaith prayer service in remembrance of 9/11, which drew more than 3000 people to our local minor league ball park. As a result of that event he then worked with a local Rabbi to begin Community Days, an annual weekend event that last year involved about 75 religious institutions representing Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists and Sikhs working side by side in projects of community improvement.
Our Pastor has also been teaching for the last 5 years at the Arthur Kill Correctional Facility, a medium security prison on the south shore of Staten Island, where he and a small group of clergy provide college level classes in Hebrew and New Testament, Church History, Pastoral Care, Ethics and World Religions, as part of the Rising Hope program that began at Sing-Sing under the leadership of Bill Webber. The inmates receive credit toward college that has provided many of them with a hope for a better future when they come back into society.
We are a church that tries to take our discipleship seriously, and seeks ever new ways to serve our Lord, by serving all those in need.