[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 9]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 13213]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



          HONORING MOUNT VERNON HEIGHTS CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. ELIOT L. ENGEL

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, June 16, 1999

  Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Speaker, this year, the good parishioners of the Mount 
Vernon Heights Congregational Church celebrate the church's 100th 
anniversary. The history of the church is actually longer when we 
remember that it was in 1892 that its meetings began in the Garden 
Avenue School. The church became fully organized in 1896 with the Rev. 
F.B. Kellogg named pastor of the new church. By the following year the 
congregation had grown so large that it moved to a barn on Bedford 
Avenue and, on July 4th of that year, the new church was dedicated.
  By 1910 the church has become self-supporting and in 1916 
construction on the current building was started. The church, a New 
England colonial design reflecting a post Civil War spirit of unity and 
self determination, was completed by 1922. Subsequently a sanctuary was 
added as well as tower chime.
  The Mount Vernon Heights Congregational Church has always practiced 
community activism as well as charitable works and community projects, 
such as its youth seminars and elderly centers.
  The church also is part of the annual pulpit exchanges in which 
ministers from 19 churches deliver sermons at sister churches.
  The church is justly proud of its fellowship of many denominations 
and its ministers of many differing ethnic and social backgrounds. The 
Rev. Maximilian Bernard Surjadinata, pastor since 1988, was born in 
Indonesia. I warmly congratulate the Mount Vernon Heights 
Congregational Church on its centenary and for its wonderful 
accomplishments in those hundred years.

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