The Norwegian Seamen's Church in New York will begin celebrating its 130th anniversary year with a special program Wednesday, September 24th, 6:30pm in NYC. The Norwegian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jonas Gahr Støre, will be present, and artists as Sondre Lerche and Ola Gjeilo will perform.
Don't miss the opportunity to meet the highly respected and popular Norwegian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jonas Gahr Støre, and celebrate the first 130 years of the Norwegian Seamen's Church.
The first Norwegian Seamen’s Church was started in New York on July 1st 1878 when the Seamen’s Mission in Bergen sent Ole Bugge Asperheim to establish a church in New York. He bought a large church on Pioneer Street in Brooklyn, which became the home for the church for the next 50 years.
In 1928 the church moved to First Place in Brooklyn. It was a big, beautiful building, and popular with the large Norwegian community in the Bay Ridge area, as well as with sailors from Norwegian ships in the Brooklyn docks. Then came the Depression in the thirties, when many Norwegian sailors were without food and shelter. The church was there to help them, especially “Tante” Klara Brevik, who became well-known among sailors around the world during that period.
During World War II the church – in many different ways -- helped thousands of people who were separated from their families in occupied Norway. After the war, the church continued to grow, and peaked in the sixties, when yearly visits to the church were over 100,000, and ship visits to New York area harbors were over 1500 a year. But by the early seventies the number of Norwegian ships calling in to New York fell to under 400. With fewer Norwegian crews, and shorter stays, it became difficult for seamen to visit the church, and it became more important for the pastors to visit the ships, instead.
At the same time, the colony in Brooklyn began to disperse, with families moving to the suburbs and newly arriving Norwegians settling in other parts of the metropolitan area. Ships rarely docked in Brooklyn any longer, and the beautiful Brooklyn church became too big and expensive. The first move, in 1983, was to the brownstone building on 49th Street at 2nd Avenue. There the number of visitors gradually increased from only 11,000 in 1985, to over 25,000 in 1989, so it was decided to sell the single brownstone on 49th Street, and buy two adjoining brownstones on 52nd Street where the Norwegian Seamen's Church currently is situated.
Everyone is welcome to take part in the celebrations, and Sondre Lerche and pianist Ola Gjeilo, among others, will perform and traditional Norwegian fish soup will be served.
When: September 24, 6.30 pm.
Where: The Norwegian Seamen's Church, 317 East 52nd Street (Between 1st and 2nd Avenue)
Info: Please note that the event will be held in Norwegian.