Parish Office Closed (Thanksgiving)
2023-11-23 - 2023-11-24 | St. James’ Episcopal Church, 4526 Albany Post Rd., Hyde Park, NY, 12538, United States

Eagle Scout Celebration (Parish Hall)
2023-11-25 13:00 - 17:00 (America/New_York) | St. James’ Episcopal Church, 4526 Albany Post Rd., Hyde Park, NY, 12538, United States

Advent Wreath Making During Coffee Hour
2023-11-26 11:30 - 12:00 | St. James’ Episcopal Church, 4526 Albany Post Rd., Hyde Park, NY, 12538, United States

Stewardship Breakfast (Parish Hall)
2023-12-03 09:00 - 10:00 | St. James’ Episcopal Church, 4526 Albany Post Rd., Hyde Park, NY, 12538, United States
Celebrate St. James’ at a special Stewardship Breakfast hosted by the Vestry (governing board)! Sunday, December 3rd at 9 am (between our 8 and 10 am services) in the Parish Hall. ALL are welcome!
December 3rd is the First Sunday of Advent and our “ingathering” day for members’ 2024 giving estimates (pledges). Your pledge to St. James’ shows your support and love for this community we build together, and allows us to create a meaningful budget for shared ministry in the year ahead.

"It's Up to the Women" Screening of Philadelphia Eleven Documentary and Evening Prayer for Human Rights Day honoring Eleanor Roosevelt
2023-12-10 16:00 - 18:00 | St. James’ Episcopal Church, 4526 Albany Post Rd., Hyde Park, NY, 12538, United States
Sunday, December 10th (the 75th Anniversary of the signing of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights), at 4 pm, please join St. James’ Church for a special event honoring groundbreaking women.
We’re screening a brand-new documentary, The Philadelphia Eleven, about the first women to be ordained priests in the Episcopal Church—before women’s ordination was recognized as valid (trailer at philadelphiaelevenfilm.com).
Then at 6 pm we’ll have an evening prayer service honoring Episcopal women, including Eleanor Roosevelt, a St. James’ “saint” and chair of the commission that drafted the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights. (The title of this event is taken from her book It’s Up to the Women. Written at the height of the Great Depression, it urged women in particular to do their part in creating a just society.) To livestream the service, please visit St. James’ Youtube channel.
4:00 p.m. Doors open/ light movie-themed refreshments in the Parish Hall
4:30 p.m. Screening of The Philadelphia Eleven in the Parish Hall
6:00 p.m. Evening Prayer in the Church honoring Episcopal Women, including Eleanor Roosevelt, with a reading of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights

American Guild of Organists Presents: Romanian Organ Landscape (Church with Reception in Parish Hall)
2024-02-03 15:00 - 17:00 | St. James’ Episcopal Church, 4526 Albany Post Rd., Hyde Park, NY, 12538, United States

Parish House & Nursery School Closed for Electric Work
2024-04-10 | HP Farmers Market

9 am Coffee Hour with farewell to Jim and Jan!
2024-06-09 09:00 - 10:00 | HP Farmers Market
We’ll have a special coffee hour between our 8 and 10 am services today so we can bid a fond farewell to members Jim and Jan Smyth, who are moving away.

Congregational Meeting about the Nursery School
2025-07-20 11:15 - 12:00 | HP Farmers Market
The following letter was emailed to the congregation on July 12, 2025.
Dear friends,
On behalf of the Vestry, we invite you to join in a brief (30-45 minute) congregational meeting after the 10 am service on Sunday, July 20.
The purpose of this meeting is to share information about the current realities of our Nursery School ministry, and to include you in the Nursery School Committee and Vestry’s ongoing discernment process about this ministry.
Nursery School Ministry Finances & Enrollment
Enrollment in our Nursery School has declined since the pandemic. We have space for up to 12 children each day, but for the coming school year we expect only 4–6 children daily.
The needs of Hyde Park families have changed. Poverty levels have risen, and most families no longer have a caregiver at home during daytime work hours. As a result, our half-day Nursery program is difficult for many families to access. Many find their needs are best served by our school district’s free universal pre-k program, or by other full-day programs.
For nearly sixty years, the Nursery School balanced ministry costs with tuition income—we were even able to provide scholarships! But since 2020, tuition income has halved due to declining enrollment. The resulting deficit has cost the church about $81,000 since 2020, or about $13,500 per year—the equivalent of seven to ten church members’ average annual pledges.
What we’ve tried
We are proud of our Nursery School, which has offered a loving, child-centered environment since 1963. Many members, and members’ children, had their earliest learning experiences here! So leaders have been working very hard to overcome these financial and enrollment challenges:
Our dedicated Nursery School Committee and teachers have done an excellent job marketing the Nursery School. They’ve hosted open houses, tabled at community events, sent mailings to new families, canvassed our local schools, campaigned on social media, and partnered with talented St. James’ artists to create beautiful marketing materials like a new brochure and video. They also secured generous gifts and grants to renovate our playground, making it a more welcoming draw for families.
At this year’s Annual Meeting of the congregation, the budget presentation outlined a plan to eliminate the Nursery School budget deficit by expanding our family ministries, adding a before-school care program starting this fall. Unfortunately, due to unforeseen delays in the permitting process, we were only able to open the program to one local elementary school, and so far have only one student enrolled. While we are still hopeful and excited about expanding into before-and-after-school care—which seems like a real community need—we are unsure about when we’ll be able to get the permit to do so successfully.
The Path Forward
The best of St. James’ is our relationships—with God, one another, and our whole community. We want to be a hub for a variety of ministries, community groups, and nonprofits that are actively meeting the needs of our neighbors today.
Our church is not a business, but it is an institution called to invest its resources in service to the good of our community. The question before the Vestry is whether, given the changing needs of the families of Hyde Park, St. James’ is doing the right thing by investing approximately $13,500 annually in the Nursery School ministry.
The July 20 meeting is an opportunity for you, as a congregation, to fully understand the realities and challenges this beloved ministry is facing. You may have ideas to share or questions to ask, and these will be gratefully received. We ask that you pray for the Nursery School Committee, teachers, students, families, and your Vestry.
Please plan to join this important conversation on July 20, immediately following the 10 am service.
Faithfully,
The Rev. Meredith Kadet Sanderson
Priest-in-Charge
Mike Glancey
Senior Warden
Joseph Gasparini
Junior Warden
