"Emmaus is simple Christianity, where giving a cup of cold water on a hot summer's day is like a sacrament." -- Fr David Kirk

NEWS

Traveling Kitchen
One night a week, friends of Emmaus travel the streets of Manhattan providing food and drink to the hungry. Seasonal clothing and toiletries are also available. The past several months have seen different groups of volunteers including church groups, youth groups and seminarians.   

April Workdays at Emmaus House

On Saturday, April 17 we held our second workday at Emmaus House. Father Andrew Fetchina, from John the Baptist Russian Orthodox Church in Rahway, and his parrish president, David Lee, brought nine children from their church to work in the house for a "few" hours.  And what a few hours those were! Clothes got sorted and folded, floors got scrubbed, plants found their way into the garden soil,  and the chapel got a tender cleaning with organic lavendar soap. Then we all entered the chapel for a paniheda service by Father Andrew commenorating Father David Kirk, the founder of Emmaus House. Our final minutes together took place on the front stoop where the children presented us with a generous donation for the house, money that they had raised themselves. The whole experience confirmed that aspect of the Emmaus ministry that we call a "learning lab."  Also, on that day, Ted Panourgias from Stamford, CT and four residents from the Bowery Mission, were on the third and fourth floors cleaning, spackling the bedroom walls and carrying unwanted furniture to the street. Our work to prepare our physical plant for work with the poor definitely had a "grass roots" orientation. We welcome all to participate on these days.

Winter 2010 Newsletter:  We are our Brother's Keeper.  As we prepare for Lent, let us heed the words from a sermon of St. Leo (450 AD):  "Let us now extend to the poor and those afflicted in different ways a more openhanded generosity, so that God may be thanked through many voices and the relief of the needy supported by our fasting. No act of devotion on the part of the faithful gives God more pleasure than that which is lavished on his poor...In these acts of giving do not fear a lack of means. A generous spirit is itself great wealth. There can be no shortage of material for generosity where is Christ who feeds and Christ who is fed."  Read More.

ARCHIVED NEWS

St Vladimir's Seminary community ministers to Big Apple’s homeless: Members of the seminary community donated their time, money, and material goods, and participated in a soup run that aided over 120 people living on the city streets. Seminarian Aaron Oliver and seminary alumnus Fr Martin Kraus, rector of Holy Trinity Church in East Meadow, NY, arranged for the cooperative effort. Read more.

Christmas 2009 Newsletter: "Christmas is our feast. The time we remember Jesus, born homeless in a shelter in Bethlehem..." It was with these words from Fr. David Kirk that we began our Christmas letter to you last year. We felt it fitting to revisit them as Emmaus House re-opens its doors after a summer of having been closed... Read more

Historic Rachmaninoff Vespers Service. NEW YORK, NY [OCA Communications] -- Selections from Rachmaninoff's All-Night Vigil was sung at a Vespers service at St. Nicholas Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Church in New York City on February 7, 2009.  This was said to be the first time in the Western Hemisphere that Rachmaninoff's Vespers is sung in an Orthodox liturgical service. Read more.

Christmas 2008 Newsletter: Christmas is our feast. The time we remember Jesus, born homeless in a shelter in Bethlehem. The time of hope, of the birth of hope ... the time we try once again to open our hearts, our lives, and let God be born in us. Read more.

The Road to Emmaus Runs Through Harlem. An interview with Fr. David Kirk a few hours before he fell asleep in the Lord.

Christmas 2007 Newsletter: This is the first Christmas since Father David's death and we still miss him keenly but his spirit and lifelong dedication to the principle of "empowering the poor to serve the poor" spurs us on. For as Father David taught us, it is in the poor where Christ is fed, healed, set free, given hospitality, and given dignity. Read more.

Remembering Fr. David Kirk by Father John Garvey.

All Things Considered, June 10, 2007.  The formerly homeless residents of Emmaus House in Harlem recently buried their spiritual leader, the Rev. David Kirk. Kirk, who died at age 72 last month, believed in empowering the poor to serve the poor. Listen to this online radio show.

Father David Kirk Archive - website dedicated to the life of Fr. David Kirk. Includes many of Fr. David's writings.