To commemorate the Community Church of Great Neck’s 100th anniversary, Pastor Stephen Na has scheduled a two-day celebration from May 3-4 and is inviting the entire Great Neck community to participate.
“What we’re doing is gathering the whole community in the Great Neck area,” Na said. “We’re going to have local officials come by and have local business vendors.”
The celebration, Na said, is not only a commemoration of the church’s history, but also a reminder that the church is open to the entire Great Neck community.
“This church has been perceived as just a Chinese church,” he said. “We just want to let the community that this is a church of all nations. It’s a church for the community.”
The church’s congregation, Na said, consists mainly of Chinese worshippers and has a Sunday service that is celebrated in Chinese every week at 11 a.m.
But the church, which, Na said, is nondenominational Protestant, has not always been known as an “ethnic church.”
“In the ‘90s, the church started to decline in membership,” he said. “There was a Chinese group that met in the basement of the church. As that congregation started to grow, they merged into one church. And so since the ‘90s the church has been known as a Chinese church.”
Na, who moved to Great Neck from Philadelphia four years ago, said it has been his goal to make people realize that other nationalities are invited to pray at the church.
Na preaches at the 9:30 a.m. Sunday service, which is in English. There is also an evening service that starts at 5 p.m., also in English.
“I’m just trying to open our doors back to the community,” Na said. “This is your church for the community.”
The church, Na said, has also been a starting point for many of the Temples in Great Neck.
The congregations of Temple Beth-El and Temple Isaiah of Great Neck were both founded out of the Community Church’s building, which is located at 2 Stoner Ave., Na said.
“This church in the past has had a good relationship with the Jewish community,” he said.
The two-day celebration, Na said, will start at Jonathan Ielpi Firefighter’s Park in the Village of Great Neck Plaza with a street fair.
“There’s going to be a lot of things for kids. Face paint, ice cream, those sorts of things,” Na said. “Throughout the day we’ll also have performances from people in the community.”
Na said the church will also have a bilingual memorial service at the church on Sunday. The mass will be presided over by Na and the church’s Chinese pastor, Steven Chen.
Na said a final guest list has not been finalized, but that several guests of the Chinese and Protestant communities has been invited to the church.
The church will then have a dinner celebration at the East Manor restaurant in Flushing, Queens.
“We basically want to end the whole event with a big celebration,” Na said.
