SPC In the Community

For Red Shoes Sunday Scroll All the Way Down…

Welcoming refugees to our area, one family at a time.

Uniting neighbors, houses of worship, community organizations and key service providers in Ossining, Cold Spring and surrounding towns, with the shared mission of welcoming and integrating federally-sponsored refugees into our communities.

Returning Fall 2023

In the fall of 2009, several things happened serendipitously: Teens at church wanted to do a fashion show, the annual rummage sale was underway, and the Social Creed of the 21 st Century – newly adopted by the PC(USA) and NCCUSA -- - called for sustainability and less waste as one of the Church’s pledges to the future. In true SPC style, we launched an event that combined all three: The Project Greenway Re-Fashion Show!

Project Greenway takes place every November at Scarborough. It is a fashion show with a modern twist. Every item worn on the runway is redesigned, re-styled and recycled from old clothing or other used (or rummaged) materials. Designers and models hail from all over the community and compete in two age categories: Under and over 19 years of age. Children learn to use sewing machines, everyone cleans out closets scavenging for inspiration pieces, and a different local charity is the beneficiary of all the ticket proceeds every year.

Some of the charities sponsored by Project Greenway include Career Closet of Briarcliff, New Beginnings, Cardinal McCloskey’s Hayden House of Ossining, and Kids’ Club of Tarrytown & Sleepy Hollow. Partnerships that have evolved over the past ten years with the Ossining Children’s Center and Westchester Community College’s Fashion Design program have added to its scope and runway roster.

Anyone can enter with a recycled design, made from almost anything, so it’s a special evening full of surprises and fun! The runway show is always followed by a wine and cheese reception (with lots of goodies donated by local markets and caterers). It’s a true community event that’s growing every year, and we’re proud that Project Greenway Re-Fashion Show has found its home base right here at Scarborough Presbyterian Church!

Scarborough Church participates in the Briarcliff Ossining Ministerial Association, an ecumenical/ interfaith group made up of local clergy.  In 2013, after many meetings with community leaders, police, political leaders and others, BOMA launched the Ossining Homeless Program to house the homeless of Ossining during the coldest months of the year.  The first year, BOMA only provided three weeks of shelter, but in 2017-2018, we provided overnight housing in our area churches from December 3 through the end of March. In 2018-19 it will be much the same schedule.

The program is based on a similar one in the Mount Kisco/Bedford area.  Meals and a floor to sleep on are provided. All help is volunteer help except for one paid supervisor who stays overnight with the group.  We average housing 10-15 people a night. Scarborough Church took two weeks this year.

If you are interested in volunteering, please contact the minister Tim Ives: 914-941-1142/ 914-645-1482/ timives4932@gmail.com.

We house an Alcoholics Anonymous group at Scarborough Church on Sunday and Wednesday nights at 7 pm.  This is a group that is totally separate by design. We are happy to sponsor this group, but their work and mission is theirs and they should be contacted directly if you want to get involved.

The Ossining Food Pantry has served hungry and food-insecure Ossining and Briarcliff Manor families each week for the last 30 years from its home at Trinity Episcopal Church, 2 miles north of Scarborough Church on Route 9.

Scarborough Church has supported OFP from its inception with money to purchase food as well as bags of groceries our worshippers bring on each communion Sunday. Our members have also served on its board, planned its annual fundraisers, delivered and sorted many tons of groceries, and worked directly with needy families.

Volunteers (and everyone is a volunteer) are needed to help in many ways, and one can learn more at ossiningfoodpantry.org, or by contacting them at ossfoodpan@gmail.com

We also support the Food Pantry with our summer garden. Produce is grown and sold and all proceeds go to the Food Pantry.

These two singing groups rent space at SPC and members of the church participate in both with others.

Scarborough Singers meet on Mondays at noon. Contact Claire Payne for more information.

The Hudson Bells meet on Thursdays at 9:30am. Contact Kathy Davis for more information.

Occasionally, SPC holds its sometimes annual Rummage Sale on the grounds of the church.

Members of SPC donate gently-used goods – such as clothing, toys, jewelry, kitchenware, boutique items, books and athletic equipment – and volunteer to set up, break down and man the different posts on the day of the sale.

Most importantly, our church family meets and interacts with members of the community, sharing our beautiful church while also providing quality goods at affordable cost. Funds generated by the Rummage Sale go to the ongoing ministry of the church.

Make sure to check out the church calendar to find out the date of this year’s Rummage Sale and join us for a worthy cause and a day full of fellowship and fun!

Perhaps the most joyous of all our church services each year takes place on Christmas Eve.

The sanctuary is candlelit and garnished with greens and poinsettias of the season, helping to create a warm festive atmosphere for members and visitors alike.

After a holiday message from Pastor Tim Ives, the children of SPC present the annual Christmas Pageant which – in the name of the holiday miracle – is the Best Christmas Pageant Ever each and every year!

The service concludes with everyone standing and circling the sanctuary, singing Christmas carols while holding candles – family bonded by fellowship in the most beautiful of settings – before setting out into the chilly holiday night.

The congregation of Scarborough Presbyterian Church understands itself to be steward of the whole property of the Church, which is to be held in trust for future generations.  It is a part of that trust to serve the needs of the Church and our broader community through use by non-profit and appropriate for-profit organizations.  Family celebrations are also welcome.

In that spirit, we make available, for a fee (which are set by our Buildings and Grounds Committee) certain areas on the property.  These include the Sanctuary (for weddings and other appropriate celebrations), the chapel, the ‘Big Room’ in Fellowship Hall, and the conference room in the Carriage House.

If you would like to inquire about the use of any of these spaces, please email the office at office@scaroboughchurch.com or call the office (914-941-1142) during daytime office hours.

Red Shoes Sunday October 30, 2022

On October 30 you are invited to come to the Scarborough Church at 10:30am for a celebration of kindness. When you attend you are asked to wear red shoes and you are asked to bring one example of an intentional and random kindness that you preformed that week. At the celebration you will be asked to place a card in the offering plate with your offering of kindness. I hope we can fill many plates with our kindnesses. They will be displayed on the Red Shoes website after the day.

We are doing this in honor of a former member of Scarborough Church named Bob Minzsheimer who died seven years ago. Bob was one of those kind people who did great acts of kindness without making a show of it. He was a soft-spoken and gentle and yet a man of vision who knew the world could be a better place. In many ways he lived his life so it would be a better place. Bob also had the habit of wearing red shoes. So to honor him we are going to wear our red shoes and make the world a little better place in any creative way we can think of.

So this is what you can do. Think of something kind that you wouldn’t other wise do and that week or every week just do it. Then come join us in the sanctuary of Scarborough Church at 10:30 am for the kindness celebration. Please get your church or synagogue or other place of worship involved, or any community organization, or your family and friends! The world needs more kindness lets all do it together. Wear your red shoes and if anyone asks why the red shoes just tell them about Red Shoes Sunday! You can also give to Red Shoes Sunday by clicking the button below All proceeds go to the Ossining library.