Our History

On April 30th, 1989 the Presbytery of New York City celebrated the organization of The Church of Gethsemane in their new space at Park Slope, Brooklyn’s former Prospect Heights Presbyterian Church on 1012 Eighth Ave.

The invitation to this event stated that “The Church of Gethsemane is being constituted as an intentional congregation of neighborhood persons, prisoners, ex-offenders and their families, and people in solidarity with the poor and the imprisoned. Together, we seek the empowerment of the Christian gospel to heal our lives and bring justice to our world.”

The Rev. Dr. Constance M. Baugh, the founding pastor, was also installed at this event. At that time, she had already been a leader in the field of criminal justice for almost twenty years. She was the first woman to organize a PCUSA church in New York City.

The Church of Gethsemane grew out of Rev. Baugh’s criminal justice ministry at the Women’s Correctional Institutions at Rikers Island in New York City. In 1978 she founded Citizen Advocates for Justice, Inc. (CAFJ)— a direct service organization which evolved into JusticeWorks Community under the leadership of Mary-Elizabeth Fitzgerald.

In the course of Rev. Baugh’s criminal justice ministry, incarcerated persons, formerly incarcerated persons and their families often called upon her for baptisms, funerals, marriages, and communion services. Many people did not feel welcomed in other churches when they came home from prison or jail.

To respond to a need for a safe welcoming faith community, Rev. Baugh organized a small group of formerly incarcerated persons and members of their families as a worshipping fellowship. The group first worshipped at Mount Morris Presbyterian Church and then moved to the Chapel of the First Presbyterian Church in the City of NY on Fifth Avenue and 12th Street in 1985. Later that year, the Presbytery of NYC approved the Fellowship as The Church of Gethsemane. In January 1986, the Presbytery, Synod, and General Assembly approved the church as a new church development project, and granted us $50,000 a year for the next three years.

Rev. Baugh described our new church this way: “Gethsemane provides an opportunity for the voiceless to find their voices, the breaking of silence, and solidarity instead of charity. Persons who have been disinherited and disempowered by the world have moved from the margins to the center of religious life where their life experience is valued and their stories are heard. Persons who have been engulfed in a culture of silence are breaking that silence and speaking out. Persons are in community rather than being objects of charity outside the church walls.”