The Bethany Congregational Church reopened its doors after three years for its free Thanksgiving dinner. more

It seems to me that every year, I am tempted to start this Christmas message with the same opening sentence: “these are difficult times we live in.” Maybe I’m a “glass-half-full-kind-of-person,” or maybe it’s just true. At any given time, a lot of God’s children are struggling here and all over the world. The fact of the matter is that life itself is a struggle, all of us feel like Job sometimes, victimized by circumstances or by choices we or someone else has made, Whether we live in a comfortable home or on the street, pretty much all of us know what it means to struggle, what it means to fail, what it means — as the apostle Paul so famously said — “to do the things that we do not want to do.” It is part of the human condition. more

David Carley, co-chair of the Bethany Congregational Church’s board of trustees, said he was told that if church officials did not find a way to prevent a mission trip’s shower water from leaking into the ground by June 23, East Rockaway’s building department would issue a summons to get the group to leave the church. more

The East Rockaway Chamber of Commerce hosted a public forum on Feb. 20 that drew dozens of frustrated business owners, homeowners and renters from East Rockaway, Bay Park and neighboring communities … more

It’s been a longstanding tradition for Bethany Congregational Church to host its annual Thanksgiving dinner for those who are homeless, alone, or just wanted to communally share a very American … more

Scholars pretty much agree that Mark is the oldest as well as the sparest of the gospels. In it, we see nothing that is not absolutely necessary to the incredible story the writer is trying to … more