What are pilgrimages? The definition dates back to the origins and practices of Buddhism, Christianity and Islam, but has been expanded a little to include journeys made to some place with the purpose of venerating it, or in order to ask there for supernatural aid, or to discharge some religious obligation.
Geoffrey Chaucer’s pilgrims in the Canterbury Tales got moving early in the year – in showery April – but pilgrimages are not time dated – New York City pilgrims are welcome to set out on our paths in the month of July.
My own pilgrimage is limited here to the five boroughs of New York City. Not all locales listed here are defined as formally religious; some have to do with the veneration of ancestors. Some are simply places of rest, which itself assumes the place of the spiritual in this chaotic city. But all are united by the mission to provide a beautiful or significant setting for a visitor. And at the very least, to offer havens of peace, calm, and beauty.
The pilgrimages featured here should be regarded as a starting place—tomes have been written on each site and the reader is encouraged to pursue his or her own journey. Edward F. Bergman’s The Spiritual Traveler: New York City is a wonderful source (Hidden Spring, 2001) for further reading.
Take the Friends Meeting House. A haven of peace and silence in Manhattan. As a student at a Midwestern Quaker (Society of Friends) college, I found the campus meeting house a welcome refuge. Although I was not a Quaker myself, the elegant plainness and simplicity of the architecture drew me in – golden wood, white walls, no ornamentation, as did the silence. One spoke only when the spirit moved. Which was not often. No ministers, preachers or pastors. Everyone was his or her own minister. The silence and peace and beauty of the place were a balm to the soul.
Why the silence? The Friends’ response: “It is not customary for Friends to bring prepared messages, since all messages should flow from the spirit of the Meeting. A Meeting may have many messages, or be completely silent. In either case, if we have allowed ourselves to be still, we will be drawn together and uplifted in love.”
It is the same here in New York City as it was on the plains and fields of Indiana. If you seek a moment of peace and silence, this is a wonderful place to visit while in Manhattan.
Although Quakerism has been present in this country from coast to coast for roughly 300 years (Richard Nixon was a member of a California Meeting), not everyone is familiar with it. An aspiring pilgrim might well ask, what do Friends believe? The response: “We believe in that of God in everyone.”
A natural second question would be, why does the congregation have two names, Quakers and Friends? “Our official name is the Religious Society of Friends (see John 15:15). We are also known as Quakers. When we first started, over 350 years ago, our newfound spiritual power sometimes caused us to tremble with fervor, and we were called Quakers as a form of ridicule. The name stuck and we carry it with pride.”
Step inside. Take a seat. Forget that you are right on the boundaries of the crowds and noise of Greenwich Village. Sit for a while and let your thoughts drift away. It’s a wonderful way to give yourself some peace and silence, in a noisy world.
For further study: the Friends suggest: The Book of Discipline of the New York Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends.
New York Yearly Meeting
15 Rutherford Place
New York NY 10003
212-673-5750
At the other end of the spectrum theologically, architecturally, liturgically and geographically, is the Church of Corpus Christi. Corpus Christi is Catholic high church on the Upper West Side, in the same neighborhood as Columbia University with its great seminaries and schools of music. And around the corner from housing projects, for whom Corpus Christi has services available in Haitian Creole and Spanish. Corpus Christi works to serve all its neighbors.
Corpus Christi’s edifice is a joyous celebration of color and light and its rich musical tradition is noted far beyond the confines of New York. Thomas Merton, Trappist monk, and author of The Seven Storey Mountain, lauded the church for its “joy, light,.. openness and spontaneity.” The exterior of the church is deceptive—as the church’s website puts it, “The quiet façade on a narrow street gives little hint of what lies within.”
And what lies within is an elaborately constructed sanctuary with black and white tiled floors, brilliant stained glass windows and glittering chandeliers. Described modestly as characterized by a “sparse” colonial architectural style –bright red is nevertheless the grace note. The interior is a feast for the eye.
The church is, in short, a lovely place, and a place of mission to all its neighbors. If you arrive for a concert, perhaps one of Corpus Christi’s famous “Music Before 1800” series, you will also notice that the church is a place of joy both in silence and in song. This is one of the true ecclesiastical gems of the city.
Corpus Christi Church
529 West 121st Street, just east of Broadway
New York, NY 10025
212-666-9350
The Noguchi Museum. A church or meeting house is not the only locale, in which one may find a haven. A Long Island City site that conveys a similar spirit is the Noguchi Museum. The Museum, dedicated to the works of Japanese American artist, painter, sculptor, and designer Isamu Noguchi is also an oasis of beauty, calm and peace and, I think, the spirit of Zen.
The Noguchi Museum ‘s permanent collection features stones—standing, lying, oval, craggy, polished. The guide invites visitors into a “conversation with the stones. “ Today we are viewing a massive piece of sedimentary stone. The surface is hard smooth gray; followed by a mellow orange, and then a layer of what looks like fool’s gold. The glittering “gold” lights up the entire piece.
Noguchi placed small pieces of bamboo in surface cracks, and then poured water on them. The bamboo expanded. Slowly, the stone cracked.
There is no identifying mark. Noguchi did not want the visitor to be distracted by dates and names and dimensions, but to have his or her own experience with the pieces.
We move to the stone fountain. This is as much a water sculpture as a stone sculpture. A block, with the top surface a mirror. To the eye absolutely smooth, yet water bubbles up continually. The bubbling sound is hypnotic, restful; on a hot day, a cooling music.
After a time spent gazing at stones and bubbling water, the viewer is calm. Still. Tension released. The return trip on the bus back to Manhattan is notably quieter and more peaceful than was the outbound trip.
The Noguchi Museum
9-01 33rd Road (at Vernon Boulevard)
Long Island City, NY
718-204-7088
The Alice Austen House, Clear Comfort, a national landmark, was the home of photographer Alice Austen (1866-1952). It is a 19th century oasis in 21st century urban Staten Island, and a place of calm and time travel on a hot summer’s day.
Alice Austen was introduced to photography at the age of 10. Self-taught, by the time she was 18 in 1884, she was both skilled and artistically accomplished. She was often seen riding her bicycle around Staten Island and Manhattan, carrying almost 50 pounds of photographic equipment. In her lifetime she created images on approximately 8,000 glass plates depicting nineteenth and early twentieth century Victorian life, of which more than 3,000 survive.
Austen is best known for her street photography: photos of immigrants just off the boats from Ellis Island, street sweepers, postmen, bootblacks, and fishmongers. Her series on the quarantine facilities for immigrants was exhibited at the 1901 Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo. Despite her fame, the Great Depression brought financial hardship and by the late 1940s, Austen was destitute.
The 1950 re-discovery of Austen’s work led to the confirmation of her lasting artistic significance. In 1975, the City purchased Cold Comfort and restored the house and grounds to their 19th-century appearance. Today, Clear Comfort operates as a museum, featuring exhibits of Austen’s work and contemporary photography as well as period rooms recreated based on her photographs.
A National Historic Landmark, in 2002 the house was inducted into the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s group of Historic Artists’ Homes and Studios. Alice Austen House Museum is owned by the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation, operated by the Friends of Alice Austen Inc., and is a member of the Historic House Trust.
Alice Austen House and Museum
The Friends of Alice Austen House, Inc.
2 Hylan Boulevard
Staten Island, NY 10305
Tel: (718) 816-4506
Email. eaausten@aol.com
Indian Caves at Inwood Hill Park. The very tip of Manhattan is still forested. Tulip trees, glacial potholes, skeletal remains, 60 guilders worth of trinkets for Manhattan Island—this qualifies as ancient history for the Big Apple. This locale, Inwood Hill Park, shelters evidence of early New York City history not well known, even by the locals, and retains its dense original wooded terrain. What better place for a pilgrimage on a hot summer’s day?
The hills and bluffs at the tip of Manhattan, at the place where the Harlem and Hudson rivers converge, form Inwood Hill Park. The park houses ancient “Indian caves” – cool, secluded niches used for centuries by the Wiechquaesgeck tribe as a summer camp where they could harvest shellfish, eels and fish from the nearby river. The tribe, who stayed in the area until 1643, left archaeological artifacts behind–pottery shards, weapons, and shell and bone implements. In the early twentieth century, archaeological digs in the area uncovered skeletal remains of a Wiechquaesgeck chief, a woman and a child.
These caves are still cool and appealing, the site of the ancestors. A visitor suggests, “Go on a sweltering summer’s day to suck up the cool air that gets thrown out from the caves. It feels like instant air conditioning…free too! It’s a place that transports you to a time, a people and way of life far removed from ours.”
Another visitor provides helpful directions to the caves, not easily come by:
“In Inwood Hill Park, we stopped at the Urban Ecology Center (good map available for free), and walked with the park rangers to the Shorakapok Rock. (Note: asking the Urban Ecology Center folks to help you find the caves is a very good suggestion.)
“At the point, we veered to the left and followed the path paralleling the steep slopes, arriving first at the Indian Rock Shelters. Continuing along the path we arrived at two glacial potholes (photo above), one was filled with water, apparently spring fed.” (Both the shelters and potholes are to the right as you walk along the path.)
Inwood Hill Park is also the site of the legendary transaction between Peter Minuit and “the Indians.” Near the entrance to the Park is a small boulder–the Shorakopock Rock–adjoining the soccer field. A plaque on the boulder reads: “According to legend, on this site of the principal Manhattan Indian village, Peter Minuit in 1626 purchased Manhattan Island for trinkets and beads then worth about 60 guilders.” The Indians are said to have planted a tulip tree to commemorate the occasion. It has vanished, but it is said that the stump of a giant tulip tree was to be seen on the spot as late as the 1930s.
Photo above by Nathaniel Paluga
www.nycgovparks.org
www.washington-heights.us
That’s the end of our tour. By now you should be cool and calm and even ready for a long subway ride home.
