BROOKLYN MEDIA GROUP MAY 11 - MAY 17, 2018 47
Senior center at Angel Guardian shuts its doors
Union Church welcomes new pastor
BY VICTORIA MERLINO
EDITORIAL@BROOKLYNREPORTER.COM
While Pastor Bob Anderle
is new to the Ridge, he
is already beginning to
make his mark on the community.
Anderle became the pastor of
the Union Church of Bay Ridge in
February, 2018, bringing with him a
worldly perspective and a boundless
energy.
A born-and-raised Midwesterner,
Anderle originally went to college in
Michigan to become a social worker.
When he graduated in 1992, he began
his career in Detroit.
Soon, however, Anderle answered
a different calling.
“I always considered that a ministry,
even then,” Anderle said about
social work. Nonetheless, at the
urging of people in his life, he soon
enrolled in McCormick Theological
Seminary in Chicago, Illinois. He
was ordained in 2000 as a minister in
the Presbyterian church, and began
work at a church on the north side of
Chicago.
Most recently, he was the pastor
at a church in in the town of Wallkill
in Orange County, New York. The
opinions of the congregation at the
Wallkill church, however, did not
line up with his own more progressive
values and beliefs.
“It became clear that it was not a
match that was meant to last,” he said.
After a self-directed job search,
he found his niche right here in Bay
Ridge at Union Church on Ridge Boulevard
at 80th Street.
On paper, he said, the congregation
and the church aligned with his
progressive ideology, and during
the interview process, he knew that
it was a good fit between pastor and
congregation.
“It became clear the Holy Spirit had
brought us together,”Anderle said.
Now with a congregation of 40,
Anderle hopes to revitalize the
church and bring in fresh ideas. He
moved his family to Bay Ridge and
works 20 hours a week part time, as
that is what the church can currently
afford. He has a deep appreciation for
reformed theology, though he says he
is willing to question everything as
long as it is consistent with guidance
of the scriptures.
Elizabeth Theofan, a member of
the Union’s Church Council and chair
of the committee that hired Anderle,
was happy with the work Anderle
has done with the church so far.
“He’s into community-type things;
he’s getting his feet wet in the neighborhood,”
she said. The committee
picked him because of his interest
in community outreach, as well as
his sermon-giving abilities and his
writing skills.
In the short time Anderle has been
at the church, Theofan said, more
people have been coming to services
and revenue is up. Anderle has taken
care to reach out to parishioners,
counseling some, and in one recently
widowed woman’s case, calling her
each week.
“He seems to me like a very sincere
guy in his faith,” Theofan said.
Anderle now lives in the neighborhood
with his family, and is becoming
accustomed to living in the Ridge. He
hopes to engage the community further
through his work at the church.
“We love Jesus Christ, and we want
Jesus Christ to … bring salvation and
redemption to the world,” he said.
BY MEAGHAN MCGOLDRICK
MMCGOLDRICK@BROOKLYNREPORTER.COM
The Narrows Senior Center
– the last remaining
lease-holder within the storied
140,000-square-foot, block-long Angel
Guardian Home – closed its doors on
Tuesday, May 8 so that the site’s sale
could push forward.
The home, located at 6301
12th Avenue, was sold at
the end of last year by
its owners, the Sisters
of Mercy, to developer
Scott Barone who, after
month of anonymity,
finally came forward at
the end of April with plans
of everything from affordable
and senior housing to a
school and even a new senior
center (pending approval, of
course).
Though, no matter what’s coming
down the pipeline, the center must
close – at least for now.
“It is what it is,” said Pauline “Doll”
Castagna, a longtime supporter of
the Narrows who, prior to its final
end-of-lease date, had organized a trio
of public protests against the center’s
closure and the site’s sale. She was
joined at each by politicians from both
sides of the aisle and members of the
Guardians of the Guardian – a grassroots
group of Dyker Heights residents
– in calling on the New York City
Landmarks Preservation Commission
(LPC) to expedite the calendaring of
a Request for Evaluation they’d
hoped would lead to the
designation of Angel
Guardian as an individual
landmark.
If nothing else,
she said, she’d
hoped to save the
center – its eviction
date in what seemed
to be a state of constant
flux. “First it was June
4, then February 2, then
May 15, now May 8,”
Castagna told this paper,
adding that, in all of this,
stakeholders have been “playing with
the seniors’ heads.
“They said they needed time to pack
and move,” she went on. “Being that I
live directly across from the center, I
will feel it the most.”
And so, some center-goers wore
black Tuesday to mourn their last
day at the space. Though, however
bittersweet, it was at least in part a
celebration of many years of wonderful
memories.
“It’s always been a feeling of home
here, and of family,” said one longtime
center-goer who's been attending
Narrows for at least 15 years. The
same center-goer said she’d tried other
centers – some more flashy than the
Narrows – but none compared.
“Everybody is friendly,” she said.
“When you miss a day or two, people
notice. They ask where you were. It’s
a feeling of home that, I think, a lot of
other centers don’t have.”
From here, Castagna told this paper,
many residents will go to the Moose
Lodge, 7711 18th Avenue, another
center operated by Catholic Charities.
“We hope to remain there,” she said.
“The people were very nice to us and
welcomed us with open arms.”
Down the road, Dyker Heights Civic
Association President Fran Vella-Marrone
said at the group’s May meeting,
another Catholic Charities center,
Monsignor Joseph F. Stedman Senior
Housing or, "Stedman Housing," at 930
53rd Street, may eventually serve as
the center’s new location.
As for the developer’s alleged plans,
the seniors are optimistic, though cautiously,
the majority in agreement that,
no matter how nice a plan sounds, “you
can never be too sure” of what will come.
For now, many seniors will give
the Moose Lodge a try, though some
couldn’t make the same promise.
“They say all good things must come
to an end,” one center-goer said. “I
guess this is the end.”
Photos courtesy of Pauline “Doll” Castagna
The move begins.
Pauline “Doll”
Castagna with
another member
of the center.
Photo via unionchurchbayridge.org
Reverend Bob Anderle.