By Antonina Zielinska
Thanks to Maimonides Medical Center, 35 local churches will be able to shine a little brighter this Advent and Christmas season.
For the 22nd year in a row, the hospital with Jewish roots has brought forth the Celebration of Light to Brooklyn. Maimonides donates funds so that individual churches can start or expand their Christmas lights and decorations. Although most of the beneficiaries are Catholic churches, Orthodox and Protestant churches have also joined the ranks over the years, along with the Ft. Hamilton Army Base Chapel.
“This event was one of the first things I did in preparing to be CEO,” said Kenneth Gibbs, CEO and president of Maimonides at the distribution ceremony. He took over for Pamela Brier, who retired at the beginning of the year. She helped start the program over two decades ago and had overseen its expansion from one parish to 34.
Gibbs said the initiative is and will continue to be a priority for Maimonides.
“In today’s world its especially important because light can shine on eternal truth,” he said.
“We come to celebrate the light You give us,” said Msgr. David Cassato, board member at Maimonides and pastor of St. Athanasius, Bensonhurst, during his prayer. “May we be beacons of light in our community.”
Visitation Monastery, the founding member of the Celebration of Light, will hold its lighting ceremony this Sunday, Dec. 4 at 6:30 p.m. This year will be especially important for the Bay Ridge Monastery because it will honor Larry Morish who died Feb. 28. A brick will be dedicated to his name.
Larry Morrish, a Bay Ridge community activist, along with Senator Marty Golden, were the driving forces behind the inception of the program.
“Larry was the lifeblood of this event,” said Brian Long. An event, he said, “started with some tea and cookies, and boy did it grow.”
Long, along with John DeLosa of Long and DeLosa Construction Group, LTD, volunteered to build the life size Nativity Scene at Visitation in 1995 and that began what has been the company’s annual involvement in the Celebration of Light.
“Larry left a real Legacy,” Long said. “He was a great community leader and he will be missed.”
The initiative Morrish help spearhead in the mid 1990s continues to expand, with St. Edmund, Sheepshead Bay, joining the ranks of the beneficiaries this year.
Andrea D’Emic, principal of St. Edmund Elementary School, came to Maimonides to receive the funds on behalf of the parish. The school and church are in the same building, and so when one is decorated so is the other.
D’Emic said the funds will be used to buy more wreathes and to decorate the outside of the building. She said she is grateful for the parish to have this opportunity.
“Particularly in this time, (the lights are) a symbol of hope for the future and the future of our children and the importance of faith in our lives,” she said.
