Palisadian. [volume] (Cliffside Park, N.J.) 1906-current, 1919-11-01
$4,000 NEW CHURCH FOR STA
..TIONS TO BE STARTED IN
GRANTWOOD.

At the recent Missionary Annual
Conference at Paterson, Mrs Ulrich,
of Cliffside Park was one of the
| speakers at the luncheon, at the First
Congregational Church, and told of
the work of the Italian Mission in
Cliffside Park.
This work amng the Italians was
started some years ago, by a sur
vey of the foreign neighborhood in
Cliffside Park, undertaken at the re-
peated recommendation of one of the
deacons nthe Grantwood Congrega-
tional Church who felt that here was
wide field for the work among a
people who seemed to have nothing
| to do with the church
The survey, undertaken by Rever-
end G. H. Ekins, then pastor of the
church, and his friend Reverend Mr..
Schisa, an Italian minister of Brook
lyn, and the results showed that the
large Italian population of the Dor
ough and vicinity were untouched by
church influences of any denomina-
ton, $50 Immediately after that
week of special services was begun IN
the Grantwood church, with stereop-
ticon lectures, ETC., followed by
NiuooSo WV CNCAilh6F CcNH WCCh, vi
children who were taught sewing and
Bible stories, by one of the women of
the church and her young daughter
At the same time there were classes
for the men taught the Bible by Rev
erend S. Gozzo the assistant of Mr..
Schisa in his Brookline Church.
Street meetings, in the alley in
Grantwood were held on Sunday af-
fnY oil
church and these, in fact, continued
to be held in favorable weather, for
some years, Mr.. Gozzo being the
preacher, and members of the Amer
lean congregation aiding with music.
From this beginning in the spring
and summer was evolved the regular
Sunday service each Sunday after
noon in the church, and the children
were brought into the Sunday School.
For several years now, the Mission
has held its services in a hired build
ing in Cliffside as a more convenient
place for the greater part of the pop
ulation, and it has been an active
spot, with classes for men, women
and children on week days and Sun
days.
At present the mission holds even
ing classes for the adults on Mon
day and Tuesday evenings, and
these are taught by Mrs. Ulrich, Miss
Mason and Mr.. GoZzo.
Mrs. Ulrich has applied to Super
vising Principal Drum of the public
schools to provide classes in night
school in the borough, and this ap-
plication is before the Board which
has tried the experiment before and
finding it not sufficiently patronized,
abandoned it.
The classes at the Mission are
splendidly attended on some nights
and the regular attendance always is
about dozen, but the larger num-
bers vary because of night work, etc.
Sunday afternoon services and
Sunday school are held there every
Sunday, and the attendance is in
creasing so rapidly that the time has
arrived to consider a real italian
church building
Lots have been bought by the
Grantwood Church Committee on
| Italian work, in Cliffside and several
| hundred dollars can De expected from
| the church toward the building. The
| remainder will come from the people
themselves and from the New York
Congregational Church Building So
ciety, the church to cost about four
teen or fifteen thousand dollars. The
Italian congregation show a com
mendable spirit in now contributing
something toward the support of their
pastor and their church themselves,
each month, and the congregation
consists largely of men.
There is Mems Club which has
some siXty-five dollars in its treas
ury. Stereopticon lectures have been
given on Fiume, Rome and other sub
jects, and the latest addition to the
work is the installation of an cleo
trio machine and a clinic, under the
care of Mr.. Gozzo. who has taken a
recent course in the treatments given
for nervous ailments.
He also is trying to interest his
people in becoming naturalized and is
holding meetings at noon time in the
surrounding factories, addressing the
men on the subject of Christian natu
radiation, or Americanization, claim
ing that no man can be good citi-
zen unless he is a good Christian.
The problem most difficult, which
is very much before the public, in
church life and as a matter of con-
sideration in the Womens' Clubs of
the country, is how to reach the for
eign woman, she who stays at home
and does not learn the language, the
customs or history of her adopted
country.
After having attempted various
methods. unsuccessfully, in the Dor
ough of Clffside Park, as well as
in many others, the only solution of
the difficulty seems to be to reach the
women in their homes. to visit them.
gain their confidence and teach them
in that way, very slow and unsatis-
factory way, but apparently the only
one at present.