The New Day Church, located in Bedford Park, accepts Bronx residents and Fordham residents into its services. Jeff Coltin/The Fordham Ram
By Jeff Coltin
The high school cafeteria is a far cry from the hallowed nave of Fordham’s University Church, but it is home to some 50 worshippers every Sunday morning. A woman dances between folding chairs. A lunch table altar stands in front of ketchup-stained chairs, pushed into a corner. Coffee and juice lie in wait on the lunch line, ready for service.
New Day Church holds its services at the Academy of Mt. St. Ursula, an all-girls Catholic school in Bedford Park, New York, just a few blocks north of Rose Hill. The setting is humble, but the community at New Day Church is close.
“I’ve never had a spiritual experience like this, where everybody is open and willing to support you so much,” said Manuel Caballero, PCS ’16. “This is one of the first communities I’ve had in religion where I feel like I’m able to call anybody up at any time and get support.”
Caballero has been going to New Day for almost two years, making the long walk through campus and across the Metro-North tracks from his Belmont-neighborhood apartment every Sunday morning. He gets there early to help set up the hall and run the projector, but his involvement goes farther than just logistics. Caballero has helped lead trainings on the criminalization of LGBTQ people and marched in the street against racism and police brutality.
New Day sets itself apart from most other churches by its absolute commitment to social justice activism. The church helped organize protests in the wake of a grand jury’s November decision not to indict a white police officer involved in the death of a fourty-three-year-old blackman, Eric Gardner. It was involved in the campaign to get the community’s needs heard in the development of the Kingsbridge Armory. And, every June is Queer Liberation month at New Day, when the sermons focus on LGBTQ issues and everyone attends Manhattan’s Pride March.
New Day’s Pastor, Doug Cunningham, says the focus on social justice comes right from the Gospel. “Our take on Jesus is that he was very active in his neighborhood, his community, his province and even in the nation, occasionally challenging local issues, eventually going to Jerusalem and challenging some of the economic issues that were happening by going to the Temple,” Cunningham said in a phone interview.
Originally from Columbus, Ohio, Cunningham moved to the Northwest Bronx from his church in Brooklyn seven years ago. He has since fallen in love, calling it “one of the most enjoyable and wonderful communities that I’ve ever lived in.” He has built a “wonderful” relationship with Fordham in those years, visiting Rose Hill for community forums and professors’ installations.
A number of Fordham students, staff and alumni attend New Day, including Caballero, who heard about it through his work in Fordham’s Dorothy Day Center for Service and Justice. Caballero has since brought “three or four” students into the fold, saying, like a hot restaurant, the church grows through word of mouth.
“You love it so much, you get that energy, you want to invite everyone you know to it,” he said. But, New Day boasts something most high school cafeterias cannot. “People commute from Queens to come here!”
