Solidarity Stole (Jan Hus Presbyterian Church)

Jan Hus Church, New York City

Yet More Light

This is one of ten stoles given to the collection by the Jan Hus Presbyterian Church in early 1996.  (Note: A “solidarity stole” is one that is covered with the signatures of both gay and straight members of a congregation, denominational governing body, or other organization.  These stoles serve the dual purpose of showing support for LGBT persons, while also protecting their anonymity by including their names as "one among many".)

Jan Hus (pronounced "Yahn Hoos") is one of the most unique congregations represented in the Shower of Stoles collection.

The only Czech-Presbyterian Church in America was founded in the 1870's by Gustav Albert Alexy, a Hungarian minister whose broken Czech was so limited that his congregation, following his first service, told him very politely that they hadn't understood a word he spoke.  Alexy immediately began to be tutored by Vincent Pisek, a 15-year-old Czech immigrant.  When Alexy died seven years later, young Pisek took over leadership of the church while studying at New York University and Union Theological Seminary.

Two stories told by the current Jan Hus congregation tell something of their singular history.  The first speaks to Pisek's own unique character:

The 1895 Morning Journal reported that in 1894 Pisek had been visiting Nebraska when a hunter killed a mother wolf and presented the new-born cub to Pisek who took it back to Jan Hus Church and raised it on a bottle. The wolf wandered freely around the church and was especially protective of the children, who also appear to have had free reign of the place. All day in the pastor's study the wolf would sit at Pisek's feet. One day the wolf was missing and they searched everywhere until they found it curled up sound asleep inside the pulpit. Neighbors complained that the church was terrorizing the block with a wolf howling from the attic. Jan Hus Church comes by its present nature from way back!

The second story speaks not only to the highly unusual way Jan Hus came to hire its long-time Music Director, but also alludes to a close relationship between Pisek and his musician, Charles Atherton, which is memorialized in another stole from Jan Hus (stole #101):

Around 1903, Pastor Pisek was out in the Midwest and came into a hotel bar where a man was playing the piano. The man was tall, athletic and friendly, and by the end of the conversation, Pisek had invited Mr. Charles M.H. Atherton to come to Jan Hus Church as Music Director. Atherton, an American born in 1873, had been a professional baseball player. He came to Jan Hus and became Pisek's companion and colleague here at the church for the rest of Pisek's life. (In his will, Pisek referred to Atherton as his "bosom friend.")

Jan Hus remains a spirited and independent-thinking congregation committed to unique forms of worship and seeking to serve the poor.  The church is also a Neighborhood House, housing a senior center, preschool, homeless outreach office, gym, cafeteria and theater.  The sanctuary itself is shared by an Indonesian community.  The Neighborhood House is also a permanent residence to a number of people who commit themselves to active participation in the life of Jan Hus church as well as serving at least ten hours each week to assisting with the many ministries of Neighborhood House.  Jan Hus is a More Light congregation, working for the full participation of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons in the life and leadership of the Presbyterian Church (USA).

Martha Juillerat
Founder, Shower of Stoles Project
2006