Frank Geer near the Pulpit at St. Philip’s. Annie Chesnut Philipstown has not one, but two Episcopal churches, St. Mary’s—in the heart of Cold Spring, and St. Philip’s, on Route 9D in Garrison. Set on a lovely wooded hill above the churchyard, and opposite the historic Garrison schoolhouse, St. Philip’s is a charming example of a historic church that has grown with the times.

The Rev. Frank Geer, Rector of St. Philip’s, is a down-to earth, plain-spoken man who chatted with the PCN&R about the parish that he has served for 25 years. He was adamant that the focus not be on him, but on the church itself and the people who comprise it.

St. Philip’s has an average Sunday attendance of 100 or more, and the membership is about 350—an impressive number for a church in a small community. The church is in stable financial shape, Geer told the PCN&R.

“One of the most essential elements of church is community…you get all sorts of different people and gather them together…but they disagree about a lot of other things. What I believe is a really important focus for a church is to get them to work together on creating community, outreach, and the sort of caring concern and support that a community can create for each other… regardless of whether they agree with each other,” he said.

There are always differences of opinion and differences of taste, Geer emphasized, but part of his job, as he sees it, is to help people “work together to overcome those differences rather than accentuating them.”

Geer grew up in New York City. “When I was in first grade,” he said, “we had to do a short essay on what we want to do when we grow up, and I said I wanted to be a minister. I grew up in the Episcopal Church so that was my frame of reference.”

Geer’s late father was a medical doctor. “And the fact that he was a healer—someone who reached out and touched people’s lives—was something that was very important to me.”

Although he wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps, “it seemed that the work the parish priest was doing was more up my alley,” Geer said, adding, “Interestingly enough, my best friend’s father was the priest at the church, so I spent a lot of time over at his house and his father was wonderful to me, and really ended up being my mentor.”

Geer attended college at Rutgers in New Jersey and seminary in northern California, where he was ordained in 1977. With his familial medical orientation, he initially worked in hospital chaplaincy for eight years at Stanford University’s hospital, but missed parish work. He eventually moved to Trinity Church-Copley Square, in Boston, where he was the pastoral minister on staff, doing both hospital and parish work, and was called to St. Philip’s as Rector in 1987.

From 1992 to 2002, while he continued to serve at St. Philip’s, he was also Director of Religious Services at St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center, in New York. The Episcopal Bishop of New York and the head of the hospital made an arrangement for Geer to split his time. “It really ended after 9/11,” he said, when people at both locales were dealing with devastating losses, and commuting to New York became very difficult for a time.

“I’ve always enjoyed going to church and a life of faith is something that’s very attractive to me,” Geer told the PCN&R. He attributes his longevity at St. Philips’s entirely to the community and “the wonderful people that have gathered here and the wonderful things that they’ve been doing. This has been an extraordinary opportunity to be involved with a lot of really talented, authentic people,” he said.

St. Philip’s sponsors a very active New Orleans Project, founded by congregant Jim Bopp. The volunteer group has made 11 trips to New Orleans since 2005 to help with post- Katrina rebuilding efforts. Another trip is planned for June.

The Noon Day Meal in Peekskill is prepared at St. Philips’s and served at the Salvation Army headquarters on Main Street in Peekskill. Since the program was founded in 1988 St. Philip’s volunteers have served more than 20,000 meals and the church continues to be a major supporter of the program.

The Hedgewood Ministry provides a community worship experience for residents at the Hedgewood adult psychiatric facility in Beacon. Volunteers lead a worship service there on Sunday evenings.

St. Philip’s Nursery School, founded in 1960 by Anne Prentice (mother of Philipstown businessman Nat Prentice, the current Senior Warden at St. Philip’s), is a true community service that provides quality childcare at affordable rates to young families in the community. This is not a profitmaking program at all, but is “our primary outreach to the community” Geer said.

Geer’s family includes his wife Sarah, two grown children, Phoebe and Sam, and a new granddaughter, Mary, of whom he is exceptionally proud.

Asked about his broader feelings about the future of the church, Geer replied, “I feel very optimistic about the future of St. Philip’s Church. I think the Episcopal Church as a whole has shown extraordinary leadership worldwide in issues of social justice, human sexuality, gay rights.” The fact that there is tension within the church, and a lot of discussion of these issues, he said, “Means that communities can take action and deal with the internal [conflicts] that particular issues raise… with sensitivity to everyone that’s involved.”

St. Philip’s is a beautiful and historic space that welcomes visitors. On Good Friday, April 22, the church will offer the Brahms Requiem at 7:30pm, free and open to the public.