![]() We had the beakers photographed, cleaned by the New York Historical Society, and placed in the exhibition catalog. “This is something tangible that connects us to our past,” Pastor Meeter says. We know that her husband, who was a preacher, used these beakers. She had verified all of them, informing Pastor Meeter of an exhibit at the New York Historical Society of a young Dutch woman in early New York, Marguerite Van Varick. The pastor had the beakers examined by an expert at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The elder would pick it up on a Saturday, sign it out, use it at the church, and then bring it back to the bank for safekeeping the next Monday, four times a year.” ![]() I found a little record book inside the chest. “The elders would keep the communion-ware in the bank. “Apparently, over the years, the older elders would only have communion four times a year, far less frequently than we do,” Pastor Meeter explains. “This is something tangible that connects us to our past.” There were some other well-known names listed, like Remsen (another Brooklyn street). Most of them were inscribed in Dutch, including the name Joralemon, for whom the Brooklyn street is named. The other five were created in the 19th century. Two of them, it turns out, were made in 1684. Inside the chest were seven silver beakers. He came with a screwdriver and quickly picked the lock. Pastor Meeter had no keys to the locked chest, but he had street smarts. They asked the pastor if he wanted to investigate further. Apparently, it had been sitting there for years, untouched and unnoticed. Although there was no record of a silver beaker, the staff happened to be cleaning out the branch’s basement and came across a simple locked wooden chest sitting on top of a bookcase. The ultimate results: nothing.Įventually, Pastor Meeter received a call from Chase Bank, which used to be Manufacturers Hanover (Manny Hanny) back in the day. Even the bank which handles the church’s finances, Citibank, had no clue. ![]() Pastor Meeter visited all the banks in the area, checking safe deposit box records. Michael’s memory opened up a long-awaited clue: the beaker may be kept in a safe deposit box of a bank. His search - which by now had stretched from months into years - had led him to Michael Otte, a former pastor who now lived in Tarrytown, NY. “I saw a picture of a former pastor from 40 years ago holding one,” Pastor Meeter says, “so I kept looking around.” Pastor Meeter asked around, but nobody had heard of it or even seen it. ![]() When Pastor Daniel Meeter joined Old First in 2001, he had read in one of the church’s histories that there existed an antique communion cup (Avondmaalsbeker in Dutch. Old First’s antique communion cup, or Avondmaalsbeker in Dutch. ![]()
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