The first Zion Church building
Zion Church, Douglaston
Founded in 1830.
The church was founded and chartered in 1830 under the leadership of Wynant Van Zandt, a successful merchant and former alderman of New York City. In 1813 Van Zandt had moved his family to a 120 acre farm along the shores of Little Neck Bay, land that had first been the ancestral home of the Matinecock tribe.
In 1827 Van Zandt gathered together with 17 of his neighbors, and, after Van Zandt pledged to give the land surrounding the highest hill on his property, together they all pledged funds toward the construction of a church and Sunday school. The cornerstone was laid in 1829.
PROJECT DETAILS
July 2023
The leadership of Zion Episcopal Church have reviewed reports from project volunteers and have created a Memorial to the Children of God Enslaved by Zion’s Founding Families. In the words of Zion’s leadership:
We know that at least 43 people were enslaved by Zion’s founding families. These children of God were taken far from their African homeland. They had dignity that was denied. They deserved justice that was withheld from them. It was wrong.
We confess that Zion was founded with wealth created by the forced labor of enslaved people. We confess that over the course of Zion’s history we allowed ourselves to forget them.
We remember them here and now.
We commit to defending their memory, and protecting the dignity of every human being. As the people of Zion, we seek to be faithful to the journey toward justice.
The memorial will be dedicated on November 2, 2023. Click the button below to review the report and proposal.
October 2021
Volunteers reported to the parish in October 2021 about preliminary findings regarding Zion’s legacy on Matinecock land, and on the presence and absence of Black Americans in Zion’s earliest years. Those reports, and their accompanying slideshows, are available here. Exciting findings!
Re-examining Connections: Zion Episcopal Church and Our Indigenous Community
The Presence and Absence of Black Americans in Zion’s History