Redeemer St. John’s has reasons to celebrate

On September 20, over 100 parishioners and residents of Dyker Heights and Bay Ridge celebrated the 42^nd Anniversary of Redeemer Saint John’s Lutheran Church.

The Anniversary Gala was held not only to celebrate the church’s years of service to the community but also to raise funds for a new universal pre-K program, which would educate children aged two to four.

“We decided to do this to show the public that Redeemer Saint John is moving forward,” said Pastor Khader Khalilia, a Bethlehem native who, only a year ago, became the permanent pastor for the Dyker Heights church.

“We were also hoping to educate the members of the community about what we do here,” he added.

During the evening, five church and community members were recognized including Donna Mae DePola, the president of The Resource Training Center; Zoe Koutsoupakis, the senior vice president of Signature Bank; Barbara Rector, a member of the church; Cliff Hille, the longest church member; and Martha Galacinao, who has been the director of the Redeemer Saint John’s Nursery School for the past 10 years.

The evening also featured three of the parish’s choir members providing live entertainment:  Helen Davies, Roy Feldhusen and Wendy Russell.

This year’s gala was the first of its kind, held at the Bay Ridge Manor on Saturday evening, and according to Galacinao, “it was a pretty successful event.”

“It was great to see a good turnout,” said Galacinao, “It was good to socialize with community members and church members whom I hadn’t seen for a while.”