About us
Who we are
We’re a 200-year-old startup that exists to proclaim the gospel.
St. John’s began in 1826 with a gift: a priest who built a church with his own money and served it for nothing. We’ve been living on gifts we didn’t earn ever since, above all the one-way love of God for sinners and sufferers in Jesus Christ.
We’ve stopped pretending we have it all together. Our own history is full of people who got it wrong and were met by grace, our founder included. We need that grace as much as anyone, maybe more. That honest need has made us a community from every background, defined by love and mercy, humility and openness.
Come see for yourself. We’d love to welcome you.
What we believe
God came for us.
The world is not okay, and neither are we. Sin isn’t just bad choices. It’s a power that holds us, and we can’t talk our way out of it or try harder to get free.
God didn’t wait for us to get better. In Jesus Christ, God came all the way down, into our flesh and onto a cross, and took our place. On the third day he rose, and death lost.
Grace is one-way. Nothing to earn and nothing to prove. We are forgiven sinners and fellow sufferers, held by a love that will not let us go.
Christ is still at work. In water, bread and wine, in the Scriptures, in a people who keep showing up for each other, and in a world he has promised to make new.
The Nicene Creed, as we say it every SundayShow less
We believe in One God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is, seen and unseen.
We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one Being with the Father. Through him all things were made.
For us and for our salvation he came down from heaven: by the power of the Holy Spirit he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary, and was made man. For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate; he suffered death and was buried. On the third day he rose again in accordance with the Scriptures; he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end.
We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son. With the Father and the Son he is worshiped and glorified. He has spoken through the Prophets.
We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church. We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. We look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.
Our Rector
The Rev. Ben DeHart serves as our Rector (head pastor). A New Jersey native, he studied history and theology in Pittsburgh before moving to New York City, where he has ministered for over a decade.
Ben is passionate about preaching, teaching, and building authentic community. Whether after Sunday worship or a weekday coffee, he loves connecting with parishioners and newcomers alike.
Before coming to St. John’s, Ben served as Canon for Parish Life at the Cathedral Church of the Advent in Birmingham, AL, Vicar of Calvary-St. George’s Church in Manhattan, and Associate Rector of St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Oakmont, PA.
He’s excited for what God has in store for St. John’s as we step into the future together. If you have questions about the church—or just want to say hello—reach out at office@parkslopechurch.org
Our Youth Director
Chelsy DeHart leads Sunday School and Youth Corp at St. John’s. She is also Director of Youth and Young Adult Ministries for the Episcopal Diocese of Long Island.
Chelsy has worked in children’s and youth ministry for more than a decade. She helped create the StoryMakers curriculum from its beginning, and she now writes curriculum for the Ministry Leadership Center, including material for Advent. On Sunday mornings she teaches kindergarten through 6th grade. On Sunday evenings she leads Youth Corp, for grades 6 to 12.
Questions about your kids? Email her at chelsy@parkslopechurch.org.
Our Music Director
Sterling Cozza is a jazz pianist, composer and arranger who plays New York’s great rooms, including Dizzy’s Club at Lincoln Center and Smalls Jazz Club. His first album as a leader, Two Steps Forward, One Step Back, came out in September 2026.
At St. John’s he leads a choir of volunteers and professional singers in hymns, spirituals, gospel, jazz and contemporary worship. Want to sing? Email him at sterling@parkslopechurch.org.
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Sterling grew up on the West coast in Sacramento, California with a musical household surrounded by classical music. He began playing piano in church at an early age, and went on to formally study music at the Eastman School of Music, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in piano performance and music education. He recently earned a master’s degree in jazz piano performance from the Manhattan School of Music. He honed his skills studying with great piano pedagogues such as Bill Dobbins, Gary Versace, and Ted Rosenthal. He recently celebrated the release of his first album as a leader, “Two Steps Forward, One Step Back” in September of 2026.
Sterling lives and works in Manhattan. Beyond performing and recording, Sterling is passionate about fostering musical community. He curates concert series, jazz performances, and communal singing events, providing artists with platforms to share their work. Sterling believes in the power of music to cross cultural boundaries and bring people together.
St. John’s in 1906. St. John’s P. E. Church, 1906, gelatin silver print, CHUR_1017; Brooklyn Daily Eagle photographs, Brooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History.
Our story: 200 years of grace
St. John’s has never been held together by its own goodness. For two hundred years it has been held together by grace: God giving us, again and again, what we didn’t earn. Here’s what that has looked like.
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It began with a gift. In 1826 the Rev. Evan Malbone Johnson sold his farm, built a plain wooden church in the village of Brooklyn, and served it for twenty-one years without pay. When pew rents were keeping the poor out, he reminded the vestry that “the glory of the gospel of Christ” is “that it is to be preached to the poor,” and told them that no one who came to the door should ever be refused a seat.
Grace changed our founder. In 1843 Johnson wrote that he had changed his mind about race: “I have been brought truly to believe that ‘God hath made of one blood’ the whole race of man.” Three years later he stood up in his diocese’s convention to argue that Black Episcopalians belonged fully in the church: “Was not the Gospel vouchsafed to all men?”
Grace carried us through. In 1869 the parish followed Brooklyn up the slope and laid a cornerstone carved with just two words, JESUS CHRIST. It’s still there, left of the chapel steps. Since then we’ve had lean years: a mortgage that took forty-six years to pay off, and a Depression-era rector who was sometimes paid in groceries. And we haven’t always welcomed people the way Christ welcomes us. In the 1950s, when Anglicans from the Caribbean began arriving, some here made them feel unwelcome. They stayed anyway and carried this parish forward. Grace has outlasted our failures every time, sometimes through the most unexpected people, like a lonely widow who left her estate to the rectory where she had been given lunch.
Still the main thing. Two hundred years later we’re about 150 people, many of us young adults and families. We gather every Sunday at the same altar in the same brownstone church, for the same reason: the good news that Jesus gives sinners what they could never earn. Come and see.