![](\"https:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/_0DySLTT4PWo\/SYZlYXOhC1I\/AAAAAAAAFCk\/imgs-p5I3Ss\/s320\/simplesteps.jpg\")
<\/a>Dr. [Arthur] Caliandro, who took over from Dr. Peale as senior minister in 1985 and saw the church through changing times while hewing to his predecessor\u2019s folksy, positivist teachings, is retiring. Sunday was his farewell sermon.<\/p>\nIn his office before the morning service, Dr. Caliandro, a slight, gently creased man of 75, gathered himself in a brown recliner. \u201cI\u2019m thinking about what to say, and hoping I have the strength,\u201d he said. \u201cVery emotional,\u201d he added quietly, though his voice gave none of it away.<\/p>\n
Under Dr. Caliandro, a minister\u2019s son from Maine, Marble Collegiate, founded in 1628 by the Dutch and now housed in an 1854 limestone structure that manages to be grand and modest at the same time, navigated the waters of the post-Peale era.<\/p>\n
He oversaw a snappy ad campaign featuring billboards, bus shelters and airplanes that dragged banners over the beaches reading, \u201cMake a friend in a very high place.\u201d<\/p>\n
He gave gay members meeting space in the church, causing 150 congregants to resign in protest. He founded an interfaith group with leading rabbis and imams, adopted a group of Harlem sixth graders and paid their college tuition, put women on the church board for the first time, built an online ministry that now reaches millions, www.marblechurch.org, and charmed celebrity members (Donald Trump met Marla Maples at the church) while still preaching to the masses.<\/p>\n
He created a fluttering war memorial to those killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, hanging a gold ribbon on the church\u2019s fence for each American soldier killed and blue ribbons for the hundreds of thousands of civilian casualties.<\/p>\n
And he tried to carry on the work begun by Dr. Peale, author of \u201cThe Power of Positive Thinking,\u201d founder of the modern self-help movement and the leader of the church for 52 years.<\/p>\n
\u201cI learned early on not to try to be him but to preserve his approach,\u201d Dr. Caliandro said in his office last Thursday. \u201cHe never used religious words. He spoke directly to people.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dr. Caliandro concentrated more than Dr. Peale did on building the church\u2019s programs and on preaching from his own spiritual journeys and doubts.<\/p>\n
\u201cI went through two divorces,\u201d said Dr. Caliandro, who is now married for a third time. \u201cThat was tough. Here I am, a minister in a pulpit like this, two failed marriages, and none of these people tried to push me out. One woman told me once, \u2018The reason we never pushed you out is because you never stand on the pulpit pointing your finger at us.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n
Dr. Caliandro\u2019s successor is the Rev. Dr. Michael B. Brown, 58, who most recently led a 4,000-member church, Centenary United Methodist, in Winston-Salem, N.C.<\/p>\n
On Sunday morning, Dr. Caliandro kept it simple.<\/p>\n
\u201cReally, what it is all about is love.\u201d he told the 1,000 or so worshipers who packed the cozy, burgundy-hued sanctuary with the soaring stained-glass windows. \u201cThat which every human being, every one of us needs and wants more than anything else, is to be in a relationship or in relationships where we feel safe. Relationship where we are understood, accepted, affirmed, and forgiven.\u201d<\/p>\n
He continued: \u201cThis is what Christianity is. The essence of Christianity is that kind of love.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dr. Caliandro quoted no Scripture beyond Jesus\u2019 commandment to love thy neighbor as thyself. He told just two anecdotes. One was about being on a boat, trying to catch up with the gold that a sunset was spreading across the sea, not realizing that he was in the gold all along. The other was about Churchill\u2019s address to some schoolchildren: \u201cNever, never, never give up.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
You can read even more at the link<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The minister who has led one of New York City’s most famous and storied churches retired on Sunday — and gave one last sermon. From the New York Times: At Marble Collegiate, the landmark church on Fifth Avenue and 29th Street, one of the oldest Protestant congregations in North America and, thanks to Norman Vincent…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":365,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-art-of-preaching"],"yoast_head":"\n
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