We visited the historic First Unitarian Church on Monroe Place in Brooklyn Heights, where Brooklyn-born Charlotte Garrigue (1850-1923), later the First Lady of new Czechoslovakia, was a very active member of the congregation.Her Unitarian faith and character had a singular influence on her adopted country. She was instrumental in developing close ties with the Czechoslovak Unitaria and cooperation with Norbert Capek, the founder of Czech Unitaria in Prague. Both her husband Tomas Masaryk and her son Jan spoke from this church’s pulpit. Her daughter Alice planned a stained glass window there in her memory. After World War II interrupted that plan, the women of the First Church in 1957 gave a clerestory window picturing Bohemian Reformer Jan Hus in memory of Charlotte Masaryk and in honor of John Howland Lathrop. Lathrop, the ninth minister of the First Church, headed a relief program in Czechoslovakia following World War II, which gave rise to the Unitarian Service Committee.
more about the Flower communion
We participated the Flower Communion which is held here every May in memory of Norbert Capek, who designed this flower ceremony for children before he perished in a concentration camp. Flowers and a CZECH folk song play a major role in this ceremony. We joined the congregation in singing “Aj lucka, lucka siroka…†IN CZECH! Later, we walked on the Brooklyn Promenade offering a stunning view of Lower Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridge, and had lunch at the HeightCafe on Montague Str. It was a good day.