It was exactly 9 p.m. when one of New York City’s Green Line subways rumbled beneath the grounds of the James L. Watson U.S. Court of International Trade Building, located at the Civic Center in downtown Manhattan.
Named after the first African American judge to serve on the U.S. Customs Court, the eight-story structure is linked by a pedestrian bridge to the 41-story Jacob K. Javits Federal Building, the tallest federal building in the United States.
On this Sunday evening, beneath a waxing moon, 19 people gathered at the Civic Center—the seat of power in a city often called the world’s capital. They encircled a historical marker near the courthouse’s glass doors. Nine white candles traced the marker’s radius, and in the center lay several flower stems bound with a blood-red ribbon.
The rector, deacon, and parish administrator of Française du Saint-Esprit (the French Church du St. Esprit) led a commemorative service at the African Burial Ground, where enslaved students of Élias Neau—a French Protestant who fled persecution and became an elder of the church—are believed to be interred. The September 7 service marked two years and three centuries since Neau’s death.
The congregation, now based on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, traces its origins to New Amsterdam, where many of the earliest settlers were French Calvinists, or Huguenots, like Neau (pronounced “no”). In 2022, the French Church began holding an annual bilingual service, in English and French, to mark the 300th anniversary of his death.
Earlier that evening, at Trinity Churchyard, the Rev. Nigel Massey, rector of the French Church, gathered with parish administrator Wendy Range and parishioners to prepare for the service. Massey and Range led Evening Prayer near Neau’s tomb, with his icon nearby.
“The service itself is based on his life and his witness and his testimony,” Massey told The Living Church. “It is also deeply rooted in his own time,” he said. Neau, a Huguenot who became Anglican, relied on the French translation of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer during his years in solitary confinement.
Parts of the service were somber, but others recalled the joy of Neau’s life and witness. “The Holy Spirit was central to his message and his life and his mission,” Massey said.
The service at the churchyard began a little after 7:30 p.m. and Range opened with a prayer: “Enter not into judgment with thy servant, O Lord; for in thy sight shall no man living be justified.”
The congregation recited Psalm 68 in alternating English and French. The gospel reading, from Matthieu 10:16–25a, was followed by silence. Then, all recited the Nunc Dimittis—“Lord, now lettest thy servant depart in peace”—from the 1662 Book of Common Prayer, the same version Neau used.
Deacon Joris Bürmann, the church’s theologian in residence, knelt near the tomb surrounded by candles. As worshipers chanted in French, he passed the flame from his candle to Massey, Range, and others until every person held a light.
The candles carried double meaning: a memorial gesture, but also a symbol of Neau’s enslaved pupils, who needed lights provided by their masters in order to attend his Bible lessons.
From Enslaved to a Minister to the Enslaved
After fleeing to America, Neau became a British citizen and ship captain. But in the late 17th century, while sailing to Jamaica, his ship was captured by a French privateer. Refusing to renounce his Protestant faith, Neau was condemned to the galleys.
Bürmann wrote that galley slaves were malnourished, beaten, and plagued by vermin. Yet Neau wrote mystical hymns about union with God, earning him the name “the mystic of the galleys.”
Freed in 1698, Neau returned to New York as a merchant and elder of the French Church. Troubled by slavery in the colonies, he began teaching the enslaved about Christianity—first in his home, then in the steeple of Trinity Church.
During the service, Cynthia Wuco, the French Church’s longtime music director, sang some of Neau’s hymns. “There’s something about the melody and text that was really moving,” she said. “I couldn’t believe that someone in prison could be so strong in his faith.”
Range, who believes some of her ancestors were enslaved, said she was honored to help lead Evening Prayer. After the service in Trinity Churchyard, the group walked nearly two miles to the African Burial Ground for a second service.
Lionel Ong, a doctoral student from Singapore and member of the church vestry, attended the bilingual service for Neau for the first time. “I felt a sense of calm, gratitude, knowing that someone hundreds of years ago did something like this and helped a lot of people on his way doing God’s work,” he said. “I think that’s part of what our church stands for.”
At Lafayette and Duane Streets, Massey and Range led the prayers around the circular burial marker, believed to contain the remains of Neau’s pupils. Range led in singing the hymn “Michael, Row the Boat Ashore,” a Civil War–era spiritual that envisions the archangel ferrying the enslaved into freedom.
Bürmann and Massey have long sought to raise awareness of Neau’s legacy, though they acknowledge it requires confronting parish complicity in slavery.
“Just standing there, thinking that some of those buried here were in service to my predecessors at St. Esprit—who probably had slaves themselves—was sobering,” Massey said.
Neau did not advocate abolition, and Bürmann said he brought the Christian faith to the enslaved without coercion. “People came to him and came to the church through him, because of the way he was making the Christian faith available to people who were suffering.”
The service ended with silence. As the rumble of a subway rose beneath them, Range wept, comforted by Massey.
That day held personal weight for Range: it was also her late mother’s birthday, who would have turned 100. Range had just received results from a DNA test, a gift from Massey and Bürmann.
“I’m 27 percent Nigerian,” she said, overcome with emotion. “I didn’t want to open it by myself. These two people are like my family. This is like my son,” she said, pointing to Bürmann. “This is like my brother,” she added, referring to Massey.
Caleb Maglaya Galaraga is The Living Church’s Episcopal Church reporter. His work has also appeared in Christianity Today, Broadview Magazine, and Presbyterian Outlook, among other publications.
