Celebrate with Us!
The year 2025 is the 70th Anniversary of Bradley Hills Presbyterian Church. To mark this milestone, our leadership declared 2025 to be “a year of celebration.” Many fun and exciting events are planned for our 70th, with a theme of celebrating past, present, and future.
We kick off our 70th at Sunday worship on January 12, with a focus on the structural history of Bradley Hills, with many more events planned in the spring that honor our past.
The highlight of our festivities will be a special Dinner Celebration on the evening of May 3, 2025. We will gather together in Memorial Hall — elegantly decorated for the occasion — to share a delicious meal.
The next day, renowned speaker Barbara Brown Taylor will preach and lead adult education.
Over the summer, we will hear from a variety of current voices from our congregation. In the fall, we will focus on the future, holding a Fall Welcome Back+ event on September 21 that focuses on families.
Celebrating with a Purpose
Throughout our celebrations, we will prayerfully consider where God is leading our congregation into the next 70 years. We believe God is calling BHPC to be a beacon of light for years to come — a place of impact, ministry, and love.
Volunteer
It’s going to be a very fun year. But to plan, we need help. We need the most help planning the May 3, 2025 dinner. If you are interested, contact Cliff Ty at cliffty@aol.com.
If you are interested in planning family activities and want to help with the 2025 Welcome Back+ gathering in the fall, contact Pastor Denise.
Watch for Updates!
Watch this page for updates and more information.
70th Anniversary Events
January 12, 2025
Our 70th Kick-Off: A special discussion in worship and adult education. Download a pdf of a special report on the Spiritual Symbolism of the BHPC Sanctuary.
February 23, 2025
Former pastor of BHPC, Rev. Dr. Susan Andrews, will preach.
General Presbyter
Hudson River Presbytery
Returning to preach in celebration of our 70th Anniversary is our beloved former pastor, the Rev. Dr. Susan Andrews. For 17 years, from 1989 to 2006, Pastor Susan led our congregation in joyous service. She is currently the general presbyter of the Hudson River Presbytery in New York.
Pastor Susan served over thirty years in four parishes in Massachusetts, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Maryland, including as the former pastor of BHPC. In 2003, she was elected Moderator of the 215th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, USA, and traveled as the primary ambassador for the denomination during the following year. Susan holds degrees from Wellesley College, Harvard Divinity School, and McCormick Theological Seminary.
Join us at both the 8:30 and 10:30 worship services to hear Pastor Susan in both rich recollection and wise discernment of where BHPC may be called today.
April 6, 2025
50th anniversary recognition of our beloved sanctuary organ.
May 3, 2025
70th Anniversary Dinner Celebration
May 4, 2025
Barbara Brown Taylor will preach and lead adult education.
American Episcopal priest, academic, and author, Barbara Brown Taylor appeared in the 2014 Time Magazine list of 100 most influential people in the world.
September 21, 2025
Fall Welcome Back+
Family-focused, including a lunch and fellowship after worship with special activities.
A Short History of Bradley Hills
It all began over 100 years ago on Easter Sunday in 1900 in a carriage house on Kalorama Road in northwest Washington, D.C. Clara Finley Bliss, M.D., one of the first women physicians to practice in Washington, gathered a group of children to form a Sunday school. From this beginning grew the Washington Heights Presbyterian Church.
The Washington Heights PC served its neighborhood until after World War II, when it sought to relocate. At the same time, a group in Bethesda was organizing to build a church to serve the growing community.
With the assistance of the Presbytery, the two groups joined to form Bradley Hills Presbyterian Church in 1955. In 1957, our Nursery School was founded, which to this day is a much respected, play-based school.
Our Buildings & Organ
The present church building (the education wing and Memorial Hall) was constructed in 1956, and the present sanctuary and its wing were completed in 1965. The Holtcamp pipe organ was added in 1972. In 2002, Covenant Hall and the Gathering Space were completed.
Covenant Hall transformed the overall building so that our structure reflects the covenant between Bradley Hills and the Bethesda Jewish Congregation.
The addition was designed as a hexagonal space — a Star of David standing next to the original cross-shaped sanctuary. In architecture, as well as in spirit, BJC and Bradley Hills are “spiritual siblings sharing sacred space.”
Called by God for 50 Years (PDF) Written for the occasion of our 50th Anniversary in 2005.
Photos
Announcing the 70th Anniversary Celebration with confetti and noisemakers at the 2024 Welcome Back Sunday.
Chancel Players preview the big Celebration Dinner that will be held on May 3.
