Page:The Czechoslovaks in the United States.djvu/7

 our American culture by the preservation and cultivation of the arts and music of the Czechoslovak people, so that the distinctive gifts of these people may not be lost upon their amalgamation in our American life. This church, which has been blessed by over fifty years of the ministrations of the pioneer missionary to the Czechs, the Rev. Vincent Pisek, D.D., has sent out over a score of ministers and missionaries to serve their countrymen in this country and abroad. Another strong church is the Hubbard Memorial Church of Chicago, of which the Rev. Vaclav Vanek. D.D, is pastor. Other splendid churches are located at Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Clarkson and Wahoo, Nebraska; Hopkins, Minnesota; and Maribel, Wisconsin. The Presbytery of Pittsburgh, one of the first presbyteries to introduce a thoroughgoing program for the foreign-born, has developed several splendid centers of work for the Czechoslovaks under the leadership of the Rev. Vaclav Losa. D.D. The Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church of New York City is an example of what an American church may do for its foreign neighbors. Nearly one half of the 1800 members of the Bible School are of Czech extraction, and they mingle democratically with children and young people of the wealthy families of Fifth and Park Avenues.



Our Presbyterian Church has a number of fine Slovak churches in Pennsylvania and Ohio, and in many missions and neighborhood houses the Slovaks are being reached with the same program which ministers to other nationalities of the newer immigration. There are more naturally Protestant people among the Czechoslovaks than in the case of any other Slavic group, and our church should be doing a much larger work than it is doing now.