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OUR CHURCH GOES MARCHING ON …

A Twenty-Five Year History of the

First United Methodist Church of Newton (Celebrating the years 1981-2006)

A 175th Church Anniversary Publication

By Mildred P. Hughes September 2006

PRAISING GOD by:

HONORING our past …

INVESTING in our present …

VISIONING toward our future …

Highlights of First United Methodist Church of Newton

175th Anniversary Year September 25, 2005: Kick-off Anniversary Year Service (174th Year)

Inspiring sermon message from Rev. Galen Goodwin, District Superintendent

Dedication of Martha’s Memorial Garden

October 16, 2005: “Church Pioneer Sunday” • Rev. Bob Simpson’s portrayal and description of Francis Asbury’s

Circuit-Rider ministry in Sussex County • Open house at the 1770 home of Charles Tice, where Asbury

stayed when he preached in Newton in 1784.

November 13, 2005: “Music Sunday” • A worship service hymn festival based on the “Apostle’s

Creed” • A “Choir Reunion” Concert including 44 singers and 4

one-time directors of music for Newton UMC

January 22, 2006: “UMW Tea” • A presentation by Bettilou Holland on key women’s

roles and accomplishments in the history of Methodism • Tribute to Newton Church’s UMW “Pioneer,” Jean

Rinhart

May 21/22, 2006: “Homecoming Weekend” • Family Fun Festival, drawing over 200 for a day of games, crafts,

and musical performances • Special worship service involving recollections of the early days of

the church at 111 Ryerson Ave. by E.T. & Bettilou Holland

September 24, 2006: “Anniversary Sunday” (175th Year) • Special service with Bishop and District Superintendent presiding • Dedication of 175th Anniversary Campaign contributions • Unveiling of Mildred P. Hughes’ 25-year History of the Newton

United Methodist Church

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT:

The creators of this historical document wish to acknowledge the work and the

expertise of Daniel Rutan⎯Office Administrator of the Newton First United

Methodist Church⎯whose proofing, formatting, graphic, and overall production

skills contributed greatly to the readability and appearance of Our Church Goes

Marching On!

APOLOGIA:

Written histories of any variety always run the nearly “unthinkable” risk of

omission⎯of excluding some element of major or minor significance that might

seem, to some, to have been worthy of inclusion. In the case of this 25-year

history⎯Our Church Goes Marching On!⎯apologies need not come from the

author, herself, but from those who furnished her with the archival information

that served as the basis of her writing. Much of the supplied material was

sketchy, fragmented and non-sequenced, at best, to say nothing of the challenge

of being unable to tap the historical insights of church elders who are no longer

with us. Perhaps if significant omissions are detected, an Addendum can be

compiled to accompany this document.

Our Church Goes Marching On…

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DEDICATION

This twenty-five year church history, by Mildred P. Hughes, is hereby

dedicated⎯as a 175th Anniversary Year Special Remembrance⎯to all aspiring

Newton United Methodist parishioners of the Church of 2031, for whom a 200-

year sense of the proud and enduring traditions of Newton UMC will be essential

to those “visioning toward its future!”


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PREFACE FROM THE PASTOR

Rev. Dr. Nancy S. Belsky

It takes an anniversary event to inspire us to reflect on our past and vision what

that might mean for our future. I’m grateful for this comprehensive update that

Millie Hughes wrote and Jerry Schierloh and Dan Rutan produced for our 175th

celebration. It will provide a touchstone for the next 25 years of life and faith for

the people of First United Methodist Church of Newton.

Please take the time to read not only Millie’s exceptional update but also the

words of Warren D. Cummings that chronicles our first 150 years of existence.

Together you will understand the spirit that forged our early years and I believe is

present yet today.

May the Holy Spirit continue to guide and perfect us in love and service.

Blessings, Rev. Dr. Nancy S. Belsky


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A Hymn of Thanks for our 175th Anniversary

For the church that sees its mission, thanks be to God; for this church sent forth by vision, thanks be to God; for the praying, study, working, gifts abundantly asserting, giving life to all embracing, thanks be to God.

In the labor we have offered, God’s will is done; in the service we will render, God’s will is done; for the lonely, desperate, ailing, those whom God will touch with caring when we take our vows with daring, God’s will is done.

For the love that Jesus offers, thanks be to God; for the gift of our salvation, thanks be to God; for communion never severed, place at table set forever, Christ’s great love enfolds us ever, thanks be to God.

Hymn Tune: East Acklam (UMC Hymnal #97) Words: Nancy S. Belsky


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Mildred P. Hughes October 18, 1923 – February 1, 2012


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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

How fortunate the First United Methodist Church of Newton is to have its most recent 25-year history documented and described by Mildred Prentice Hughes (known familiarly as “Millie” to most of us)!

Current parishioners of our church will be quick to associate her name with the authorship of a book recently re-published by our Newton UMC (2002) and titled, Don’t Let the Talking Drums Die. In this book, richly embroidered with Millie Hughes’ beautifully descriptive narrative, she recounts the experience of herself and her beloved husband, Ed Hughes, during their three and a half years in Liberia (1978-1981), where he served as a missionary engineer at Phebe Hospital, Suakoko, and she taught English at Cuttington University.

Indeed, those who have read Millie Hughes’ Liberia book and are captivated by the quality of its writing, will have little difficulty seeing that same quality shine through in Our Church Goes Marching On⎯a seamless continuation of Warren (Bill) Cummings 150-year history titled A Meeting of Christians. Readers of both of these works of Millie should, therefore, have little difficulty appreciating the fact that her talent is based on a long and extensive literary background, most of which evolved and matured right here in Sussex County!

Mildred Hughes received her Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology in 1949 from Cedar Crest College in Allentown, PA. Her teaching career was begun in a pre-school for retarded children, followed by 8th grade English teaching assignments at the Halsted Street and Fredon Schools. In the early 1970’s⎯after teaching all day⎯she attended night classes at Fairleigh Dickinson University, leading toward completion of her Master’s Degree in English in 1973. When Kittatinny Regional opened its doors, Millie was asked to teach English there, and did so for three and a half years before departing with Ed for their Liberia experience.

However, folded into Millie’s formal teaching career were other literary and writing opportunities. In 1962, she was asked by Marlin Morgan, the editor of The New Jersey Herald, to write feature stories and a column for the Thursday and Sunday editions of the paper. For eight years, under the headings of, first, “Millie Says,” and later, “The Distaff Side,” Millie wrote articles on domestic and


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community life and feature stories which touched upon provocative social themes. A few that she recently recalled were an account of a Franciscan monk who survived a German concentration camp during WWII and later was stationed in Newton, a description of the life an American couple had experienced while living in China; and the perspectives gained from interviewing the president of the American Society for the Blind, who lived in Lafayette.

Since those early days of writing for a local community publication, Millie has had articles published in a variety of newspapers and magazines, including The Christian Science Monitor, The English Journal, Medical Times and World Encounter. In her retirement home, she has also recently led a Writer’s Group.

Millie’s literary talents and her penchant for creative writing also spilled over into her church life. Shortly after she and Ed joined the First United Methodist Church (in 1960, on the same Sunday as Bettilou Holland!), she began to write biographical sketches of church members in each monthly issue of the “Tower Tidings.” Somewhere, in dated church files⎯that need to be re-discovered and properly archived for posterity⎯are Millie’s colorful biographical renderings of such Newton Methodist stalwarts as the Tom Smiths, the Spragues, the Blakeslees, the Hollands, the Hontz’s, and the Iliffs!

Two wonderful touches of irony and coincidence accompany Mildred Hughes’ literary career and her authorship of this 25-year church history. First, she once took a course in writing under the tutelage of Bill Cummings (himself an English teacher at Newton High), so that her 25-year continuation of the tone and substance of his 150-year church history flows naturally from her awareness and fondness of his writing style.

Secondly, the lives of Ed and Millie Hughes brushed wondrously close to one of the great authors of their century, Pearl S. Buck, when she chose to write a children’s storybook about adoption, using the Hughes’ adoption of a Korean child as a real-life example. One has to wonder how that personal experience with such a literary “legend” could not have failed to inspire Millie to embark on a writing career of her own!

Come to think of it, perhaps this wasn’t all just irony and coincidence. Maybe it was God’s Hand at work all along, providing the means for one of our very own


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congregational “faithfuls” to⎯so richly, colorfully, and poignantly⎯remind us Newton Methodists of “who we are!”

So, on this special Day of Celebration of the 175th Anniversary of the Newton United Methodist Church, we thank you, God, for sharing with us the heart, the mind, the spirit, and the peerless Writing Hand of Mildred Prentice Hughes!

Jerry Schierloh, Chair 175th Church Anniversary Committee

Newton United Methodist Church September 24, 2006


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OUR CHURCH GOES MARCHING ON… By Mildred P. Hughes

a continuation of Warren D. Cummings’ “A MEETING OF CHRISTIANS”

Warren (Bill) Cummings ended his wonderful, well-researched history of The First United Methodist Church of Newton, A Meeting of Christians, during the 1980-81 church year with the words:

The great cavalcade of 150 years is still on the move, And brothers, we are treading where the saints have trod!

Well, the saints are still treading, different ones now. Some with the same surname as one of the founding fathers⎯James Iliff⎯others with the same names as the saints who worked through the years to make it what it is today⎯Banghart, Blakeslee, Hough, McCracken, Sprague, Tice, to mention a few⎯and still others with new names and new talents⎯Carlson, Edwards, Fisher, Hontz, McCue, Schierloh⎯and more, but there are many, too many to mention.

We pick up our story of Newton Methodism on September 27, 1981, in the midst of a celebration. The oldest Methodist Church in Sussex County, it was its 150th anniversary year and an occasion for another gathering of Christians, including a goodly gathering of pastors, too. That Sunday morning the pastor, Dr. H. Alden Welch welcomed Bishop Dale White, guest preacher, former pastors Rev. Elbridge T. Holland (1960-1974), then District Superintendent and Rev. Cloyd Osborne (1955-1960), and Assistant Ministers Michael and Jan Davis. Rev. John McElroy (1974-1978) had visited just before, on 50- Year Members Sunday, and former pastors Rev. Elbridge T. Holland (1960-1974) and Rev. Cloyd Osborne (1955-1960), were to make their appearance during the weeks that followed, in continued celebration of the anniversary year.

After a packed service the congregation gathered for refreshments and a blazing send-off for the anniversary year⎯the lighting and cutting of an anniversary cake with 150 candles by six more saints⎯Bishop White, William Coe, Sr., Geneva Hull, Russell McCue, Thomas Smith, and Carleton Sprague, while the entire


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congregation joined in singing “The Church’s One Foundation” led by the indomitable choir director, Jack Hontz. Dr. Welch spoke of him in his pastoral letter that year: “Jack Hontz leads our choir with such boundless energy that I would not be at all surprised if on our 200th anniversary in 2031 he were still directing the choir with his cane.”

Dr. Welch also addressed the church of the future: the First United Methodist Church of Newton of 2031. “I want you to know that for your celebration in 2031, I want to give what may be the largest financial gift I will ever give any church. It is only $100 now, but by the time you receive it, it will have grown (at the present 12% interest rate) to over $40,000. Use it as God directs. God bless.” At present that “gift” of Dr. Welch has accrued to slightly under twelve thousand dollars, and there are still many years for it to grow.

The next year was a year of firsts. A program born that year, still in place today, was First Church Friends, which gives each new member a mentor to help him or her to get acclimated and feel included in the congregation.

And that was the year of our first pastoral exchange. Dr. Welch, his wife Dody and young son Adam (and, for a short time their daughter, Amy) went to Wales that summer where he spent July and August as a visiting pastor in the Caldicot-Chepstow Circuit. At the same time Rev. Clive Pugh, pastor of Caldicot-Chepstow, with his wife, Olwen, came to Newton to be a guest pastor for eight weeks. The Pugh’s so endeared themselves to Newton that several of the congregation still correspond with them today.

1982 was also the year of the Drew Weekend. All foreign students from Drew University Theological School were invited for a weekend in Newton. They stayed with host families, met for a picnic Saturday evening at the Blakeslee farm, met again at church on Sunday morning and had a sendoff meal⎯the kind that Methodist women are so good at preparing – that afternoon before returning to Drew. Many of the contacts made that weekend continued until the students graduated and returned to their home countries.

There were two “lasts” in 1982 also. Since the 1960’s a group of individuals in the church had been helping with the support of an agricultural missionary to Ecuador, Joe Blakeslee. In 1982, he decided that it was time to leave Ecuador and


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return to the United States for three years, to give higher priority to his family of growing children and their education. The Newton congregation had felt especially close to Joe and his family because his father and mother, Jake and Dorothy Blakeslee, were active and beloved members of Newton First United Methodist. Also that year, short term missionaries Edward and Mildred Hughes to whose support the church had also been contributing, returned from Liberia, West Africa after four years there, Edward as an engineering missionary keeping a 120 bed hospital running, and Mildred as a teacher of English at Cuttington University, nearby.

Since the 1960s, the youth of our church, with some adults, had been traveling during the summers to impoverished sections of Appalachia to repair homes for the elderly and less fortunate. They learned many building skills as they worked⎯sawing, hammering, painting, building ramps and steps, repairing roofs, and in general, making homes habitable. But more importantly, they learned the satisfaction of helping others, and they formed warm ties with those whose homes they worked on; tears were often a part of their good-byes. It gave them a new perspective when they learned that simple things they took for granted (for instance, just being able to go outdoors) were impossible for some, but that the youth could make it possible (In the aforementioned example, by building a ramp).

The youth who went in 1982 didn’t know it when they went, but 1982 was to be the last time their summer work trips were to be to Appalachia. People were beginning to talk of a similar program right here in Sussex County, and there was found to be a definite need for this service. Under the leadership of Grant Buttermore, Assistant Minister, planning began. It wasn’t until 1983 that C. O. P. (Christian Outreach Project) became a reality. Steve Bechtold, Rhynier Bishoff, Jean and Bob Clark, Asa Gould, and Ed Hughes, spent many hours that spring planning⎯interviewing county service agencies for names of people whose homes needed repair, and inspecting those homes to see if the repairs were such that youth teams, with adult guidance, could safely undertake. Twenty-six young people participated in that year’s projects.

Each year from 1983 to the present, the youth have been based and fed at the Methodist Camp Aldersgate in Swartswood, except for dinners, which were


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provided by a different church each evening. They raised funds during the year for their camp fees, plus the cost of materials used in repairing homes. The total experience was described by Diane Hollenbeck, Treasurer of C. O. P. in 1987:

Even though the C. O. P. was created years ago to meet an obvious need in this area, much more has transpired. Because of their efforts (and sore muscles and sunburn and maybe poison ivy) the kids feel good about themselves because they have reached out to help someone else. They have ministered in a way that goes deeper and means more than a painted porch, or a wheelchair ramp or a repaired roof. And on the other hand, those receiving the help feel cared for and ministered to in a very special way. The Christian Outreach Program is a true example of people “living and sharing the joy of Christian caring.”

By 1989, C.O.P secretary, Phoebe Rutan could say;

This year there were 62 youth participating, 32 adults, and 16 churches, working on 13 sites. The project is a learning experience for youth and adults, not only in skills, but in Christian faith.

C.O.P. was launched in 1983, expanded in 1984, became a two-week program in 1987, and has continued to grow and become refined ever since. Other churches saw its value and joined. It is now sponsored by the Skylands District of the Greater New Jersey Annual Conference and is still going strong today. By our next anniversary in 2031, our grandchildren and great grandchildren from all over the conference may very well be hammering, plastering, and laying floors for another generation of homeowners in need of some Christian outreach. And, to think, it all began in Newton!

Another eventful year was 1984. That year started with the planning of our second pastoral exchange, which brought Pastor Sudhir John from the Gujarati Conference in Bombay India, to Newton, from September to December. Beside preaching several times and taking part in every aspect of our church programs, he visited some community organizations such as Rotary, and our church members, including his host families were left with a better understanding of India and a warm feeling for their visitor from India. Dr. Welch returned the visit in the spring of the next year, taking gifts from our church to Pastor John’s church


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and to the needy in India. Acquaintance with Pastor John familiarized the congregation with his family, and for the next four years they provided post-high school tuition for his two children in India, first his daughter, and then his son.

In 1984 another project was born, which proved a blessing to shut-ins. Equipment was purchased to audiotape services, duplicate them, and have them delivered by volunteers each week to each of our shut-ins. A new ministry was born, which continues today.

On September 25 that year a service was held at the Sussex County Courthouse to commemorate a special date. Over two hundred years earlier, August 24, 1784, the Father of American Methodism, Circuit Rider Francis Asbury, had paid his first visit to Sussex County and preached at the courthouse. Pastors and members of ours and other churches participated in the program as District Superintendent Elbridge T. Holland dedicated a bronze plaque, which was installed on the wall of the courthouse. A banner bearing the centennial logo and made by Dody Welch, was featured in the program and after displayed in our sanctuary. A video was made of the ceremony, part of which was played on local TV. The next year the annual drive committee was named the Circuit Rider Committee⎯and it was a success.

Another first in 1984⎯our church made plans to modernize our church office. The Administrative Board appointed a task force to take the first cautious step – to explore the utilization of small office computer to improve record keeping and ability to retrieve information. The task force, led by Beulah Bowman, got busy and the next year it happened. In 1984 a small office computer began keeping our attendance and financial records. We had joined the electronic age. And we’ve certainly never left it. It wouldn’t be until 1999 that First Methodist would have its own website, initiated by webmaster Dan Rutan, our talented computer guru.

Today, 2006, besides keeping attendance and financial information, just a few of the many types of information that the computers handle are local staffing, membership trends⎯local and worldwide⎯church school activities and teacher interests, day care center rental accounts, all committees and organizations, their members, and finances. There are now four computers in the church offices, and


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each of the four workers who uses them has his or her own computer at home for contact with the others.

And 1984 ended with another blaze. Not anniversary candles this time, but a small but significant blaze on the last Sunday of the year – the burning of our mortgage. The church was ours!

The United Methodist Homes of N. J., together with Rev. Richard Carlson, director of the Branchville home, Methodist Manor, Rev. E. T. Holland, Newton’s former pastor, and Dr. H. Alden Welch, Newton’s pastor at the time, had been working toward a home in Sussex County for seniors, larger than Methodist Manor. They had been given, through the will of Mrs. Herbert Hull, a suitable tract of land in Andover Township. The road had been bumpy, as objections, in the form of a suit from an already existing nursing home, and drainage problems on the land, caused delays. As permission was sought to build, planners ran into obstacle after obstacle. Things looked discouraging and were at a standstill. We’ll leave the weary but determined committee at this point and look in on them later.

Two years later, 1986, was our music year. In the fall the first bell choir was started, with two octaves of bells and 10 ringers under the direction of Joseph Tanga. Today, in 2006, it has grown to four and a half octaves and four groups – The Joyful Ringers, (Adult group), Bell Chimers (Beginners), Bells of Peace (Juniors), and A Handful of Bells (Quintet), plus various quartets formed as appropriate. It has given concerts, and plays at least once a month in the church service.

But the best was yet to come! Our faithful and talented organist for 45 years, Natalie Mooney, had been playing the organ, which had been installed in the Park Place church in 1912 and moved to the new church. It was old and inadequate for our sanctuary. Natalie had become adept at hiding its defects when she played, by avoiding notes that no longer sounded when their keys were pressed and playing them in different octaves.

But we had a dedicated Organ Committee, headed by Charles Tice, which had been hard at work for a year. The Aeroflex Fund pledged matching funds to supplement whatever was raised. And finally, in 1986, the committee could


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announce that a new Peragallo organ would be installed in our sanctuary, and a tower carillon in the steeple, which can be played from the organ console.

March 27, 1987, was a joyful day. The new organ was dedicated “to the glory of God and for service.” Its glorious tones filled the church and brought happy tears to the eyes of some of the listeners. The console was dedicated “to the glory of God and in honor of Natalie Mooney, organist since 1939, by her friends and former pupils.” Newton Methodists could sing unto the Lord with heavenly accompaniment from that time on!

Nineteen-eighty-six was also a big year for another committee. The World Mission Committee heard of a Liberian student who wanted to become a minister to his people in Liberia. Realizing that an indigenous minister can be more effective than a missionary from a foreign country, they set up the International Scholarship Fund, a yearly fund for foreign students interested in training for full-time Christian careers, and pledged to work toward that goal each year.

The committee chooses each new international student with the help of the Board of Global Ministries, and payment is made through that agency or the National Woman’s Society. It’s also responsible for acquainting the congregation with the current student’s life and progress in school and the culture and customs of his country. Since that time Newton Methodist has sent out into the world a missionary to Liberia; (unfortunately, presumed killed during the civil war there) and others to Thailand, Russia, and the Philippines. Yet another one is about to finish as a missionary to Liberia.

An International Dinner was planned in those early days of the Fund’s establishment, as a way of helping to pay for the students’ schooling. Two thousand seven will be the twentieth year that Newton Methodists and guests enjoy congenial fellowship and international specialties prepared by cooks from the congregation.

Sometime later the World Mission Committee combined with Local Missions to become The Mission Committee. Now they work together and have instituted new mission giving. One of these is the Scholarship Fund, awarded yearly at graduation time to provide help to our own Methodist Youth as they go on college


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or further studies; others are the worldwide Heifer Project and the Fair Trade Coffee Program.

In 1989, the Administrative Board decided it was time for all in our church to define their goals for Newton First United Methodist Church. After much thought and in collaboration with Rev. Steve Russalesi⎯Associate Pastor at that time⎯and each organization within the church, they designed the following statement:

OUR MASTER’S PLAN GUIDING STATEMENT

OUR CHURCH IS A COMMUNITY UNITED BY OUR FAITH IN JESUS CHRIST AND EMPOWERED BY GOD THROUGH WORSHIP, PRAYER, SPIRITUAL GROWTH, FELLOWSHIP, BIBLE STUDY, ECUMENICAL COOPERATION, COMMITTED LAY INVOLVEMENT, AND OUTREACH THROUGH MODERN MEDIA.

AS WE APPROACH THE YEAR 2000, GOD’S DREAM FOR OUR CHURCH IS THAT, AS A COMMUNITY OF FAITH, EMPOWERED BY GOD, WE WOULD ACTIVELY:

• NURTURE LIFESTYLES BASED ON CHRISTIAN VALUES • MINISTER TO INDIVIDUALS AFFLICTED WITH PERSONAL

CRISES • WITNESS AND WORK FOR GOD IN THE COMMUNITYAND

THE WORLD.

Adopted by the Administrative Board, May 1989

It almost sounds as if it could have been written by our founding fathers back in 1831, except for the “outreach through modern media” part. What would they have had in mind for ‘modern media’ if they had authored the statement? Perhaps The New Jersey Herald, the brand new Sussex County newspaper at the time? And I believe the Master’s Plan Statement will hold true in 2031, when the First United Methodist Church of Newton is 200 years old.


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The next year brought another special visitor. In 1990, Pastor (soon to be Bishop) Alex Diko of South Africa, a former student of the well-known Bishop Tutu, made a visit to New Jersey. He spent a week in Newton and while the congregation learned something about South Africa and its history and problems, he learned much about America.

In 1991 the Newton Church celebrated again. It was 160 years since its founding. No blaze, as at its 150th anniversary, but with real recognition of its founding fathers and its beginnings. Bishop Neil Irons came for the occasion and preached that Sunday and the congregation was treated to special music, including all choirs, the bell choirs, the new Rainbow Chorus, organ, and trumpets.

While all this was going on in our church, the committee working on the Methodist Home at Case Farm was still toiling away on its project⎯and often feeling frustrated. The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection was holding up approval for the wastewater treatment plant, and progress was at a standstill. We’ll leave them to their worries and – again – join them later.

That same year our Council on Ministries, the body which plans the ministries of the church, combined with the Administrative Board, the body which oversees its business activities, under a new name⎯the Administrative Council. It was felt that since many of the members of the Board were also on the Council, this would be a timesaving consolidation.

That was the year that Newton Methodist had a good representation at the World Methodist Conference in Singapore. Dr Welch attended as a member of the World Methodist Council and a representative to the pre-conference consultation of the Social and International Affairs Committee. Prior to that he visited with our International Student at the time, Robert Kee, of Thailand.

Accompanying him to the conference were four members of the Newton church; his wife, Dody, and Edward McCracken as Accredited Visitors; Shirley McCracken as a New Jersey delegate; and Jim McCracken as a Youth Delegate. During Dr. Welch’s absence from Newton, Clive Pugh, with his wife Olwyn, made a return visit to our church, lived in the parsonage, and became our Pastor for the time. It was a happy arrangement for all!


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In a dramatic presentation, as the Church School ended that busy year of 1991, the children proudly brought to the altar the $283.00 in pennies, (calculated to be nearly a mile of pennies which they had collected in their “Pennies for Missions” campaign) for the International Scholarship Fund.

Also, by that year, our twenty-nine-year old church was beginning to need repair, and in the Fall, the costly work of roofing and pitching was found necessary. At that time all the flat parts of the roofs were completed. In the spring of 1992 the pitched roofs were undertaken and completed. The whole project had cost $117,000. I wonder what our founding fathers would have thought of that, those men who had struggled to raise $1334 to build that first Newton Methodist Church back in 1831!

It was January 1992, that the first Disciple program began at Newton Methodist. The previous year Dr. Welch and Ed Albretsen had taken the Leaders’ Training Course in Pittsburgh. An intensive year-long Bible course, Disciple I started with one class of twelve members. There are now five levels of Disciple Courses; by 1999 there were thirty of the congregation who had taken one or more Disciple courses, thus fulfilling the wish of the Staff-Parish Committee and Dr. Welch to have a more Biblically literate leadership in our church.

A pleasant tradition was revived in 1993. At the old church on Park Place it had been a custom in June to hold a strawberry festival on the lawn between the church and the Newton Trust Bank building. In 1993, at the new church, with plentiful lawn space, a super festival was held, with the customary strawberry treats, an auction led by a professional local auctioneer (followed in ensuing years by the enthusiastic auctioneer skills of our church’s own Mark Hontz), a hot dog/hamburger stand run by the Woman’s Society, a white elephant table, and games and a water-slide for the children. This happy event has been often repeated since, adding to the fellowship and the finances of the church.

1996 was the year that the idea of SCIHN, Sussex County Interfaith Hospitality Network, was conceived, and Newton Methodist was in at the beginning. Concerned with the needs of the homeless, Sussex County churches joined to provide housing and meals for those in Sussex County, each church for one week. The Presbyterian Church of Newton provided daytime housing for those who did not go to work or school.


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Careful planning of the details was necessary and it was not until December 1999, that the idea blossomed into reality and the first visitors arrived at our church. Every three months it’s Newton Methodist’s turn to host a group for dinner, overnight and breakfast and send them off for the day with a bag lunch. In the evening, the process repeats itself⎯every day for a week. The following week another church is home to the group.

Today, nine years later, with twenty churches participating, the program is still active, and our church is still very much involved. The chairperson for Newton Methodist’s planning for its week’s involvement⎯and in 2005, for the entire program⎯was Pam Milone, and she continued until 2006. Newton’s chairperson for 2006 is Peggy Albert, with significant support coming from John Edwards, Suellyn McGlew, and Roger and Merle Tanis.

Also in 1996 seeds were planted for another outreach program⎯a Stephen Ministry in our church. Eleanor Windt, hearing about it, saw how valuable it could be, and could not forget it. Others became interested. The program is one in which Care Givers are trained to be supportive listeners (Stephen Ministers) one-on-one, to individuals who are undergoing crises in their lives (Care Receivers). Once trained, Stephen Ministers are assigned to Care Receivers to help them find their way through their difficulty⎯not as advisors, but as listeners who, in strict confidentiality, walk with them through their problems.

It wasn’t until September 1998 that a discussion of the Stephen Minister Program in the Administrative Council led to a vote for its adoption and implementation in our church. After that things moved slowly but steadily (as we will see later).

1998 also brought change to Newton Methodist. Dr. Welch, who had seen our church through twenty years of crises and celebrations, initiated new programs, and had been recognized as the senior minister of our conference five years before, retired. But no rocking chair for him! He would be the new Chairman of the Board of Bristol Glen, which was beginning to take shape.

The new pastor, the first woman minister for the Methodist Church of Newton, was Rev. Dr. Nancy S. Belsky. Pastor Nancy poured such creativity, caring, and energy, into her work that things appeared to get done effortlessly. The


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congregation soon realized that she had her own dedicated style⎯and it worked. She was here six months when an assistant was finally found and hired⎯another woman, Pastor Myungim Kim, and a hard-working team they were! Pastor Kim quietly and efficiently went about her work, a compassionate visitor and a clear thinker. The next year another young woman joined the staff, Pastor Cecilia Logan, who helped especially with the youth. Pastoral care was not lacking at First United Methodist, and the distaff side had it well covered.

When Pastor Nancy and her husband, Steve, moved into the parsonage, it was clear that they were a team and that he was going to be an asset to the church in his own way. Whatever needed doing⎯taping services for shut-ins, setting up Holland Hall for a meeting, keeping church attendance records, a myriad many more necessary jobs and later, driving the handicapped van, he was there, willing and competent, to serve.

That same September we also added two special clergy of a different kind: Pastors Emeritus. The Administrative Council recommended that former pastors, Rev. E. T. Holland and Dr. H. Alden Welch, each be named to the honorary position of Pastor Emeritus of the First United Methodist Church of Newton.

By 1999 it had become apparent that the Administrative Council, (the combined Administrative Board and Council on Ministries) would be better able to give adequate time and study to the duties of each group if they reverted to the former two governing bodies of the church. So in that year this was accomplished and we again had the Administrative Board for the business activity of the church and the Council on Ministries for the various ministries.

In 1999, Stephen Ministry plans began to take shape. Three church leaders attended a training school for Stephen Ministry leaders in Florida: Pastor Nancy and Stephen Belsky, and Barbara Miller. A class of 14 was begun later that year, and by 2000 they had been assigned Care Receivers. There have since been two additional classes who have received training for leaders and to date there have been 28 Care Receivers helped through their problems by Newton church’s Stephen Ministers.


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Finally, in 1998, the sun began to shine on the Methodist Homes Project and its hard-working committee. A break in the impasse came when the Methodist Homes was able to obtain an option on 23 acres in Newton. Adjacent to that 52 more acres could be purchased⎯enough for the Methodist Home the Committee had been working toward. And where? Right behind the First United Methodist Church, of course! What could be more appropriate⎯for the Home’s future inhabitants and for our church?

By early 1999, enough information was available so the United Methodist Women could host an information session on the Home that was to be in our backyard. And it had a name⎯Bristol Glen⎯the winning suggestion in a contest for the best name, submitted by Rev. Frank Dennis, appropriately one of its first residents. By the end of the year, building had started!

From this time on, the Bristol Glen story and the Newton Methodist story would be doubly intertwined. There would be more information sessions; a sales office and a sample apartment set up in a building on the St. Paul’s Abbey grounds; and the first future residents began signing up.

A statement of Pastor Belsky in the year 2000 describes the general spirit of that time:

God wants disciples who will be bold in their vision and courageous in their planning. God always wants us ‘out on the edge’ and leading the way.

About that time a dream of a former pastor, Rev. E. T. Holland,⎯probably the dream of every pastor⎯began to come true. He had always believed that a true church would inspire laymen to become pastors themselves and hoped that would happen in his church. One young woman under his pastorate, Janet Corpus, had done just that and became a Lutheran pastor with a church in Philadelphia. And by 2006, a young man who had grown up in the church in the 80s and 90s, Tad Butler, was appointed pastor of a Methodist Church in Southington, Ohio, and will be ordained an Elder in 2007. A third, an adult member and Lay Leader of our church, Thomas Johnson, declared his candidacy for the ordained ministry in 2000 and, while studying with Wesley Seminary in Washington, D.C, is pastor at


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Delaware Valley United Methodist Church in Hainesville, N. J. And now the fourth, Erica Milone, who also grew up in the Newton church, majored in music in college at West Virginia Wesleyan, and then attended Boston University Seminary for two years. During 2005 and 2006, she worked at our church as Director of Youth and Young Families, establishing several successful ministries and study groups for youth. In August 2006, she returned to Boston and will graduate in one and a half years with an M. A. in Theology

Four ministers from Newton Methodist in the last quarter-century! Our church must be doing something right!

No history of the last twenty-five years of our church would be complete without also mentioning the ministries of those who have served as Pastoral Assistants, Coordinators of Youth, or Program Directors for the First United Methodist Church of Newton. These individuals comprise an impressive list, which includes:

Rev. Michael and Jan Davis, Coordinators of Youth Ministries in 1980-1982; Michael currently serving a United Methodist church in Eastham, Massachusetts

Rev. Grant Buttermore, Pastoral Assistant in 1985-1987; currently serving First United Methodist Church of Tuckerton, N.J.

Steve Russalesi, Associate Pastor at Newton UMC in 1988-1989, followed by a brief period as Pastor of the Mt. Fern United Methodist Church in Randolph, N.J.

John O’Keefe, Assistant Pastor, 1990-1991; is currently lead pastor of 247connection based in North Carolina

Carl Lordi, Assistant Pastor, 1991-1992; no current information available

Rev. Jill Hubbard Smith, Assistant in Christian Education in 1993-1994; currently serving the West Belmar United Methodist Church.


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Phillip Taylor, Jr., Pastoral Assistant from 1993-1998; currently involved in volunteer work in hospital chaplaincy and prison ministries in State College, Pennsylvania.

Rev. Daniel Flores, Program Director, 1994-1995; ordained in June 2005, as an elder-in-full-connection in the Rio Grande Annual Conference in the state of Texas currently serving La Trinidad UMC in Fort Worth, Texas.

Rev. Myungim Kim, Pastoral Assistant, 1999 to 2002; currently serving the United Methodist Church in Totowa, N.J.

Rev. Cecelia Logan, Student Assistant, 2000; currently serves the United Methodist Church in Plainfield, N.J.

Nancy Jane Stanley, Student Assistant, 2002-2003 no current information available

Rev. Chad Abbott, Assistant Pastor, 2003-2005; currently serves Lockerbie Square United Methodist Church in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Erica Milone, Pastoral Assistant, 2005-2006; currently completing her seminary education at Boston University.

Sarah Wastella, currently (2006-2007) serving as our Student Assistant Pastor from Drew University.

Nearly all of these individuals were engaged in some level of seminary training during their respective years at First Church. They also provided valuable ministries and support services to our youth during these periods, and our church parishioners recall many of them with great fondness and admiration. In addition, the fact that many went on to serve in parishes of their own, speaks well of the Newton UMC as a foundation of experience for those training for the ministry. Rev. E.T. Holland can, indeed, add them to the list of those who have helped to fulfill his dream!

In the year 2001, it finally happened! After years of planning, progress had won over disappointment and Bristol Glen opened⎯a beautiful, 128-apartment


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resident facility. The first “moving-in day” was for residents of Branchville’s Methodist Manor, which was closing because of problems of its own. The next day new residents began moving in⎯two a day until the Bristol Glen had its first complement of residents. The dream of earlier pioneers had finally come true!

Also in the year 2001, the church received a most meaningful gift, a set of 48 fabric panels depicting the church’s history from its inception in 1831 to the present, researched and designed by Bettilou Holland, wife of former pastor Elbridge T. Holland (1960-1974). Beautifully illustrated, they often hang in the church sanctuary on special occasions and are teaching tools for Church School youth and adults.

A little later the church received another gift, one that was most meaningful to our shut-ins. Mike and Suellyn McGlew, active members of our church and owners of McGlew Transportation, donated a wheelchair van for use in transporting shut-ins to church. Today trained volunteer drivers Steve Belsky, John Iliff, Mike McGlew and Jay Morrison take turns picking up those who need transportation to church on Sundays. As one grateful passenger put it, (because of the van) “Sunday is my beautiful day!”

The Praise Band took form under the influence of several people. Cynthia Belsky Stouffer brought a 5th Sunday Praise Service to First United Methodist Church of Newton during 2001 and 2002. It did not take long to catch on with Roger and Merle Tanis (Merle on guitar), Kathleen and John Meredith (Kathleen on guitar), Adam Tavolaro (on guitar), Carol Baldwin, Elizabeth Elvidge, Steve Stouffer (on drums), John and Barbara Edwards, Shirley Spooner, Elaine Tavolaro and Pastor Nancy. This tradition was continued with Bruce Rous at the Saturday Praise Service, and then with Kathleen Meredith in succeeding years.

During the recording of all the years between 1981 and 2006, our 150th and 175th anniversaries, respectively, little has been said about probably the most important department of all⎯most important because in it lies the future of the church⎯the Church School. And each Sunday morning, early in the service, it is most evident. A short while into the service, when it’s time for the Children’s Sermon, some twenty to thirty or more eager younger church school pupils between the ages of four and ten, come forward for the children’s sermon, some running, a few


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bashful, some older ones herding little ones forward. They listen eagerly to the Children’s Sermon (some little ones waving shyly at their parents in the congregation), folding their hands at the end when the adult leader asks, “Shall we pray?” Then they leave, just as energetically, for their respective Church School classes, obviously enjoying each part of their Sunday morning learning experience.

Sometimes they, or some of them, reappear toward the end of the service, to sing a song they’ve rehearsed, or as a part of the new Church Band. Twice a year, at Christmas and Easter, they present a pageant for the congregation.

There are twelve teachers and eighteen helping teachers, under the direction of Mark and Stephanie Hontz, Superintendents. In their classes they learn age-appropriate Bible-based material and sometimes do projects or handwork related to the lesson. The children of Newton First United Methodist Church are growing up feeling that church is a happy place to be!

But that is not all that is available for the youth at Newton Methodist. The youth are well served. Four age-appropriate groups are busy and active. The first, Club 56, for fifth and sixth graders, introduces them to the idea of a wholesome Christian fellowship and shows them that such a group can be fun without the many negative influences in young lives today. And fun they have! About ten youngsters participate in this group that generates fifth and sixth grade enthusiasm once a month, from five to six on the third Sunday.

The second group, Totally Thursday, has a musical emphasis for anyone from second to tenth grades. Members learn about music in drama and worship, using bells and other instruments. They meet from 5:30 to 7:30 each week on Thursdays and often perform the music they learn in church. Erica Milone’s gift of drama and Karen Popjes’s gift of music enabled two performances, Bethlehem’s Best in December 2005, and Singsational Servants in June 2006. Besides Erica and Karen, leaders were Peggy Albert, Carol Baldwin, Evie Cornwell, Shirley Spooner and the parents of all the Totally Thursday participants.

Methodist Youth Fellowship consists of two groups, Junior High (seventh and eighth grades}, which meets Sunday evenings from 5:00 to 6:30 and Senior High


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(ninth through twelfth grades) which meets from 6:30 to 8:00. The total number is about twenty-five: their activities are directed toward service, learning, and fun.

The Young Family Group is a new addition to these programs. Activities include fellowship, exchange of ideas about families and child-rearing, and supportive discussion.

The United Methodist Women (UMW), a group indispensable to our church, has as its multidimensional statement of purpose:

• TO KNOW GOD AND TO EXPERIENCE FREEDOM AS WHOLE PERSONS THROUGH JESUS CHRIST

• TO DEVELOP CREATIVE, SUPPORTIVE FELLOWSHIP • TO EXPAND CONCEPTS OF MISSION THROUGH PARTICIPATION

IN THE GLOBAL MINISTRIES OF THE CHURCH

Big goals, but working together, they accomplish them! The UMW touches every organization in the church and many worldwide. In the local church the UMW performs services such as providing handcrafted banners for infants when they are baptized, hosting coffee hours and special events such as concerts and meetings, decorating a “Chrismon” tree for the narthex for Christmas, and performing needed tasks in the church.

In the community they provide gifts for nursing home residents, volunteer at Manna House, a local soup kitchen for the needy, and donate items to Domestic Abuse Services and layettes to the local hospital. And among their worldwide services, they collect and send supplies for needy hospitals overseas, assemble kits for Global Ministries, and collect yarn for “Caps for Kids.”

They’re busy! But that’s only half of it. They also work hard at many fund-raising projects, which provide everything from (locally) Vacation Bible School supplies; (community-wide) helping to stock the county food locker for the needy, to (worldwide) large contributions to Global Ministries. In 2004, the Newton UMW was among the top ten contributors in the United Methodist Skylands District in its donations to Global Ministries. Funds were raised for all this through individual pledges and gifts from members and friends of the UMW, an annual Holiday Bazaar, bake sales, sales of a published cookbook, and miscellaneous


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similar projects, The last complete year reported a total of over $3,300 contributed to world and local missions through their efforts.

Much of the strength of the local UMW lies with the circles, smaller groups formed of UMW members, which provide opportunities to be with other women to contribute further to the purpose and mission of the UMW. In 2006, there were two active circles, Diakonia and the Lydia Circle. For a period of time in the 1990’s, there was one more, a young women’s group, the Rachel Circle, who brought their youngsters, shared costs for a baby sitter, and had a morning of talk, planning, and study, and accomplished much. Understandably, many of their projects concerned young children. However, as time went on, one by one they joined the trend of our age and became working mothers until there were not enough left to continue.

The Circles do various projects as needs arise. The Lydia Circle, long led by Gladys Heckman, has among its projects the vitally needed service of providing funeral receptions for the families of church members who pass away. Diakonia, a Greek term which means “to serve with love,” has among its activities a card ministry for shut-ins and an annual Chrismon tree for the church narthex. Definitely, a large number of the saints at Newton First Methodist Church are feminine!

But the masculine side also has a lot to add to our church. Newer than its feminine counterpart, United Methodist Men was first organized in 1983 and had sixteen busy years serving a triple purpose: 1) working for our local church in various capacities (for instance, work nights for various needs at the church), 2) fund-raising, such as their well known chicken barbecue in the early fall, and 3) keeping aware of the needs of our local area and the world through speakers and programs. Their fund-raising supported the local church as well as world projects; its main project in the latter area was the new African University just opening at that time in Zimbabwe. However, the group was not able to continue after thirteen successful years, as members moved away, or became too busy.

Six years later, in 2005, ten men, including five members of the former group, met to reorganize. Their stated purposes were: organizational and doctrinal development, including familiarity with the Methodist Church, its doctrines and


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beliefs; spiritual nurture; evangelism; discipleship; mission; Christian fellowship; home church support; and jurisdictional support.

Still in its first year, the present United Methodist Men is off to a rolling start. Three members, plus Pastor Belsky, attended a course on Building a Sustainable Men’s Ministry. A slate of officers was selected, including John Iliff, (a name that would sound familiar to the founders of our church) President, Frank Eberhart, Vice President, John Edwards, Treasurer, and Jerry Schierloh, Secretary. Several interesting plans for the future have evolved, including the possibility of collaborating with Habitat for Humanity and/or the Sussex County Interfaith Hospitality Network in a number of projects.

Another church organization, begun in 1947 with about 20 original members, is still going strong with more than double the original membership nearly sixty years later, is the Kum Dubl Klub. It started as a young couples club, but as some members lost a spouse and some single church members became interested, it now is a mixed group.

Its purpose is five-fold: work (needed church projects and repairs), fund-raising (for church programs), food, fun and fellowship. These run concurrently; few groups anywhere can have so much fun while scrubbing shelves in the church kitchen or painting church school rooms during work nights as the Kum Dubls. The agenda also includes all kinds of trips, such as a barge trip on the Delaware River, a tour of the Battleship New Jersey, or a play at the Papermill Playhouse.

But serious work is accomplished in all the lightheartedness. The group hosts many church activities, such as Family Nights and Halloween parties for the Church School. And their fund-raising projects, such as the famous Fish n’ Chips dinners from the sixties to the eighties, and the Tailgate Sales⎯still annual events for over fifteen years, for instance⎯have helped to fund many worthwhile church activities. Examples of these are camperships at Aldersgate and C. O. P., exterminating services for the church building, and kitchen equipment for church affairs.

For sixty years this group⎯including some of the original members⎯has been busy helping to support church projects, and having fun while doing it.


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Sometimes this spirit finds its way into the records, as in one set of minutes of the mid-eighties recorded by Lemoyne Sprague:

A motion was made and seconded that the meeting be adjourned, after which there was a mad dash for the McCue’s dining room table, loaded with mouth-watering food.

Formality has not been not the order of the day for this lively group!

The Saturday Supper Club is a long-standing fellowship group, which meets monthly from September through June. As the name implies, meetings always mean⎯what else? FOOD! And, of course sharing food always means fellowship. The group evolved from the former Pairs and Spares in the early eighties.

For many years the October event for this group was pressing cider at the home of Lon and Tena Anunson. Everyone took turns putting apples into the hopper, turning the handle, putting the cider into bottles, and of course, enjoying the result⎯along with “munchables” during the pressing and pizza afterward.

April means the Saturday Supper Club setting up Holland Hall for the International Buffet. This is again followed by pizza and fellowship. Some of the more unusual dinners have been the Green Feast, where everything from appetizer to dessert had to be green, a Red Dinner, a Christmas Progressive Dinner gift exchange, and a Chinese Auction. The Christmas gathering has now become one where a host family provides the home, everyone brings the meal, and instead of exchanging gifts, a donation is made to a local charity. There are also Game Nights and occasional Dining Out Nights at local restaurants. As the Saturday Supper Club continues to meet, they will be adding some fund-raising events to their regular programs. You can be sure these will feature ⎯FOOD!

In January 2004 a new worship experience, a Saturday evening service known as “The Summons” was introduced. Two streams of talent came together to create this. Bruce Rous, a gifted keyboard artist with much experience in contemporary worship, and Assistant Minister Chad Abbott, who brought the gift of youth and energy, collaborated to design a Saturday worship at 5 p.m. It attracted several who found Sunday services difficult or impossible to attend due to work schedules. The format was informal and the spirit was warm and inviting.


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Although never managing to pass 30 attendees, it was a viable experience for almost a year for those who attended regularly. It was discontinued as both Pastor Chad and Bruce moved to new assignments in Indianapolis and Tennessee, respectively. The service received its name because every service ended with the hymn “The Summons” from The Faith We Sing hymnal.

In the year 2005, a beautiful outdoor Memorial Garden was added to the grounds of Newton First United Methodist Church. Directly below the sanctuary stained glass window, in a beautifully landscaped area, it is more than a resting place for loved ones. It is a place to meditate, to remember, and to give thanks for the special lives of those buried there. It was created as a memorial to a deceased member, Martha Keen, and funded by her bequest and memorial gifts given in her honor. A plaque, containing the names of all whose cremains are scattered⎯or who are remembered there⎯is mounted on the outside wall in the garden. On the monument, symbolic for all, is inscribed this familiar passage:

JESUS SAID TO MARTHA, “I AM THE RESURRECTION AND THE LIFE. THOSE WHO BELIEVE IN ME, EVEN THOUGH THEY DIE, WILL LIVE, AND EVERYONE WHO LIVES AND BELIEVES IN ME WILL NEVER DIE.”

This lovely memorial was dedicated on September 25, 2005, at the beginning of the 175th anniversary year of the church.

The latest program offered at First United Methodist⎯an outgrowth of the Stephen Ministry Program⎯is the ChristCare Program. This is a “small-group” ministries program, places for training individuals to live as Christ’s disciples.

The leadership of our church became interested in the ChristCare program after Pastor Nancy attended a training session in April 2005 and brought information back to our church. Over the summer of 2005 Carol Baldwin, John Edwards, Cathy Lawrence, Pam Milone, and Merle Tanis were selected and trained as ChristCare Leaders. Their training covered 40 hours of class time and many hours of reading during the fall of 2005 and early winter of 2006. By February of 2006, they were ready to begin four new ChristCare groups within the church. As they explore together how they can live as Jesus’ disciples, they discover and nurture


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their spirit-given gifts for ministering to others. As they tell one another stories of their faith journeys, they become well able to share those stories with the people they encounter each day. They support one another in their groups, encouraging group members to try new ways of living for Jesus.

Although not yet a year old, they have already been a blessing in witness and service to the church and the community through group projects, or “missions”⎯such as keeping in touch with absentee members or our college students to let them know their church cares about them. In April 2007, our Director of Music and Diaconal Minister, Karen Popjes, will join the ChristCare Ministry as an Equipper.

As you can see, with all of the different active groups there’s much going on at Newton United Methodist Church. Pastor Nancy’s leadership and warmth have inspired the members to create something for everyone.

Over the years our church has also been in many ways a host to the community. At different times it has hosted the Sussex County Bird Club, the Sussex County Association of Retarded Citizens (S.C.A.R.C.), Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Parents Anonymous, Kumon Math Tutoring, Sussex County Oratorio Society, Red Cross Blood Drives, Women’s Aglow Fellowship, Weight Watchers, and meetings of Sussex County Interfaith Hospitality Network (SCIHN), Manna House, and People Help, among others. It has been a place for concerts and community meetings and voting. All this along with the regular, day-in-and-day-out use of our church building by the “Rainbows of Learning” Day Care Center. Indeed, our still-quite-new and well-maintained building is being put to good use!

The year 2006 has been a year-long celebration of the First United Methodist Church of Newton. Under the creative inspiration of Jerry Schierloh, many committees have made the year 2006 a fitting celebration of the 175th Anniversary theme of 2006:

“PRAISING GOD by Honoring the Past…

Investing in Our Present… and Visioning Toward our Future”


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We’ve honored, and learned about our past with Bettilou Holland’s lovely historical tapestries and her presentation at a special Woman’s Society Tea. Warren Cummings’ A Meeting of Christians (his history of our church from its beginning in 1831 to 1981) has been brought up to the present by Mildred Hughes’ 25-year history, Our Church Goes Marching On. And very early in the celebration year, on our Church Pioneer Sunday, October 16, 2005, we continued our look into our past. Dr. Robert Simpson, in costume as Francis Asbury, early circuit rider who brought Methodism to America, and in 1784 to Newton, delivered a sermon such as Asbury might have preached when he spoke at the Sussex County Courthouse in 1784. A fitting ending to that day was a lovely luncheon and house tour at the historic home of Charles Tice at 3 Dunn Place. This is where Asbury had been hosted on his 1784 visit to Newton. Pastor Nancy and Charles Tice completed the authentic appearance of the occasion by attending in costume representative of the period of our founding.

On May 21, 2006, a special church service featured both Bettilou and E. T. Holland retelling the story of the building of our present church, its dedication and its history, also brought the story of the past of Newton First United Methodist to the present day.

The past of our church met the present on two occasions during the Anniversary year. On November 13, 2005 the Choir Reunion brought many former choir members back to Newton for a reunion with old friends and a Choir Reunion Concert. As a sort of Newton Methodist Super Choir, former members combined with the present choir and the rafters rang with the sound of forty-six voices (16 sopranos, 13 altos, 3 tenors, 10 basses and 4 directors) praising God and celebrating 175 years of our church ‘s work in the community and the world!

The other occasion was on the weekend of May 20 and 21, 2006, Homecoming Weekend. Former members joined present church members in a Family Fun Festival ending with a pig roast dinner on Saturday and the church service followed by a covered-dish dinner on Sunday.

The future of our church remains, of course, to be seen. But much thought and planning for the future was a large part of the year’s celebration, and will be continued during the next one to two years with the church’s adoption of a


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Conference-assisted church “visioning” program called Natural Church Development.

In 1995 Dr. Welch, in his Pastor’s Report, musing on the future of Newton United Methodist Church, asked, ”Will we still be here 165 years from now? Obviously none of us will be here … But will this church?”

He answered his question by noting, “What really matters is whether God looks down on us and says, ‘I want that church there.’ If God wants us here, God will give us the resources we need, will raise up the leaders we need, will pour out his spirit upon us, and we will be here for here for another 165 years.”

So far, it looks as if God wants us here! And has wanted us here for 175 years. We can thank all the saints who have planned and sacrificed and worked and struggled all this time to make our church what it is today, but ultimately, we have the One to thank most of all ⎯the One mentioned in Fanny Crosby’s wonderful old hymn, “Give God the Glory”. He is with us!

And we can feel confident that He will send more saints to keep it marching on!

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