Onward, Christian Soldiers — St John’s Marches On

By Nancy K. Crevier

There was a lot going on in the world in 1868. Women’s rights activist Susan B. Anthony had just founded her newspaper, The Revolution. Equitable Life Assurance Society in New York City became the first building to have an elevator installed. The 14th amendment officially made former slaves US citizens, following the Civil War. Most notably, the impeachment trial of President Andrew Johnson, who assumed the presidency following Lincoln’s assassination, was underway.

In Stamford, Conn., Linus Yale established the Yale Lock Manufacturing Company. And in the village of Sandy Hook, Trinity Episcopal Church established the diocesan mission of St John’s on Washington Avenue.

The offspring of Trinity Episcopal Church on Main Street in Newtown, St John’s was formed primarily for logistical reasons, according to information in Anglicans to Americans, by Robert W. Gardner. For church members living in the Sandy Hook district, the trek up what would become Church Hill Road was long and arduous, and railroad tracks running across the pathway did not make the travel any easier.

“Church Hill Road was just a gravel road with springs in the road that constantly washed it out,” said town historian Dan Cruson of the area in 1868. “There was also an ‘Old Guard’ of Yankees who had a major presence in Sandy Hook, who were the original workers before the influx of Irish lured to Sandy Hook by the inexpensive farmland and work in the rubber mills and Curtis Button Shop. There was a big enough population of communicants in Sandy Hook to support a mission there,” Mr Cruson said of the decision by Trinity sponsor St John’s.

Trinity Episcopal had for several years supported a very successful Sunday School program in Sandy Hook run by Susan Nichols Glover, a prominent member at Trinity and a descendant of Trinity’s first minister, the Rev John Beach. When William B. Glover, owner of The Red Brick Store in Sandy Hook Center, died in 1868, he willed $5,000 to the construction of a church building in Sandy Hook, an effort that was moved forward by several church members.

St John’s operated under the umbrella of Trinity Episcopal Church until 1880, when financial burdens led Trinity to cede its title to the Sandy Hook property to the Diocesan Missionary Society. St John’s Episcopal Church was consecrated that year, and the first priest, the Rev H.L. Myrick, called.

In 1929, members wavered briefly when the wooden clapboard church burned to the ground, thinking that it might be time for the small church to return to the bigger folds of Trinity. But the spirit to retain the distinct personality of St John’s was strong, the church was rebuilt, and in 1934 the new stone building was consecrated. “The communicants had a huge local pride in St John’s,” said Mr Cruson, so it is no surprise that the members rallied to rebuild the church.

Over the years the parish has hosted numerous full-time, part-time, and regional ministers, up to the present day when services are presided over by service ministers supplied by the Hartford diocese. Likewise, the church has seen the rise and fall of membership in its 140-year history, to an all-time low of just 10 to 12 families today.

Despite this, St John’s continues to “swim forward,” as one member said, in an age when many churches struggle to increase membership and support the missions and programs to which they are dedicated. They do it through wise utilization of the resources that they have, the generosity of the few members of the parish, and they do it through faith, said members of St John’s.

Growing up in Newtown, Mary Fellows did not belong to St John’s, but nine years ago when her daughter Cleo was to be christened, she and her husband, John Conks, selected the tiny church in Sandy Hook Center. “We wanted to be part of a smaller church, one where everybody is acknowledged and everybody is involved.” It is that spirit of participation that continues to drive the church, Ms Fellows believes.

“Participation is key, and even though people’s personal lives are hectic at times, we do have a number of key participants,” she said.

What they participate in are the many activities that reach out to the community at large, benefiting not only the individual and the parish of St John’s, but the community, as well.

St John’s hosts two Alcoholics Anonymous groups each week, provides space for the ecumenical FAITH Food Pantry, and hosts the Sandy Hook Organic Farmers Market each summer, all of which contribute to the church’s coffers on a yearly basis.

The Farmers Market reaches out to the less fortunate by accepting food stamps, Ms Fellows pointed out, something that many summer markets are loathe to do. “It is a hassle, but we did not want the Farmers Market to be just for higher income people. The elderly, the poor, the young families all need access to fresh food,” she said.

Many of the farmers who take part in the Tuesday Farmers Market donate fresh produce to the FAITH Food Pantry when the day is done, Ms Fellows said, giving a charitable flavor to both of the organizations.

St John’s welcomes hundreds of local residents to the annual Shrove Tuesday Pancake Supper, where church members headed by Senior Warden Bruce Moulthrop and his wife, Cheryl, provide a Fat Tuesday feast to herald the start of the Lenten season, and it is not unusual to have visitors to the area stop in to a service, said Ms Fellows.

An Uphill Battle

“I think that St John’s epitomizes the small town feel and the historic faith of the area,” she said.

She admitted that it is an uphill battle for the church to survive fiscally, though, and that an increased membership would be a boon to the congregation. The church presently has no membership drive in place, but it is not because they are a closed church community, said Ms Fellows. “It is the hardest thing in the world to promote membership without being preachy or culty. It’s like people need to find their own way.”

For young families hoping to find their own way, however, St John’s has some drawbacks that may keep them from joining, Ms Fellows said. “We do not have a choir, and our organist recently retired to Florida. And we do not have a Sunday School or children’s service, which a lot of young families want.” St John’s hopes to offer religious education for young people this fall, though, she said, and that may entice more families to join.

There is a nucleus of only about six active families, said Bruce and Cheryl Moulthrop. Ms Moulthrop has been a member of St John’s her entire life, as were her mother and grandmother before her. “In the early 1900s to the 1960s, St John’s was a large, thriving church,” recalled Ms Moulthrop. “In those early years, there were a lot of local Sandy Hook merchants who supported the church and people had a lot of pride in the church,” she said.

It was the pride of being from Sandy Hook that Ms Moulthrop believes had a big part in the formation of St John’s mission in the mid-1800s. “I think there may actually have been some differences in points of view, listening to my grandmother talk,” said Ms Moulthrop. “I’m not sure the split was all because of the location. People at St John’s wanted their own autonomy.” She stressed, however, that whatever the differences may have been, there has never been a sense of animosity between the two Episcopal churches in town.

The St John’s community began to decline, Ms Moulthrop believes, when the church’s last live-in rector, Rev Joan Horwitt, moved on in 1987. “After that, we went into a regional ministry, and it has been difficult without a consistent minister to the church. Father Pagett, who died recently, was a regular priest here until he became ill, and he was wonderful. We had Daniel Mattila as a part-time priest for a while, and Judith Toffee through this past summer. Our biggest problem is that we would like to find a steady, part-time priest — we really cannot afford a full-time one. It would be nice to have the same person every Sunday, a ‘face’ for St John’s,” she said.

“It is a challenge trying to find a priest every week to come in,” agreed Mr Moulthrop, who as senior warden is in charge of the day-to-day administration of St John’s. “We are limited by what we can spend and on top of what we must pay a priest for each service, we also pay mileage. I try to find someone who is nearby, but that isn’t always possible,” Mr Moulthrop said. “The last year has been a struggle, when it comes down to finding a priest.”

Reaching Out

Still, like Ms Fellows, the Moulthrops note that St John’s small community continues to reach out to the community through fundraisers and community-oriented projects like the Farmers Market that draw new people onto the church grounds.

The kitchen in the lower level of the church has served as a springboard for local chefs seeking a certified kitchen to produce specialty items, and from 1998 to 2004, the kitchen at St John’s was the home base for the alternative high school’s Backdoor Café, where students practiced restaurant and food service skills.

The income from the businesses that rent St John’s kitchen and the others that utilize its space is crucial to the support of the church, said Mr Moulthrop. “Our parishioners are very generous, we do have an endowment from our benefactress Anna Mae Betts, and we do have money in a mutual fund from the sale of the rectory in the late 80s, but we have talked about our concerns,” he said. With the kitchen presently not rented, this year the church may have to dip into that mutual fund to meet expenses, Mr Moulthrop said.

Having few members means a tight camaraderie, but it also means that the bulk of the work falls on the backs of just a few of the able members, said Ms Moulthrop. “Of the members we have, not all of them are active and we have a number of retirees who just are no longer able to help at events. Bruce and I used to rely on the help of our kids when they were teenagers, but they are in school and have work now and are not often available,” she said. The majority of the maintenance work and hiring for large repairs is the responsibility of Mr Moulthrop and Jack Hornak, the junior warden, for the most part. If water needs to be squeegeed from the floors, if bulbs need to be changed, if roofs need repair, the two wardens are the first to be called and to respond.

Member Lee Paulson, who along with Rev Horwitt founded the FAITH Food Pantry 25 years ago,  credited the Moulthrops with being the driving force that keeps St John’s going. “You see their love for St John’s in all that they do, you see how they are always here, always helping. It is a level of commitment that not everyone is willing to give. We have people who generously support us with money, but where are we without hands to help?” she asked.

There will come a time, too, said the Moulthrops, when new blood will be needed to take over the task of the popular pancake supper on Fat Tuesday, now run almost exclusively by the Moulthrops, or to take on the task of organizing the Farmers Market or other fundraisers.

“We are trying to grow,” said Ms Moulthrop. “We have pulled in a few new members who like that St John’s is a small church. It is too small for social politics; everyone has to be a part of what is going on. I think it appeals to people who are looking to be involved and who want to make a difference. We always hope that when people come to our fundraisers that they will be interested in finding out more about joining us. So many people are impressed when they go inside.”

Religious education is somewhat of a Catch-22 for St John’s, admits Ms Moulthrop. “We had a great religious education program when we had young people in the church,” she said. Families are hesitant to join right now because there is not a Sunday School, ironically enough for the mission that started because of the recognition of the need for religious education. “But on the other hand, we need young people to have religious education,” Ms Moulthrop said.

The challenges faced by St John’s will not put the church out of business, though, the Moulthrops believe. It is not unthinkable at all, said Mr Moulthrop, that with a revitalized church membership that the glory days of the 1960s, when St John’s summer festival and chicken barbeque hosted crowds of 400 on the grounds of the old Italian American Club off of Route 34 and when Sunday service attracted a full house for the weekly celebration of the Eucharist, could once again become a reality.

“We have made a conscious effort to stay open. Everybody feels there is something special here and we don’t want to lose it,” said Ms Moulthrop. “People are committed.”