Three longtime members of Newtown Congregational Church (NCC) are celebrating the recent publication of an update to the church's history. Distribution of copies of Newtown Congregational Church, 1964-2014: The Past Fifty Years began to current NCC members last month. New members will be given a copy of the book upon joining the church.

Barbara Bigham, Emi Lydem and Gordon Williams took on the task of creating the update in 2011, as the church was approaching its 300th anniversary.

"This came about when everyone started planning our 300th anniversary celebration," Mrs Lydem said May 24. The trio had gathered in the library of the church at 14 West Street to discuss their project.

The publication takes readers through the last five decades of the oldest church in Newtown. It picks up where the 1964 publication, 250th Anniversary Year: 1714-1964, Newtown Congregational Church, left off.

NCC celebrated its tercentennial in 2014, with special events running from January until October. Mrs Bigham said that other members of the church took on different tasks, even during those early planning stages.

"There was a turkey dinner, a new directory of members, and a birthday party, among other things," she said.

The congregation joined together following the worship service of January 5, 2014, to launch the 300th anniversary events. An anniversary party on October 18 was the final event in the tercentennial schedule.

"During the time of scheduling events, it was decided that it was time to write an updated history of the church," Mrs Lydem said. "It sounded very easy at the beginning," she said, laughing. The others also joined her with laughter.

"We started out very organized," Mrs Lydem continued. "Gordon went to [Booth] library, and Barbara and I split up the archives."

The church library is home to dozens of binders, photo albums, folders, bound books, and other collections of church and town memorabilia. The committee read through annual reports, church committee minutes, church bulletins, newsletters and newspaper articles.

"The church is very good at holding on to bulletins," Mrs Lydem said. "We had adequate supplies to help us. We really appreciate these archives more now, having gone through them. This is a very large part of Newtown history."

In addition, the committee did a lot of interviews.

"We have a number of 50-, 60- and even 70-year members of this church," Mr Williams said. "We had some very good interviews along the way."

Among those the committee was very happy to sit down with were former office administrators Jeane Foote and Dolores Lussier, former Associate Minister Janice Touloukian, and Edwin Corfey, who is the licensed lay minister for the town's congregational church.

"Steve Gordon wrote to Gordon," Mrs Bigham said, referring to a previous associate pastor and then senior pastor who served at NCC prior to the arrival in 2007 of current senior pastor, The Reverend Matt Crebbin. "And of course, Matt being right here was wonderful."

Mr Williams was sorry to not be able to get in touch with one of NCC's previous senior pastors.

"Unfortunately, I was unable to reach [former NCC Senior Pastor] Alistair Sellars, who is a large part of the opening section of this update," he said. Rev Sellars served at NCC from 1964 until 1987.

The publication of the updated history took an additional 15 months after the final tercentennial event, Mr Williams said last week, due to the amount of work that went into the compilation effort.

"There was too much knowledge to gather," he said. "There were just too many people to interview, on top of gathering information from

Mrs Lydem concurred.

"We tried to plan something for every few months, but this really didn't happen that way," she said. "We just kept writing, and gathering, and writing. We could have had a much larger book."

Keeping things relevant to both the church and the town's history was important, Mr Williams mentioned. The book covers the church's response to 9/11 and 12/14. Other historic events in town that affected the church are discussed, including the Yankee Drover fire of January 1981.

"Eventually we had to cut back on what we included," he said. "After a while you had to ask yourself 'Is this really important?'"

Mrs Lydem said she often found herself thinking about items that may have been important to her, but not necessarily to the town at large.

"Anybody else reading it, would it have been relevant to them?" she posed.

Mr Williams said the project "evolved, it was not structured."

Mrs Lydem said one of the biggest challenges for the group was not having a plan.

"We didn't see the whole picture," she said. "We didn't know what the final product was going to look like, for a long time. There was no vision for the end."

"We need to tell the next committee," Mrs Bigham said, "that they need to have a plan. Create an outline, and then fill in the blanks."

The 78 page softbound book was done through Creative Space, at the suggestion of John Boccuzzi.

While the full book is an update of the past half-century, it does open with a section called "In The Beginning… A Summary of Our Earlier Years," bringing the full history into one book. Subsequent chapters then outline news from and about the church. The first new chapter covers 1964 to 1970, and then the next three each covers a decade, through the end of the century.

The final two historic chapters are broken into seven-year segments, 2000-2007 and 2008-2014.

The final third of the book is filled with photos. Juxtaposing black and white historic images with current color photos, this section shares views of the church's former and current weathervanes, its buildings, its senior and associate ministers, sanctuaries, organists, choir and music directors, church groups, special activities, and more.

While many of the photos were picked up from church archives, many of the new images came from the files of unofficial church photographer Louise Zierzow.

One photo that did not make it into the updated history is one that Emi Lydem really wanted in there.

Before its current building was constructed at 14 West Street, NCC started life in what is now Newtown Meeting House, at 31 Main Street. Its offices and Sunday School rooms were in a separate building, at 41-A Main Street (where Newtown Savings Bank's rear offices and parking lot are now located).

"This picture showed people walking along the sidewalk, in the winter," Mrs Lydem said. "Parents had dropped their children off for Sunday School, and they were all bundled up and walking back to the church for worship service. That's how it used to be: parents would walk back and forth for their children, and anyone going to coffee hour after worship had to walk back to the church office building, whatever the weather."

That picture, Mrs Lydem feels, shows much of what NCC has committed to in the past quarter-century: a unification of worship and office locations.

"That picture really epitomizes why we needed to build this new building," she said.

While it took a little longer for the small committee to produce their final product, all three agree it was worth the effort.

"It was actually a ton of fun," Mrs Lydem said. "Having lived in Newtown for so many years, I'm reading all these names that are bringing back a flood of memories."

Mrs Lydem grew up in Newtown. She celebrated her 50th anniversary with NCC in 2014.

Barbara Bigham and Gordon Williams, also longstanding members of the church, previously lived in Newtown for a number of years. While they and their spouses have moved into neighboring towns, both also continue to remain active at NCC.

"I am really happy with this book," Mr Williams said. "I feel really good about what we've put together. And it's nice to have it completed."

"I love it," Barbara Bigham said. "We love this church, and where it's been, and this town. I'm very happy with it."

New members will be given a copy of the book upon joining the church.

Copies are available at the church office, 14 West Street, for anyone who would like to read through the updated volume. Anyone interested in purchasing a copy may do so for $10. NCC can be reached by calling 203-426-9024.