Date: Fri 12-Sep-1997

Publication: Bee

Author: KAAREN

Quick Words:

church-Stepney-Baptist

Full Text:

Stepney Baptist Church Celebrates Its 150th Anniversary

(with photos)

BY KAAREN VALENTA

MONROE - Route 25 was a narrow dirt road when the Stepney Baptist Church was

built alongside it in 1841 by members of the congregation under the

supervision of Hanford Hull, a noted joiner.

Using mostly donated lumber, timber and labor, the congregation spent $1,945

to build the church. On the opposite side of the unpaved road was a tranquil

village green and, later, an identical church, built using the same plans,

which served the local Methodists.

Stepney Baptist Church was a mission church, part of the Easton Baptist

Church, a congregation that had been organized in 1831. The Easton church

quickly grew to 212 members to become the largest church of American Baptists

in Fairfield County, prompting its members to decide to build another church

in Stepney.

The Rev William Dennison served both the Easton and Stepney Baptist churches,

alternating his Sunday preaching between the two. When the congregations

officially separated on February 29, 1848, with the formation of the 53-member

Monroe Baptist Society, Rev Dennison decided he could not favor one church

over the other. He resigned from both.

In May 1848 the Stepney congregation hired its first pastor, the Rev James

Mallory, at an annual salary of $175.50. That same year they planted maple

trees and erected a white picket fence around the church property.

In the early days, most of the members of the Stepney congregation walked to

church, including one man "of saving qualities" who, weather permitting,

walked barefoot to church, putting on his shoes upon entering the

meetinghouse. Many came on horseback.

One prominent brother, rather proud and dignified, always came in a handsome

two-seater pulled by a pair of bay horses. He would spread a blanket over the

wheels so his wife and daughters could alight without soiling their silks.

Another brother, poor in worldly goods but rich in spirit, always came with

his numerous family in the farm wagon drawn by a pair of oxen.

Today nearly everyone arrives by car including the Rev William J. Minser, who

is the 40th pastor to serve the congregation in the 150 years since the Monroe

society was founded. Like many of the more than 200 members of the

congregation, he is a Newtown resident.

"About a third of the congregation lives in Newtown," Pastor Minser said, "but

members also come from Danbury, Bethel, Redding, Shelton, Southbury, Norwalk,

Bridgeport and other communities."

Today an average of 30,000 cars, trucks, motorcycles and other vehicles use

Route 25 every day, passing just a few yards from the front steps of the

church. The white fence is gone and so are most of the maples. Even the

solitary maple in front of the church is imperiled by the planned widening of

the highway. There has been some discussion about the possibility of moving

the church further back on the property.

But the congregation continues to grow and prosper. Besides the church and the

adjacent parsonage, which now serves as the church offices, the property now

includes other buildings.

Behind the church, where there were once sheds where members of the

congregation sheltered their horses, is an educational building and

auditorium, built in 1960 at a cost of $30,345. The mortgage was burned two

years later.

The building, which houses the popular Step-A-Way nursery school, was

dedicated in memory of Charles and Irma Nichols. An active member of the

congregation and a longtime employee of The Newtown Bee , Irma Nicholas, 71,

was hit by a car and killed on a winter evening in 1971 when she attempted to

cross Route 25 to her mailbox after returning home from the church's annual

meeting.

In 1991, when the Connecticut National Bank branch next door to the church

closed, the congregation bought the building with funds from the estate of the

late Beulah T. Beck and dedicated it in her memory.

Just as for its previous anniversaries, the congregation decided to begin

celebrating the 150th this fall, when the weather is good, rather than in

mid-winter. Besides, there won't be a February 29 in 1998, nor in any year

until 2004.

"There's no leap year in years divisible by 400, so there won't be one in the

year 2000," explained Newton Williams, a member of the congregation who lives

on Hattertown Road in Newtown with his wife, Connie.

Mr and Mrs Williams were married 50 years ago in the Stepney church. She was

the fourth generation of her family to be married in the church.

The Williamses were on the committee that assembled photographs and other

items for a memorabilia day, Walk Down Memory Lane, which the congregation

held recently to begin the anniversary celebration. Other members of the

committee included Dawn Barrett and Marian Wilson, both of Sandy Hook; Gene

Kaechele, Easton; Marian Fortier, a former Newtown resident who now lives in

Southbury; Grace Harper and Cora Yousko of Southbury; Helen Gottschalk of

Newtown, and committee chairperson Eleanor Lewis of Stepney.

The photos showed the changes in the church over the years. In 1947 the wood

burning stoves were removed and an oil-fired furnace was installed. The

sanctuary was completely renovated in 1950 and extensive storm damage to the

steeple was repaired.

The church's iron bell, cast in 1885 by the Jones Foundry in Troy, New York,

broke from its moorings in 1964 and fell on the rafters in the steeple. Rather

than rehanging it, the congregation decided to mount it on a memorial on the

church grounds. On the church's 125th anniversary an electronic carillon was

installed in the belfry.

From Christmas 1972 to Labor Day 1973 the Baptists shared their church with

the Methodists, who had sold their church and were in the process of building

a larger house of worship. The church "across the green" now houses Our Lady

of Rosary Chapel, a Roman Catholic church that celebrates the Latin Mass. Area

residents who immigrated from India currently use the Baptists' Beck building

to hold weekend services.

On Sunday, September 28, the Stepney congregation will hold a tree planting

ceremony.

"There will be three trees - an oak to represent God the Father, a spruce for

God the Son, and a Bradford pear to represent the Holy Spirit, Rev Minser

said.

There will be a Sunday School Rally Day with a noon potluck dinner, then on

Saturday, October 18, the congregation will hold an old-fashioned harvest fair

and flea market from 10 am to 4 pm with events from frog jumping contests to

baking competitions, watermelon spitting contests to chili and chowder

cook-offs. On Saturday, November 22, the congregation will hold a Thanksgiving

dinner/King of Kings Ball, which will include dinner, a speaker, and

entertainment including ballroom and country line dancing instruction.

"It promises to be quite a party," Rev Minser said.