A New Home For New Hope Community Church

By Shannon Hicks

Nearly eight years ago, the Reverend Jim Solomon had a dream in which he was sharing God’s hope and love with an assembly of people at Newtown Meeting House.

“I was worshipping with a large group of people in this very room, so truly it is like a dream come true for me,” Rev Solomon said Monday, November 12, seated in one of the pews at 31 Main Street. Beginning Sunday, November 18, Rev Solomon and the members of New Hope Community Church will begin meeting at the historic building.

New Hope Community Church of Newtown will host worship services at 10:30 am, finally moving into a time that its members hope will be more comfortable than years past. New Hope began in early 2005, first meeting at the home of restaurateur Gary Seri. Members then began meeting in the basement conference room of an office building in Bethel, and then in the dining room of the former Homesteads of Newtown (now Maplewood). For the past six years, New Hope has rented space at Newtown Congregational Church for its weekly worship services.

(Interestingly, NCC owned the meeting house building from around 1850 until 1988, when it sold the property to the town with the understanding that a private trust be set up to administer it.)

New Hope has been a church, but one without a home that felt permanent. Members have put up with changing worship times and locations during since its initiation, with attendance numbers fluctuating. Rev Solomon, and others, are hoping that the new time and location will offer a new sense of stability for the group that follows the Protestant faith in the Alliance tradition.

“The timeless truth, the faith in Christ, is still relevant today. We believe in the Trinity — the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,” he said. “The Alliance believes in the marriage of grace and faith. If you are truthful and graceful, you truly become more Godlike.

“It’s just that the way we have shared those beliefs had changed,” said Rev Solomon, who was raised in a devout Roman Catholic home, the eighth of 12 children. “We have a more contemporary feel. We may have a pianist, a guitarist, and a drummer. We might have a video camera, with words screened onto the wall.

“It’s the classic message, in a contemporary style.”

New Hope Community Church is excited to return to Sunday mornings, “a time frame that seems most conducive to reaching and serving people in our community,” Rev Solomon said. “We have been reaching out to people in our community since our start. While Sunday evenings offered some a chance to refresh and recharge before returning to a new work week, it created scheduling conflicts for many.”

A number of people had been helping New Hope find their new home, said Rev Solomon. There was even talk of meeting at schools in order to attain a regular Sunday morning service, but the group still would have been moving from building to building.

“The schools were suggested, and looked into, but we could not always been in the same building due to conflicts with other groups and programs,” said Rev Solomon. “Wouldn’t that be weird, to go to different places each week? We couldn’t do that.”

Rev Solomon said there was plenty of cooperation and help from town and school officials, but it just didn’t feel right to continue moving around. So he waited.

Things fell into place recently when Community Orthodox Presbyterian Church, which had been meeting at Newtown Meeting House for nearly three decades, disbanded. The group’s final meeting was October 28, said Sherry Paisley, administrator for the meeting house. That was the opening that New Hope needed.

“[Jim Solomon] has hoped for this space for a long time, I knew that,” Mrs Paisley said this week. “When the Presbyterian group decided to disband, I told him, ‘If you’re still interested, we’ll talk.’”

For Rev Solomon, the call from Mrs Paisley was a mixed blessing.

“I heard they were struggling to hang on. I have prayed for them, and I wish them the best,” Rev Solomon said. “It was sad news for them, but good news for me.”

Rev Solomon is already fairly familiar with the meeting house, having officiated at least a dozen marriages in the historic sanctuary. Its classic New England architecture features the traditional center aisle leading to an altar area, a stark white cross on the wall (within, Mrs Paisley is quick to point out, a traditional horseshoe-shaped surround) and very little additional ornamentation in a circa 1790 construction.

It is the only meeting house, according to Mrs Paisley, in New England that can be documented as still being in its Colonial footprint, and still being used on a regular basis, by a number of groups.

“Every little village had a meeting house, which served every purpose, and it was always right in the middle of the village,” she said. “Many have been relocated to town greens, or elsewhere, or used rarely.”

Newtown Meeting House was built in 1790, where today’s flagpole is located. Two years later it was moved 132 feet to the southwest, to its current position in the middle of West Street at Main.

“How can you not appreciate all of that in a building like this?” Rev Solomon said Monday afternoon, looking around at the walls that will house his spiritual family. “We you are born and raised in New England, you appreciate it even more,” said Rev Solomon, who added that while attending school in California, he missed the churches back home.

“I missed this. There is so much character in this architecture,” he said, before pointing out another of his favorite features of Newtown’s building.

“I love the acoustics here,” he said with a laugh. “You don’t even need a sound system.”

In addition to its weekly worship services, New Hope also has groups for men, women, and youth that meet during the week.

Rev Solomon, who has been sought after as a speaker and counselor, helps many individuals and families in the community — regardless of their spiritual background or religious affiliation — through his counseling practice at Young Professional Center on Church Hill Road. In addition, Rev Solomon is involved with Newtown Prevention Council, serves on the boards of Newtown Youth & Family Services, The Newtown Fund, The Juvenile Review Board of Newtown Police Department; the Board of Education’s subcommittee on Character Education, The Jericho Partnership of Danbury, and is chaplain of the Civil Air Patrol’s Danbury squadron.

He also enjoys his involvement with Newtown Clergy Association where he sees, he said, all faith communities working together for the betterment of Newtown.

Rev Solomon will also be participating in this weekend’s Interfaith Thanksgiving Worship Service, Sunday evening at Trinity Church. The second annual event is being presented and sponsored by Newtown Clergy Association. (See separate announcement for service details.)

There are approximately 25 families who regularly attend New Hope worship services, 80 percent of which are Newtown residents.

“We have had many families visit over the years, but it always came back to the meeting time,” said Rev Solomon. “People were comfortable, they enjoyed what we offer, but it took away from their family time to be away from home late Sunday afternoon. We will be reaching out to those families again.”

His church family, he said this week, is “very excited” about the move to the meeting house.

“I am amazed at the consensus,” he said. “Everyone is very happy with the new decision. They are very service-oriented too, and they think the visibility here will give them more opportunity to serve the community. This will also allow us, god willing, to grow.”

New Hope held its final worship service in the sanctuary of Newtown Congregational Church on Sunday, November 11. This weekend, members will gather for their first service in their new home, at 10:30 Sunday morning.

“I think it was God’s timing and not Jim’s that brought us here,” Rev Solomon said Monday afternoon with a laugh. “When I gave up pushing, God opened the doors at the right time.”

For additional information about New Hope Community Church of Newtown visit www.NewHope-cc.com.