The Monsey Church is the colloquial name of a historic Reformed Christian church in the hamlet of Monsey, town of Ramapo, in southern Rockland County, New York, the official name of which, since December 6, 2000, is New Hope Christian Church. The church was founded in 1824 as the True Reformed Dutch Church of West New Hempstead and later became known as the Monsey Christian Reformed Church. The church owns a historic cemetery adjacent to the site of its first meeting house and briefly operated a private Christian school in the 1950s and '60s. Today the church is a member congregation of the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA). It is the only remaining church that was once part of the True Reformed Dutch Church.Spoelhof, p. 30.
History
Origin and early years (1824–1890) The Monsey Church was formed out of a split within the Dutch Reformed Church in America. Although earlier events also contributed to the split, the publication of Conrad Ten Eyck's book Selections on the Atonement in 1818 was the chief cause.Spoelhof, p. 5. In it, Ten Eyck advocated a doctrine of unlimited atonement—contrary to the Canons of Dort, one of the Dutch Reformed Church's doctrinal standards. Asked to defend himself before the Classis of Montgomery meeting at Owasco, New York, in 1819, he affirmed that he believed and preached a doctrine of the unlimited atonement of death of Jesus Christ on the cross. Notwithstanding that admission, Classis Montgomery failed to contradict or discipline Ten Eyck, whereupon the matter was appealed to the higher court of the church, the General Synod.
By 1822, the General Synod had failed to act decisively in the case of Ten Eyck and Classis Montgomery. As a result, Solomon Froeligh of the Dutch Reformed Church of Hackensack-Schraalenburgh, New Jersey (Classis Paramus), became convinced that the toleration of heretical doctrine, a lack of church discipline at all levels, and widespread profanation of the sacraments put the denomination beyond possibility of reform. In his view, all the marks of a true church had been erased. Accordingly, in meetings on October 22–24, 1822, Froeligh began a movement of secession from the Dutch Reformed Church in America that resulted in the establishment of the True Reformed Dutch Church (sometimes called the True Reformed Protestant Dutch Church).Froeligh himself was under church discipline at the time for admitting to church membership and the sacraments a couple who had been under discipline and suspended from the sacraments by their previous church. Froeligh was to be retried by Classis Paramus (by order of the General Synod, after Classis Paramus had previously acquitted him) in 1823, but the secession of October 1822 meant that the retrial never occurred.
At that time, two Dutch Reformed congregations, one in West New Hempstead, New York (known informally as the Brick Church),"Hempstead" is sometimes spelled "Hampstead", and sometimes called Kakiat, alternatively spelled Kakeath or Cakiatte. and one in Ramapo, New Jersey, were united as a single church with James D. Demarest as their pastor as of September 21, 1809.Green, p. 271; Whitehead, p. 304. Demarest joined the secession movement, and on June 11, 1824, he led 68 members of the two congregations, including two elders, out of the Dutch Reformed Church.According to Mariruth Campbell's American History of the Monsey Cemetery, one of those two elders was Garret Serven, who had been presiding justice from 1796 to 1806, town clerk from 1809 to 1813, and supervisor in 1814. He donated the lot on which the first church building was erected and where the church cemetery, now the Historic Monsey Cemetery, was established next to it. According to the same author, Serven also suggested the name Monsey for the hamlet, "after an Indian chief of that name who was reportedly an earlier resident." The area was previously called Kakiat. The people who seceded from the Brick Church established a new independent congregation in Monsey and were therefore called the Seceder church.The Monsey Church is sometimes said in the literature to be in Hempstead, New York. The Ramapo, New Jersey church, with which the Monsey Church was closely associated in its early years, is sometimes said to be in Ramsey or Ramsey's in Bergen County.Demarest was then convicted by the Classis of Paramus in September 1824 of schism, presumably in absentia, and deposed from office. Its first elders were Garret Serven (Sarven), Joseph Iserman, Teunis VanHouten, and Peter C. VanHouten, and its deacons were Peter Serven (Sarven), Stephen VanOrden, and Cornelius Springsteen. One of the members was Jacob Felter, a veteran of the War of 1812 buried in the Historic Monsey Cemetery.Campbell. On April 26, 1825, the Monsey Church petitioned Classis Hackensack of the newly formed True Reformed Dutch Church to receive them into care, and this was granted. The Monsey Church was established as the True Reformed Dutch Church of West New Hempstead.It is from this date, rather than the 1824 secession from the Brick Church, that Dick L. Van Halsema marks the start of the Monsey Church in his book The Church in Monsey: 1825–1955. Worship was held in a building at the corner of Maple Avenue and Saddle River Road, adjacent to the Historic Monsey Cemetery, and a surviving church record book dated September 8, 1827, records the sale of pews to the officers and members of the church.
Demarest continued as pastor of both the Monsey Church and the Ramapo church for many years. With many more churches than trained pastors, pastors commonly oversaw multiple congregations, rotating among them on successive Sundays. One of the deacons at Monsey toward the end of Demarest's pastorate was John Yeury de Baun, born in Monsey in 1827.Spoelhof, p. 13. In 1852, when de Baun was 25 years old, he was accepted by Classis Hackensack as a student in theology, under the tutelage of Demarest and Abram Van Houten. From 1852 to 1855, Van Houten took over the pastorate of Monsey from Demarest. De Baun completed his studies in theology in 1855 and was called to be the pastor of both the Ramapo and the Monsey churches. De Baun preached alternate Sundays at Ramapo and Monsey until 1860, when he accepted a call to pastor the churches in Hackensack and English Neighborhood, New Jersey.Harvey, p. 139.About 1865, de Baun, now residing at Hackensack, New Jersey, began publishing a monthly periodical at his own expense called The Banner of Truth, to function as a denominational magazine for the True Reformed Dutch Church. Many early sermons preached in Monsey and other churches of the secession movement can be found printed in it.
Shortly after being organized in 1824, land near the present-day Historic Monsey Cemetery was donated to the new church, and work began on a building. They continued to meet in that location until 1869, after a new building had been constructed on land that had been donated on Main Street. That building, still used by the church today, was dedicated on August 29, 1869.The Banner of Truth, vol. 4, no. 4 (Oct. 1, 1869), p. 64
+ Officers and members of the Monsey Church in April, 1825Van Halsema, p. 6. Last First Office Buried in Monsey Cemetery? Sarven Garret Elder X Iserman Jacob Elder Van Houten Teunis Elder X Van Houten Peter O. Elder ? (= Peter C. VanHouten?) Sarven Peter Deacon X Van Orden Stephen Deacon X Springsteen Cornelius Deacon X Van Houten Claus T. Member X Onderdonk Cornelius Member X Youry William Member ? (= William H. Yeury?) Youry Susannah Member Van Houten Catharine Member X Myer Anny Member Van Orden John Member X Van Orden Elizabeth Member X Onderdonk Garret T. Member Myers Carline Member Barbarow Catharine Member Onderdonk Jane Member Van Houten Jane Member X Iserman Mary Member ? (= Maria Iserman?) Cole Elizabeth Member Cooper John Member Servan Charity Member X Youry Charity Member X Crum Martha Member Onderdonk Anny Member ? (= Anna Onderdonk) Onderdonk Elizabeth Member ? (= Elizabeth Youry) Van Houten Peter P. Member X Van Orden Peter J. Member X VanHouten Abraham P. Member Youry Elizabeth Member ? (Elizabeth Youry in cemetery could be married name of Elizabeth Onderdonk) Servan Abraham Member Iserman Henry Member X Blauvelt Jane Member Servan Hannah Member ? (= Hannah Sarvent?) Blauvelt Cornels. J. Member Servan Jacob Member X VanHouten Elizabeth Member X Van Orden Elizabeth Member X Van Houten Winy Member ? (= Wyntje VanHouten?) Servan Margaret Member Demarest Elizabeth Member X Onderdonk Thomas Member X Onderdonk Margaret Member X Bartholf William Member Bartholf Leah Member Onderdonk Isaac Member Myers John Member Van Houten Peter R. Member X Sarven Abm. G. Member Sarven Rchel Member Johnson John A. Member X Johnson Sally Member X Haring N. L. Member Smith Anna Member Haring Mary Member X
Merger with and withdrawal from the Christian Reformed Church (1890–1908) Although the churches of the True Reformed Dutch Church, including the Monsey Church, were mostly made up of families of Dutch heritage, English was the primary language used in the churches.In The Banner of Truth, a poem or short work occasionally appears in the Holland language (as it was called), or a news item speaks of a sermon or address given in the language of the Holland people. The word Dutch was considered ambiguous, since it could also refer to German people or language, whereas Holland refers specifically to the people and language of the Netherlands. In 1860, the first movement toward union with the Christian Reformed Church came in the form of correspondence to the True Reformed Dutch Church by a group called the True Reformed Holland Church in the West, in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Ministers from both denominations met several times and found themselves to be in agreement in doctrine and practice. Nevertheless, because the Hollanders were by and large a Dutch-speaking group, whereas Classis Hackensack of the True Reformed Dutch Church were primarily English speakers, the decision was made in 1873 not to unite but simply to support and serve each other any way needed.Spoelhof, pp. 14–16.The names "Classis Hackensack" and "True Reformed Dutch Church" are somewhat interchangeable, even though the latter refers to the Synod or denomination as a whole, whereas the former refers to a subdivision of the Synod. Classis Hackensack was originally the sum total of the True Reformed Dutch Church. A second classis, Classis Union, was organized in September 1824, according to Spoelhof's History of Classis Hackensack (11)—and that was why a Synod superior to both classes was organized—but there are no synodical records of Classis Union after 1835 (Spoelhof 13). By the latter half of the 19th century, Classis Hackensack and the True Reformed Dutch Church are identical.