Christ Church, also known as Christ Episcopal Church, is a Christian house of worship located on the corner of Church Street and Main Street (U.S. Route 206) in Newton, New Jersey.Google Maps: Christ Church, Newton, 62 Main Street, Newton, New Jersey. Retrieved 7 January 2015. It is a parish overseen by the Episcopal Diocese of Newark, a diocese of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America.Christ Church, Newton on the Episcopal Diocese of Newark website. Retrieved 7 January 2015. The congregation first met on 28 December 1769 and was granted a charter by New Jersey's last Royal Governor William Franklin on behalf of Britain's King George III. Christ Church is the oldest church in Newton and the third oldest parish in the Diocese of Newark.

The church reported 621 members in 2015 and 608 members in 2023; no membership statistics were reported in 2024 parochial reports. Plate and pledge income reported for the congregation in 2024 was $433,344 with average Sunday attendance (ASA) of 138 persons.

The current church building, erected in 1868–1869, is the second structure built at the site, and is an example of the Broken Ashlar or Rustic mode of Gothic Revival architecture patterned after medieval English parish churches. The interior nave features several stained-glass windows depicting scenes from the life of Jesus of Nazareth fabricated by J&R Lamb Studios. On 24 September 1992, Christ Church, Newton was included on the New Jersey Register of Historic Places as part of the Newton Town Plot Historic District which was approved and entered on the National Register of Historic Places on 12 November 1992.United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service. (filed 1 October 1992, approved 12 November 1992), 20–26. NRIS Reference Number 92001521. Retrieved 16 July 2013.New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, Historic Preservation Office, New Jersey Register of Historic Places-Sussex County, "Newton Town" SHPO ID#2615, 4–5. Retrieved 16 July 2013.Harold E. Pellow & Associates, Inc. "Town of Newton Master Plan August 2008" (professional paper/public document), 66, 69. Retrieved 16 July 2013.

History

Establishment

In a 1770 letter, the Rev'd Dr Thomas B. Chandler, rector of St John's Church in the provincial capital Elizabethtown (now Elizabeth), reported that he had visited Sussex County in the northwestern part of the province of New Jersey in November 1769 and found that there were 50 families belonging to the Church of England in the region. Chandler reported that "they frequently assemble in private houses and read the Liturgy" and that an Anglican clergyman "had never been in those parts before."Merritt Ierley, An Inheritance of the Faithful: A 225th Anniversary History of Christ Episcopal Church, Newton, New Jersey (Newton, NJ: Christ Episcopal Church, 1993) Many of these families met at Newton, the county seat of Sussex County, on 28 December 1769, to establish an Anglican parish.Christ Church, Newton, "A Meeting of the Congregation in Communion of the Church of England", Parish Records, 28 December 1769.

On 15 August 1774, Christ Church was formally incorporated as The Rector, Church Wardens, and Vestrymen of Christ's Church at New Town, in the county of Sussex and province of New Jersey. The colony's last royal governor, William Franklin, granted and signed a charter on behalf of Britain's King George III.New Jersey Secretary of State (Trenton, NJ), Patent of incorporation granted 15 August 1774 in Liber AB of Commissions, 159–167.Episcopal Diocese of Newark, History of the Episcopal Church in Essex County, New Jersey (Newark, NJ: Bazaar for St Barnabas Hospital, 1908), 6. The congregation petitioned the East Jersey Board of Proprietors, a colonial land agency, asking for their assistance to establish a church. The board granted a warrant for of land yet unappropriated in Sussex County to serve as an income-generating glebe to support the church. The tract chosen by the congregation was located approximately south of Newton (in present-day Fredon Township, then part of Hardwick Township) and conveyed to the church on 16 December 1774 by the colony's last royal attorney general, Cortlandt Skinner, and John Johnston.Whitfield Gibbs, One Hundred Years of the Sussex Register and County of Sussex (New Jersey), 1813–1913: Record of Historical, Biographical, Industrial, and Statistical Events During a Century (Newton, NJ: Sussex Register, 1913; repr. Heritage Books, 2009), 45–46. Jonathan Hampton (1716–1777), a landowner, coachmaker, and merchant from Elizabethtown, deeded lands from his surveyed town plot to the congregation on 14 December 1774 "for the encouragement of the Episcopal religion...and toward the maintenance & support of a parson officiating in said church".

Early history (1769–1869)

The congregation called for a clergyman, and the Rev'd Uzal Ogden, Jr. (1744–1822) was sent as a missionary lay reader and catechist in 1770 to the area on behalf of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. He would become rector in 1773 after his ordination. According to local historian Kevin Wright, the parsonage was built circa 1770 by local land agent John Pettit. During his tenure, Ogden held services at Newton on the third Sunday each month as he served an area of roughly and divided other Sundays among congregations in Roxbury, Knowlton, and Hackettstown. Services were held in the County Court House (built 1762–1765), which he described in 1771 as "very commodious and serves us to perform Divine Service in".Letter, Uzal Ogden to Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, 8 July 1771; cited at Kevin Wright, "The Old Parsonage (1770 House)" at Newton, NJ: Pearl of the Kittatinny (website). Retrieved 7 January 2015. During the Revolution, Ogden supported the cause of American independence, and according to tradition quartered sheep in the parsonage basement for the use of the Continental Army. Ogden left Christ Church in 1784 to become an assistant at Trinity Church in New York City, and later served as rector of Trinity Church, Newark, where his father served as warden.

Although Ogden was listed as Christ Church's rector until as late as 1792 and preached infrequently in the area, the rectorate in Newton remained without a clergyman until the appointment of the Rev'd Clarkson Dunn in 1820. During the 36 years, services were held irregularly, at the court house; this was an era described as "a long period of discouragement, almost of dissolution." The congregation reported only six communicants during this time.James P. Snell (compiler), History of Sussex and Warren Counties, New Jersey with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of its Prominent Men and Pioneers (Philadelphia, PA: Everts & Peck, 1881), 261–262. Dunn would operate a school at the rectory beginning in December 1823. Assisted by William Rankin, an English teacher, Dunn taught classics. Dunn remained in this charge until 1857 when his son-in-law, the Rev'd Nathaniel Pettit, assumed the pulpit.

The congregation's first church building was erected beginning in May 1823 and consecrated a few months later on 19 November 1823 by the Rt Rev'd John Croes, Bishop of New Jersey. This building was located at the corner of Church and Main streets, on a tract of land conveyed to the congregation by William T. Anderson, a local attorney."Box 17 Folder 21: Indenture, Sale of Anderson land to Church; Subscribers contribution to Christ Church, Newton 1823, 1832–1834", Records Group No. 608. Anderson Family Papers, 1762–1950 New Jersey Historical Society, Newark, New Jersey. The Gothic structure was described as small; it accommodated 250 worshipers.Edward A. Webb (editor), The Historical Directory of Sussex County, New Jersey (Newton NJ: New Jersey Herald Press, 1872), 46. Toward the end of Pettit's tenure, the congregation was compelled to build a new church building as their current building had become unstable and unsafe. During the construction, the congregation met at the county courthouse and at Rinker's Hall, a building located near the courthouse on the Newton Town Green.

Current church (1869–present)

According to Snell, during the forty-five-year tenures of Dunn and Pettit as rectors, "parochial statistics from 1820 to 1867 show an aggregate of 510 baptisms, 241 confirmations, 334 marriages, and 468 funerals". The growth in membership necessitated a new, larger edifice. To fund the construction of a new church building, the congregation sought the permission of the state legislature to sell the lands granted to it by warrant. Permission was given in 1867.State of New Jersey. "An Act to authorize the rector, church wardens and vestrymen of Christ's Church at Newton to convey certain lands", Statute Laws of New Jersey 91st Legislature, 23rd Session (1867), 672. This act was proposed in 1855 as "An Act to authorize the Rector, Wardens, and Vestrymen of Christ's Church at Newton to sell a lot of land held in trust by them", Statute Laws of New Jersey, 79th Legislature, 11th Session (1855), 209. The congregation sold this property on 10 May 1868 for $15,579. The congregation also sold its parsonage and accompanying lands for $17,600 to prominent lawyer, Levi Shepherd in October. A loan to support the construction was provided by Robert Hamilton (1809–1878), a vestryman and warden and generous financial contributor to the parish. Hamilton was a prominent political figure, serving in the New Jersey General Assembly in 1863 and 1864, the latter year as Speaker, and from 1873 to 1877, he represented the New Jersey's 4th congressional district (covering northwestern New Jersey) in the United States House of Representatives."Hamilton, Robert (1809–1878)", in Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. Retrieved 7 May 2015. In 1879, a year after Hamilton's death, his widow Sarah forgave the loan, which left the church debt free after the construction.

Local historian Frank Greenagel writes that "the Episcopal church formalized its adherence to the English Gothic style in the late 1840s under the influence of a powerful bishop, George Washington Doane", and that the parish at Newton among many in the state adhere to that style.Frank L. Greenagel, Historic Churches of Somerset County, New Jersey (Charleston, SC: The History Press, 2006), 44.Nelson Rollin Burr, The Anglican Church in New Jersey (Philadelphia, PA: Church Historical Society, 1954), 199. The vestry and diocese contracted "for the building of a new church...for $23,000" on the site of the old church building by contractor Isaac L. Overton of Newark, New Jersey from a design by architect Jonathan V. Nichols. The first service was held on 11 July 1869, and the building was consecrated by the Bishop of New Jersey, the Rt Rev'd, William Henry Odenheimer (1817–1879) on 20 October 1869. Today the structure boasts a three-story bell tower, but previously the tower was topped by a 108-foot high spire surmounted by a 12-foot high cross. This spire was removed after being struck by lightning on three occasions.

A rectory, built in 1868–1869, was used for that purpose for thirty years before being renovated for activity space for church organizations and fellowship. In October 1901, the Vestry of Christ Church authorised purchase of a new rectory located on Liberty Street. Holley Hall, the central facility for parish activities, was constructed with a 1965 bequest from the estate of Alice Herbert Holley, daughter-in-law of the Rev'd William Welles Holley, fourth rector, who was the first to reside in the former rectory after its completion in 1869.

Architecture, furnishings and fittings