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MORRIS COUNTY
Morristown Daily Record
With the new year came the quiet end for a landmark church that has stood for nearly 150 years in downtown Dover.
Opened on Blackwell Street in 1876 and expanded in 1907, the First United Methodist Church of Dover held its last services on Dec. 29. Even older than the grand stone edifice was the congregation itself, which was founded in 1838.
The Rev. James Lee, a spokesperson for the Eastern Pennsylvania and Greater New Jersey conferences of the United Methodist Church, confirmed the closing last Wednesday after social media posts in town spread the news.
The building will be sold after its day care center closes at the end of the school year, Lee confirmed. A sign in front of the church this week still listed Sunday services, but the building was closed and locked.
"Ministries have life cycles, and this closure marks the conclusion of First UMC Dover’s ministry in its current form," Lee wrote in response to inquiries from the Daily Record. "Our hope is that the members of the congregation will find new faith communities to call home and continue their Christian witness."
Church data shows the congregation had declined to 46 members and an average attendance of 12 or fewer for weekly services.
"The church has been in a difficult position for many years," said the Rev. Tanya Linn Bennett, who served as the church's coordinating pastor for the past two years. "It's a very, very large building and it was built on a flood plain, so it was at risk. It just became too difficult for a small congregation to maintain it."
Why Dover First UMC became 'unsustainable'
A final vote by church leaders in May at the UMC Greater New Jersey Annual Conference sealed the church's fate.
"Despite their faithful efforts, the challenges of maintaining the aging building and sustaining ministry became unsustainable," Lee said.
Keith Titus, a congregant for more than 70 years, said the church had a "small but mighty" membership because "a lot of people would always pitch in."
The congregation voted to stay intact in 2023, but the presiding United Methodists of Greater New Jersey had other ideas, Titus said.
"They met with us two years ago and gave us a list of things we were supposed to be doing," Titus said. "We did them to the best of our abilities. But they wanted us to grow the congregation, and I don't care what religion you are, that's a hard thing to do."
Hub for Latino community
Titus said the congregation had included a Latino membership that attended bilingual services in the Hispanic-majority town. But "that fizzled out" about three years ago after the assignment of new pastors who could not speak Spanish, he said.
"In the Methodist religion, they assign you ministers," Titus said.
First UMC for decades has also been a hub for community service, providing rental space for a bilingual sliding-scale day care center and hosting a food pantry, two Latino Pentecostal congregations, a youth basketball league and an immigration service organization.
Bennett, who is back to her full-time job as associate dean for vocation and formation at the Drew University Theological School, said the closure was "very painful" for the congregation. But its conclusion should also be "a celebration of what the church has done in that community. A celebration of what these people continue to do and mean to that community."
She said some people drove "three or four hours" to attend the final service, which was both sad and celebratory.
"There were about 60 people," Bennett said. "It's very much a generational family church. Many of the current members grew up in the church. They had parents and grandparents who were part of the church. They raised their children in the church. So that's difficult to let go of.
"But it's important to remember that church is not about a building," she added. "Church is about a belief system, and being in mission through your faith and beliefs and values to your community and the world."
Two centuries of history
As for the congregation — whose forming preceded Dover's incorporation in 1869 — "members of First UMC Dover have been invited to join nearby United Methodist congregations to continue their faith journeys," wrote Lee, the Methodist conference spokesman. There are more than a dozen Methodist churches in the Morris County area.
Historical records show that the First Methodist Society built its first church at the corner of Sussex and McFarlan streets in 1838 after splitting from the Millbrook Methodist Episcopal Church. After a further split of the Dover congregation, First Methodist built a new stone chapel at the corner of Essex and Blackwell streets in 1876.
The chapel was expanded in 1907, creating the familiar church and rectory standing there today.
Titus said that at the church's peak in the 1950s and 1960s, "we had thousands and thousands of members." Despite the small membership in recent years, he said, "we certainly were able to keep afloat financially, but the conference decided to close us down. It's happening all over the United States."
"I'm not happy about it, no," Titus added.
William Westhoven is a local reporter for DailyRecord.com. For unlimited access to the most important news from your local community, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.
Email: wwesthoven@dailyrecord.com
Twitter/X: @wwesthoven