The Holmdel Community United Church of Christ is one of the oldest churches in the state of NJ and yet one of the youngest United Church of Christ churches.
The History of Holmdel Community UCC
Our church is a merger of two of the oldest churches in Monmouth County, yet we are a young and vibrant community of faith, with members from a wide variety of religious backgrounds. Our historical ties go back to the Middletown Baptist Church (1668) and the Dutch Reformed congregation (1699), which became known as the Holmdel Baptist Church and the Holmdel Reformed Church with the separation of Holmdel from Middletown.
The Holmdel Baptist Church was located on the site where we worship today. Half of the signers of the Monmouth Patent in 1664 were Baptists and members of this church, and they included the words “freedom of conscience in matters of religion” in the charter. This spirit of religious freedom continues in our faith today. Congregations and pastors fought on the patriot side for freedom during the Revolutionary War. Under the leadership of Ann Taylor, it was one of the first integrated schools in the nation. With its sister-church, Old First Church in Middletown, the Holmdel Baptist Church (from 1688 -1836) helped to mother 107 daughter churches. It also began the first Baptist Sunday School in New Jersey in 1816.
The Holmdel Reformed Church began in 1699, and was ‘yoked’ with “Old Brick Church” in Marlboro until 1838, when the present church was built and became the independent Holmdel Reformed Church. The original church building dates to 1721, and was located on Middletown Road, beside the Reformed cemetery, now called “Old Holmdel Yard”. One of its pastors, Reynard Erickzon, was voted the first president of the “American Classis” in 1747, when it split from Amsterdam. Benjamin DuBois, who began his ministry in 1764, is still the longest serving Reformed minister in history – serving 63 years! Rev. DuBois was an ardent patriot and fought in several battles in the Revolutionary War. This church worshiped in Dutch until the mid-1800’s.
Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, the Holmdel Baptist Church and its neighbor, the Holmdel Reformed Church, prospered but with the onset of the depression in the 1920s and 30s, both churches began dying. In 1936, these two small but historic congregations could not afford to pay their ministers and both pastors resigned within months of each other. The two churches then voted to become a federated body to be known as The Holmdel Church. This arrangement preserved the lives of the two congregations, although the fortunes of the federated church continued to decline. For many years they were without a full-time pastor. In 1958, in an act of faith, they called Dr. Wallace Gallup to be full-time pastor. During his tenure a Community Church was created within the federation for those who did not want to be formally part of either denomination. Now three different congregations existed within the federation, with two church buildings, each used six months out of the year.
Finally, the population of the area began to grow and, under successive pastorates of Rev. Burkhart, Rev. McNally and Rev. John Waldron, the church again became an influence in the region. Under John Waldron’s leadership and with much negotiation by leaders of the church, these three bodies merged into one church in 1968. The parent denominations graciously agreed to allow the church to sever its historic ties and to become part of an ecumenical denomination: the United Church of Christ.
Under Reverend Russell Eidmann-Hicks, who was called in 1991, the church decided to make outreach to others in need a primary focus of its ministry, and to strengthen the church school and educational ministry of the church. Since then, the worship attendance has tripled and the ministries of the church have flourished. We pride ourselves on being an ecumenical church, acknowledging the depth of our historic traditions, yet being open to the diversity of backgrounds in the congregation and the new directions to which God is calling us. We welcome all who desire to walk on our continuing pilgrimage of discovery.
About the Holmdel Community UCC:
- Our church is hospitable. It is a place of open doors. We welcome Christians of many backgrounds, orientations, and denominations without making them take a test of faith or loyalty. Our only request is that people join us on our journey of discovery, traveling ever closer to God’s presence and will for our lives.
- We agree to disagree. We are not a ‘creedal’ church that depends on a set list of beliefs, we are a “covenanting’ church that journey’s together in faith. As Christians we come from a spectrum of beliefs from Protestant to Catholic, from liberal to conservative. And we agree to respect, and even learn from each other, believing that sincere dialogue is enriching.
- We are a people of the Word; we trust in, and learn from, God’s holy Word in scripture. It is a mirror within which we find ourselves. Yet we are not fundamentalist or dogmatic in our approach. We respect modern scholarship and archeology that seeks to delve more deeply into the history and background of scripture, which still holding its authority in our lives.
- We are an open-hearted church, reaching out in love to the most destitute and forgotten. Through the work of dozens of dedicated volunteers, our church seeks to help people face-to-face through gifts of food, clothing, blankets, conversation and funds. We do not condemn those who are different than we are or insulate ourselves from society. As Christians we are in the world, but not of the world; “one foot in piety, one foot in society.”
Half of the signers of the Monmouth Patent in 1664 were members of this church.
Link to Download Cemetery Information for the Baptist Cemetery or the Holmdel Reformed Cemetery