The Reformed Church of Newtown

The church building

The original Federal-Greek Revival style building, completed in 1735, had survived the struggles of the colonial days and the disruptions of the American Revolutionary War (during which the British seized it for use as an armory). It was replaced in 1832 by the present sanctuary, which is a designated landmark building. The cornerstone of the original building can still be seen in the foundation of its present structure. The sanctuary and adjoining fellowship hall are, as noted by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, "one of the few all wood church groups remaining in the City."

The congregation

As the needs of the church and community changed, staffing was increased, structural improvements were made, and the preaching shifted from Dutch to English. In 1956, for its 225th anniversary, President Dwight D. Eisenhower visited the church. For this occasion, the Reverend A. Nelson Doak compiled a brief history of the parish and ended by saying, "May her doors never be shut. Keep them wide open with a welcome to all humanity: saints and sinners, rich and poor, black, brown, yellow, and white," referring to the different ethnic groups in Elmhurst.

The Reformed Church of Newtown Complex was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.

In 1980, as Elmhurst was changing complexion, Rev. Doak's hope for Newtown Church began to be fulfilled. His successor, the Rev. David Boyce, perceiving the changing needs of the community, initiated a worship service for Taiwanese immigrants and later another service for the increasing population of Tamil-speaking Indians in the area.

The originally Dutch church now had services in English, Taiwanese, and Tamil. The Tamil ministry was sadly crippled by the untimely death of their minister, the Rev. Paul Theodore, but some Tamil members incorporated themselves into the English service and remained with the congregation. Meanwhile, the Taiwanese ministry, led by a dynamic and multilingual pastor, the Rev. Bill H.C. Lee, soon outnumbered Newtown's Caucasian congregants, as the membership more than doubled from 1981 to 1982. The Taiwanese had entered in, not as a distinct congregation, but as an additional ministry under the authority of Newtown's leadership. As full members, they voted and soon obtained seats on the church's consistory. Although there can technically be only one “senior pastor” in an RCA parish, Pastor Boyce, recognizing the unique circumstances of the day, had innovatively elevated Lee to be an equal “co-pastor” with him.

In 1995, Newtown reached wider still, when the Rev. David K.T. Su, who was being groomed to succeed the aging Rev. Lee, instituted a third worship service in Mandarin Chinese, the lingua franca of the Chinese world. Efforts by the church to fulfill the Scriptural call to be "a house of prayer for all peoples" have thus resulted in a Taiwanese service, a Mandarin service, and a multi-cultural English service—in which Asians, Latinos, and Caucasian Americans worship together—being held each Sunday. At the present time, the Taiwanese and Mandarin-speaking Chinese in the congregation are both ministered to by the Rev. David Su and the Rev. Dr. Tien-Heng Chiu, and the English-speaking congregants are led by the Rev. Chris Koch.

The Reformed Church of Newtown has also produced several ministers for the Reformed Church of America in recent decades: the Rev. I. Douglas Estella (ordained 1986) and the Rev. Ben Lin (ordained 1997), both sons of Newtown Church.