The Reformed Church of Newtown

Reformed Church of Newtown Complex
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
NYC Landmark
Reformed Church of Newtown
Location	8515 Broadway, New York, New York
Coordinates
Area	1.5 acres (0.61 ha)
Built	1831
Architectural style	Greek Revival, Vernacular Greek Revival
NRHP Reference #	80002751
Significant dates
Added to NRHP	April 23, 1980
Designated NYCL	July 19, 1966

The Reformed Church of Newtown is a historic Reformed church located in the Elmhurst neighborhood in Queens, New York. The church was first established by Dutch immigrants in 1731.

Current building

The original church building 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. As the needs of the church and community changed, staff was added, 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 that occasion, 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.

Expansion

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

Now, the originally Dutch church had services in English, Taiwanese, and Tamil. The Tamil ministry was crippled by the untimely death of their minister, Rev. Paul Theodore, but some Tamil members were incorporated into the English service and continued in meaningful service with the congregation. Meanwhile, the Taiwanese ministry, led by a dynamic and multilingual evangelist Rev. Bill H.C. Lee, soon outnumbered Newtown’s “American” congregation, as the membership more than doubled from 1981 to 1982. The Taiwanese had been brought 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 had seats on the Newtown Consistory. Although there can technically be only one “senior pastor” in an RCA parish, Rev. 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 Rev. David K.T. Su, who was being groomed to replace the aging Bill Lee, instead began a third worship service in Mandarin Chinese, the lingua franca of the Chinese world. Eventually, efforts by the church to fulfill the scriptural idea of being "a house of prayer for all nations" resulted in a Taiwanese service, a Mandarin service, and a multi-cultural service—in which Greeks, Latinos, Asian-Indians, Pacific Rim Asians, Russians and “traditional Americans” worship together in English—being held each Sunday.

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

External links

• The Reformed Church of Newtown official website