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Part 2
Early Newton Methodists needed help in their early days from many sources outside themselves, and they got it.
For instance, in 1831 the new congregation needed a meeting place until a church could be built, and they found it in the courthouse by courtesy of the Board of Freeholders – a group of 30-plus in those days. Later Newton Methodists repaid the courtesy twice, but that’s another story.
This church’s very first friend was the Rev. Mr. Uzal Ogden, initial rector of Newton’s Christ Episcopal Church. When Francis Asbury preached his sermon in "Sussex Court-house" in 1874 – the first recorded Methodist service in the county seat – he had come here to visit Ogden. The two had been writing each other for some time and were to remain friends for life.
Uzal Ogden had come when Christ Church was organized in 1769. He was an eloquent preacher. He was also a strong believer in missions, which may have been a reason he and Asbury hit it off so well. Ogden was himself a missionary, having been sent to Newton by the Episcopalian Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, and the local church was supported by that mission group until the Revolution.
Ogden invited Asbury to preach in the court-house because that was where he preached. It was the only auditorium in town. The Presbyterians began a building two years later, but it was not finished for several years. The Episcopalians didn’t build until 1823. There was room for all in the court-house, for all the local pastors were on circuits and preached locally but once a month or so.
Later in 1784 Ogden moved to an Episcopal church in Newark and many years later became a Presbyterian! Back in Newton, Christ Church was without a pastor for 36 years. They had no building and no regular services for more than a third of a century. But a miracle was quietly happening: when a new pastor arrived in 1820 there was still a congregation.
Six stubborn saints had never lost hope.