The Parsippany United Methodist Church (PUMC) congregation was founded in 1830. In 1962, our century-old original church building was torn down to make room for an interstate highway. An education building and fellowship hall were built on a new location, but for years the congregation dreamed of a new, dedicated sanctuary. An identity was shaped over the course of the forty years between the evacuation of the original church building and the completion of the new sanctuary.
The PUMC congregation worshipped together in a fellowship hall that was also used for church dinners and play productions. People were drawn to the congregation not for the edifice -- the school-like building wasn’t much to look at -- but by qualities they experienced in the fellowship and worship. Together we shaped a congregational life characterized by unusual warmth, inclusion, artistic creativity, humor and prayerfulness.
Following Pastor Jeff’s arrival in 1989, PUMC congregational growth made it possible for the church to actively plan for the construction of a new worship space. Together we engaged in a long process of envisioning, fundraising, and planning for a new sanctuary that, with its simple and open design, was in keeping with the spirit of our congregation.
Construction began in November of 2001, in the midst of the national grief of 9/11. As we witnessed people spontaneously flock to communal holy spaces seeking contact with the Eternal, there seemed a rightness to building the sanctuary as an expression of hope in unsettling times.
Six months into construction, amid the typical frustrations and setbacks that are a part of this process, the chairperson of the building committee suddenly died. Shortly thereafter his wife also died. When finally the new sanctuary was dedicated six months later in December of 2002, the joy we felt was mixed with sadness that this much beloved couple who had been so instrumental in sustaining our dream of the new sanctuary for forty years was not with us to share in the celebration.
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