Celebrating faith — Newcastle’s oldest church invites community to 135th anniversary celebration

Christ Episcopal Church, believed to be Newcastle’s oldest congregation, will celebrate its 135th anniversary at 10 a.m. Sept. 21 with a special service. A picnic on the church grounds will follow.

The church started in the late 1880s, and the church building was built in 1890, according to the Rev. Steve Christy, a retired priest who serves the Newcastle congregation. The parish hall, which is at 310 S. Summit Ave., was built in the 1960s.

Christy said the liturgy for the Sept. 21 service will include the Wyoming Eucharist, which was developed in Wyoming and has some “wonderful language that helps represent Wyoming during our service.”

Change in the church

The church has experienced many changes over the decades, including several in recent years, Christy told the News Letter Journal. One of those changes has been the service time, which has depended on who has been available to serve the congregation, he said.

Christy, who lives in Sundance, had been the Episcopal Church in Wyoming diocese’s regional minister for northeastern Wyoming before he retired. That role included serving in Newcastle and being present for Sunday services, he said. The Rev. Kenli Barling, who was ordained in 2020, was a full-time rector at the church  from September 2022 through September 2023.

Christy said that priests who have preceded him over more than a century of the church’s history have included one who lived in Gillette and one who lived in Buffalo, as the Wyoming diocese has been supporting ministry at the church for many years, providing various priests from various locations.

“There have been a number,” he said. “A church the size of Newcastle has an awful hard time affording a full-time priest.” 

With those leadership changes have come other changes. For example, Christy said he changed the Sunday service time from the afternoon to 10 a.m. He said he goes to Newcastle on Sunday to offer the Eucharist, serve for the church service and provide pastoral care.

“Newcastle still needs a priest,” he said.

The congregation’s size has also changed, according to Christy. Today, there are “probably between 30 and 40” on the church rolls, which starkly contrasts with some parts of its history. 

“At one time, it was a major congregation in the community and probably had several hundred members, but the situation with a number of churches in our society today, membership has fallen off and so, now, on any given Sunday, we may have 10 or 12 people attending a service,” he said. 

However, the church also counts among its members people who identify as Episcopalian even if they only come to church a couple of times a year, he said.

According to Christy, many people have left the church because Newcastle, and Wyoming in general, are “a very conservative country,” which doesn’t line up with the stances the National Episcopal Church has taken on some social issues over the past couple of decades.

However, he holds onto hope that people will return, he said. Events such as the assassination of Charlie Kirk; school shootings, such as the one that occurred in Evergreen, Colorado, and another in Minneapolis; and the stabbing of a woman in Charlotte, North Carolina, “affect people in various ways,” he said.

“We are always optimistic that people will recognize the need for Christ in their life and turn to the church, and I see some of that taking place in various situations, certainly with the events of this last week,” he said. “A number of people are looking at where they are on their spiritual journeys and what they need in their life, and so we will see what transpires.”

Beauty, community remain

Yet the church’s legacy endures.

The church “still stands as a very important part of the community,” Christy said.

Visitors who have attended community programs at the church note that they were baptized in the church or recall that it is where their parents or grandparents once worshiped.

“For various reasons they have gone elsewhere, gone to other churches that fit their needs better,” Christy said. “That’s just a natural thing that happens over the years.”

The church remains close to the hearts of Janet and Mike Hutchinson, who will return to Newcastle for the celebration. They were part of the church from the time they moved to Newcastle, in 1985, to this spring, when they moved to Rapid City to be closer to family and doctors now that they have retired.

Over the 40 years that the couple belonged to Christ Episcopal Church, Janet served in several roles. She was a Sunday school teacher, bulletin preparer and grant writer. Mike was a lay leader — a member licensed by the diocese to help the priest during a service or a visit — and a member of the vestry, or church board. He advanced from a junior warden, or “people’s warden,” to a senior warden, “who is to be like the president or leader behind the priest of the church.”

Mike told the NLJ that the couple experienced a lot of change in church life as members and priests came and left or died. The church had 11 different priests over the years, and, at the state level, leadership transitioned between four bishops, he said.

“The people at Christ Church became and still are our family,” Mike said. “We can’t wait to see everyone. Looking forward to getting some good hugs.”

Janet said that she wishes she understood why numbers have decreased at the church, which she had found to be a very welcoming congregation. A sign outside the church, for instance, says “Welcome home.”

“You can feel the spirit of God,” Janet said.

Janet said her favorite memories of the church include the annual pancake supper held on Shrove Tuesday, “an ecumenical event for the entire community to come together to prepare for Lent.” Mike recalled Christmas Eve services with lit candles and white hangings, which are the banners that portray Christian symbols, and how the stained-glass window portraying Christ behind the altar was lit.

Christy said the church welcomes anyone to come and celebrate the service of the church in Newcastle. For any families with past connections to the church, “it’s kind of a homecoming,” he said.

Mike said that as he enters the church’s red doors, he reflects on everyone who has done the same since its founding.

“It makes you feel surrounded by not only our Lord and Saviour, but all those who have come and gone before,” he said. “I always felt the Christ Episcopal Church was, at the beginning and up to today, a very important part of the Newcastle area. This was because of the faithful folks that have and are attending.”

He said he prays that the church can continue to serve God and the community.

A brief history of Christ Episcopal Church

Mike Hutchinson, who was a lay leader of the Christ Episcopal Church, provided the following list of church leaders that dates back to the beginning of the church. The list is also in the parish hall, Hutchinson said. 

Fr. Steve Christy: Oct. 1, 2023-present

Rev. Kenli Barling: Sept. 1, 2022-Sept. 31 , 2023

Fr. Doug Wasinger: Jan. 1, 2022-Aug. 25, 2022 

Rev. Wendy Owens: June 1, 2018-July 18, 2021

Fr. Tom Campbell: Jan. 8, 2017-June 3, 2018

Rev. Sally Boyd: Oct. 27, 2012-Dec. 24, 2016

Fr. Joel Dingman: Jan. 11, 2009-Sept. 29, 2012

Fr. Cliff Moore: Feb. 23, 2002-Dec. 28, 2008

Fr. Ben Wright: July 9, 1996-April 22, 2001

Fr. Charles Threewit: Dec. 8, 1991-Sept. 3, 1995

Fr. Robert Anderson: May 10, 1983-May 24, 1991

Fr. Charles Wallis: Feb. 25, 1979-Aug. 29, 1982

Fr. Colin A. Cambell: Aug. 22, 1976-June 11, 1978

Fr. Ware King: July 7, 1973-July 27, 1975 

Fr. James More: Feb. 14, 1970-July 27, 1973

Rev. Lee Schlothauer: Jan. 7, 1968-Nov. 2, 1969

Rev. Tim Solon: Oct. 17, 1963-Nov. 15, 1967

Rev. Clay B. Carr Jr.: Aug. 7, 1960-July 7, 1963

Rev. Allan B. Cheales: Sept. 19, 1954-Feb. 28, 1960

Rev. Harry J. Haydis: Aug. 28, 1949-June 6, 1954

S.L. Morgan: Jan. 1947-Feb. 1947

Rev. J.D. Salter: Feb. 11, 1940-Aug. 31, 1942

Rev. Robert Frazier: Sept. 10, 1939-Jan. 7, 1940

Rev. V.G. Lewis: Nov. 30, 1930-Aug. 3, 1939

Rev. Perry Smith: 1927-1929 He lived in Gillette

Rev. Rev. L.A Davidson 1924-April 1925

Rev. Hamilton Brown: 1923-1924

Rev. Rev. Samuel Hagen: 1920-1923 

Rev. J. Coleman Horton: July 1919-Died July 1920

Rev. George McKay: April 1916-November 1918

Rev. L.P. Holmes: April 1914-1916

Rev. R.O. Mackintosh: December 1912-December 1913

Rev. Ashley Gerhard: 1907-1911

Rev.  Toole: 1901-1902

Rev. Richard Whitehouse: Ordained at Christ Church Oct. 14, 1900

Rev. C.E. Snavely: 1899-1900

Rev. William Hirst Heigham, Also serving 1897, maybe assisting, Deacon, Rev. Edward R. Dodds, October 1897-1899, Mr. Richard Whitehouse Lay Minister June 1897-August. 

Rev. Arnold Lutten: 1892-1893

Rev. Edward H. Parnell 1891-1892

Rev. J.E. Sulger: 1889-1890

Bishop Ethelbert Talbot: Earliest Church minister, purchased land for $1