Where the Methodism of New England Began
Jesse Lee Memorial United Methodist Church stands at 207 Main Street in Ridgefield, Connecticut, in the heart of a New England town. Its roots go back to 1789, when a Methodist circuit rider named Jesse Lee traveled the countryside on horseback, conducting meetings in homes and spreading what he called the message of joy. To keep his pace undiminished, Lee was known for carrying two horses and switching mounts when one grew tired. That Colonial-era sense of calling has shaped the congregation ever since.
Today the church is part of the United Methodist Church and the New York Annual Conference. The building is the congregation's third historic sanctuary, and the engraved name plates on the pews, the pipe organ, the piano, and the chancel artwork all bear witness to the generations who built the place. Visitors arriving for the first time find a multi-generational congregation that the church describes as functioning like a devoted family, with the wisdom of senior members passed down to younger ones, and joy shared widely.
Sunday Morning in the Sanctuary
Worship takes place every Sunday at 9:30 a.m. in the Sanctuary, and is also livestreamed and available on demand through the church's YouTube channel. The service blends traditional and contemporary music. Children are part of the service from the start; after a Parable Box discussion, kids in Pre-K 4 through seventh grade are dismissed to Sunday School in Martin Hall downstairs. Nursery care is provided for children three and under.
Music is central to the experience. The Sanctuary Choir rehearses on Thursday evenings and prepares hymns and choral anthems for Sunday services; the Handbell Choir, with its own Thursday rehearsal, plays about once a month and during the holidays. Music Director Daniel Juarez, an operatic tenor with a Master of Music from the Yale School of Music, directs the choirs, the handbell ensemble, and a contemporary worship team, shaping services that are both spiritually enriching and musically cohesive. Soloists and duets are encouraged.
After worship, members and visitors are invited to gather in the Narthex for Fellowship Hour, a time of coffee, snacks, and conversation. Hosting is shared among individuals, families, small groups, and ministries, and a sign-up page is open to anyone who would like to serve.
Children, Youth, and Confirmation
Children are treated as a vital part of the Kingdom of God at Jesse Lee, not as the future of the church but as the church right now. The program, called Kingdom Kids, is built around the conviction that children's spirituality matters and that learning about Jesus can be seriously fun. Weekly nursery care is offered for newborns through Pre-K 3. Weekly Sunday School serves students in Pre-K 4 through seventh grade. Junior Youth Group, designed for fourth and fifth graders, meets twice a month on Wednesday evenings and includes a shared meal, Bible exploration using the Book of Belonging Storybook Bible, games, and activities. Older students in grades 6 through 12 gather for monthly Youth Group meetings, special events, and intergenerational activities with their families.
Confirmation at Jesse Lee follows the United Methodist understanding of the rite: a baptized Christian publicly confirming the vows of the baptismal and membership covenant for the first time. Students in eighth grade and above are invited into a seven-month study of their faith, taught by the pastors and confirmation leaders. The classes run roughly from October through May, and the cohort is recognized on Confirmation Sunday each spring.
Vacation Bible School is held in the summer and is open to the wider community. Families are kept in the loop through social media, regular emails, and Family Ministry events that extend Kingdom Kids beyond Sunday morning.
Spirit Builders: Sawdust, Service, and 200 Ramps
One of the most distinctive ministries at Jesse Lee is Spirit Builders, a volunteer construction ministry that grew out of an earlier property crisis and now builds wheelchair ramps and accessibility improvements across Connecticut and New York. The story begins in 2005, when the Independent Order of the Oddfellows put their deteriorating building on King Lane, including the half of Jesse Lee's main parking lot beneath it, up for sale. Civil engineer and church member Peter Seirup was asked to evaluate the building. He recommended against buying it, and went into the decisive congregational meeting planning to make that case. What he did not plan was what happened when his turn came. He was hijacked by the Holy Spirit, hearing himself agree to lead the renovations and saying yes to a project he had been dead set against.
The church took a leap of faith, secured a mortgage, and raised most of what was needed. A volunteer Carriage House Council emerged, and a small army of skilled and not-yet-skilled people showed up on weekends to do the work. Three years and a second modest capital campaign later, the Carriage House had been fully renovated, a three-bedroom residence had been built on the upper floors, and the old stable had become the elegant Chapel now used by the church. Spirit Builders had found its calling.
The ministry's three-part mission is to support the church, serve the community, and help other churches start their own Spirit Builders chapters. Inside the church, the team has renovated the parsonages, the Wesley Manor apartments, and the four restrooms; reconstructed the bathrooms as accessible; built a wheelchair-accessible playground for the day school; and erected both the elevator shaft and the bridge that links the Sanctuary to Wesley Manor as part of the Jesse Lee Accessibility Project. Outside the church, the team designed and built a handicap-accessible playground at Farmingville School, helped partner congregations like Zion's Hill, and built roughly 200 wheelchair ramps across the region. The very first ramp was a quick response to a terminally ill woman whose dying wish was to attend Easter worship; in the years since, the program has tackled cases where a ramp will not fit and learned to build small elevators instead. Workdays are scheduled on the first Saturday of every month except January, July, and August, with a Thursday work group planned by email.
Appalachia Service Project: The Largest Local Chapter in the Country
Every summer, more than 300 high-school students and adults from Jesse Lee load vans and head south for Appalachia Service Project, a hands-on home-repair ministry serving families in some of the most poverty-stricken counties of West Virginia, Kentucky, Virginia, Tennessee, and North Carolina. The Jesse Lee chapter, founded over four decades ago, is the largest local ASP group in America. Volunteers work for a week to make homes warmer, safer, and drier, and to offer relationship-building ministry with a little home repair on the side.
To prepare, volunteers attend monthly orientation meetings from February through June, learn basic carpentry in late April, and put those skills to work in May building wheelchair-ramp sections that are later deployed by Spirit Builders. The summer trip is open to teens who have completed their freshman year of high school and to the parents and other adults who are needed in every crew. Support for the trip comes from the purchase of volunteer stock at $10 per share, donations toward vehicle rentals, and a popular car wash held in front of the church most Saturdays from late April to mid-June.
The Jesse Lee Pumpkin Patch
Every autumn, the front lawn of Jesse Lee becomes one of Ridgefield's most visible seasonal landmarks. The Jesse Lee Pumpkin Patch has been a community tradition for over 30 years. Pumpkins, gourds, and hay bales arrive at the Great Pumpkin Unload and are sold through the end of October, with weekend and holiday hours from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. and weekday hours from 2:00 to 6:00 p.m. The annual movie night is a fixture of the season, and a community clothing sale each fall fills the Carriage House with gently used clothing, with proceeds going to church missions.
The pumpkins are sustainably grown on a Navajo reservation in New Mexico, providing seasonal employment for around 700 workers in a region where unemployment hovers above 40 percent. A portion of the proceeds supports the church's missions. In a recent year, the patch sold over $74,000 in pumpkins, gourds, and hay bales and welcomed several thousand visitors.
Laundry Love, the Community Cupboard, and Local Outreach
Outreach is a defining mark of the congregation. The Outreach Commission, a group of church members with a funded budget, supports ministries locally, nationally, and internationally. The list is long, and a few examples are central to the church's identity.
Laundry Love of Greater Danbury is one of the founding faith communities of a regional chapter of the national nonprofit Laundry Love. With sister congregations from Jewish, Episcopal, Catholic, Congregational, and other Methodist traditions, the local partnership has washed thousands of loads of laundry for low- and no-income neighbors in the Danbury area. Volunteers distribute pre-paid laundry cards, work one-hour shifts at the partner laundromat, or steward funds. The tagline is love, dignity, and detergent.
The Community Cupboard is a small Give and Take food pantry located under the bridge that connects the Sanctuary to Wesley Manor. Stocked with non-perishable food items, it was inspired by an 11-year-old Ridgefield girl, Ruby Weiner, who during the COVID-19 pandemic built and installed several such pantries around town with the help of a Sodexo grant and Clark Construction. A church member led the effort to add a cupboard at Jesse Lee, and the pantry is dedicated to a Methodist minister who served for 55 years. Accepted items are non-perishable food items, and fresh foods of any kind are not accepted.
The Shoebox Ministry fills Christmas shoeboxes with age-appropriate gifts for both children and older adults in and around Ridgefield, distributed in partnership with Ridgefield Social Services and the Association of Religious Communities. The Can Tabs Ministry collects tabs from cans year-round, with collection vessels in the Narthex, the Carriage House, and the Stevens campus, and delivers them to the Ronald McDonald House at Maria Fareri Children's Hospital, which recycles the metal to buy books and games for families. ARC Welcome Baskets gather basic household necessities for the recently unhoused, and Because We Care provides home-cooked meals to members of the Jesse Lee family facing surgery, illness, the birth of a child, or other acute situations. ARC Welcome Baskets and other outreach efforts are coordinated by members who serve on the commission.
Music, Prayer, and Small Groups for Adults
Beyond the choirs that support Sunday worship, the church sustains a wide rhythm of adult formation. First Hour Prayer meets on Monday mornings on Zoom, a half hour of prayer for the church, community, nation, and world that is open to members and non-members alike. On Wednesdays, Rev. Maria Pia Seirup leads a contemplative prayer gathering by Zoom with an opening prayer, simple instructions for centering prayer, a period of silence, and a brief time of fellowship. The Wired Word meets on Sundays after worship and has for decades, using prepared lessons to connect current events to Scripture. The Thursday Women's Bible Study has been an ongoing group for many years and has worked through books of the Bible including Titus. Deborah Circle, the church's chapter of United Methodist Women, meets on the fourth Wednesday morning of each month for fellowship with a purpose, doing mission work with and through the United Methodist Women.
Jesse Lee Day School
Sharing the campus is Jesse Lee Day School, an outreach of the church established more than sixty years ago for the young children of the community. The school's goal is to foster the development of happy, healthy, and self-confident children, and the program is led by Executive Director Kathy Carroll. The school is a separately administered institution, but it shares the church's facilities and traditions and is widely regarded as a key part of the ministry of the church.
Open and Affirming: An Inclusive Welcome
Jesse Lee is proud to be an Open and Affirming church, a designation reached through a process the congregation walked together. The church's inclusion statement affirms that all people are created in the image of God, that God's love extends to all people, and that all people are of sacred worth. Members and leaders welcome and affirm people regardless of race, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, immigration status, political affiliation, mental or physical disability, or cultural background. Theologically, the church anchors its inclusion in John Wesley's Three Simple Rules for Holy Living: do no harm, do good, and stay in love with God.
The church's mission statement is to share the love of Christ in the world. Its vision is to be a community passionately growing in Christ, serving neighbors, and advocating for the needs of all people. Core values include love of God and neighbor, sharing faith with grace and humility, caring for the physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being of all, and celebrating God through prayer, study, service, and worship.
Accessibility Throughout the Campus
Accessibility is a long-standing commitment at Jesse Lee, and the Spirit Builders-led Accessibility Project has reshaped the campus to match. Wheelchair-accessible seating is available in both the front and the back of the Sanctuary. Handicapped parking is offered on the south side of the church between the Sanctuary and Wesley Manor, and additional accessible spaces are in front of Martin Hall off King Lane. An elevator serves the three levels of the Sanctuary building, the Bridge, and the upper level of Wesley Manor, comfortably accommodating a wheelchair and companions, and is reached by entering under the Bridge and going up a short ramp. Five wheelchair-accessible restrooms are located on the main floor, downstairs in Martin Hall, on the Bridge, in the Carriage House, and in the Chapel.
For those with hearing loss, hearing-aid receivers are available from the ushers, and the Technology Team has invested in induction loop devices that pair with many modern hearing aids. Visitors can contact the church office to schedule a compatibility test in the Sanctuary. Large-print bulletins and hymnals are available on request.
Clergy, Staff, and Lay Leadership
Senior Pastor Rev. Gene Ott comes from a long line of Methodist preachers; preaching and Methodism are in his family going back to his great-grandfather. He preaches in a relatable and practical style, with interests in storytelling, airplanes, old cars, and long books. Rev. Maria Pia Seirup serves as a Deacon. She was Jesse Lee's Children's Ministry Director for sixteen years before earning her Master of Divinity at Yale, was ordained as a United Methodist Deacon, and returned to Jesse Lee. She is also the founder and Executive Director of PeaceWork, Inc., creating artisan clergy vestments and church paraments, and volunteers with NOMADS, a United Methodist disaster recovery program. Music Director Daniel Juarez holds a BA from Bethel University and a Master of Music from the Yale School of Music, and lives in New Haven with his wife and two sons.
Lay leadership includes Jakob Janzon as Church Council Chair, Betty Lynn Gannon, Nick Capiello, and Debbie Perry as Lay Leaders, Rob Burkavage and Rick DiCarlo as Co-Presidents of the Board of Trustees, Chad Nelson as Chair of the Finance Committee, and Dwight Blaha as Chair of the Staff Parish Relations Committee. Day-to-day operations are supported by a long-tenured Sexton, José Granados, who has served the church since 1999 and is the one who keeps the buildings running; an Office Manager; a Development and Stewardship Manager; an Online Marketing Manager; a Treasurer who has served since 2005; a Technology Administrator; and the Executive Director of Jesse Lee Day School.
Joining the Church, Giving, and the Legacy Fund
People interested in putting down spiritual roots at Jesse Lee are invited into Growing Self 101, a new member class led by existing members and clergy that lays a foundation for faith and fellowship. Confirmation is the formal path to professing membership in the United Methodist Church.
Giving is offered in several forms. Online giving and recurring gifts are available through the church's Elexio platform. Text-to-give is available by texting the word Give to a dedicated number. Stock gifts can be directed through Wells Fargo Advisors. Mailed checks are welcome. The Jesse Lee Legacy Fund is the church's endowment program, an enduring gifts fund established to ensure that the economic health of the church is sufficient to carry out its mission for generations to come. Contributions can be undesignated, designated for established funds, or given as part of a will or trust. The fund invests approximately 60 percent in equities and 40 percent in fixed income, follows socially responsible investment guidelines aligned with the United Methodist benefits body WESPATH, and distributes a guideline 4 percent of the trailing three-year average balance to church operations each year. A wide circle of named donors has shared in the legacy, and a 2027 stewardship campaign titled Nurturing the Tree invites continuing commitments of time, talents, treasures, and prayers.
Getting Involved at Jesse Lee
Visitors are warmly welcomed to a Sunday morning worship service at 9:30 a.m. or to any of the many small groups, choirs, prayer gatherings, and service opportunities that run through the week. Children are welcome in worship and are invited to Sunday School after the Parable Box discussion. The church is at 207 Main Street in Ridgefield, with a Stevens Campus at 8 Shady Lane in South Salem, New York. The office is reachable at 203-438-8791 and at info@jesseleechurch.com. Those who would like to step into the life of the congregation will find a community that has carried forward the spirit of a circuit rider who would not be stopped.