St. Andrew's Episcopal Church sits on South Street in New Providence, New Jersey, but it does not look like a church built from scratch. The buildings grew up around an old country estate house, and that setting still gives the parish much of its character. Inside the sanctuary, the four Gospel writers and the twelve disciples gaze from the rearview of an unusual set of murals painted by a young Spanish artist in 1966. Outside, a circular Memorial Garden designed in 1962 by the landscape architect Nelva Weber holds the cremated remains of loved ones, and beside it a small pet cemetery cradles the ashes of dogs, cats, birds, gerbils, rabbits, and (according to local legend) Leo, the MGM lion. Six decades after its founding, the parish still describes itself the same way it always has: a welcoming church with a big heart, making God's love known to the world by building community through the ministries of Christian hospitality and Christian service.
An Old Estate on South Street
St. Andrew's began with a 1959 conversation among parishioners, most of them from Calvary Church in Summit, who looked at the next town and saw an opening. Bell Labs was about to build a plant nearby to do groundbreaking research, and the scientists and engineers it would bring were settling into new housing developments along the ridge called Murray Hill. The group appealed to the Diocese of New Jersey to help purchase the old d'Angelis estate on South Street, and the Diocese agreed, fronting the money for the property. Because the decision fell closest to St. Andrew's Day in 1959, the founders named the new mission after the apostle. The first vicar, the Rev. Canon Charles Alexander Shreve, was chosen for his broad vision, gregarious personality, and affinity for music and the arts.
Easter Day 1960 brought the first service, held outdoors for 333 people. The sanctuary was ready in time for Christmas Eve that year, and Canon Shreve and the vestry moved from mission church to parish status within just a few years. A spacious parish hall was added in 1965, and it quickly became the gathering place for dinners, plays, and concerts, an AA group that has met there ever since, and Scout Troop #1 (now a Brownie Troop as well). The Rev. Alan French was installed as the second rector in 1985, the Rev. Margaret Hodgkins in 2005, the Rev. Dr. Thomas Haverly in 2013, and the Rev. Dr. Daniel C. Gunn in 2017. The parish marked its 50th anniversary in 2010.
The Calderon Murals and the Country Estate Setting
The architecture of the old home still shapes the campus. Rather than a purpose-built church with highly polished wood pews, the sanctuary is modest and homey, set within the bones of an estate that includes an old well, a Chinese bell, and a picturesque carriage house. The grounds are cared for by GOSA, the Gardeners of St. Andrew's, a volunteer group founded by Joyce Kern in 2003 that gathers for monthly work parties from April through December to plant flowers and shrubs, prune, mulch, water, gather leaves, and keep the campus a place of sanctuary, reflection, and celebration.
In 1966 a young Spanish painter named Fernando Calderon came to stay with his old friend Canon Shreve while he waited for a shipment of paintings to arrive by boat from Spain for an exhibition in California. The paintings arrived too late for the show, but Shreve convinced him to linger and paint, for a dollar a day plus room and board, the unique murals of the four Gospel writers and the twelve disciples that now grace the sanctuary and the Nativity mural in the parish hall. The Calderon murals in the sanctuary were restored in 2009.
Sunday Mornings at Ten
Worship at St. Andrew's centers on a single Sunday morning service at 10:00 a.m., a Holy Eucharist using Rite II from The Book of Common Prayer, with the choir and Sunday School every other week. The parish describes itself as neither "high church" nor "low church," but rather a comfortable middle ground, familiar and relaxed yet still reverent. The service moves in two parts: a Service of the Word, with prayer, praise, and the hearing of scripture, followed by the celebration of the Eucharist, the church's usual word for what other traditions call Communion or the Lord's Supper.
The music weaves together traditional and modern hymns, and the congregation is invited to sing along. The Episcopal Church holds that every baptized Christian may take part in the feast of the Lord's Table, no matter where the baptism took place. At the distribution, the priest offers the bread wafer and a Eucharistic minister follows with the chalice of wine; visitors may dip the wafer, sip from the cup, or cross their arms to receive a blessing instead. Ushers direct worshippers pew by pew toward the altar, where a low railing surrounds the chancel.
In the summer months the rhythm simplifies to one Sunday service at 10:00 a.m., still Rite II, with refreshments on the patio afterward. Hospitality and coffee follow the 10:00 a.m. service throughout the rest of the year in the parish hall, and on the patio whenever the weather allows. Visitors arriving for the first time are greeted by ushers who hand them a program, point them toward the sanctuary, and offer a Welcome Bag with printed information, recent newsletters, a Sunday School pamphlet, and a container of home-baked cookies. Large-print Books of Common Prayer are available on request. Most people come dressed in neat casual wear, and the parish notes that suits and ties or dresses are fine to leave for the office. Children's kits with coloring books and crayons are kept on hand for the pew.
Children, Acolytes, and the Noah's Ark Nursery
Children have always been part of the life at St. Andrew's. In 1965 Canon Shreve asked young mothers to start a child-care program in the parish hall. Dubbed the "Kiddy Koop," it grew so fast that it became a pre-school and kindergarten, the first in the area, described in the newspaper as the "Harvard of nursery schools" and selected as a teacher-training center. The school is still part of the campus today and shares expenses with the church following an established formula.
Sunday School meets during the school year for children from Preschool through Grade 5. Children begin with their teachers at the start of the 10:00 a.m. service and then rejoin their families in the sanctuary in time for the celebration of the Eucharist. The younger grades use a Godly Play class, an Episcopal educational program based on the Montessori method of experiential learning. The middle grades follow a Cokesbury Bible-based curriculum that invites children to discover God, themselves, and one another. The older grade levels use the "Grow, Proclaim, Serve" curriculum and help create and tend a vegetable garden whose harvest is given away to others.
Babies and toddlers through age two are cared for in the Noah's Ark Nursery during the Sunday 10:00 a.m. service, with a student staff member supported by adults on call. Children in Grade 4 and older can join the Acolytes, who serve in pairs at the 10 a.m. service and at special services, assisting at the altar and during the reading of the Gospel. Twelve young acolytes currently serve at St. Andrew's, with training provided for new volunteers. The film-based youth program Film School gathers students in Grades 6-12 after Holy Communion to watch and discuss a movie in relation to the Bible, under the leadership of adult volunteers; Tara Cavanagh has volunteered to lead the first discussion. Enrichment events run from September through June and include a Chrismon Tree in Advent, a visit from St. Nicholas, an Easter Egg Hunt after the 10 a.m. service on Easter Sunday, and a Bible Story Journey that takes the children through the church itself.
Music and the Choir of Twelve to Fifteen
Music is central to the liturgy at St. Andrew's. The choir of twelve to fifteen voices leads the congregation at the 10:00 a.m. service in hymns, a weekly psalm, and one or more anthems. The choir meets at 9:15 a.m. on Sundays to rehearse the anthems for that day and gathers again for twenty minutes after the 10 a.m. service to prepare for the following week. New voices are welcome, with no prior experience required.
The choir's repertoire draws from traditional and modern material across the church year: Jubilate Deo at the Blessing of the Animals, Sweet Communion for All Saints, In Christ Alone for Christ the King, Surely the Presence of the Lord on Shrove Tuesday, Christ is Risen, Alleluia on Easter Sunday, and Sweet, Sweet Spirit on Pentecost. Lessons and Carols in Advent draw on an expanded choir with full anthems such as Advent Coventry Carol and Blessed Are the Ones Who Wait for You. The full choir season runs from September through mid-June, with a lighter pick-up choir each Sunday morning during the summer.
The St. Francis Memorial Garden and the Pet Cemetery
The campus holds two unusual features side by side. In 1962 St. Andrew's was one of the first congregations in the United States to open a Memorial Garden on its grounds for the burial of cremated remains. The garden was designed by the celebrated landscape architect Nelva Weber in a circular shape as a symbol of eternity, and a bronze statue of St. Francis was created for it in Rome by Ruth Hutton Ancker, a well-known sculptor and parishioner. People of all faiths are welcome to have loved ones interred in the garden, and no headstones interrupt its design. A bronze nameplate for each person is added to the plaque that adorns the fieldstone exterior wall of the church, overlooking the garden.
Adjacent to the church stands the St. Francis Pet Cemetery, open to people of all religious affiliations. A statue of St. Francis with arms supporting three stone birds gazes toward the ground, watching over beloved pets buried at his feet. The cemetery provides burial of the cremated remains of pets in a tranquil setting that reflects the beauty of each season. A local legend holds that Leo, the lion whose roar has introduced MGM films since 1928, is buried here, though other accounts place him at his former owner's farm in Gillette, NJ. Suggested donations are $50 for parishioners and $100 for non-parishioners.
The Blessing of the Animals service, held annually at 10:00 a.m. on the Sunday closest to October 4th, takes place as an outdoor Eucharist in the Pet Cemetery, with parishioners and visitors bringing their pets on leashes or otherwise properly restrained. Past services have featured cats, dogs, fish, birds, gerbils, rabbits, and more. Children are invited to bring a new stuffed animal, which is blessed during the service and later presented to a hospitalized child in the Elizabeth, NJ area during the Christmas holidays.
Faith in Action: Food, Knitting, and Pastoral Care
Outreach at St. Andrew's runs in several directions at once. The Star Fish Inter-faith Food Pantry, a 501(c)(3) non-profit run by volunteers from Plainfield and the surrounding area, operates three days a week year-round, preparing and distributing grocery orders to an average of thirty to thirty-five families each week, with special holiday orders for 160 families at Easter, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. The pantry's name combines the Judaic Star of David and the Christian fish symbol. St. Andrew's acts as an ongoing collection point for non-perishable food, full-size toiletries, and baby-care items. Every Thanksgiving, parishioners make cash donations to "feather the turkey," and the funds are used to buy turkeys that volunteers transport to the pantry.
The parish's Christmas at Sea Knitting Group has supported the Seamen's Church Institute for many years, hand-knitting hats and scarves and assembling gift bags of toiletries for mariners served by SCI centers in the Port of New York and New Jersey and the San Francisco Bay Area. Volunteers make an annual trip to the Institute in Port Newark to deliver their donations. Once a month, on the second Sunday of every other month from January through November, a team from St. Andrew's goes to St. John's in Elizabeth to help cook and serve a meal for the homeless and hungry. Each fall, members of the congregation fill shoe boxes for Operation Christmas Child, contributing small gifts and a $7 check to cover shipping; the boxes are collected and blessed on a Sunday in November before being packed for shipment around the world.
Pastoral Care is a long-standing lay ministry. The committee provides meals, rides, and cards, and Brian Bussey serves as Hospital Chaplain, visiting those who are hospitalized or homebound. Volunteers are encouraged to step up for driving, cooking, home visits, calls to the sick and elderly, and cards for birthdays, anniversaries, and times of grief or illness.
Bible Study, Brotherhood, and the Wider Church
Two study groups meet on Wednesdays in the parish library. The weekday morning Bible Study gathers on the first and third Wednesday of each month at 10 a.m., typically drawing six or seven parishioners. They use maps and photographs of ancient Mid-East locations to better understand the context of scripture, and have moved through the Gospels of Mark, Luke, and John, the Books of Genesis and Exodus, and are currently studying the Book of Acts. The group does not meet in summer. The Synthesis Study Group meets on the second and fourth Wednesday of each month at 1:30 p.m., continuing through the summer, and discusses the lectionary readings for the coming Sunday in relation to the lives of the participants.
In 2004 a Chapter of the Brotherhood of St. Andrew was formed at the parish, one of four chapters in the Diocese. The Brotherhood is an international ministry of men within the Anglican Communion, incorporated by an Act of the U.S. Congress in 1908 and signed by President Theodore Roosevelt, "to spread Christ's Kingdom among men." The local chapter has undertaken the painting of the Sacristy Hall, the upstairs hall, and the foyer and vestibule at the Blue Door entrance, and is working toward forming an Assembly that would be the fourth in its Priory, covering three states and six dioceses.
St. Andrew's is a parish within the Episcopal Diocese of New Jersey and a member of the worldwide Anglican Communion, whose members trace their spiritual lineage to the Church of England. The Episcopal Church welcomes all who worship Jesus Christ across 109 dioceses and three regional areas in 17 nations. Anglicans typically pursue God's love and truth through Scripture, tradition, and reason, and the Anglican ethos values patience and tolerance along with generous participation in the cultural life of the world.
The People Behind the Welcome
The parish is led by the Rev. Dr. Daniel C. Gunn, known as Fr. Daniel, the fifth rector of St. Andrew's and its current Priest-in-Charge. Before coming to New Providence, Fr. Daniel served as Assistant Rector of Christ Church Bronxville, NY, Rector of St. Stephen's Pro-Cathedral in Wilkes-Barre, PA, and Interim Rector of St. Peter's Clarksboro, NJ and Christ Church Ridgewood, NJ. Earlier in his career he spent two years as a hospital chaplain and two as a prison chaplain, and he has also served as an adjunct professor of Philosophy, Ethics, World Religions, and Biblical Studies. He returned to Drew University to complete his doctoral studies in American Religious History. James Lubrano serves as Minister of Music, with Bridget Golubieski as Parish Administrator and Andrea Bigelow as Treasurer.
The Vestry is an elected body of parishioners responsible for the church's finances and properties, meeting on the fourth Sunday of the month after the 10 a.m. service under the leadership of the Priest-in-Charge and Wardens Lawrence Van Deusen and Kristi Soutar. All parishioners are welcome to attend.
Visiting St. Andrew's
The church sits at 419 South Street, New Providence, NJ 07974. From eastbound I-78, take Exit 44 "New Providence-Berkeley Heights," turn left at the bottom of the ramp, continue a half-mile to the first left (Glenside Road), turn left, proceed under the interstate and over the hill to the light at Mountain Avenue, continue straight through the light, and St. Andrew's will be ahead on the left. From westbound I-78, take Exit 43 "New Providence-Berkeley Heights," merge right at the bottom of the ramp onto Diamond Hill Road, proceed up the hill to the second light (Mountain Avenue, with a white marble building on the right), turn right, continue to the third light, turn left onto South Street just beyond Alcatel/Lucent Technologies, and St. Andrew's is ahead on the left.
Office hours run Monday through Friday from 8:45 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., and the parish can be reached at 908-464-4875 or information@standrewschurch.org. Downloadable forms for Baptism, Confirmation, and Marriage are available online, and a Healing Service is held at Lantern Hill in New Providence at 11:00 a.m. on the first Thursday of each month, with a Service of Holy Eucharist there at 1:00 p.m. on the third Sunday. Online giving is available through PayPal, and Sunday services are offered both in person and virtually.