Third Congregational Church has stood on the corner of Miner Street in Middletown, Connecticut for more than 250 years. Today it is a Congregational Christian congregation shaped by lay-led governance, a long-running choral tradition, and a steady rhythm of service to the wider Middletown community. Visitors are welcomed into a sanctuary where weekly worship is paired with a livestream, a children's Sunday school, and a hands-on outreach program that stretches from a downtown soup kitchen to refugee relief overseas.
A Self-Governing Congregation
The church's own statement, We Are the Church, captures the heart of its Congregational identity. Members covenant to walk together as equal partners, acknowledging Jesus Christ as the Head of the church, and they discern the direction of the congregation through prayer and discussion in committee and congregational meetings. Liberty of conscience and freedom in scriptural interpretation are central. The congregation calls ministers and elects officers, but the work of being the church belongs to the gathered members. The same statement acknowledges the diversity of backgrounds that has shaped the church over time. Members were raised Catholic, Baptist, Unitarian, Episcopalian, Congregational, and without any religious affiliation, and all are welcomed under one covenant.
Third Church is affiliated with the National Association of Congregational Churches and works locally through the Fellowship of Northeast Congregational Christian Churches.
Sunday Morning in the Sanctuary
Sunday worship gathers in the sanctuary at 10:00 a.m. from September through June and shifts to 9:00 a.m. during July and August. Each service is also livestreamed on the church's YouTube channel, where recent services are archived for viewing at any time. Communion is celebrated on the first Sunday of each month using a prepackaged wafer and juice cup.
Music is a throughline of the service. The adult choir sings throughout the year, with periodic performances by students in the faith formation program. Corbin Beisner, an award-winning classical pianist who also holds degrees from the Hartt School of Music and the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest, serves as organist and choir director.
Faith Formation for All Ages
The faith formation program, led by Youth Minister Collin Kennedy, runs from September through June. Classes are offered for children from age 4 through 12th grade, and a staffed nursery is available for younger children in a clean, caring environment. Confirmation classes supplement Sunday School for students in 8th grade and above who are preparing to confirm their baptisms, giving them tools to make an informed decision about devoting their lives to Christ and joining the church.
Kennedy's focus is on building relationships with other churches in the surrounding area so that the youth of smaller congregations, including his, can form lasting Christian friendships with peers. His view, as he puts it, is that teenagers are more likely to return to Christ, God, and the church when they develop lasting relationships with others their own age who are also Christian.
Adults have several study and fellowship options on the church calendar. Bible study and discussion groups meet on Wednesday mornings at 10:00 a.m. and Saturday mornings at 10:00 a.m., and a Church History class is held at 8:30 a.m. on alternating Sundays. Men's Fellowship and Women's Fellowship events round out the program. A written study called The Journey of Grief - Twelve Freedoms of Healing is also available for those walking through loss, with a companion video.
Service to Middletown and Beyond
Third Church reads the call to love neighbor as self quite literally, and the calendar of outreach is wide. Each year members cook and serve a meal at the St. Vincent de Paul Soup Kitchen in downtown Middletown. Each month food is delivered to the Amazing Grace food pantry. Every fall the congregation joins other local churches in the Crop Walk, which raises money to fight hunger locally and globally.
The Christmas Giving Program gathers gift cards, gifts, art supplies, books, gloves, hats, socks, toiletries, and cookie trays for neighbors in need at Solnit Children's Center, Gilead Community Services, Eddy Home, and St. Vincent de Paul. Two long-running fundraisers, the spring tag sale and the Military Whist card games, underwrite much of this giving.
Beyond Middletown, the church supports mission partners of the National Association of Congregational Churches and has contributed to Freedom Service Dogs and the Make a Wish Foundation. Volunteers recently helped frame a house with Habitat for Humanity for a young military family. The Westfield Ladies Aid group and friends made more than 125 dresses that were sent through Dress a Girl Around the World to Poland for Ukrainian refugees and to Ethiopia.
The church building itself is in constant use as a community resource. Third Church sponsors Boy Scouts of America Troop 16 and Cub Pack 43 of Middletown, and it provides space for weekly Narcotics Anonymous meetings, monthly Tobacco Valley Flywheelers meetings, occasional M.A.P.S. dinners, and other community events hosted by outside organizations.
A Minister with Deep Roots in Pastoral Care
The Reverend Dr. Daniel Rodriguez Schlorff, the church's minister, is a native Hoosier who moved to Connecticut in his twenties to serve a church as Minister for Children, Youth, and Families. He is a graduate of Meadville Lombard at the University of Chicago Divinity School and holds a second master's degree from Hartford Seminary. He completed four units of Clinical Pastoral Education and worked for nine years as a hospice chaplain before earning the Doctor of Ministry in Pastoral Care and Counseling at Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley. Before coming to Third Church, he planted and pastored a new church in New Haven for six years.
Pastor Daniel leads Bible studies and spirituality groups with as much enthusiasm as he brings to the pulpit, and he finds spiritual renewal through performing music. He sings with the professional choral groups Voce and CONCORA and plays double bass for the American Chamber Orchestra. Outside the church, he can usually be found with his dog Browser, tending a large collection of houseplants, or buried in a book.
Visiting Third Church
The church sits at 94 Miner Street in Middletown. The parking lot is on the right side of the building, with marked handicap spaces, and a handicap ramp runs along the left side of the church for step-free access. Visitors enter through either of the two green doors at the front.
Dress is casual and comfortable. Children are welcome to remain in the service, and Sunday School along with staffed nursery care is offered during worship. Ushers stationed at the entrance can answer questions during the service. Following worship, the congregation gathers in the Fellowship Hall for coffee and donuts, and bathrooms are located in the Christian Education wing on the west side of the building. Giving is accepted online and by mail through the church's donation page.