New Walden UMC to open in mid-2021

By Connor Linskey
Posted 12/30/20

Construction of the new location for the Walden United Methodist Church on 1206 Route 52 is starting to pick up.

Plumbing is near completion and electricity is being installed. The chairman of …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

Log in

New Walden UMC to open in mid-2021

Posted

Construction of the new location for the Walden United Methodist Church on 1206 Route 52 is starting to pick up.

Plumbing is near completion and electricity is being installed. The chairman of the church’s building committee Tony Zirilli noted that he expects the church to open in mid-2021. The 3,500-square-foot building will house a sanctuary, multi-purpose room, kitchen, two classrooms, foyer, bathrooms, landscaping and a parking lot.

Getting to this point was a long process. The congregation used to reside in a church on West Main Street. The upkeep and utilities for the 15,000-square-foot-building became too expensive for a small congregation. Renovations to the building would have been too expensive because the building was old and not up to current building codes. This sparked a vote to relocate in 2007.

“In 2007 when we did all the research with the contractors and everything and saw what the repair costs were gonna be, we knew it just wasn’t feasible,” Zirilli said.

The new property on Route 52 was purchased in 2013. The old building was desanctified in 2013 and sold the following year. Since then, the congregation has met at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Walden. Once the congregation purchased the new property, their first order of business was to fix up the parsonage. Since then, heating has been repaired and leaks have stopped.

Plans for the project appeared before the Town of Montgomery Planning Board several times. Finally in March 2018 the congregation voted on a general contractor. The general contractor was made up of two men, who ultimately left the project in January 2020 because of internal issues.

Since then, members of the congregation have been working to complete the church. The group is working efficiently to open the church.

“The visible stuff is pretty darn complete,” Zirilli said.

Heating, ventilation and air conditioning units need to be installed. The workers plan to install the units after electricity is installed.

In the meantime, the congregation continues to raise funds. While the congregation hopes to open the project in mid-2021, they realize that there are many obstacles in their way due to the COVID-19 pandemic. At the moment the church is holding services virtually, as the United Methodist Church will not allow them to meet in person.

“It’s not like we’re trying to have it ready by Easter or something like that,” Zirilli said. “Basically it’ll happen in God’s time.”

In addition to the new church location, the congregation also has a new pastor. Bonnie Snyder was appointed pastor by the New York Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church effective Aug. 1.

She had spent the last 16 years as a public librarian in the Mid-Hudson Library System. Snyder felt that there was a greater need, which was for her to serve the church.

“My hope for the church is to fill it,” she said. “So we can continue to be the hands and feet of Christ and to witness and make disciples of Christ.”

Snyder hopes that the church will be involved in the community by sharing its space. She talked about the church hosting Alcoholics Anonymous meetings or an English as a Second Language program.

“Our mission is love, is to serve others...,” Snyder said. “Our doors are gonna be open. Everybody’s welcome.”