By John Kriz
Walk into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in New Canaan (colloquially known as the Mormon church) on South Avenue, situated a bit south of the YMCA and across the street from the entrance to Waveny Park, on a Sunday and you’ll be met with an eclectic array of mostly ‘Sunday best dressed’ people – including youth – who will make it a point to come up to say hello and welcome you. After the Sacrament Meeting (main worship service), which lasts about an hour, there is another hour of adult and youth Bible study and discussion. But after that, instead of rushing off to brunch, people linger, they chat, reinforcing the bonds that brought them there in the first place.
The church was built in the early 1980s and hosts two wards – the Mormon term for a congregation. One is New Canaan and the other is Darien. The two wards worship and are run separately, as wards tend to be geographically focused. The New Canaan ward has around 170 congregants attending on any given Sunday, nearly half being children, figures that have been steady for many years.
LDS Church History
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ (the church’s formal name — LDS Church for short http://www.churchofjesuschrist.org) beginning is commonly dated from the publishing of the Book of Mormon in 1830, one of its two core scriptural texts, the other being the Bible, with its Old and New Testaments. The Book of Mormon is an account of the religious and social history of ancient peoples of the Americas. This history was collected, edited and inscribed on golden plates by a military leader and historian named Mormon, who lived in the Americas in the fourth century AD, with the plates buried by his son Moroni in a hill in what is now Palmyra, New York.
In this history, a man named Lehi, a prophet in Jerusalem, was told by God in a dream to leave that city as it was to be destroyed. So he left with his family, sailing to the Americas around 600 BC. Lehi’s oldest sons, Lemuel and Laman, were not very pious, but his youngest son, Nephi, was. Conflict arose between Nephi and his two brothers because of this, and eventually two distinct groups were formed: Lamanites and Nephites. They were often at war.
After His resurrection, as told in the New Testament Gospels, Jesus of Nazareth visited the Americas and preached, establishing peace among the peoples there, with that peace continuing for many years. However, over time, that faith and peace atrophied, war broke out again, and the Nephites were destroyed. The surviving Lamanites are among the ancestors of the pre-Columbian peoples of the Americas, per the Book of Mormon.
In the words of the LDS Church’s first Prophet, Joseph Smith, who according to LDS Church history found, translated and publicized the text on the plates, “The Book of Mormon is a record of the forefathers of our western tribes of Indians; having been found through the ministration of an holy angel, and translated into our own language by the gift and power of God, after having been hid up in the earth for the last fourteen hundred years, containing the word of God which was delivered unto them.”
Clergy & Structure
All LDS Church clergy are laymen who are unpaid and hold ‘day jobs.’ The clergyman for a ward is called a bishop, with New Canaan’s ward headed by Bishop Allen Zimmerman. In addition, there are geographical groupings of wards, called stakes, which are headed by a President, with President James Roddy holding that role for the Fairfield County stake, which comprises six wards. Bishops and stake presidents each have two counselors to support them.
Bishop Zimmerman works as head of the Americas business for a Denmark-based securities analytics firm. He is the father of four. President Roddy heads the global corporate bank for one of the largest banks in the world, and is the father of six. Their church roles are not permanent, with the role of bishop generally lasting five years, and stake president nine years, after which new people are chosen.
Stake presidents choose ward bishops, and a more senior LDS Church group called the Quorum of the Seventy chooses stake presidents. Above the Quorum of the Seventy is the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, which is headed by a member deemed to be the Prophet who, with two counselors, comprise the First Presidency, which is the LDS Church’s highest governing body.
Besides these higher offices there are various priesthood roles, such as the Aaronic Priesthood and the Melchizedek Priesthood, held by ‘rank and file’ adult and older teen men. They are able to perform such acts as giving blessings and distributing communion.
In addition to chapels, such as the one in New Canaan (the building as a whole is called the ‘church’ and the sanctuary in the church is called the ‘chapel’), the LDS Church has temples, which are far fewer in number, and in which certain religious rites, such as marriages, are performed.
Family & Youth
Family and youth are centerpieces of the New Canaan ward’s activities.
Bishop Zimmerman notes that often people consider their “spiritual learning to be church-centered.” In contrast, he emphasizes the statement of the LDS Church’s current Prophet, President Russell M. Nelson, who shifted the emphasis in 2018 when he said, “We want it [spiritual learning] to be home-centered, church-supported.” By this is meant regular scriptural reading, discussion and prayer in the home, among family members. In the bishop’s household, “that ends up being a little bit more of the topic around the dinner table. But it keeps the conversation going in the home throughout the week, which we tend to find as very powerful.”
This home focus was helpful during COVID, when gathering for Sunday services was limited at best. Says Stake President Roddy, “I think we stayed really well connected. Family is such a huge part of the church that basically it became ‘you’re doing church at home,’ and was somewhat natural to be totally honest with you.” He goes on to note that “if you look at a lot of the literature that the church has, it’s really centered around how do you teach the gospel of Jesus Christ in your home. And the church itself is really designed to be a support to the family.”
As part of this shift a new scriptural study program was developed called ‘Come Follow Me’. This comprises various scriptural passages to be studied among the family during the week, with the post-Sunday services Bible study being a larger group discussion among congregants and, in the words of Bishop Zimmerman, an opportunity to “talk about all the cool things that people studied that week at home.”
The New Canaan ward is very youth-oriented, a point both Stake President Roddy and Bishop Zimmerman repeatedly stress. Not only are many older male teens holders of priesthoods and prominently participating in Sunday services, but after high school many of the males and females will volunteer to be missionaries either in their own country or overseas, with around 80,000 serving as missionaries globally. Stake President Roddy served as a missionary in Ecuador, and Bishop Zimmerman served in Lithuania when they began their early college years.
There is an (almost) regulation-size basketball court at the church, with frequent sports activities for church and other town youth. It’s one of the “ways to engage the youth” that is a constant focus of Bishop Zimmerman. “We appreciate that we’ve got a lot of very diverse youth across all these different high school kids. And the challenge is they all need to engage slightly differently.” One means to do this is “we’re always trying to find ways to be creative.” He endeavors to spend 80% of his time “talking to the kids.”
In addition, New Canaan’s LDS Church was purposely sited where it is on South Avenue because it is near New Canaan High School. On school days at 6:45 in the morning the church’s high school-age youth gather for around 45 minutes of Bible study and discussion, then head off to school.
Charity
Running an LDS Church ward is an ‘all hands on deck’ exercise, with seemingly every congregant having some job or role. Even cleaning the church facilities is performed by members of the congregation. And that participation is very much valued by Stake President Roddy and Bishop Zimmerman with their big day jobs, big families and important church responsibilities. “’It takes a village.’ It’s literally in practice,” stresses President Roddy.
A big part of that participation is charity.
Stake President Roddy notes that “If you call a member of the congregation and you say ‘I need help with the following things’ the response is beautiful. It is unbelievable to see the volunteer nature of the church really come to life.” He illustrates this point with the damage Hurricane Sandy wreaked in the region, and the busloads of New Canaan ward congregants, among others, who went to The Rockaways and supported affected families.
Another example cited by President Roddy was a lightning strike on a congregant family’s new home which caught fire and burned down. It’s pouring rain, the middle of the night and a soaked family is standing in their yard. They promptly called the church and the stricken family moves into a member’s home, with other congregants swiftly organized to provide clothes, food, rides to school and other assistance.
In late May, about thirty children from the church ranging in ages from 2 to 11, plus parents, took part in a clean-up project at Mead Park. Why Mead Park? According to Michael Anne Bailey, who has charge of the youngest children in the congregation and organizes their events, “we felt like Mead Park was a place that all of the children in New Canaan congregate. That’s a great place for families. And so we wanted to help the town and help the children just to make it a little more beautiful.”
One major task was picking up trash and generally beautifying the park. But that was not all. “There are these massive flower beds [by the pickleball courts] and they were completely overrun with weeds. So we weeded all of the flower beds and then the town had dropped off mulch and we spread mulch throughout the flower beds. And the children really did help with pulling all the weeds,” notes Mrs. Bailey.
“I think sometimes with the really young kids, we don’t give them enough credit for how capable they are,” says Mrs. Bailey. “And so this was kind of our first foray into ‘how much can they really do?’ And they definitely showed up and it was really wonderful.” The town supplied all the tools, trash bags, trash ‘grabbers’ and mulch, with Mrs. Bailey stressing “it was so easy to work” with John Howe, Director of Parks and Recreation, and the town.
One girl who participated in the Mead Park clean-up had this to say: “It was really fun to do something with my friends that helped the community.”
The Relief Society is one of the LDS Church’s major charitable groups. Founded in 1842 and women-led and -run, it is designed to give assistance to those who need it, its motto being ‘Charity Never Faileth.’ In its early days, the Relief Society helped fund medical training for women and build hospitals. Stake President Roddy says “it’s really the bedrock for all that we do.”
According to the ward’s Relief Society president Maryanne Baker, the group participates in a range of outreach, often through partnering with other local groups. Examples include assisting St. Mark’s Episcopal Church set up for May Fair, attending Interfaith Council of New Canaan meetings, and supporting the New Canaan Parent Support Group’s annual Addiction Vigil. The Relief Society is always seeking ways to liaise with other civic and charitable groups to leverage capabilities.
Various individual members of the sixty-woman New Canaan ward’s Relief Society are also directly active in community support, from school-related organizations, to volunteering at the New Canaan Library to assisting with grief support groups. Former Relief Society President Jenny Zwick sums it up with “We love our communities. We love to be part of them.”
Former President Zwick also highlights the ‘Pink Parties’ the Relief Society has held. The goal here is to generate gifts of feminine products for donation to local schools. She notes that some girls cannot afford these essential items, and end up missing school during their menstrual periods. While some public school nurse offices supply these items gratis to students in need, some schools do not provide them at all. The ‘Pink Parties’ help these girls stay in school.
In addition, there is a Ministering Program, whereby women in the congregation check in with fellow congregants because “we don’t want anyone’s needs to fall into the cracks,” says President Baker. She cites the recent example of a young mother whose appendix burst suddenly and the family needed immediate assistance. Meals and babysitting help quickly arrived.
The New Canaan ward also participates in an annual food drive – this year’s effort starts on September 27. Around 10,000 pounds – five tons – of food and household items are distributed on average each year, which are donated to food banks and humanitarian organizations in Fairfield County.
Chris Bailey, one of the lead volunteer organizers, notes how broadly participatory this project is. Dozens of youth and adult congregants organize, sort and prepare pallets of items for distribution to recipient organizations, then help those organizations to organize the donated food for further distribution to those in need. Mr. Bailey notes that congregants will even load their cars with food donations, and drive it themselves to recipient organizations.
In addition, congregants skip two meals for one day per month, and donate the money they would have spent on food to the church to support short-term needs of people in distress, such as someone short of funds and in need of an emergency car repair.
Other charity efforts have included a clothing drive, and school backpacks packed with supplies in support of refugees. Last Christmas the high school-age boys held a concert at Waveny LifeCare, and helped make gingerbread houses with the residents. The church has also been involved in tree planting in New Canaan.
The church’s parking lot is available — and full — every Fourth of July fireworks, and is a favorite practice spot for people learning to drive. The church also offers its facilities to local scouts for their Pinewood Derby. Well over fifty boys from New Canaan’s ward have earned Eagle scout badges over the years, with their Eagle scout projects supporting the community.
“80% of the service we do will be focused in the community and these types of events,” notes Bishop Zimmerman. The focus is “not worrying about our needs and our problems, but helping others.”
Matthew 7:16 “Ye shall know them by their fruits.”
John J Kriz is a 30+ year resident of New Canaan. Opinions expressed are his own.
