SHARON — An Upper Valley nonprofit organization aims to turn the Sharon Congregational Church in the center of town into a community gathering spot.
The church, which was built in 1837, has around 20 people who attend Sunday services, said Ken Wright, who joined in 1987 with his wife. During its annual meeting in 2023, the congregation voted to turn the church into a community center.
“As a church we recognize it represents a disruption to our normal quiet ways,” Wright wrote in an email. “But we have seen some of our neighboring small churches unable to support the expense of a minister so they can’t afford regular Sunday worship, as a result, a great building in a great location goes dark and underutilized.”
The Congregational Church is located at the corner of Routes 132 and 14 in the center of town, which makes it an ideal community gathering spot. It is around 3,800 square feet.
The church has long been a space for communities: crafting groups and exercise classes regularly meet there, in a space known as the Steele Chapel. The Sharon Health Initiative also hosts weekly community where students from the elementary school eat alongside community members. The church also operates The Lighthouse, a food pantry located in a former parsonage across the street.
Now, the all-volunteer Sharon Connects, which formed in 2022 and became a nonprofit this year, is working to bring residents together even more.
“I think the group’s vision is that structure and that space becomes relevant and useful and fun for more people in and around Sharon,” said Ryan Haac, who serves as Sharon Connects president. “We’re making it more useful to modern community needs.”
The group has hosted various events including a summer music festival and a skill swap, where community members can assist each other with repair projects. Last summer, Sharon Connects, the Congregational Church and Seven Stars Arts Center joined together to host a music festival.
“(It) showed how that Village Green was such a fun place to be with our neighbors and friends when the constant traffic of Route 132 and Route 14 were drowned out by music,” Haac said.
The town, which has about 1,500 residents, has few places where people can gather, Haac said. Seven Stars Arts Center, a nearby nonprofit organization, has a full slate of performing arts events and Sharon Elementary School also has limited availability.
“We have this gorgeous space in the middle of town that’s only being utilized three hours a week by about a dozen people,” Malcolm McShinsky, a member of Sharon Connects, said in a phone interview at the church, where he can be found most days working on projects. “I would love to see debates hosted in here, I would love to see movie nights in here.”
The church has already started to undertake renovations in the last year or so. McShinsky has replaced windows, electrical outings and trim. He’s pulled up carpet to work on the wooden floors and brightened up the space with fresh paint.
A lot of the building, including classrooms on the second floor that were once used for Sunday school, are being underutilized he said. He sees a lot of potential in the sanctuary, which has 18-foot ceilings.
Nest egg
To further its efforts, Sharon Connects has been tapped for a Vermont program that aims to help rural towns create community gathering spots.
The Village Trust Initiative, which is supported by the Preservation Trust of Vermont, Vermont Council on Rural Development and the Vermont Community Foundation, aims to help groups develop a plan to complete a revitalization project in their community. It is funded by $10 million in Congressionally Directed Spending that former Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., earmarked before he retired from public office in 2023.
Organizations can receive between $250,000 and $500,000 of funding, said Ben Doyle, president of the Preservation Trust of Vermont, a Burlington-based nonprofit organization.
He described the grant funding as a nest egg to help get the project started.
“It’s meant to be a catalyst for additional funding to come through,” Doyle said in a phone interview. “It’s meant to show the project is serious and moving forward.”
Sharon is part of the second cohort of five community projects chosen for the Village Trust Initiative, Doyle said.
The first cohort included the West Fairlee Historical Society, which is working on coming up with a plan to revitalize Bean Hall, a historic structure in the middle of town.
“One of the best parts about this initiative is how much hope we’re seeing in small towns,” he said. “When people can rally around a project and come together … you can feel the joy people have in doing this work.”
Developing a plan
The program offers more than money: Community groups will meet with architects, engineers and other experts to come up with a concrete plan to improve a community space.
Sharon will be able to consult with other groups who have turned religious institutions into community hubs, Doyle said. Those projects include the York Street Meeting House in Lyndon, Vt., a former congregational church that is now being used as performing arts space.
“It’s definitely an issue I think we’re going to see more of in the years ahead,” Doyle said, noting that church membership continues to decline and remaining congregants may struggle to maintain the buildings, which are often located in town centers. “We really need to find a way to make it sustainable to preserve them.”
The ownership structure for the Sharon community center is still being fleshed out, Haac said. The group will work with experts through the Village Trust Initiative to come up with a plan. He also emphasized that there will be ample opportunities for the public to weigh in about what they’d like to see done with the space.
Even once the church changes hands, the congregation will still meet there and there are no plans to push them out.
“The church retains the ability to operate as a church,” Haac said.