A place to gather: The community will come here to Chipeta Park in Nederland to worship at the Community Worship Service on August 4, at 10 a.m. This is part of Nederland’s Sesquicentennial celebration.[/caption]

The public is invited to a Community Church Service on Sunday, August 4 at 10 a.m. in the pavilion at Chipeta Park in Nederland.

This event is part of the Nederland 150th Sesquicentennial Celebration and is presented by the three churches in Nederland: Nederland Community Presbyterian Church, Calvary Chapel, and St. Rita Catholic Church. The service is in recognition of the part that spiritual communities have contributed to the vitality of Nederland over the years.

“Everyone is welcome to attend this service, intended for the entire community, including those who typically do not normally attend church or participate in organized religion,” said Rev. Zach Hancock of the Nederland Community Presbyterian Church.

Worship leaders from all three congregations will be participating in the service. There is free parking at the park, and greeters will assist anyone needing help walking to the pavilion.

In lieu of an offering, donations will be accepted to the Nederland Food Pantry.

History of the churches in Nederland

Nederland Community Presbyterian Church (NCPC) was founded to serve the community that had grown between the Caribou silver boom of the 1870s and the tungsten boom that began about 1910. At the turn of the 20th century, Nederland was a tiny crossroad that sat at the west end of a large meadow owned by Hannah Barker. Ranches, mines, and mills comprised the local economy.

The town’s postmistress, Mrs. C.M. Edwards, started a Sunday School in 1899 which met in homes, the local school, and the town hall, since there was not yet a church building. The Presbyterian Church assigned William H. Schuremann as a missionary to the area and Mrs. Edwards served as the Sunday School Superintendent.

From 1908 to 1910 the Barker Dam and reservoir were built as part of a hydroelectric project, and a spur of the Switzerland Trail of America railroad was built between Eldora and Nederland to supply equipment and materials for the dam. At the same time, the tungsten mining boom occurred in Nederland. This vital mineral that hardens steel was used in planes and equipment in the first World War. These developments swelled the town’s population to some 3,000 to 5,000 residents. The need for a local church was evident.

The Nederland Presbyterian Church was formally organized on August 19, 1912. Its 17 members were served by Wayne Shoddy, a ministerial student at McCormick Seminary. In 1914, Reverend Currens was called to pastor the young church. He built the sanctuary with labor and materials donated by the members. The bell in the bell tower was donated by the Boulder Fire Department.

Rev. Currens helped address the housing shortage in town, and helped fill the church’s coffers, by renting sleeping space to miners in the pews and on the floor of the church – the same one where the congregation worships today. The story goes that that custom ended when some of the miners smoked in the building and the risk of a fire was deemed too great.

Family and dog-friendly worship services are on Sundays at 10 a.m. For more information visit http://www.nederlandpres.org.

Calvary Chapel started as a Bible study in 1980. Famed guitarist Richie Furay led the group in the Word of God until he moved down Boulder Canyon to Boulder, where he pioneered a Calvary Chapel church. Six hippies without a guitar continued to meet in Nederland. An advertisement in The Mountain-Ear newspaper brought a couple from Texas, Johnny and Anna Smith, to the Thursday evening meeting. The group felt they were an answer to prayer and that God had sent them to the mountains to get a church up and going.

In August, 1981, the church held its first Sunday service. They moved to the old elementary school the next Sunday. In the spring of 1982, the church bought the A-frame on Highway 72 that was in foreclosure. The body had grown to about 75 adults and lots of kids. Within two years, the new sanctuary was built. The Smiths returned to Texas and Jim Scott assumed the position as pastor and Doug Gibney was the adult Bible study teacher. In the fall of 1986, Scott stepped down from his position as pastor, and Gibney was called to serve as the pastor.

The log cabin next to the church was purchased in 1989 and was used as a safe house, a home of ROW (Reaching Out to Women), classrooms, and is now remodeled for the ministry. In 1991, Calvary completed the third sanctuary. Soon, another addition was done to provide more classroom space.

In the summer of 2003, the church took over and moved into the beautiful space known as Poppy Plaza, situated across the creek. It provides more classrooms, offices, and the Caring Pregnancy Center.

Sunday services begin at 10 a.m. with adult Sunday school, followed by worship at 11 a.m. and nursery and children’s church at 11:15 a.m. For more information visit calvarychapelinnederland.org.

St. Rita’s Catholic Church. The year was 1932 when a Dominican Priest stationed at St. Dominic’s Parish in Denver, Fr. James Reagan, proposed that the Catholic Daughters of America purchase The Antlers Hotel in Nederland to use as a summer camp for girls. Over the next three years Fr. Reagan offered mass at the camp for all the campers and the many faithful Catholics from the surrounding areas from Rollinsville to Ward. “If you put enough green stuff in the collection,” he told his congregation one day, “I will build you a chapel.”

By 1935 the money was raised and Fr. Reagan purchased the timbers that would lay the foundations for a Catholic chapel in Nederland. Parishioners of St. Dominic’s and from the mountain communities joined together and had soon constructed a modest structure which Fr. Reagan christened St. Rita’s Chapel.

For many years the summer camp thrived in the old Antlers Hotel. The summer camp was operational from 1932 to 1954, but as the ’60s dawned the camp was shuttered and Nederland and the surrounding mountain communities were ready for a church all their own. So in 1961 The Antlers was demolished and in its place St. Rita’s Catholic Church was built.

Sunday mass is held weekly at 9:30 a.m. For more information visit http://www.saintrita-church.com.