Rev. Jack Belmont (center), retiring after 37 years at St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church, with some parishioners.
After 37 years, St. Matthews Episcopal Church rector Jack Belmont retires.
By Anna Cunningham
“Last Sunday, I baptized a grandchild of somebody I married when I first came here. So that’s pretty great,” says the Rev. Jack Belmont, longest tenured rector in the Episcopal Diocese of New Jersey, who left Pennington’s St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church for retirement in June.
For the past 37 years, Belmont ministered to the church’s more than 210 households. He has officiated at 206 marriages, 541 baptisms and 215 funerals. He has been present not only at the pulpit and church social events, but also in any time of need.
“He’s the one who gets the first call from any of the parishioners when there’s things not going right with their family,” said Tom DiMuzio, who is now in his third year as a warden of the church. “He’s the one, when people are sick, he’s visiting them in the hospital. He’s the one when people pass away he’s the first one to go and share condolences.”
That’s a very heavy burden, both physically and emotionally, for someone to be carrying in the same parish for 37 years, DiMuzio said.
“And he has done it with grace and has done it with joy and with love, and that’s what we’ll miss. That’s what we’ll all miss,” he said.
Church member Janice Kinnamon recalls how this year, the day before Easter, Belmont learned that her daughter was in the emergency room.
“I know that’s about the busiest day of the year, and he came over to see us and be with us and hold our hands. And that’s just the way he is. He just goes beyond everything to help others,” she said.
As of June 30, the Rev. Peggy Hodgkins will serve as St. Matthew’s interim pastor for up to 24 months as the church’s governing body undertakes a nationwide search for Belmont’s permanent replacement.
What advice would Belmont give to ensure his successor an equally long and successful tenure?
“For the first two years I would tell any young pastor, ‘Look, listen, and learn before you do anything,’” Belmont said. “And once they get to know you, once they get to trust your judgment, if you want to move the altar to the back of the church, they’ll let you do it. But two years, you’ve got to just figure out where things are and learn who the people are and learn the gifts that they bring to ministry.”
Once you’ve done that, you become the facilitator to allow those gifts to unfold,” he said.
“And to me, that’s been the key. To be the facilitator to allow the gifts that people bring into our midst to unfold. The people of God decide what this ministry is all about, given what God has given them that they can share with others.”
Belmont has been almost literally immersed in the Episcopal Church from the very first. His grandparents were original founders of St. Luke’s in Ewing Township, and his family’s home sat between St. Luke’s and its rectory. Belmont learned early in life that the Church’s open-minded approach mirrored his own feelings.
“What I experienced in the Episcopal Church was a church that was out in the forefront of all these great social issues. I grew up at St. Luke’s in Ewing. It was the first integrated Episcopal Church in our diocese, so I grew up in a multicultural setting, and that was probably just one of the great things of my life,” Belmont said.
The rector at the time was very involved in the Civil Rights Movement.
“I just thought that was absolutely neat,” Belmont said. “And I think that’s one of the things that got me thinking very seriously about ordained ministry.”
After graduating from Rider University, Belmont attended the Philadelphia Divinity School. He was ordained in 1971, and completed a secondary master’s degree in counseling at the New York Theological Seminary.
When called to St. Matthew’s in 1976, Belmont found himself at the forefront of change as he presented the Rev. Virginia M. Sheay for ordination to the priesthood — only the second woman in the diocese to be ordained.
“I remember the press corps being across the street, keeping them at arm’s length because we didn’t want protesters or a fiasco here. It was really kind of neat. But it all went off without a hitch, and she has remained one of my closest and dearest friends. In fact, she became the rector at St. Luke’s in Ewing where I grew up after she left here,” Belmont said.
Warden DiMuzio began attending St. Matthew’s in the 1970s. He said it didn’t take very long to see Belmont as a solid symbol of the Episcopalian Church.
“And almost as importantly, it didn’t really matter to Jack what your religion was. He was kind to everyone. He participated in the community in a significant way, and was the kind of person that became synonymous with the things that were right with Pennington, New Jersey,” he said. “Like participating in community events, and providing spiritual leadership to people in the church, whether or not he was doing that in the Episcopal church or doing in it concert with other churches. He was very open to an interdenominational kind of approach to life, and made no judgments about others’ religions or others’ issues.”
Belmont agrees that St. Matthew’s, and the Episcopal Church in general, are accepting places, in which it’s normal to constantly consider and re-evaluate present-day social issues, such as same-sex unions.
“I would say that the Episcopal Church has remained open to the spirit moving in the context of what we know about ourselves as creative beings. We remain open to the possibilities where God may be calling us to be,” Belmont said.
The key word, he said, is agape — a Greek word meaning self-sacrificing love.
“A community needs to center itself in that love, which is the Love of Christ. It’s not destructive love, but supporting love,” he said. “There are relationships that are destructive and the Church tries to help people move beyond that and get over that. And there are other relationships that years ago would have been thought of as being beyond the pale that are very supportive. It seems to me that what the Episcopal Church is saying is that we want to support that. And be pastorally present for that. And I’m in favor of that,” Belmont said.
In the same way that he came to know Kinnamon’s family, Belmont has gotten to know all church family members through St. Matthew’s educational classes for pre-school up to senior high students, which are open to the community at large. Along with childcare, the Church’s many social events make St. Matthew’s a central point for newcomers as well as third generation families.
The church’s spacious Parish Hall often bustles with activities such as Beer and Wine Tastings, Bazaars, a Book Club, Family Movie Night, and more. Groups take off to visit inner city churches, and an aid mission to Honduras is scheduled for this August. St. Matthew’s also runs a vibrant music program.
Belmont credits the church’s robust event calendar to his congregants.
“The people of God here at this parish started these programs. Some of the associate clergy that I’ve had here brought their gifts to ministry and were instigators in starting these programs.” Belmont said. “We do a lot of things to try to bring people together. To develop relationships because when the chips are down for a family everybody knows them, and they all pitch in to help and support one another. It’s very important.”
Kinnamon, for example, started a prayer chain, participated in the vestry and choir, taught in the preschool, helped run the Christmas Bazaar, and has been on the music and worship committees.
“He is good at getting a sense of who would be a good person to spearhead this or that,” she said. “He also has a nice way of making you feel you should do something to give back. Not really a guilt thing, but it makes you stop and reflect and think ‘yes, I guess I could do that.’ And as many of us who belong there feel, the more you give the more you get back,” she said.
During Belmont’s tenure, St. Matthew’s rectory was renovated and, thanks to a million-dollar Capital Fund Campaign in 2000, the Parish Hall and classrooms were added. In true St. Matthew’s fashion, the expansion was undertaken by church members: a planner, builder, land use attorney, real estate attorney and project manager all volunteered their time.
The final building project Belmont oversaw is a flagstone-lined Memorial Garden, in which cremated remains can be interred.
Belmont said his goal in retirement is to spend as much time as possible with his wife, Sandy, whom he met through St. Matthew’s, and who has also been deeply involved with Church programs through the years.
“I know one of the things I’m going to do is make sure I do absolutely nothing for July and August,” Belmont said. “When I have more time, I may take the (golf) clubs out of the loft again and dust them off. My grandson called me up the other day and said, ‘Grandpa, do you want to go play golf with dad and me for Father’s day?’ And I said, ‘Buddy, I can’t, I have to get things wrapped up here. But after that, I’m yours!’”
St. Matthews Episcopal Church is located at 300 S. Main St. in Pennington.
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