Following Jesus into the Heart of God
For more than a century, the Reformed Church of Highland Park has stood at 19-21 South Second Avenue in the Borough of Highland Park, New Jersey, a few steps from the train line that runs through this Middlesex County community. The congregation's motto, "Following Jesus into the Heart of God," is also the lens through which the church understands itself: worship, study, music, justice work, and pastoral care are all framed as a journey into that center. The building may be more than 130 years old, but, as the congregation likes to say, "the Spirit of God continues to breathe fresh energy and growth through the fellowship, ministries, and service of the church."
RCHP is dually affiliated with the Reformed Church in America (RCA) and the United Church of Christ (UCC), and it considers itself part of a long Reformed tradition that is "always reforming in harmony with the work of God and the prompting of the Holy Spirit." Because it is also an Open and Affirming congregation within the UCC, RCHP publicly welcomes LGBTQ+ persons into the full life of the church.
A 130-Year-Old Building at the Heart of Highland Park
Highland Park is a small borough inside the larger fabric of Central New Jersey, and the RCHP building sits in the middle of it. Each week, according to the Minister of Facilities, about 3,000 people pass through the doors for Sunday worship, choirs, youth programs, committee meetings, fellowship gatherings, and a long list of partner groups that rent or share the space. The sanctuary, a parlor used for choir rehearsals and adult education, fellowship halls, and Sunday School rooms all work together to make the building the busiest civic and spiritual crossroads in town.
It is also an old building. The congregation dates its worship life on this site back more than a hundred and thirty years, and the structure carries that history in its walls. What the church emphasizes, however, is not the age but the activity: the staff describes RCHP as a place where the Spirit of God "continues to breathe fresh energy and growth" through the life of the congregation.
Two Worshiping Congregations, One Church
Since 2022, RCHP has shared a collegiate church relationship with the First Reformed Church of South River, a bilingual congregation a few miles south. Together they form one church with two worshiping locations: the South Second Avenue sanctuary in Highland Park, and the South River congregation. Pastor Amanda Calder-Reece serves as the Ministry Associate for South River, and a separate Ministry Associate for Youth and South River Worship, Keiko Kereh, divides her work between the two campuses.
That collegiate arrangement means visitors can worship with RCHP in either location. It also means the church can sustain ministry in two distinct communities while sharing pastors, staff, music leaders, and a common vision.
Sunday Worship Through the Year
Sunday is the heart of the week. From September through May, RCHP holds two services in Highland Park - a 9:00 a.m. first service and an 11:15 a.m. second service - with a Coffee Hour and an Education Hour between them. The first service is livestreamed from the Sunday Services page, on Facebook Live, and on the church's YouTube channel, so those who cannot attend in person can still take part in the live worship.
During those same months, the South River congregation meets at 9:30 a.m. for a bilingual worship service that draws both English and Spanish speakers.
From Memorial Day through Labor Day, the schedule simplifies. The South River bilingual service moves to 9:00 a.m., and the Highland Park congregation gathers for a single 10:30 a.m. worship service, with a Coffee Hour and Education Hour at 9:30 a.m. The summer service is also livestreamed.
Worship at RCHP, in the church's own words, "involves deep engagement with ourselves, with our stories, and with the God who calls us and sends us." The congregation describes its services as honest and diverse expressions of its faith journeys. Music is woven throughout the liturgy - children sing and play, the Gospel Choir and the Chancel Choir lead from the chancel, and lay readers, dancers, and actors take part on a regular basis. The order of worship follows the Revised Common Lectionary, so the church's preaching moves in step with Christians across many denominations.
Music as Prayer
Music is treated as an essential way of experiencing and praying to God at RCHP, and the church sustains one of the more developed music programs of any congregation in Central New Jersey.
Three choirs and a rotating set of praise teams share the work. The Chancel Choir, directed by Carl Phillips, rehearses on Wednesday evenings from 7:00 to 8:00 p.m. in the Parlor. Phillips, a graduate of the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University, served earlier as RCHP's accompanist and chancel choir director from 2011 to 2016 before returning in 2021; outside the church he supervises casework for refugees and other immigrants at the International Rescue Committee in Elizabeth, NJ.
The RCHP Gospel Choir, under Derek Cannon, rehearses on Wednesday evenings from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. in the sanctuary. Cannon, who grew up in the church and has been singing since the age of three, leads the choir alongside his husband Allen Bryant - a detail he often shares as part of his own witness that "you can be gay and worship God."
For the youngest singers, two children's choirs meet from 5:00 to 5:30 p.m. on Wednesdays under the leadership of Pastor J. Amos Caley and Pastor Seth Kaper-Dale. First Voices is for children in first grade and younger, and Voices of Praise is for children in second through sixth grade. Praise Teams, also led by Pastor Caley, are assembled on a monthly or quarterly rotation to lead worship.
The music program also has a longer creative arc. RCHP has recorded two original worship albums, You Are Love (2013) and You Are Hope (2018), both available on CD or digital download from the church office. For nearly ten years, Pastor Caley has written and taught original Vacation Bible School musicals, including We Can Do Hard Things (2021), Gardens of the Galaxy (2019), Making It Home (2018), The Toolbox Tale (2017), Go With the Flow (2016), and Never Too Little (2015), each with its own original score and script.
Children and Youth as Full Worship Leaders
Children and youth are not sidelined at RCHP - they are full participants. Each Sunday during the school year, Children's Worship is offered during the sermon portion of the worship services so younger children can step out for an age-appropriate lesson. Sunday School classes for all ages meet between services at 10:15 a.m. There is a downloadable registration form on the Children & Youth page, and families can contact the Children's Ministry Associate, Meghan Pirri, directly.
Older children and teens have their own communities. Kids in the Cave, for fourth and fifth graders, meets every other Sunday after the second worship service, from 12:30 to 2:00 p.m. The Middle School Youth Group meets Wednesday evenings from 7:00 to 8:15 p.m. The High School Youth Group meets Sunday evenings from 7:00 to 8:15 p.m. All three groups combine fun, study, prayer, community engagement, social action, and spiritual practice under the leadership of Keiko Kereh, the Ministry Associate for Youth and South River Worship.
Every year the church journeys with a Confirmation class of usually seventh and eighth graders. Each student keeps a journal and works through classes that creatively examine the big themes of Christian theology, with the goal of crafting a personal faith statement that reflects God's work in their life and in their community.
Music remains a central way that young people are drawn into the life of the church. Singers, musicians, dancers, actors, and readers are incorporated into Sunday worship on a regular basis - not as performers, the church emphasizes, but as worship leaders.
Justice, Mercy, and the Kin-dom of God
Justice is not an add-on at RCHP. It is part of the church's understanding of what it means to follow Jesus. The Justice and Mercy Committee, one of the church's standing committees, frames the work this way: in biblical terms, justice and righteousness are the same thing, and "solidarity with the oppressed is an act of true worship."
RCHP has five formal faith statements that shape its public witness: a Mission Statement, an Open and Affirming Statement for LGBTQ+ persons, an Anti-Racist Statement, an Environmental Justice Statement, and a Safe Sanctuaries Statement for children and youth. The Anti-Racist Statement, drafted by the pastors, staff, and Consistory in June 2020, names the racial inequities in housing, policing, education, criminal justice, and health care and commits the congregation to long-term, covenantal work for racial equity. The Environmental Justice Statement draws on the language of "slow violence" to insist that ecological damage and human damage are inseparable, and that communities of color and low-income communities bear a disproportionate share of both.
Several organizations and campaigns are tied to the church. Pastor Seth Kaper-Dale co-founded Who Is My Neighbor?, Inc., a Highland Park community development agency, and started the RCHP-Affordable Housing Corporation. He also spearheads much of the church's immigration work. Pastor J. Amos Caley serves as the Abolition Campaign Senior Fellow for Salvation and Social Justice and has led legislative campaigns on behalf of people incarcerated in New Jersey. Since Hurricane Sandy, the church has coordinated both the volunteer side and the project side of disaster relief in the region. A non-profit affiliate, the New Jersey Interfaith Cancer Care Center, provides interfaith resources and support for those living with cancer.
Contemplative Spaces and Pastoral Care
Alongside its outward-facing work, RCHP sustains a contemplative interior life. The Contemplative Spaces program, led through a gentle Circle Group Process, offers two reading groups in the Christian mystical tradition. One, exploring Richard Rohr's The Universal Christ, meets every other Thursday evening over Zoom. The other, working through Cynthia Bourgeault's The Wisdom Jesus, meets in person every other Friday at noon in the RCHP Sanctuary. Both groups use a format that allows everyone to be heard and respected without judgment.
For those who want to write their way into reflection, the Journaling Club meets by Zoom on the first and third Tuesdays of each month from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m., hosted by Sandy Russell Jones and Kathy Malkiewicz.
Morning Prayer is offered by Zoom every morning at 9:00 a.m., Monday through Saturday. Stephen Ministry pairs participants with trained Stephen Ministers who walk alongside them during difficult times. A Grief Support Group helps members navigate the complex experiences of loss. The Care Committee, organized through Nicci Spinazzola, coordinates visitation, meals, and other practical support for those most in need of comfort and calming presence.
W.I.S.E. - Welcoming, Inclusive, Supportive, and Engaged - adult education programming is scheduled each quarter during the Sunday morning adult education hour. And in pastoral care, Rev. Henny Rumagit-Poluan serves as the RCHP Minister of Pastoral Care and the primary pastor to the Indonesian church members, providing pastoral care in the Indonesian language to a growing Indonesian membership and helping to link those congregants to the wider life of the church. Elder Patrick Beckford serves alongside her as the Ministry Associate for Pastoral Care.
Faith Statements That Shape the Church
RCHP describes its faith statements as "faithful witnesses to God's movement in our lives and in the world," in conversation and harmony with the historic creeds and confessions of the Reformed tradition. The congregation affirms the primacy of Holy Scripture among all historical documentary witnesses, "revealing to us the living and active Word of God," and points to the additional creeds and confessions held by the Reformed Church in America for the wider framework.
The Mission Statement gathers it together: "Because we belong to God through faith in Jesus Christ, we are called as the Reformed Church of Highland Park to worship God together; to learn and teach the gospel; to serve one another, our community and the world with Christ's love; and to provide and maintain a consecrated place for our worship, mission and fellowship, all according to the Reformed tradition that is always reforming in harmony with the work of God and the prompting of the Holy Spirit."
The Pastoral Team and Consistory
RCHP is led by a pastoral team and a Consistory of seven elders and seven deacons elected for three-year terms. Elders tend to focus on the spiritual ministries of the church - pastoral care, worship, fellowship, and the like - while deacons attend to the needs of the world and the material needs of congregants.
The senior co-pastors, Rev. Stephanie Kaper-Dale and Rev. Seth Kaper-Dale, have shared leadership of RCHP since 2001. Stephanie, originally from Michigan, is a graduate of Hope College, Princeton Theological Seminary, and Rutgers University's Graduate School of Social Work. Seth, also a Princeton Theological Seminary graduate, spent formative time in Ecuador and India before coming to RCHP. Together they have three daughters.
Rev. J. Amos Caley serves as Pastor of Worship and Faith Engagement. A graduate of Princeton Theological Seminary and the Rutgers School of Social Work, he leads worship, directs the music ministries alongside the two choir directors, and serves as the Abolition Campaign Senior Fellow for Salvation and Social Justice. He and his wife Sarah are the parents of three young children.
Pastor Amanda Calder-Reece serves as the Ministry Associate for South River. A graduate of Princeton Theological Seminary, she has seven years of experience working with youth in churches and public schools, and is a passionate advocate for women of color and the Latinx immigrant community.
Rev. Henny Rumagit-Poluan is the Minister of Pastoral Care and the primary pastor to the Indonesian church members. A graduate of Tomohon Theological Seminary in Indonesia, she previously served a New Jersey church from 2002 to 2011 and joined RCHP from there.
Keiko Kereh is the Ministry Associate for Youth and South River Worship. A graduate of Lancaster Bible College with majors in Worship Arts and Biblical Studies, she has been an active member of RCHP since 2013.
Elder Patrick Beckford serves as the Ministry Associate for Pastoral Care. Born in Falmouth, Jamaica, he migrated to the United States in 1981 and later completed two years of Clinical Pastoral Education at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital. He has served as President of the Classis of New Brunswick.
Meghan Pirri is the Children's Ministry Associate. A graduate of Rutgers and Kean University, she is a teacher at Saint Paul's School in Princeton and has been teaching Sunday School at RCHP since her own children were younger.
Derek Cannon directs the Gospel Choir, and Carl Phillips directs the Chancel Choir and accompanies services.
The current Board of Elders includes Jason Alejandro, L.L. Dubreuil, Margaret Guercio, Tammy Lane, Anna Laycock, Sarah MacKinnon, Justan Mitchell, and Sandy Russell Jones. The Board of Deacons includes Natasha Benkendorf, A.J. Boyd, Anthony DiGrigoli, Pauline Lloyd, Wendy Nussman, Jae Park, and Megan Shook.
RCHP can be reached at (732) 249-7349 or at reformedchurchhp@gmail.com. The full sermon archive, livestream, and podcasts on Apple, Google, and Spotify are available online, and giving can be made through the church's online giving page.