A church in the heart of the city, with a heart for the city

New Jersey church puts late member’s large bequest to work, upgrading for accessibility

September 22, 2026

[Episcopal News Service] Natalie Whiting was an active member of her congregation, Calvary Episcopal Church in Flemington, New Jersey, for most of her 79 years. In loving her church, Whiting wasn’t afraid to offer some constructive criticism. The historic building was woefully inadequate to accommodate people with disabilities and older people who had difficulty climbing its stairs. Whiting, in life, pressed for the church to upgrade the facility for accessibility, but church leaders deemed the costs prohibitive. Whiting died in January 2025 from cancer and is now posthumously addressing the church’s accessibility issues. She left her entire estate, estimated at more than half a million dollars, to the congregation with a request that it spend the money on accessibility upgrades. “She had a passion for making our building accessible to all people,” the Rev. Kyle Cuperwich, Calvary’s rector, told Episcopal News Service in a phone interview. “The church had talked about for years doing something about it but never had the resources.” Now Calvary is in the middle of the renovation project that Whiting had long requested. Accessible restrooms are being installed in the parish hall. Related upgrades are underway in the parish hall’s kitchen. The two sets of stairs into the worship space, which have posed a challenge to some parishioners in the past, will soon be complemented by wheelchair lifts. “We had older congregation members who would practically age themselves out of the church because they couldn’t get into the building anymore,” Cuperwich said. Some of them have already expressed excitement at the thought of returning to in-person worship services once the lifts are installed. The project is expected to cost more than $600,000. Additional funding was provided by the Diocese of New Jersey through a $3,000 Commission on Ministry with the Disabled grant and a $250,000 loan from the diocese’s Venture in Mission Fund. “Together, these efforts are helping Calvary prepare not only a more accessible building, but a more accessible and welcoming future for its community,” the diocese said in a Facebook post about the project. Flemington is a borough of about 5,000 people in central New Jersey’s Hunterdon County, a few miles from the Pennsylvania state line. Whiting was born to the east of Flemington, in Somerset, and lived most of her life in Hunterdon County, where she worked as a teacher at North Hunterdon High School. Whiting and her husband, who died in 2013, had no children, though she “cultivated a profound sense of community and fellowship, deeply rooted in her Christian faith,” according to her obituary. “She felt the church was really her home,” said Cuperwich, who has served at Calvary since 2023. The congregation now is honoring her wishes by finally following through with its plans for accessibility upgrades. “She really had the church in mind.” The design phase began last fall, and demolition work in the parish hall occurred in May 2026. The congregation has been posting updates on its website and Facebook page, with photos showing the new restrooms and kitchen taking shape. The wheelchair lifts will be installed soon, and the entire project is scheduled to be completed by the end of this year or early 2027. “It will look really nice when it’s done,” Cuperwich said. In addition to honoring Whiting’s legacy, the congregation sees the renovations as an opportunity to offer a greater welcome to the Flemington community at a time when the borough’s population is growing. “We want to be part of that growth,” Cuperwich said. Current attendance at Sunday worship services counts about 30 to 35 worshippers. “We are a small church, but we are growing slightly, and we want to keep that momentum going.” Making the church more accessible is another step in that direction. – David Paulsen is a senior reporter and editor for Episcopal News Service based in Wisconsin. He can be reached at dpaulsen@episcopalchurch.org.