A New Spiritual Home in Wilton: Inside the Town’s New Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Meetinghouse

Just last month, visitors walked into a brand-new church and were greeted by something unexpected: not stained glass and hushed voices, but kids talking about pickleball, teenagers describing 5:30 a.m. scripture classes, and people swapping stories about emergency meals and moving boxes.

The new meetinghouse of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on Danbury Rd. is unmistakably religious — paintings of Jesus line the halls, a font for full-immersion baptisms sits behind glass, and a chapel anchors the building. But if you ask the people showing visitors around, the real story is less about architecture and more about a web of ordinary lives that now has a permanent home in Wilton.

“One of the purposes, the main purpose, of a building like this, a meeting house, is to invite all people to come unto Christ,” one tour guide told visitors. “We’re all trying to understand and better know how to be more like Jesus and to love God and to love our neighbor the best we can. We’re not perfect, but we try to do our best.”

Guests were invited in and welcomed by members of the ward who were eager to share and educate members of the wider Wilton community about their faith and the new building. Though most visitors came simply to learn, leaders emphasized that everyone is welcome — whether for Sunday worship, youth activities, community service projects, or the annual children’s Primary Program, which one member called “the sweetest part of the year.”

Global Church, Local Roots

The congregation that will fill the building — known as a “ward” — includes members from Wilton, Ridgefield, Redding and Weston. On a typical Sunday, about 100 people come; roughly a third of them are youth.

They’re part of a worldwide church of more than 17 million members. Brad Gibson, the Bishop for the Wilton Ward, explained that the ward was created due to a geographic organizational change made by area church leaders and approved by the church’s Worldwide headquarters.

“The Wilton ward congregation of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was created by taking two towns from the Newtown congregation and two towns from the Darien congregation, [so] for members of the church there was not a real difference in our interaction with the community. It was more an internal change for members in the area and who they will be meeting and associated with as part of their weekly religious observance,” Gibson said.

As for the welcome from the Wilton community, Gibson said it’s been a warm one for the congregation. “We have been received kindly and with acceptance before and after our ‘Wilton’ congregation was formed,” he said.  

With the community’s attention to structures in town, Gibson knew all eyes would be on the congregation.

“With respect to the new building, once it was eventually approved and construction began, I think it was more of a wait and see from the community so that they could be comfortable that the building would fit in with the Wilton town look and feel that most would hope for the community. Based on comments from multiple town officials during the open house as well as other individuals there seems to be an overwhelmingly positive reception of the building and what it brings to the Wilton community,” Gibson said.

A wall of plaques near the entrance quietly makes that global scope personal: five young adults from this local ward now serving as missionaries as far away as Japan and even here in the U.S. in Arizona.

“We have about 80,000 missionaries,” a member explained. Pointing to one plaque, she added, “He just got to Brazil this week.”

Not only have members of the Wilton congregation gone elsewhere on their missions, but there are also two missionaries from the New York City mission who are now serving the congregation in Wilton. They’ve been out in the community getting to know Wilton.

Gibson explained what they’ll be doing here on their mission to share the church’s gospel.

“The gospel of Jesus Christ is something for all people. The word gospel means ‘good news’. No matter what community we live in, there are some who are suffering in some way or another — mentally, physically, and/or spiritually. Christ’s teachings lift the heavy hearted and lighten those with heavy burdens. The missionaries are here to do just that — sharing the good news of hope and faith among all people,” he said.  

A Place for Sacrament — and Pickleball

Leadership here is entirely lay and drawn from the members in the ward. The bishop and his counselors all have day jobs; nobody is paid.

“Everybody who comes has some responsibility,” one leader said. “Everybody’s supporting themselves with their normal day job, and then volunteering and helping to lead the church outside of that.”

In the chapel, the focal point each Sunday is the sacrament — bread and water taken in remembrance of Jesus Christ.

“We take from a tray water to remember the blood that he spilled… and then a piece of broken bread to remember his body, which he sacrificed for us on the cross,” said Aaron, a Wilton resident of 15 years. “It’s something that we do weekly, because we all sin throughout the week, and it’s a way for us to be cleansed from our sins like we were when we were baptized.”

That spirit of participation is by design. The Church has no paid local clergy; instead, members volunteer in rotating leadership roles and deliver weekly spiritual messages. As one bishopric counselor explained, “Everybody who comes has some responsibility. We all support each other while living our normal day-to-day lives.”

Youth play an especially active role: one teen leads the congregation in hymns; another plays the organ. Younger teenage boys help prepare and pass the trays; older teens say the prayers.

Just down the hall, another ritual has its own dedicated space: a tiled baptismal font where children and adults are immersed completely under the water.

“Kids as young as eight are invited to be baptized… the Age of Reason, accountability,” a guide said. “There’s no baptism at birth.”

The most surprising room, though, might be the gym. It’s where youth dances and parties happen, but it’s also got a floor striped for sports.

“This is a very functional room,” a member said, smiling. “This is actually a pickleball court… There’s just lots of different things.”

Building Faith in the Next Generation

Upstairs, the building turns into a warren of classrooms that feel more like a small school than a church. In the Primary room for children ages 3–11, kids take turns leading, praying and speaking.

“Each week, one of them conducts,” a leader said. “Next Sunday is our once a year primary program… each child actually is going to be standing up and giving at least a line or a talk of their testimony or their love for Jesus.”

For teenagers, there are Sunday classes, Wednesday night activities, and something more intense: early-morning seminary.

“I wake up at 5:30 every morning, and then I go to someone’s house, and we’ll have a little… spiritual note for about 40 minutes,” one Wilton High School student said. “It’s a good way to start my day… when you see [friends from the ward] at school, it’s just like a comfort.”

Sam, a senior, described a weekly young men’s theme recited by thousands around the world.

“It is here to help us be more like Jesus, and it really helps me as like a guideline for what I should be doing with my life,” he said. “Since we’ve had this new building, it’s just, it’s amazing that we can all be so close. I love it.”

Wednesday nights, the young women might be hauling boxes for a family that’s moving, playing pickleball, or doing a lip sync battle.

“It’s a really great experience where we can learn to be leaders and just develop skills that we’ll need later on,” said Nora.

A Quiet Safety Net

If the youth rooms show the energy of the congregation, the women’s Relief Society room reveals its safety net.

Church member Bonnie Humphrey described it as “the largest women’s organization in the world,” focused on bringing people closer to Christ and helping those in need. That plays out in very practical ways: meal trains, ride offers, check-ins

“To me, it’s really about looking outside yourself and seeing what help you can give to all the women around you,” said Kristen, who talked about women showing up after each of her four children was born — with dinners, and to help with dishwashing and laundry. “That has just touched my life so immensely.”

Another member recalled moving to Connecticut and “not knowing where Costco was,” but feeling immediately that “people were looking out for me, for my family.”
One man described the night lightning struck and destroyed his home — and how church members responded.

“Our whole home was destroyed,” he said. “Our home teachers… organized meals for us, and took our children for a period of time where we were trying to rebuild everything… it was really incredible to see.”

For him, the new building is simply a physical expression of that quiet network of care.

“Anyone Is Welcome”

Near the front of the building hangs a painting of Jane Manning, a Black Latter-day Saint who grew up in Wilton in the 1800s and traveled on foot to join other church members in Illinois. The artwork was specially commissioned for this meetinghouse.
“It’s kind of exciting to think… about 183 years that the church has been here in Wilton,” a member said. “She’s a special woman to us, and so we just wanted to honor her.”

That sense of continuity — past to present, global to local — is what members say they hope their neighbors will feel when they walk through the doors.

“It’s a very open group,” Humphrey said. “Anyone is welcome to our activities, to our Sunday services, anything that we’re doing together. It’s a very open, welcoming community.”

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly identified Bonnie Humphrey as the Relief Society president. The story has been updated to reflect that she is not the group’s president.