Church Group Moves Into Permanent New Enfield Home

ENFIELD, CT — In the 1970s, visitors to 1551 King Street in Enfield were shopping for automobiles as Peter Corey, Sr. operated Corey Volkswagen, and later a Dodge dealership. In the 1980s, the building was converted to a retail store, and for three decades housed Namco Pool Supplies.

At the beginning of December, a totally different type of usage for the building became official, as the Massachusetts-based New Day Church of the Assemblies of God, which briefly operated out of the former Crowne Plaza Hotel (now Holiday Inn), returned to Enfield and moved into its permanent home.

Enfield land records indicate the 19,665 square foot building was purchased by the church in Aug. 2017 for $775,000.

After forming in early 2008 at the Longmeadow Community House, the "nontraditional church in traditional New England" moved its gatherings to the Crowne Plaza in 2009. Since the beginning of 2010, the church has held Sunday services in the theater at the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield.

Rapid growth in the parish population necessitated the search for a larger, permanent home.

"Having grown from eight to 800, we realized the Hall of Fame had taken us as far as it could, so we prayerfully made plans to return to Enfield," lead pastor Mike Sorcinelli stated on the church's web site.

After more than a year of renovation work, the new Enfield building marked its grand opening on Sunday, Dec. 2.

"It was awesome!" Sorcinelli said. "We had 29 people water baptized, 48 first-time guests, 1,124 in total attendance and most importantly, 14 people that made a decision to accept Jesus as Savior!"

Three service times are offered each Sunday, at 8:30, 10 and 11:30 a.m.

The move marks the second time in six years a Bay State church group has relocated to former retail buildings on the southern end of Route 5 in Enfield. In 2012, the Grace & Glory Apostolic Church, based in East Longmeadow, bought the 27,000 square foot former Nassau Furniture store and surrounding 18 acres at 1600 King Street for $1.8 million.

Cover photo credit: Tim Jensen
Other photos courtesy of Mike Sorcinelli

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