November 2009
Greetings!
When I think of what’s going to be coming up in November, three things come to mind. Stewardship month, swine flu and Thanksgiving dinners, but not necessarily in that order! I’m not going to talk about swine flu this month, as we all have heard quite enough about that, but I do want to talk about the other two topics.
We all know that Thanksgiving is the time when we give thanks to God for the basic things and the precious things we have. Whether it’s a hot home-cooked meal, a car that works, time spent with family and friends, having a job, having a church that you enjoy going to, or having enough firewood stacked to heat the house for yet another winter season, this is the time where we remember to say Thanks.
Stewardship month, although it doesn’t offer wonderful roast turkey, cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie, is really just another celebration of Thanksgiving where we show Thanks for our church. We show and express our Thanks by pledging support for the coming year and becoming stewards of the church at whatever level “God speaks to us”. The moving testimonials some of our members recently gave in church have vividly reminded me just how important this church family has been in my life, and how easy it is sometimes to just take it all for granted. Let’s not do that!
Remember that this is a month to be thankful! Let us be thankful for the basics of life, like food, clean air, shelter and good health! Let us be thankful for the Thanksgiving holiday, the delicious food that comes with it, and for the fellowship of the holiday. Let us be thankful for our loving families and good friends. Let us be thankful we live in such a great country that offers us so many freedoms. Let us be thankful for those who are fighting wars and have fought wars to preserve freedom. (Veteran’s Day is actually the 4th thing I think of when I think of November, so I’ll plug it in here!)
And let us be thankful that we belong to such a wonderful
church in
David Henderson,
Church Moderator
CALENDAR FOR NOVEMBER 2009
November 1st 10:00 am WORSHIP Final UNICEF Presentation by
Sunday School
November 5th 7:00 pm Christian Education Meeting at the
Undercroft
November 5th 7:00 pm Junior Choir
7:30 pm Senior Choir
November 8th 10:00 am WORSHIP
12:15 pm Senior Dinner Undercroft
November 11th 7:00 pm Church Council Undercroft
November 12th 5::00-6:00 Spirituality
Group Meeting at the Undercroft
7:00 pm Junior Choir
7:30 pm Senior Choir
November 15th 10:00am WORSHIP
November 17th 1:30-2:30 pm Prayer Shawl Ministry Meets at Taylor
Community
November 18th 6:30-8:00pm Book Group at Bobbi Lauterwasser’s
November 19th 7:00 pm Junior Choir
7:30 pm Senior Choir
November 22nd 10:00 am WORSHIP
November 26th THANKSGIVING
November 29th 10:00 am WORSHIP
4:00-6:30 pm ADVENT GATHERING by Christian Education
Stewardship 2010
As many of you know, the annual Stewardship focus is underway. We started our campaign on October 18th, hearing multi-generational viewpoints about “How and Why This Church is Important To Us.” On October 25th, we heard about doing God’s work through outreach beyond our own church family to the world around us – locally and globally. Please “tune – in” on November 1st as we “talk money” and give an overview of things like budget, and pledging and planning for the future. We will be wrapping it up on November 8th with discussion on how we can give of ourselves through time and talent, offering our gifts back to God, furthering God’s work.
All members and friends of our church will be receiving a letter with valuable information and an opportunity to pledge time, talent, and financial support. We are asking for your prayerful consideration as you review this mailing. Our financial secretary, Rea Alkema, respectfully requests that your confidential pledges be returned to her on or before November 15th either directly or via the mail at: Ms.Rea Alkema 58 Weed Road, Meredith, NH 03253 The November 15 deadline date gives time to compile results and aid in final preparation of details for next year’s budget.
Your Stewardship Committee this year is: Shirley Powers, Marg Whedon and Elizabeth Merry
BOARD OF TRUSTEES
REPORT
Treasurer Bob Ilgenfritz reported a continuing favorable cash position in light of the absence of a full-time pastor. In lieu of a September rental payment, the tenant has agreed to paint the trim and purchase and install new storm doors.
With the year-end approaching, all Committees should be giving thought to their budget requests for the coming year!
A small, but hearty crew took to ‘sprucing up’ the
I am sure you will all notice the new fire extinguishers that are now in place! Let’s hope they will be used as infrequently as the ones that were replaced! Speaking of fires, we will be arranging for another drill, supervised by the town fire department.
Following further discussions with the town officials, it would appear that we should be getting some parking berms fairly soon - those things that will prevent any of us from sliding into the side of the church with our vehicles!
A formal, written policy and application for the use of the Undercroft by outside organizations was drafted by Jean Suroweic. It was approved and referred on to Council for their review.
Wally Strauch, Chair
UNICEF PROJECT
CHURCH
SCHOOL CHILDREN have been collecting money for UNICEF during the month of
October. You will have one more opportunity to help children all over the world
on Sunday, November 1st.
After Church, the children will have their UNICEF boxes ready! Ask the children
what they did to collect for UNICEF. In a few weeks we will let you know the
total amount collected. Thank you for supporting this important outreach of our
Church.
FAITH PRACTICES
This is a new resource from Pilgrim Press, UCC Resources. You
will find out more by going to faithpractice.com. I recently attended an
educational workshop for our UCC New Hampshire Conference on this new resource.
Our leader Elsa Marshall, an educational consultant for the United Church of
Christ presented the new resource. She said it was not your typical linear
Christian educational curriculum but resources for the entire Church on Faith
Practices in worship, learning and serving. Every year four practices of faith
will become available for six years. The first four groupings of practices will
be available for September 2010. They
are Forming Community, Being Stewards, Centering Life, and Living Creatively.
I
will challenge you to go on line and learn more about this resource. You will
find an overview and ways congregations can connect each faith practice with
global church and justice and witness ministries(this
promotional is free). All of the material will be available on line through a
subscription (there won’t be any printed material to purchase).
Shirley Strauch, Christian
Education Committee
ADVENT GATHERING ON
NOVEMBER 29TH
The Christian Education
Committee is planning a special Advent Event on Sunday, November 29th from 4:00
to 6:30 pm in the Undercroft at Church. Sue Long will be
directing this workshop to make a manger scene for families and groups to use
in home worship or to share with a friend or someone unable to come to Church
for Advent Worship. A light supper will be served. We
welcome members and friends to join us. A sign up sheet will
help us plan for the event. For more information call or e-mail
Shirley Strauch or Susan Long.
BEEPER SYSTEM AVAILABLE
FOR PARENTS DURING CHURCH WORSHIP
There is a beeper available
for anyone who would like to be contacted during Worship when the children are
in
during Worship. Contact a Christian Education
Committee member--Shirley Strauch, Susan Long, Marg Whedon, Mary Morris, Sarah Harbrook for more
information.
Missions Committee
During recent years we have supported Doctors Without Borders efforts throughout the world. They were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in
1999 and since then their response to crises has improved even more. Their goal is to have “boots on the ground”
wherever disaster strikes within 48-hours and they are doing a remarkable
job. I know at this time of year we all
are overburdened with requests for donations, but we have an opportunity to
make a significant difference in giving to Doctors Without
Borders. For every
dollar received before November 30th will be matched
one-to-one. Donations maybe mailed to
Doctors Without Borders,
Closer to home - each cold day reminds us of those
less fortunate. This is the time of year
when we begin collecting items for hygiene kits for people in local homeless
shelters and the New Beginnings Shelter in
Please don't forget to bring food items for our local
food pantries - you are so generous and they are so grateful! Please pass on
this information as needed,
Together, friends, we do make a difference. Thank you for your continued support and
encouragement.
Spirituality Group
Gather up all those magnets, cards, and odd bits of paper that we attach to our refrigerators, tuck in our wallets or use as bookmarks and come to the Undercroft on Thursday, November 12 from 5- 6pm to share some of that wonderful wisdom! This is the stuff of life that makes us smile, brings us joy and keeps us sane some days. If you don’t have anything to share- come anyway and start your collection. All are welcome! We will also discuss study topics for future meetings.
Centre Cemetery Tour and Talk
It wasn’t Halloween and it wasn’t dark, but there was a chill in the air at 5 p.m., on the evening of October 14, when about thirty men and women followed Dr. David Watters, Director of the Center for Culture at the University of New Hampshire and an authority on gravestone art, on a tour of Centre Cemetery, the oldest cemetery in Sanbornton.
They read inscriptions like this one, “In Adam’s fall we sinned all” and Dr. Watters pointed out details in the carvings on the stones. Half an hour later the group adjourned down hill to the Undercroft at Sanbornton Congregational Church, UCC, where pots of delicious hot soups, Turkey, Vegetable and Pumpkin, awaited them, together with breads, butter, cider, coffee and an assortment of homemade cookies, chocolate and apple brownies and chocolate candy.
When everyone was warm and full, Liz Merry, Chair of the Church’s Cemetery Committee spoke briefly about the volunteers who keep the Cemetery in order, mowing grass, pruning shrubs, cleaning, righting and sometimes repairing fallen stones. The Cemetery has been in the Church’s care for nearly 250 years.
Dr. Watters was then introduced again, lights were dimmed and the UNH Professor, who teaches English and American studies with emphasis on Colonial literature and history, and who has been the recipient of numerous honors, talked about the theology of the Puritans as it was reflected in their gravestone art and gave us a history of gravestone art illustrated with numerous slides.
Gravestones first appeared at the time of King Philip’s War in The New England colonies in 1675 and 1676. Puritan theology was focused on the rewards for a good, God-fearing life and the punishments in the hereafter for sinful living. Warning and converting the living was the object of the art. It was too late for the person already dead to mend his or her ways. But the gravestone might show Death with his scythe and his hourglass or just the hourglass as a sign that time was running out, time to change one’s ways. After all, Dr. Watters noted, mortality is always 100%. To reinforce the message, the gravestone might depict angels near the top of the stone and imps or devils at the bottom, illustrating what was in store for those whose souls went up to heaven or down to hell. Religious symbols predominated in the 17th and early 18th century.
Later as European influences
became stronger, gravestones began to portray classical scenes and decoration.
The wealthy built elaborate tombs. Eventually, as cities grew and people became
more fearful of contagion and disease, cemeteries became much larger and were
moved to the outskirts of cities. One of
the first of these, and the first garden cemetery in
Dr. Watters’ talk was entertaining as well as informative and spiced with humorous epitaphs. The one that lingers in my mind is the one he quoted from the stone of a man in his nineties, “The good die young.” We are indebted to the New Hampshire Humanities Council for making it possible for Dr. Watters to appear in Sanbornton.
TOGETHER BUILDING BRIDGES: UCC
New England
Women’s Celebration VIII entitled “Together Building Bridges” is planned for
Join Us for Dinner
For thirty years Sanbornton’s three churches, Congregational, First Baptist and Second Baptist, have collaborated on a twice monthly social event for the Town’s older residents and their friends. Hearty Sunday Dinners for Seniors are served at 12:15 p.m., in one or another of the churches, on the second Sunday and the fourth Sunday of most months. There are exceptions. Only one dinner is served in January, November and December on the second Sunday of those months. And sometimes Sundays are switched around to avoid holidays such as Easter, Mother’s Day and Memorial Day.
You don’t have to remember the dates. There is a printed schedule. Call 279-8848, leave your name, address and the words “Dinner Schedule” on the voicemail, if no one answers; you’ll receive a schedule in the mail.
In November, schedules for 2010 will appear in Sanbornton’s
churches, library and post office. Join us for dinner at
You will have to wait until the new year
to eat at the Second Baptist Church of Sanbornton again. New cooks at
A circa 1855 map
of Sanbornton was donated to the Sanbornton Historical Society by Phillip Bodwell who lives with his family in the house of Jonathan
Moore Taylor(1822-1900), who married Huldah Lane,
daughter of Joseph Hillard Lane, tavern owner in the
Square.
The map was found
in a closet and we assumed it was used by Jonathan M. Taylor when he was Town
Clerk (1856-1873). He was a superior blacksmith, enterprising
farmer, representative, county commissioner, J.P., and a “useful citizen”,
wrote Moses T. Runnels,Historian.
The map was made
in the 1850’s by a distinguished civil engineer, Charles C. Lund who was
employed by the City of
The map show the
mid-1800s homes, cemeteries, shops and mills, schools, roads, brooks, and
ponds, etc. The dark line shows only one of many “schemes” (plans) for the
division of the town. The first agitation on the division was in May 1850.
Among the plans was one to divide at the fifth range which included the Square
and the Town Hall. Another was to dis-annex the
southern part of the town and annex it to
The map is now
preserved and framed and adorns the east wall of the Lane Tavern tap room.
Jonathan and Huldah Taylor are memorialized by a
stained glass window on the south wall of our church and are buried in