September 2009
Greetings!
The long Labor Day Weekend is quickly approaching and it’s a time that signals many different adjustments. It’s a time of cooler weather that indicates the end of summer and the beginning of fall. It’s a time of weekend bar-b-ques and quality time with friends and family. It’s a time of back-to-school sales and schools busses re-taking the roads. It’s a time of final preparations for our Annual September Open House. It’s a time of choirs gearing back up and practicing weekly after having a long summer off. And it’s a time when church services soon go from 9:30 am back to 10:00am!
During this transitional time of seasons, I want to give a quick update on our own transition as we work to fill our pulpit with an Interim Minister. I am pleased to report that our Interim Minister committee has been organized and is hard at work. This month they’re been reviewing profiles of prospective interim ministers and will be conducting interviews. Once they’ve made their selection, we’ll be calling a Special Church Meeting to affirm their selection, so stay tuned…
I also think that it’s important I bring up again how fortunate a church we are to be blessed with so many gifted and giving members. Church activities, events and meetings have hummed right along all through the summer thanks to the dedication of a great number of people all stepping up and doing just a little bit more so that no single person gets overburdened. It’s been brought up a great many times how fortunate we are to have such a strong church and it’s certainly been evident over the past several months! Let’s not take that for granted!
In this spirit, I would like to remind all of us that one of the comments Patrice shared during an exit interview was that she felt that perhaps we don’t always let each other know enough just how important we are to each other. She challenged us each to speak up more and let others know how important we are to each other. As we transition into September and adjust to the changes it brings, let’s remember how important we are to each other. To this end, I have a challenge for you. Find an opportunity where someone consistently does a great job that impresses you, and despite the fact that they surely must already know how important they are to the church family, go up and share your feelings anyways. You’ll be glad you did!
David Henderson,
Church Moderator
SEPTEMBER 2009 CALENDAR
September 9th
Church Council 7:00 PM
September 10th
Choirs Begin; Juniors - 7:00 PM, Seniors - 7:30 PM
September 12th
Church Fall Clean-up (inside and out) 9:00AM to Noon
September 13th
Worship 10:00 AM with
Senior Dinner at
1st Baptist 12:15
September 16th
Book Group - Akerman’s 6:30 PM
September 17th
FALL OPEN HOUSE and
September 19th
September 20th
Worship at 10:00 AM, CE Meeting 11:30 AM
September 27th
Worship at 10:00 AM; Senior Dinner Sanbornton UCC 12:15 Noon
October 14th
Centre Cemetery Program (see article)
Open House
On Thursday evening, September 17, from 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m., the church will hold its 4th Annual Open House. There will be exhibits, hosted by various Committees to present information about church activities; light refreshments; tours; and an opportunity to register children for church school and inspect the curriculum, the classrooms, and the nursery.
Parents will be shown the individual electronic devices
which flash red lights when a parent is needed in the Undercroft. Children from
grade 1 up who want to sing in the Junior Choir should come with their parents
to take part in the Junior Choir Rehearsal at 7 p.m. Adults who would like to
sing are invited to talk with Music Director
Tell your friends and neighbors about our Open House. Even if they are not interested in joining our church, it is an opportunity to show off our historic building, its beautiful windows and new recessed lighting! And it is a time when those who love music can hear our fine Choirs.
CEMETERY COMMITTEE
Save the date: Oct 14
The Cemetery Committee has
invited Dr. David Watters, who is an authority on historic
The New Hampshire Humanities
Council is sponsoring Dr. Watters' visit, which is open to the public.
Anyone inquisitive about old cemeteries in general, or this one in
particular, is welcome to join us for this program.
Please invite any of your
friends who might be interested in this aspect of our Sanbornton history which
extends from the 1770's through the present and even into the future, with
sites still available.
BOARD OF TRUSTEES REPORT –
SEPTEMBER
Although
we had not planned to have an August meeting, a special meeting was called to
review
and recommend a compensation
package for our Interim Minister. Trustee Jean Suroweic
contacted the Conference and provided us with valuable information for our
deliberations. After considerable discussion, we forwarded our recommendations
for a salary and fringe benefit package for a 2/3rds Interim position. Trustee
Dave Hart presented our proposal to the Church Council and it was approved and
will become part of the application package forwarded to the Conference.
Two Important Cleanup
Dates:
SATURDAY,
SEPT. 12, 9:00 - 12:00 Church Clean up. Will entail some
painting, window-washing, etc.
SATURDAY,
SEPT. 19, 9:00 - 12:00
Please
mark your calendars and try to make it to at least ONE of these sessions....
Thanks,
Wally Strauch, Chair
CHRISTIAN EDUCATION SEPTEMBER 2009
Preschool/Kindergarten:
Shirley Strauch and Heather Max
Grades
1, 2, and 3: Sally and James Wood, and Jonathan Marchant
Grades
4 and 5: Kara Downes and Mary Morris
Grades
6, 7, 8 and 9: Marg Whedon
Substitutes:
Barbara Akerman, Polly Fife, Sarah Harbrook, Arlene
Ilgenfritz and Tracy Wood
We
welcome and thank all our teachers and substitutes for saying ‘yes’ to joining
our Church
School Team. In order for Marg Whedon’s class to use the second floor classroom, we need
to find
some adults to join her each
Sunday. This is our oldest class, and will leave the Worship Service after the
Choir sings. There needs to be two adults in the class each Sunday...it has
been suggested that volunteers could come in once a month. If you are
interested, please contact Marg Whedon.
You
will hear more music from our children this year as Mary Ruth Scott said ‘yes’
to leading Music for the younger Church School classes once a month. We welcome
Mary Ruth and thank her for sharing her musical talents with us.
OPEN HOUSE SCHEDULED FOR SEPTEMBER 17, 2009. Our
An Interim-Minister Search Committee: How Does
It Work?
The process begins with our By Laws. The Interim Committee has five members – one each from the Deacons, Trustees, Missions, Christian Ed. and Senior Outreach. This represents a broad cross section of our congregation to identify our temporary spiritual leader, subject to the congregation’s approval.
In late July, the committee met with the Associate Conference Minister for NH, the Rev. Richard Slater. He works with congregations on a regular basis and gave us the wisdom of his experience. He answered our questions. His wisdom: take your time and choose carefully, don’t be too quick to go for the familiar, look for the unusual skills. He stands ready to answer any questions and give us guidance as we move through the selection process.
Our church has filed the Request for Interim Leadership with the Conference. The Conference, in turn, has on file the profiles from clergy who are applying for interim positions. The Committee has profiles in hand. Now the hard wrestling with the data begins. We will interview and question the candidates. We will listen to them preach. We will analyze, discuss and pray as we make the difficult decision to reject some candidates and choose others. Our task is to match the needs of our church with the skills of the candidates.
Finally, though, we will choose the very best one that we have seen and recommend that candidate to the congregation. A special church meeting will be called. It takes a 2/3 vote to accept the recommendation. It will be an up or down vote. If a down vote, then the committee goes back to the pool of candidates and/or receives some additional profiles and begins the process again.
There is total confidentiality required here as far as the deliberations are concerned. This is a one way street for now. We can’t talk about the candidates except with the committee members, but you can talk to us. We are open and willing to listen to input from those not on the committee. We need that kind of input. We can’t act on what we don’t know!
Dave Hart, for the
Committee - Edna Hansen, Mary Morris,
STEWARDSHIP ALERT!
Stewardship is a year round effort, but the greatest emphasis takes place in the fall when we begin to think about budgets. Please mark these important dates on your calendar:
September 17 Open House stewardship display
October 18 First Sunday of stewardship campaign
October 25 Second Sunday of stewardship campaign
November 8 Third Sunday of stewardship campaign
Something special will take place during the service on each of these 3 Sundays.
November 15 Celebration Sunday when we receive your pledges
Please watch for further information.
Your committee: Marg Whedon, Liz Merry, Shirley Powers
The Missions Committee started what they thought would be a small project to bring cheer to service personnel away from home fighting the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, this past spring. We asked members of the church to submit names to us and we asked for donations of snacks and suitable items for inclusion in care packages to our men and women overseas.
The very first box went to a female medic who sometimes uses helicopter transportation to deliver medical supplies to outlying bases in the desert. In each box we include foot powder, wet wash wipes, lotion, hometown newspapers and NH magazines, paper back books, cookies, trail mix, powder drink mix to add to bottled water, instant dry soup mix, nuts, candy, puzzle books and a game. In our first female soldier box we included some fragranced lotions and soaps and bath gel.
The special size and marked boxes for military mailing can be stuffed full and the average weight of a box is 6-7 pounds each. They cost $11.95 to mail and take 7-10 days in transit. There are printed lists supplied by the military of what is acceptable to send and then there is a list of what NOT to send, so as not to offend the moral, ethnic or religious beliefs of any persons in the host country. We pay very strict attention to the what NOT to send list for safety reasons.
The enthusiastic response from the congregation was overwhelming and donations of snacks poured in and the list of names grew each week. To date we have mailed 20 care packages or goodie boxes as we sometimes refer to them.
Much to our surprise, the general public responded to articles in the local papers by our correspondent, Diane, and called and asked if they could become involved. Numerous local citizens donated books, snacks and articles suitable for the boxes. The Gilford Lions Club called and said they would like to send a check for supplies to our project. They had thought to start a similar project, but when they read about Sanbornton Congregational Church with an ongoing program, they decided to send us a check to support our program and a name or two of service people they knew of.
Shirley Powers’ nephew is based at a
We received another request socks and foot powder from a
Sgt. Major in charge of a Battalion of 550 Marines stationed in
outposts along the border of
Many thanks to all of you for your
continuing support of these programs, both with snack donations and donations
of money for postage. If you know of a service person who would be
cheered by receiving a package full of surpirses from
us, please submit their name and address to
The Missions Committee thanks you for your interest and support of this project, which we hope to continue until we run out of names or donations. (At the present time the children’s shoes and clothing is on hold until I get another contact at the military hospital, as the Major is being re-deployed and the good news is that he might be home with his family by Thanksgiving.)
TIDBITS FROM
CHURCH RECORDS RE:
In 1882, Runnels reported that the
And so it was that Deacons H. J. L. Bodwell,
Fred Morrison, Joseph Bodwell,
In 1893 the Fund Association “voted $10.50 for work on the
cemetery on the hill.” In 1941 “a
committee was voted to consider formation of a cemetery organization to take
care of the
In 1964 church records show that a Centre Cemetery Committee was appointed by the trustees at the suggestion of Marion Atwood. Members were Claris Bodwell, Warren Wilson, Edward Craig, and Robert Bodwell. Warren Wilson was designated as caretaker. Under his supervision great improvements have been made in the front half of the cemetery….” from the trustees report.
In 1976 a newly organized cemetery committee was Warren Wilson, Supt., Catherine Currier, treasurer; Ruth Bonney, Secretary, and George Stone. In 1978 30 church members turned out in the spring for clean up, using an electric powered generator from the Fire Department. 14 broken gravestones were repaired and in 1978 4 lots were measured, and made available and placed on record. Robert Bodwell took over as cemetery caretaker when Warren Wilson died. He had recalled as a child, the cemetery as being a blueberry patch and hiring Walter Blaisdell to cut the grass with a scythe.
Over the years the cost of cemetery mowing varied from $15
in 1966, $100 in 1976, $200 in 1978, $300 in 1982, and $1095 in 1996. Thanks to
the committee, grading, seeding, and stone repairs have been accomplished and
the
By Milly
Shaw, Church Historian