Greetings! We can't believe that September is upon us. It has been an extraordinarily warm and humid summer but once again we hearty New Englanders have persevered. Can we just say, "Thank heavens for air conditioners". We have spent several Sunday mornings in our wonderfully cool Parlor and from all accounts those mornings were enjoyed by those who attended. Thank you, Doug, for helping to set up an altar and the chairs. And also thanks to those who helped by bringing in the hymnals and helped to put everything back in there places after the service.
We have been so fortunate to have Rev. Katie Keene with us throughout the summer and look forward to having her with us until a permanent pastor is on board. Rev. Keene has been a blessing in the lives of our parishioners who have had need of comfort in the past few months. Even though she has no regular office hours and is technically only here for us on Sunday mornings she has reached out several times to pray with and comfort members in need. For that the Deacons are very grateful and we extend our sincere thanks for her caring manner.
Now we are looking forward to fall and the start of a new church year. We are very excited to announce that Yucchi will be starting Sunday School classes on September 16th. We will also be celebrating Homecoming Sunday with a brunch following that service. We hope that you will all come and share in a time of fellowship that day.
The following week there will be a christening when we baptize Adalyn Nguyen, daughter of Dan and Julie and baby sister to Jack. There will be a reception in the parlor following the service.
We have been told by the Search Committee that there are several candidates to be interviewed and they will be filling the pulpit from time to time so that we can get to know them. Our office manager, Linda Iarussi, will let us know via email, the week before a candidate will be preaching. Please make an effort to be present when these candidates preach so that when the time comes to choose a permanent pastor we can do so as a fully informed congregation.
Other things to look forward to are Ashland Day, September 15th, where Ruth Hanning has announced that she will be manning a booth with church flyers and pens, etc., the arrival of the pumpkins the weekend of October 13th and of course our church Fair which will be held on the first Saturday in November. ("Can't wait for the Turkey Divan!").
We would like to take this opportunity to thank Bill Wallace for taking on the role of Historian for our church for the past year and a half. We're not sure how many of you are aware that we even have a Historian but there has always been someone working quietly behind the scenes to make sure that the long and distinguished existence of this congregation is preserved. For many years Dave Hansen kept records and collected old photos and documents pertinent to the building and to our members. When Dave and Nancy left, Bill stepped up to take on this daunting task. The fact that the church itself is a historical building coupled with its rich tradition of the Federation of the three main denominations in Ashland for the past 100 years, compels us to be diligent in our record keeping. Bill has spent countless hours ensuring that future generations will be able to look back on our records with pride. For this we say, "Blessings to you Bill, we are grateful for your untiring efforts on our behalf."
Lastly we would like to give a huge thank you to Linda for working through the past two summers to keep the church going. She is a mainstay of this church and we're not sure that we could have kept things going so smoothly without her. We know that we could not have done our jobs without her.
We continue to have great hope for the future of this church and its amazing parishioners. We are blessed by the ongoing enthusiasm for our outreach programs. We know that God has great plans for us.
Blessings,
Pam Dunham and Melanie Conner, Co-chairs of the Diaconate
