By now most everyone is aware that First Congregational Church will celebrate 300 years in 2020. This tercentennial birthday has been the inspiration for our Vision 2020 work that is leading to all the construction that will soon begin on this historic church structure.

      To prepare for this important event, several of us have been digging around in the church vault lately. Did you even know that there is a vault in the church? It is not quite like a bank vault, but rather a locked closet in the basement of the activities building that is lined with metal walls to protect historical documents from fire. The building we worship in today is the third structure for this church family. The first two, destroyed by fire, saw important church and town documents taken up in flames with the structures. The picture you see below is stored in the vault. It was taken sometime between 1900-1922. Those were the years the particular organ you see was housed in the sanctuary. A different instrument was installed in 1922 and the current organ in 1972.  

     At our last Council meeting, we charged new member, Paul Doutrich, to implement a Church Tercentennial Celebration Committee to plan a year (June 2020 - June 2021) of celebrations. In the coming months Paul will assemble this committee and begin to develop a calendar of events for the church and wider community to mark this historic moment in time. He and others will also begin to review and organize all of the fascinating pictures and documents contained in the vault, so that they will be preserved and available for generations to come.

 

Faithfully,

Joe