Welcoming 2008, Thanking
2007
New Year's Eve has
always been one of my favorite holidays. Part of the reason, I believe, is
that I don’t have any truly fixed New Year’s Eve traditions, other than staying
up until midnight. It's different each year. The beauty of New
Year’s Eve for me is that it is what you make it. And that’s really
liberating at the end of a month like December, a month of fixed tradition after
fixed tradition.
One of the New
Year’s Eves I remember best was December 31, 1990, just on the cusp of
1991. I had just graduated from college, and I was in the first of my four
years in the navy (since I’d done Naval ROTC to pay for college). I was
stationed in
One of the nice
things about
Celebrating a new
year is one of the oldest, and most universal, traditions of the human
race. Virtually every
culture in history has had some custom, some type of celebration, to signify the
coming of the New Year, though there has not been universal agreement on the
date that the New Year starts. Here we are on the cusp of 2007 and 2008,
however arbitrary the date might be. Let's thank 2007 for all that it
has brought to us -- joy, perhaps boredom, certainly difficulties and
opportunities for change and growth. Let's welcome 2008 with all of its
possibilities. To quote Kathleen McTigue (from our hymnal), "...We stand
at a threshold, the new year something truly new, still unformed, leaving a
stunning power in our hands: What shall we do with this great gift of
Time, this year?.... Let us take the step forward together, onto new ground,
planting our dreams well, faithfully, and in joy."
Blessed
be,
Lara
Hoke
CHURCH
CALENDAR
10am ~ Peace
Vigil
Sunday, January
6 , 2008
10am ~ Lara Hoke
preaching
“A UU Look at Death and the
Afterlife”
7 p.m. ~ Parish Committee
Meeting
10 a.m. ~ Peace
Vigil!
10 a.m. Jack Cole (Law
Enforcement Against Prohibition “An
Alternate perspective of the
10 a.m. ~ Peace
Vigil
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Sunday
10 a.m. ~ Lara Hoke
preaching
7 p.m. ~ Parish Committee
Meeting
10 a.m. ~ Peace
Vigil
10 a.m. ~ James Mangok Wol,
one of
the
the Lost Boys
of
11 a.m. ~ Annual
Meeting
CALL TO ANNUAL MEETING
JANUARY 27, 2008
The Annual Meeting of
the First Congregational Parish in Petersham will be held at 11 a.m. in the
Davis Memorial. The agenda will include reports from committees, presentation of the
budget and proposed bylaws revision. All members are urged to
attend.
Snow date is February
3rd.
The
SNOW
POLICY
If on Sunday morning
you are uncertain if the worship service/program is taking place due to the
weather, call a member of the Parish Committee, whose phone numbers are on the
cover of the newsletter.
PLEDGE CARDS ARE BEING MAILED
BE AS GENEROUS AS YOU CAN BE
CONSERVATION
Are you overwhelmed by catalogues
that seem to multiply? Do you wish you could cut them off at the source thereby
saving many trees? Help is on the way! At cataloguechoices.com you can cancel
the catalogues you no longer want to receive. Information on the back page of
the catalogues is needed so tear that off and use it to cancel those pesky
catalogues. Thanks to Bill Moyer for raising our consciousness on his latest
“Journal” Friday nights on PBS.
PARISH
COMMITTEE NOTES
Notes
from the Parish Committee
We are very grateful
to Frank Sienkiewicz of
In recent weeks, it
has become very difficult to use the Wayside Pulpit to announce topics
of Program Sundays and the Minister-led Services. We apologize
for the two-week-old notices, and all the slanted lettering, but people
need to realize how difficult it is to place individual plastic letters on
a magnetized board when you are standing in a foot of snow in freezing
weather. In the future, we will try to put up paper signs to announce
the weekly programs. The Program Committee has been working
hard to provide us with really wonderful guest speakers on
alternative Sundays, so it's important that we get the word out
to everyone. The information about Program Sundays will always
be included in the monthly newsletter, and will be announced by Lara
from the pulpit. Our Program Sundays are such an important part of
our church culture, and we want everyone to know about
them!
The Church Directory
will be printed in December and distributed at Annual Meeting in January.
Thank you to everyone who has worked on this, especially Bob Hall and Susan
Peters, and thank you to Rev. Clarke for putting together the final
draft and getting it to the printers.
Please note the
"Snow Policy" for stormy weather - call any member of the Parish
Committee when you have a question about Sunday
services.
Submitted
by Pam Chevalier,
Parish
Committee Secretary
SUPPORT
OUR TROOPS
BRING
THEM HOME!
3895
of OUR CHILDREN KILLED IN
VIGIL
SATURDAYS @ 10 AM
VIGIL
REPORT
Under the leadership
of Fred Hellen the vigil has been taking place every Saturday since April
4th. More than 70 individuals have attended the vigil to bear
witness to peace and to support our troops in
Every Saturday at 10
a.m.
CANVASS
COMMITTEE
The Canvass for 2008 is underway
and several pledges have been
received thus far. The Canvass Committee hopes
that the remaining pledge
cards will be returned as soon as possible on,
or before December 31st.
We thank you for your
co-operation.
Happy
Holidays!!
AD-HOC BYLAWS
COMMITTE
HAPPY NEW YEAR
The final
informational meeting was in early December. Since then the committee has
been working on the final draft. This is at present in the hands of a
lawyer. The proposed bylaws will be mailed to all members as required by
the bylaws, three weeks before the Annual Meeting, which is on January
27th. As Chair of the committee I’d like to thank Betty Davis
and Tom Webber who have done an outstanding job of keeping track of our work and
making sure that all voices are heard. I am very grateful to both of them because they made
my work so much easier!
SANTA’S VISIT was such a success
that we hope it will be an annual affair. Last year, at another venue, 18
children came. This year 42 children came with their parents to the
CHURCH FAMILY
NEWS:
Our condolences to
Genevieve Fraser who lost her Mother recently, Louise Ducharme Fraser was 91
years young.
Dorothy Johanssen is
still at
Fred Hellen is at
UMass Medical. We keep him and Sue in our thoughts and
prayers.
Arthur Perkins is home
and feeling and looking much better. He thanks everyone for their loving
kindness to him and to Anne during this time.
Isaac Fitzgerald,
grandson of Sue and Fred Hellen and son of Susan and Bill Fitzgerald, is in
Genevieve Fraser has
recently published a wonderful book about an Athol man who was in the
By-Laws
Committee,
Anne Perkins, Chair ~ (978)
724-8802
Tom Webber ~ (978)
724-0231
Chip Bull ~ (978)
724-3339
Betty Davis ~ (978)
249-6278
On Nov. 25, Patrick Woolsey gave a
presentation on his experiences
as an Amigos volunteer in rural
Our guest speaker on Dec. 9 was
Dr. Julian Hadley, who spoke about Forests, Climate and Carbon Exchange.
Both of these presentations were
well-received, and audience participation was enthusiastic, as evidenced by the
many questions and discussion by the attendees.
Many thanks to Patrick and Julian
for sharing their experience and knowledge with us.
Mick Huppert mickhuppert@umassed.edu
Lisa Payne Jmbob666@verizon.net
Vicki Grew vgram@aol.com
Betty Davis elzbthelzd@aol.com
ANNOUNCEMENTS
& EVENTS
THE
TREASURER requests that when
you pay your pledge by check that you note the fact in the memo space on the
lower left of the check. This will help the bookkeeper to keep track of
pledges.
NEWS
LETTER
Material for the
newsletter may be emailed to the newsletter team or can be left outside the
Church office in the pigeonhole designated for the newsletter.
Email: firstparishnt@verizon.net
DIRECTORY~ The directory is on
its ways and will be distributed at the Annual
Meeting.
BUILDING
USE
A reminder that all those who use
one of the church buildings must complete a
Building Use Agreement Form. You
may obtain forms from the church Administrative Assistant, Susan Peters.
Stop by the church office during her working hours or call to have her mail the
form.
Office hours: Tuesday &
Thursday, 8am to 2pm
Phone:
978-724-3401
THANK
YOU’S
Thank you to Frank
Sientiewicz of
Thanks to Brother
Paul, who has been our organist several times has written an Introit especially
for our congregation. We thank him for his generous contribution.
Thanks to Kay Berry,
Pam Chevalier and Kay’s grandchildren, Jordyn and Coty for decorating the Church
for Christmas.
Nominating
Committee
The Nominating Committee will be
at work before the Annual Meeting. Please be ready to do your part in the
governance of the Church. We all share that responsibility. Besides, it’s fun.
If you’d like to serve on a particular committee please contact Kay
ATTENTION DOG
LOVERS
Dr. Alan Bachrach is spearheading
the building of a dog shelter at the town barn. The foundation has been poured
and work is proceeding on the building. Funds are still needed. Old blankets and
quilts are also needed. Call the Bachrach’s at
978-724-0078.
THE
NEWSLETTER is edited and
mailed by volunteers. We are always happy and grateful to receive
contributions towards the expenses of paper, printing and mailing as well as
general news and news of families.
The Newsletter
Team,
Don
Eaton
Anne
Perkins~Editor
Susan
Peters