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EPISTLE

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Dear Church Family,

We have entered a very exciting stage of the Interim journey! The Church Council

is starting the process of selecting a Search Committee for the next settled pastor. I

have met with the Trustees, Music Committee, Board of Christian Education and

Diaconate, and hope to meet with all the other committees and boards soon. Each

one is talking about new steps it can take to help the church become more vibrant

and grow.

So much good is already happeningthe Chicken Pie Supper was a huge success, the Community Dinner is thriving, the Board of Christian Education just had 17

children participate in a cider pressing at the Munsons, the Trustees have been doing great work to improve the condition of the church and parsonage, the Music

Committee is planning for expanded activity and there are many other activities

that are going strong.

These doings are wonderful, and could lead to church growth, but there is

something else we need besides programs if we are going to keep any growth that

comes.

Jesus said, I am the way Christianity was first called The Way by the followers of Christ, long before the word Christianity existed.

This congregation is gaining an understanding that our manner of being is as

important as all our matters of doing. It is the way we do things, the way we are

together as a community, that makes everything else either flourish or fail.

See us on Facebook! I lift up my eyes to

the hills from

where will my help

come?

My help comes from

the Lord, who made

heaven and earth.

(Ps 121:1-2)

OCTOBER, 2015

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Being a Christ-like loving community makes all our doings possible. People can

feel it when a church is overflowing with love, and the word spreads in the

community. It is the key to literally everything. Without that Way of love, as Paul

said in I Corinthians 13, we are nothing.

The congregation has passed two official statements in the last two years. The first

was the Communication Guidelines to Strengthen Our Community. It is entirely about our way of being together, and it is beautiful: We seek to create and sustain a congregational life of inclusiveness, honesty and safety. We are precious to one

another and seek to build a beloved community in which our faith can grow. As a member of the Congregational Church of the United Church of Christ Bradford,

Vermont, I will support my brothers and sisters with gentleness and reverence.

The Communication Guidelines translate the Way of Christs love into very practical terms:

pray for guidance, patience and understanding every time we interact in any way;

listen intently and ask questions respectfully to understand one another even when we disagree, and welcome it when others inquire about our point of

view in the same way;

speak our truth directly to one another, not behind anyones back;

carefully consider the impact or our words in emails as well as in person, meaning we will speak the truth in such a way that we strengthen our loving

community, even when we disagree.

Our Identity and Aspiration Statement has plenty about doing in it, but almost half

of it is about ways of being. Here is an excerpt: The Congregational Church of the United Church of Christ, Bradford, Vermont, strives to be a loving church

family where everyone feels welcome and at home, appreciated and supported.

We want our faith community to be a safe, comfortable place. We aspire to grow in numbers as we make this an increasingly welcoming, loving, helpful

congregation where we take the love we find here out into the world around us,

and where people want to participate because the church makes a positive

difference in their lives throughout the week. We will seek to maintain healthy

communication and a positive, hopeful attitude as we face inevitable challenges.

We want this to be a church where we feel joy, peace and a steady deepening of

Christ-like love and faithfulness among us.

Even its verbs about doing often imply ways of being: honor, respond, cherish,

dream, shine.

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These statements point us in the direction of Christs Way, and that is exciting and hopeful!

The Way is characterized by certain

qualities. We have been reading in

September from the book of James.

He writes about a wisdom from above that comes to people who follow Christs Way. James sounds like a combination of our

Communication Guidelines and

Identity and Aspiration Statement:

the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing

to yield, full of mercy and good

fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy. And a harvest of righteousness is

sown in peace for those who make peace. (James 3:17-18)

If we have the wisdom to get our way of being right, a harvest of right doings will

follow.

The Apostle Paul wrote about the Spirit, which is the source of the wisdom from above, in similar terms: the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. (Galatians 5:22-23)

James sees that straying from that sacred Way leads to disorder, discord and

disputes, and Paul has a similar list: enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions. (Galatians 5:20)

The truth is that over the past decades this church has sometimes strayed off the

Way into discord. The congregation has had more than its share of anger, quarrels, dissensions and factions. The wisdom of our Communication Guidelines and Identity and Aspiration Statement has been born out of those

painful experiences.

The truth is that everyone who is part of a congregation that strays from the Way

gets wounded. It is deeply wounding to us when people we love wound each

other. If we love our church and see wounds being inflicted in it, it wounds us. So

whether we were involved in the strife or not, we have wounds if we were part of

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this congregation when it happened.

The amazing grace and best of good news is that the Way of Christ addresses what

happened in the past as much as what will happen in the future. Most of Christs ministry was about healing and forgiveness and reconciliation, freeing us from

wounds that we have given or received and freeing us from our past ways of being.

This is a very exciting and hopeful time in the life of this congregation because it

has unanimously voted to set itself back on that Way (see my August Epistle letter

celebrating the unanimous congregational vote endorsing the Identity and

Aspiration Statement).

The Diaconate will be helping us learn how to heal our old wounds and find

forgiveness and reconciliation, and at the same time learn how to move through

challenges and conflicts without straying from Christs Way of love, gentleness and peace. It is absolutely essential that we do this work if we hope to have a

successful search for a new pastor and maintain our momentum and retain any

growth that happens.

Making our way of being more Christ-like is as exciting as all that we are doing

because it makes it possible for all those good things to continue and flourish.

The number one biggest impact on growth is having a

peaceful and loving congregation, according to studies. The

number one most effective way to establish a peaceful and

loving congregation is to reach out to one another after

worship or whenever we gather, extending our care and

support enthusiastically especially to those we know least

well or with whom we have differences. If every member

of the congregation becomes increasingly welcoming in that

one way, it will have a dramatic effect on our future.

Thank you so much for all you are doing and for the

wisdom from above you have shown about being. The church would not exist if

we did not experience peace that is deeper than any discord, and joy in our being

together that more than compensates for our struggles, and love great enough to

heal all wounds and guide us on the Way.

Peace, joy and love,

Tom

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Doing Church Business after Worship

There has been some discussion about the kind of experience we want to have at

church on Sunday mornings.

Some people have expressed a desire not to have to talk about church business

after worship, like committee or board or project work, so they can feel relaxed

and nourished by being there rather than feel increased stress.

Others enjoy talking about church business after church.

Even people who dont mind it may have their moments when they need rest or will feel overwhelmed if one more person brings up one more thing to do. I have

heard people say that they stay away from church some weeks when they need it

most because they could not handle talking about church business.

The problem is that there is no way of

knowing whether the person you are talking

to needs a break or is wide open for

businessno way, that is, without asking.

So here is a very simple, considerate solution:

if you want to be sure it is all right with the

other person, you could open the conversation

by asking, Would you be willing to talk about church business, or would you prefer to

make a time to talk about it during the week?

Thats just a suggestion, not a policy. It would take almost no effort on your part, and could be a big improvement in our way of being a peaceful, loving

community.

Thank you!

Tom

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PRAYER CONCERNS We always welcome new links in the prayer chain. If you would like to be on the

prayer email list, please let me know. You can also call or email any time with

prayer requests (222-9679 or bridgetalex123@hotmail.com ) -Bridget Peters

Among those who were lifted up in prayer in the past month:

Mary Trischman Margaret Staples niece Syrian refugees Lora Chatfield Gloria Heidenreich Gisela OBrien Melvin Stever Gloria Fox

Kylie Cook Megan Slack

Our sympathy and love to the family and friends of

Ann Scotford Lynwood Carter Sally Carter

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Chicken Pie Supper results .

The CP Supper, which was our

churchs contribution to the Bradford 250 Fall Festival, cost

approximately $1.42 per person

served. We should all be so

economical when serving a feast of

all you can eat chicken pie, gravy,

squash, coleslaw, cider, coffee/tea

and an array of homemade

pie!

This supper was by

donation and once again

those who came were exceedingly generous, not just with their smiles and

good will, but with their wallets. More than $600 will soon be handed over

to the Act n Spire folk! See their updates at www.actnspire.org and to

follow this incredible act of love and dedication and elbow grease!

Just about every group, committee, board and official in the church had

a giving hand in this event, including the children! And here is the list of

those outside the church who felt called to generosity on behalf of the clock tower:

Hannafords for all the cabbage and more than half the chicken

Piersons Farm for all the onions AND all the squash

Aubuchons for the mums at the entrance

Riverbend Culinary for the coleslaw

Grace UMC men and women for taking on the beverage

and dessert serving

The Bean family for setting up the tables and chairs so very, very gently!

The Bradford 250 Fall Festival team for their display and entertainment

Brandy Apple Orchard for all the apples!!

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There were church families which donated

their week to

the supper by

cooking (the

Tomlinson kids

and their

friends for the

chicken pies,

the Smiths for

the squash, the

Odells for the boiled onions,

and the dozens

of pie makers!)

and by helping

in any way

they could (the

Peters family (and Rev. Kinder) for setting

the tables, the Perrys for washing all those dishes), the Elders for cider, utensil wrapper

uppers Vida and Therese and the Hosts who

served and mingled and shared the best that is us! As we always report:

and a good time was had by all

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Lectionary Readings for

OCTOBER

Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost October 4, 2015

Job 1:1, 2:1-10 Psalm 26

Genesis 2:18-24 Psalm 8

Hebrews 1:1-4, 2:5-12

Mark 10:2-16

Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost October 11, 2015

Job 23:1-9, 16-17 Psalm 22:1-15

Amos 5:6-7, 10-15 Psalm 90:12-17

Hebrews 4:12-16 Mark 10:17-31

Twenty-First Sunday after Pentecost October 18, 2015

Job 38:1-7, (34-41) Psalm 104:1-9, 24, 35c

Isaiah 53:4-12 Psalm 91:9-16

Hebrews 5:1-10 Mark 10:35-45

Twenty-Second Sunday after Pentecost October 25, 2015

Job 42:1-6, 10-17 Psalm 34:1-8, (19-22)

Jeremiah 31:7-9 Psalm 126

Hebrews 7:23-28 Mark 10:46-52

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Our Sunday School

Summer is over, and the

children of our church

are very busy with

projects and activities!

A recent addition to the

sanctuary is a blue

fabric bin at the back

table, containing

clipboards, bags of

crayons and markers,

and activity sheets to

keep antsy children

engaged during the service. Children are encouraged to

help themselves and return the supplies when they are done.

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In September, Bob & Kathy Munson kindly hosted a big group of children and

parents at their orchard and we had a wonderful time gathering apples, making

cider, and eating some delicious treats. We were pleased to count seventeen

children in attendance! A great big thank you Bob and Kathy!

Our next event will be a community movie night on Saturday, October 24th, at 6:00

p.m. in the vestry. We will be showing a double feature: Alvin and the Chipmunks Meet Frankenstein and Alvin and the Chipmunks Meet the Wolfman. All are welcome, and costumes are encouraged! Drinks and popcorn will be provided.

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A note about Game Supper

Hi

I am looking for volunteers to serve on the buffet line at Game Supper 2015.There

are 2 shifts. 2:15-5:15 and 5:15 to closing.

Please call me at 222-9655 or email me at rsodell71@gmail.com if you are

interested.

Please think about helping out this year. We are in need of all kinds of volunteers.

If you want Game Supper to continue we must have support from you.

Thanks

Storme Odell

BAZAAR NEWS A reminder for

getting items for the

following tables: Food,

Candy, Attic

Collectables and Gifts

and Crafts.

Still need the following

for the luncheon:

5lbs onions

25lbs potatoes

20 cans creamed corn

3 gallons milk

6 quarts half/half

1 bag oyster crackers

5 large cans tuna

1 celery bunch

4 dozen eggs

4 gallons cider

2 quarts mayo

2 loaves white bread

4 loaves wheat bread

Call Maribeth if you can donate any of the above at 222-9696.

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MUSIC

The Katrina Munn Organ Recital at the Bradford United Church of Christ will

be performed by Lynnette Combs on Sunday, Nov. 1 at 4:00 P.M.

Lynnette Combs is a well-known musician in

Vermont. She is currently organist/choirmaster at Christ

Episcopal Church in Montpelier, Vermont where she also

resides. She received a degree in music from

Swarthmore College, where she studied organ with

Robert Smart. After further studies in organ performance

with Nancy Ludwig Shearer, she was organist in several

churches in Kentucky and Vermont before taking the

position at Christ Church. In 2001 she was named Artist

of the Year by the Vermont Chapter of the American Guild of Organists.

In 2013 she was a recitalist for the national convention of the Organ

Historical Society. She often has served as accompanist for choruses and soloists

and as a harpsichordist with orchestras and other ensembles. Ms. Combs has given

solo recitals throughout Vermont, and she hopes to have performed in at least 100

Vermont towns by the year 2025. She has three grown children and enjoys

libraries, hand-woven textiles and gardening.

The Katrina Munn Recital is an annual event funded by the legacy of Katrina

Munn a long-time music director to the Bradford Congregational Church. The

recital is free to the public, although freewill donations are gratefully received. The

featured instrument is a two manual and pedal tracker organ by Steven Russell in

its most recent reincarnation of 21 speaking stops with the Great Trumpet duplexed

to the pedal.

Marcia Tomlinson, Penny Perryman, Bridget Peters and Organist John Atwood

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Community Supper

It just keeps getting better and

better! Such delicious food,

such happy company. Every

fourth Wednesday we through

open the doors and our friends

and neighbors come join us for

fellowship and fine cuisine!

Just as a reminder: the Community Supper is a potluck gathering on the 4th

Wednesday of the month, 6 p.m. There is always plenty, so dont fret about forgetting to cook something. Weve all done this at least once!

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About Our Steeples, Clock, and

Church Building Part I

I have taken the information about

building our second house of worship

from an article in a special supplement

to the July 15, 1876 Bradford Opinion.

Consideration of a new building had

been contemplated for five or more

years before it was started in 1875. I

have researched our Church minutes

and cannot find the name of the

architect only that we paid $12.00 for the plans! Some have believed it

was George Guernsey who designed

churches and schools in Vermont and

New Hampshire at that time and later designed our Woods School building

(Bradford Academy). Others attribute the design to Lambert Packhard as he

designed the Congregational Church in Barton, VT, which is a mirror image of our

Church. Mr. Packhard later designed Woods Library. I have talked with the Barton

Church secretary and their church appears to have been constructed simultaneously

with ours in 1875-76. It was dedicated in September, 1876 and ours was dedicated

on July 6, 1876. The Barton church clock is not running! They have replaced the

slate roof with shingles (OKd) by the Historic Preservation group. They have also removed the balcony! At one time they installed a suspended ceiling but have since

removed it to expose the original tin one and rafters. I believe these changes were

made for energy savings. They do not have red hearts on their clock steeple! I plan

to visit this church in the summer of 2016.

Some have expressed the opinion that, as was the practice in the late 19th century,

the contractors just copied an architects design. We do know that the contractors with Mr. George W. Farr and E.R. Aldrich, Esquire were to complete a building

substantially like the design presented by Mr. Farr. As completed the main building is forty-four by seventy-five feet with an addition twenty by twenty-six

feet, but in reality all one building. The basement is under the whole and all above

ground. The Southeast tower rises 116 feet from the side to the top and 12 feet

square at the base. On the northeast corner there is another tower which rises even

with the roof ridge, is 10 feet square. The towers were both slated with red and

blue.

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All the windows except in

the basement (vestry) are

Norman Gothic style with

stained glass windows (see

photo). The windows in the

basement are common glass

with blinds (see 1901

plate). The grounds are

graded in the front from the

street so that the vestibule is

reached by six steps. From

the vestibule, six more

steps reach the main audience room (Sanctuary). At

the left of the vestibule is a coat room and at the

right is a stairway leading to a beautiful gallery over

the vestibule, seating about 100 persons, which is

lighted by a large window. The audience room

contains seventy-four slips furnished in ash and black walnut trimmings as is the

rest of the house of worship. The audience room is finished into the roof so it is

thirty-two feet from the floor to the highest point. The truss timbers are encased

and beautifully finished. The pulpit platform and singers seats are in the same end of the building, partly on the main building and addition. On one side of the

singers seats is the Pastors Study. The pews are cushioned with scarlet and the floor carpeted. Chairs are used for

singers, and the breezeway is also

in the Norman Gothic style and

was done by W. R. Rolstone of

West Lebanon, NH (see 1906 and

1909 photos).

The basement is finished into a

lecture room 36x44; dining room, kitchen 16x24, and pantries and closets. In the rear of

that is the wood room, cloak

room, water closets, etc. The building is heated by one furnace situated in the

basement with one register.

1909

1901

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New back to the outside it is painted one shade darker than pure

white, with dark drab trimmings,

the basement being painted all dark

drab (see 1901 photo). The

basement is reached by doors at

each end of the building.

Authors note: I wonder when during the 1986 renovation of the Sanctuary the dark red carpet was removed to

reveal the bare floor, that there our footprints of the altar which had been enlarged at best twice. It was very small originally. I put a sample of this red

carpet, square nails, and a 1893 newspaper found under the carpet in the archives.

Now lets go back again to the outside of the building. Well start with the Southeast tower which has the Town Clock. This clock was given on Nov. 10,

1875 to the Congregational Church Society by Charles P. Corliss. The deed is

recorded in Book 17, Page 36 in the town records. (I have a copy of this deed

which will be put in the archives) Mr. Corliss was a skilled watchmaker and

jeweler in Memphis, Tennessee at the time. He later rose to positions of

considerable responsibility with the Elgin Watch Co. He was the son and grandson

of Peletiah Corliss, Jr. and Sr. who owned the Peletiah Corliss Tavern located near

the Bradford East Corinth line and later burned. The property is now owned by the Fiske family. This clock was from the Edward Howard Clock Co., 1873. When

it was repaired in 1994, we received a detailed booklet on how to take care of it. I

will explain the use of the Roman Numeral IIII in a later Epistle probably the November issue. Below the clock the roof is slated and decorated on all four sides

with a red heart. There are several legends for these hearts they make our church unique and one of a kind the Barton church does not have them! the Sanctuary part of the roof was not slated until 1905. It was originally roofed with shakes

which, I understand, are still under the slate roof. The cost of slating the roof was

$200.10 plus freight charge of $69.50 and $109.45 for laying the slate.

For many years since the early 1990s our clock, with many others in the Upper

Valley was repaired and kept running by an artisan from West Lebanon, NH Don Lathrop, and the late Jim Perry, our Trustee, who had charge of the clock for many

years, said of him, Hes a cracker jack as quoted in the May 30, 1994 issue of The Valley News. The clock was electrified in 1967 at a cost of $1,233.

1906

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Below the clock is the church bell from the former

church building now the Old Church Theater. This bell was purchased from a bequest in 1837 from

Timothy Ayer, Jr.

On top of the Southeast tower is a gold-leafed

weather vane (see photo).

This weather vane was lowered by ropes in 1965

(see photo from The United Opinion dated April 8,

1965).

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The other decorative pieces on the roof are:

1) a finial which some believe also came from the Old

Church building. However, there is no written proof of it

being from the Old Church. I frankly doubt that it was on

the Old Church as the Barton Church has an identical one.

2) a gold-leafed Cresting. Trustee Joe Button did the

gold-leafing on the four clock faces, weather vane, and

the Cresting. Douglas McLam cut the Roman Numerals

for the 4 clock faces.

Thanks, guys!!

The work on the towers has

been done by the Randall Hoyt Co. of Chelsea, VT.

This is what the National Register of Historic Places

says about our church building:

High Victorian Italianate (Vermonter) frame, clapboarded, gable roof, steeple with clock, louvered

belfry rising to polygonal peak at southeast corner, truncated hop-roofed tower at

northeast corner, bracketed cornice projecting hoods over round arched windows,

corner quoins and pilasters on towers.

Wow, you need to be an architect to understand that!

The steeple lighting was done in 1984 as a memorial for Miriam Allen, given by

her family.

Eris Eastman, Historian

Lectionary Readings for OCTOBER