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Taking Care

THE STEWARDSHIP BIWEEKLY of The First Religious Society in Newburyport
May 8, 2009
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Deadline for submission for the next issue of Taking Care is Friday, May 15, 2009

 

 

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Did You Know?

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Facts about our OWL (Our Whole Lives) facilitators

  • They talk about sexuality, values, relationships, and gender issues with our eighth graders.
  • They have each devoted an entire weekend to attend an intensive (and we mean intensive) training.
  • They arrive at approximately 9:30 and stay until 12:30 every Sunday morning, January through May (yes, they miss the worship service).
  • They put together lesson plans during the week.
  • They are always on the lookout for appropriate resources to share with their class.
  • They research and craft answers to questions that youth ask in class.
  • They respond to parents' concerns.
  • Most important of all, they build relationships with the youth and create an environment in which it is safe to ask questions and discuss sensitive issues.

Our OWL facilitators provide a crucial ministry to our youth, empowering them with knowledge and discernment skills. Please be sure to thank an OWL facilitator today: David Chatfield, Donna Johnson, Peter Litwin, Annie Madden, and Judy Shivik. Better yet, thank them all. They are truly making a difference in the lives of our youth.

 

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The Hosts with the Mosts

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Thank you to Jay Iannini, Rebecca Brodish, Sarah Spalding, and Tim Fountain for hosting a wonderful party at the Iannini-Brodish home for Young Church parents on the night of the Variety Show. A splendid time was had by all!

And thank you to our intrepid childcare providers for the evening, Anne Verret-Speck and Forrest Speck, assisted by Laela Bisgrove and Brian Culllinan, who by all accounts ran a swell show.

 

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Pure Gold

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On Sunday, May 10, we as a religious community will honor a group of longtime stewards of our music program that brings so much beauty to our worship: singers who have retired from the Sunday Choir.

Music has always been and continues to grow as an important part of FRS. It's hard to imagine our church service without it. "Our church has always had a strong choral tradition," says Bettina Turner, chair of the Music Committee, "and it's important to remember that we are in a long line of people who have contributed to that tradition."

Betty Gillette, who organized and led the FRS's first choir from 1956 to 1963, says she enjoyed every minute of those years. Betty well remembers the quartet that predated the organization of the choir: at one time three of the four singers were her relatives, including her grandmother.


Barbara Owen, our second choir director (and organist), led the choir from 1963 to 2002. Barbara recalls that when she started there were only about nine people in the choir, including Roxie Kalashian and Vinny and Hope Wood, soon joined by Beth Cawley. Considering there were usually only forty to fifty people in the pews back then, it was a big choir.

Barbara says she's always admired the dedication of the choir, committing time to rehearsals both Thursday nights and Sunday mornings. "Choir members are the most faithful FRSers; they're just pure gold."

Please join us Sunday, May 10, in our celebration to honor much of the choir's really pure gold. There will be special Coffee Hour to celebrate the contributions of:

 

Bob Allison

Marj Babcock

Dawn Bennett

Beth Cawley

Laurie Christiansen

Betty Gillette

Blake Hughes

Ruth Hughes

Janet Kalashian

Roxie Kalashian

Marge Killam

Barry Kray

Steve Krusemark

Judy McGregor

Ed Metcalf

Richard Ouellette

Barbara Owen

Edith Patankar

Mary Rizzo

Max Russell

Nancy Sullivan

Sylvia Tattersall

Vinny Wood

 

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Good Stewardship Tastes Good, Too

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Big ThankYou's to Jon Roberts and family for their generosity - the soups and breads and desserts at the Soup Sundays.

 

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How Shall We Know One Another?

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The entire concept of stewardship depends on an underlying concept of community, in our case "the beloved community" that we so often cite. A small church innately presents this sense of community, but when a church gets to be a mid-size or even large, its members have to work harder to maintain a sense of a unified community. Frequently, people in a church grown larger find themselves asking themselves, "Who are all these people I don't know?" The only useful response to this sense on non-community is more and more communication, and we think we've found a badly needed form of that communication - a new membership directory.

For the first time in a decade, the FRS has engaged a professional firm, Olan-Mills, to photograph us and publish a membership directory. A copy of that directory will be available for each person or family that is photographed to appear in it. The church will also receive some extra copies to give to new members. This directory service will come at no cost to the church, since Olan-Mills benefits by selling copies of the photos to those who want them. Each person or family sitting for a photo receives one 8"x10" color photo at no charge.

We have scheduled five photo days with Olan-Mills, two this June and three next October. The two in June are on Friday, June 12, from 3:00 to 9:30 p.m., and on Saturday, June 13, from 9:30 a.m. until deep into the afternoon. All sittings will take place in the Lower Meetinghouse. To sign up for the June sittings, please put your name on one of the appointment lists at the sign-up tables in the church vestibule and in the Parish Hall.
The FRS has engaged Olan-Mills representatives to do all the calling related to these photo sittings, so if there are still openings in the schedule a week or two before the sittings, a representative of Olan-Mills may call you to see if you would be available. Also, these representatives will be calling with reminders to those who have signed up.

We can know each other and be stewards to this church, its community, and each other only if we make ourselves known. So plan to do so through this version of the FRS church directory.

 

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Canvass Report

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Although the every-member canvass did not raise the amount projected, the figures below should be seen for the positive success that they are. At this challenging economic moment -- and even with a 6% decline in number of households pledging -- members of the FRS raised their giving by more than $3,000. Furthermore, the significant increase in the median pledge number shows a real advance in the giving at the middle of our pledging. Such an advance bodes well for the FRS when the economy stabilizes.

 

 

2008

2009

Pledge Units

283

266

Median Pledge

600.00

890.00

Average Pledge

1,163.00

1,201.35

Total of Pledges

316,335.00

319,559.00

 

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Let Us Know What You Think

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Send suggestions for Taking Care to any one of these:
     Bill Heenehan, Finance Committee Chair, w.heenehan@chgstrategies.com
     Peter Cullinan, 2009 Canvass Leader, p.cullinan@comcast.net
     John Mercer, Administrator, frsuu@netway.com

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Previous Issues of Taking Care
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February 2, 2009   February 13, 2009   February 25, 2009   March 14, 2009     April 3, 2009