A busy Sunday morning

On Sunday morning we continued our series of sermons based on the book of Romans. The Praise team led us in singing "Awesome God" and "Put Your Hand in the Hand." Casey, Timothy and Karin Rezendes were in church after coming home to celebrate their dad's birthday. We also saw a slide show from Vacation Bible School as worship began.

After church 18 people stayed for the Quarterly meeting. We heard reports from many of the officers and committee chairs. The Pastor noted that we will exploring Rick Warren's book, "The Purpose Driven Life" this fall in worship and in Bible study. We will also hold a Homecoming Sunday in October. He announced that he was going to be away for eight days in September to go and visit his daughter, Sarah, in Australia.

We looked at the financials and it appears everything is proceeding on course. We are slightly behind in our pledge giving but not enough to make a difference. Our Clerk, Betsey Adams, reported that we have welcomed four new members this year and lost two by death. Sandy Stone sent along a report on a successful Children's Day program and picnic.

It was noted that the flower committee had done a nice job of landscaping again this year in preparation for the Norwich in Bloom contest. Pete Adams noted that the property committee had been very busy. The scholarship committee reported that Melissa Ingoglia was this year's recipient.

The Pastor brought us up to speed with a number of things going on in ABCCONN including some personnel changes. Carole Freehan, the face of ABCCONN for nearly forty years is retiring this summer. Kevin Butler, our Minister of Camps and Conferencing has also tendered his resignation. It was also noted that we have four members on the Pierce Home Board of Trustees, Bob Sullivan, June Deptulski, Bob Booth and the Pastor. George Rezendes is now on the Camp Wightman Committee for ABCCONN and Curt Brockway is on the Department of Business and Finance.

Under old business we distributed some sketches of the proposed kitchen and discussed what has been done and the plan for what happens next. The project is going out to bid right now. We will hire someone to come in and gut the kitchen and rewire and repipe the space. Then they will install new sheetrock walls and put in a new floor and subfloor. There were some questions concerning the dishwasher and the extent of use of the old men's bathroom. It was also noted that some other projects could be wrapped into a capital campaign this fall. We are looking at feasibility of changing over to heating by natural gas and buying new furnaces. We also are looking to upgrade the sound and video in the sanctuary. More information will be forthcoming.

We also spoke about the letter we receive from Central Baptist this spring concerning the merger talks. They voted to put them on hold until at least two years after a settled pastor has been called. We agreed this was wise. There was a question about worship this coming winter. Now that the pressure of a merger was off, we were asked if we would still consider joint worship in an effort to save on heating oil? The pastor will speak with Pastor Michelle and raise that question. We will put it on the agenda for the September meeting.

The meeting was adjourned at 11:35 a.m.

Cal