Looking back at the last decade at FBC - 2001

2001

Looking back at 2001 in the life of FBC

We built on the success of our Anniversary year by planning some very special events in 2001. The result of one such effort was the establishment of our college scholarship fund. We held an art auction in April and hosted illusionist David Reed Brown in the fall and raised over $6,000 for the cause. We established a Sports Ministry Hall of Fame and inducted Barbara Bray, Bob Duntz and Terry Dunn in as the first class along with sports ministry founders Paul Lorraine, Mark Damien and Cliff Vanase. We also bought a keyboard for the choir and Sunday School to use in their ministry.

On June 25th we canceled services at our church and moved them to Providence, Rhode Island and invited everyone to attend worship at the Biennial Meeting of the American Baptist Churches USA. We had twenty five us make the trip. We also took an active role in bringing evangelist Luis Palau to speak at a Festival at Dodd Stadium. Over 120,000 attended the event before it was over and 8,200 people gave their lives to Christ. When the events of September 11th occurred, we joined in the services and vigils held in the city as we prayed for the victims of the worst terrorist attack ever on American soil. At Thanksgiving we joined with the community in a special service at Beth Jacob Synagogue. We also participated in a series of rotating Lenten services with our sister churches in the city for a second year in a row. We also became charter members of the ecumenical church council called Norwich Churches Together.

Fred Green Sr. cooked up a roast beef dinner for the Mother- Daughter Banquet. Members of the Rose City Barbershoppers performed for the ladies. We had a pot luck supper that featured an international flavor as we hosted missionaries John and Rosemary Kane. Our youth group traveled to Providence for the Biennial meetings and also took their traditional field trips to Ski Sundown, Six Flags and the Word of Life Super Bowl. We had a good year but were sad to see Kay Lautzenheiser leave us as our youth consultant in September.

Amanda Brown was baptized and Karen and Guy Brown, Cheryl and Wayne LaMothe and Peter Kolasa all joined the church. Paige Briggs, Cody and Michael Jones and Madayln Fishkin were all dedicated in church services. I performed the wedding of Kate Strouse and Chris Canada, Don Shogren and Claire Kornatz and Bill Maynard and Pam Walberg. We also lost our oldest member, Mary Mehrholz, along with Will Willey and Bernice Rogoff to death.

We purchased a new software program to help us keep track of membership and finances at church. Two fairly new computers were donated to help with the transition. The AmeriCares Mobile Clinic continued to serve the working poor in our community by meeting in our parking lot and using our facilities.

Our average attendance in 2001 was 109 people each week. Our budget recorded $80,000 in pledges and we had commitment for $83,500 for 2002.

It was quite a year in the life of our FBC family.