Looking Back on the Decade - 2005

2005

A Sabbatical and a year of celebrations

We opened the year with the celebration of Adele's 25th anniversary at the church. We roasted her a bit and had some fun with it. We sang her favorite anthem and her favorite hymns. We reflected on her ministry among us and showed our appreciation for her with several very nice gifts at the reception that followed.

In June we marked my 20th anniversary. The church also sent me away on a sabbatical leave. For ten weeks I traveled to New York, Denver and Chicago studying the different aspects of worship styles in the church. Guest preachers while I was away included Rev. Burt Crooks, Kay Lautzenheiser, Rev. Earl Henrichon, Dr. Vaughn Foster, John Fear and Jim Bober.

We hosted the Eastern College Choir again and also put together our own cantata for Christmas. We put our Wednesday night services on hold in the Fall and used our Praise Team more regularly in worship services. We also opened the doors of our church to a Korean congregation led by pastor Daniel Song.

Heating oil began to rise and Rev. Sheldon Keller of Central Baptist approached us about coming together for worship during the winter months to conserve energy. At the end of the year we voted to worship with Central Baptist for the eight weeks in January and February of 2006.

We held our Sunday School picnic at Fort Shantock for the first time and everyone liked it a lot. Our youth group traveled to Six Flags and the Trail of Terror. We also did another of other fun things. We sent out care packages for our college students again. Brian Goldin and Ken Kreger served as co-managers of the softball team and Fred Green was the 2005 MVP. Ken Kreger's Team # 6 won the Bowling Championship and newcomer Chip Welch set a record with his 288 game and 784 series. James Brown took over as co-ordinator of the Basketball program and had help from Assistant Coach Julio Sanchez.

We hosted the SUNL Association Fall meeting and I was asked to step into the leadership rotation of ABCCONN. I began serving as Vice President in 2005. George W. Strouse was the moderator at First Baptist and Fran Rogers served as the clerk. Bob Sullivan took on the job of Treasurer and George Rezendes became the Financial Secretary. Sandy Stone was elected the Sunday School Superintendant in the Fall.

Pat Bubenicek, Linda Wolinski, Gary Schuster and Ken Taylor become members of the church. Chelsea Weimer, Connor Fishkin, William Ambruso and Joe Contois III were all dedicated. I married Alden Peckham and Kathy Keeney and assisted in the wedding of Timothy Rezendes and Karin Hoffer. We said good bye to George H. Strouse Jr., Erwin Diehl, Grace Latham, Bob Buchowiecki and Les Main. We also gave Carol McMillan a letter of transfer.

Our average attendance at worship in 2005 was 93. We took in a total of $170,240 and had pledges of 96,350. Sandy Callendar left us as Church secretary and moved to the west coast. We hired Sandy Stone to take her place. We also used Sue Kenyon to give us some additional custodial hours.

Cal