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| Brian McDonald rings the bell at 2013 celebration |
We also remembered the challenges of that building and how we ended up here. As Nell Allen had told me in an email:
“We moved to the area in summer 1980 and began attending then. At that time it was well established that services ran thru the summer but were on hiatus from Christmas until Easter…. (That did not benefit any struggling RE program, though. ) .. Sunday services from Thanksgiving thru Christmas were held in the afternoon so the church would have all day to “warm up.” ..[members] who tended the stoves would go down early spending all morning and afternoon there. ... No one felt safe starting the fires and leaving the building.”
On Wednesday we gathered again to tell our own stories about the congregation. We first gathered in 2014, and still have the notes from that gathering hung over on the windows there, with updates when we gathered again in 2018, and this week.
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| Destiny and Barry remember their wedding at the Sheshequin meeting house |
It was at that first gathering that Sigrid remembered that in the 1970s we were a small congregation of mostly elders, 16 at the most, so when the Allen family joined in 1985 with their 4 children, it was the beginning of a new era and a jumpstart to the Sunday school. That’s when Jill and Karen and their kids joined the congregation.
Nell also mentioned in that email:
“… at some point (perhaps very late 1980s) the insurance company let us know that they would not be able to insure the building should we continue use of the stoves.” The ad hoc team who had been looking for a new location with heat and running water settled found this building in Athens, which was being sold by the Christian Scientists. Jill tells us the team didn’t realize it had been previously owned by the Unitarians who built the building decades before until they did the title search. The building was purchased on March 15, 1991, 32 years ago this month.[i]
A Service of Rededication was held on Saturday, September 14, 1991. The Annual report tells us that “Members of the congregation gave happily of their time and talents to clean, decorate and bake for the big event. Chrysanthemums and luminaries graced the entrance to the church; large arrangements of fresh flowers flanked the pulpit. The service, while incorporating greetings from former ministers and various denominational groups, was primarily based on the seven principles of the UUA. The Rev. Harry Thor (The minister at that time who had served as the minister of the Binghamton Church (1963-1980), and came to serve the Sheshequin church part time in his retirement[ii] ) led the service. After he spoke briefly about a principle, a trumpet sounded and a banner of the principle was brought forward by the youth of the church as the congregation sang a song appropriate to the principle. The service was simple yet moving. An open house followed.”
Bob Allen was president of the congregation for 15 years, and brought us into leadership of the Trustees of the Pennsylvania Universalist Convention. Bob and John McDonald build the chalice stain glass window using tiles from an old window. Don Riker commissioned the plaque below it. Perhaps you’ve noticed a crack in one pane. Bob said it was a “crack of humility.”
Bob was also a pilot, and when the plane he was flying crashed, killing him, the whole community was crushed. Memorial services were held at Redeemer and at UUCAS. It was that service that first brought Katie to visit our church- Chris had been visiting for a short time already. When Katie heard Rev. Thor speak, she was moved by his message and has been here ever since.
After Harry Thor’s retirement a student minister, Janelle Curlin-Taylor came to be our intern. This was a tumultuous time for the church, and when Janelle left the church was in a time of conflict.
We entered a period with no paid minister, and strong lay leaders emerged. Nell Allen served as president and church administrator for many years until just before I arrived. In 1999 we started the “Earth Day Fair” in our parking lot to bring the values of sustainability to the larger community, which became an annual event.
Lee Richards, a student minister, served this congregation from 1999 to 2002. During this time our nursery was a lively, welcome place, Lee mentioned once from the pulpit “the sound of a happy child” in the nursery. Ginna wrote about this time: “Lee Richards came in like a breath of joy while we are in mourning. He brought in the Unitarian part of UU, not just Universalism. He brought in a kaleidoscope [and displayed it in the sanctuary]. In 2002 Lee declined to renew his contract after his third year. Conflicts lingered in the congregation.
During all these ups and downs we have had the incredible good luck of having dedicated, talented keyboard players at this church. Even when ministers came and went, we had a familiar face at the keyboard leading us in music. Marion Jones played from 1973 until 2002 when Katie Replogle took over, and Katie has been our church pianist ever since.
In January 2003 we hired Rev. (Jace) Kahn, a trained Interim minister, who brought a great deal of healing to the church. Our ties to the district and to the UUA were strengthened. We became a fair share congregation and a leading giver to the UUSC. (Just this past year we were acknowledged 25+ Honor Congregation
For Participation in the Annual Program Fund)[iii] In 2003 we made Rev. John Trowbridge (who served this church for 21 years! from 1964-1985) our Minister Emeritus. By the time Jace completed his 2 year interim ministry, we were in a much stronger, healthier place.
In 2004, when the Towanda church closed (for the first time), Alice Hardenberg joined our congregation. Alice was passionately outspoken about transgender rights, an activist and an educator everywhere she went. In 2005 the church was delighted to call The Rev. Ann Marie Alderman to be our first settled minister since Harry Thor. She encouraged us become a “Welcoming Congregation” -- to do the inner and outer work necessary to truly welcome the GLBT community. For a couple of our members this was too much of a challenge, and a few folks left, but for the majority who stayed, this was a powerful transformation and “welcoming congregation” became an important part of our sense of identity.
When Ann Marie told us she had accepted a full time position at another church, there was great sadness. The time after her departure called on all the strength of our lay leaders. It was Genevieve and Marion who started calling this the “little church that could” and posted this moto in the social hall.
During that year of lay leadership, I had been invited to preach once a month while you were in your search. When the church was not able to find a match through the search process, they asked me if I would come preach for another year, or maybe be a consulting minister. I said what I really wanted was to be your minister, to be called and settled. So even though I’d been preaching here for a year, we diligently followed the official process from start to finish with interviews and packets and finally a congregational vote to call me as your minister in spring 2008.
When I arrived you had a very strong lay worship leader program, which lasted right up through Covid- though the minister preached 20 services, the other 22 were led by the lay team, even in the summer. I’d be curious when this began, but I know in part it was due to the intrepid leadership of Chris Eng who chaired the team for over 15 years, and perhaps the strong involvement of church members in the toastmaster’s program that supported a group of experienced speakers.
When Nick and I first came to visit your halls were once again full of the noise of children, so full that we had to create a policy about children in church. These conversations led us to apply for and receive a Chalice Lighter’s grant, with which we hired our first professional religious educator, Josh Wilbur, who was followed by Aileen Fitzke, Lindsey Smith and Maggie Belokur.
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| 2015 Coming of Age Retreat |
That 2008-9 year was a busy year for us- full of plans and seeds being planted. After a yearlong congregation-wide process to discern how we would serve the larger community, we decided on “Feed a Friend” where we would grow our own fresh organic produce to donate to local food banks. When Project Grow launched in 2011 under the leadership of Destiny Kinal, it was clear that the missions of the two initiatives were closely aligned, and we ended Feed a Friend, and put our energy into collaborating with and supporting Project Grow.
2009 was a big recession, and we weren’t sure how we could ask people to contribute to our pledge drive with such economic uncertainty[iv]. So we came up with a pledge celebration that honored our diverse gifts- thus began the potluck and open mic tradition that lasted for over a decade. For many years the open mic, the Christmas service and many Sundays include the always sometimes silly, sometimes soulful choir, lead by Karen Ream and then the Uke Group lead by Katie Replogle.
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| John Dosher speaks at a CSN event |
In the fall of 2010 during a conversation about global warming we decided to charter a Green Sanctuary Team. Our work with CSN and Project Grow were part of a plan that included a full assessment of the energy efficiency of this building, and a series of improvements thanks in large part to the tireless efforts of Jane Land. Our plan included classes and workshops and sermons, and a covenant of sustainable purchasing and use. The Doschers were an important part of this work. We quickly blew past all our goals, but it took some time to sit down and write up all we had done. Finally we submitted
our write up, and in the summer of 2017 we were recognized as a Green Sanctuary Congregation.[v]
In 2011 a flood immobilized the Valley. The rains came down hard on Thursday, and by the time the streets were clear on Saturday we had to pass through a National Guard checkpoint on the way to the church to assess and repair the damage. Volunteers filled the parking lot sanitizing and drying the contents of our basement. Sunday we worshiped without power, without potable water. At coffee hour, Diane and Maggie wondered how we could be of more help to our neighbors. We held an emergency board meeting, and decided to open our building to folks who just needed to use a restroom, or a clean place to rest. The next day we began serving a hot lunch and all were welcome to join us in the social hall. Other volunteers delivered sandwiches to people who didn’t want to leave their work salvaging their homes or businesses. For weeks we fed and cared for our neighbors until the crowds died down, and our work helping repair the damage of the flood continued in other ways.
In 2014 our newest members, Mike and Judy, proposed the idea of hosting a trivia night at the church as a benefit to community organizations. The first Trivia night was held fall of 2014, and was a big success, offered monthly right up through 2020, raising needed funds for the Bradford County Humane society and other community organizations.
In 2014 you offered the first sabbatical this congregation had ever given a minister. During that time you showed you were still the “little church that could.” You taught a class on Ethics. You brought in a trainer from Dickenson College to teach you how do water testing to monitor our local creeks. And it was during this time that it became legal in Pennsylvania for same gender couples to marry. The very week I came back from sabbatical, Our members received the 1st and 3rd licenses in the county, and we celebrated these unions with great joy.
It might have been 2018 when we first hosted a community meal at Athens Methodist Church. I had been looking for ways we could partner with our neighbors, and reported what I found to the board. When Judy Moore heard about the opportunity to feed hungry people, her energy and enthusiasm were a force of nature. She got so many folks out to help with our first meal we could barely all fit in the kitchen. Just this month we did our most recent meal, and the community knows us now by our aprons and our delicious dinners.
In 2016 under the leadership of Marcia Kesten, the board decided to respond to the UUA national call for support of the BLM movement by creating and hanging an BLM banner. Though members of this congregation had [vi] been committed to racial justice since 2009-10 the controversy about the banner created a sense of urgency and brought the conversation about how we should respond to systemic racism to the center of our congregation. The primary resistance was knowing that we lived in a conservative valley, and fearing that there could be real risk to our building, or to our safety. Jill remembered a time when the KKK burned crosses on the land adjacent to hers- these were not hypothetical worries. For over a year we engaged in difficult and powerful conversations, and formed the Anti Racism team. One of our favorite projects of this time was partnering in hosting a world café here in our sanctuary with the amazing activists and community organizers form Mother’s helping Mothers in Elmira.
In July of 2021 we received the Eugene O Picket award from the UUA for our work in the community- our fundraising, our service, our anti-oppression work, and for “being a beacon of justice” in our conservative rural area. Our award letter says “Small rural congregations like yours save lives in places where it matters. Please know that you are seen and appreciated by the wider UUA. With deep gratitude for your faithful ministry.”
When we gathered here Wednesday to tell the story of us, we filled 2 hours and many easel pages and ran out of time. Over these past 200 years hundreds, hundreds of people have been part of this church, have been part of our story. The story is too big to tell it all in one morning, but I want you to know that each and every one of you is an important part of this story. Even as the story continues, it is important to look back over our journey together, to begin to tell the story of who we are as a congregation. To celebrate all that we have been to one another, to our community and to the UU world.
End Notes:
[i] A Service of Re-dedication was held on Saturday, September 14, 1991 at 7:30 p.m.
[ii] He served our congregation for 7 years from 1989-1996.
[iii] Su tells us we are 1 of 133 congregations in the country and one of 8 in PA, with this designation!
[iv] From the 2009 pledge letter “First, the Board has agreed to offer this guarantee to all who pledge; if you lose your job during the coming year, we will refund all the contributions you have made to that point in the 2009-10 pledge year. This is one way that we as a community can reduce anxiety and uncertainty as we plan for the future.”
[v] This was proposed at the 11/2/10 Global Warming Action meeting. Attendees: Darcey, Doug, JC, John, Aurelio, Carol, Katie, Jack, Chris, Aileen. The minutes say: ‘Tonight’s group agreed to propose to the Board that we charter a Green Sanctuary team.”
First GS team meeting was held 12/5/10
Letter from UUA accepting candidacy dated 11/13/12
Submitted 2017, approved over the summer 2017
[vi] 2011-12 annual report “As part of becoming a truly welcoming congregation I promised to continue learning about anti-racism/anti-oppression and to consider how to tie this work into UUCAS and our institutional structure”
2009-10 annual report:
"I Invite our congregation to consider how they might become an anti-oppressive institution...
Participants from the “Weaving the Fabric” class presented recommendations to the Board of Trustees. The board has adopted a couple of future steps, and referred other actions to the worship team and YRE committee. This will require some consistent attention to make sure we continue to make steady progress on this issue. The Board has asked the Committee on Ministry to also give ongoing attention to this area.”
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