Picnic for painting crew

The time will come when, with elation you will greet yourself arriving at your own door, in your own mirror and each will smile at the other's welcome,

saying, sit here. Eat. You will love again the stranger who was your self.Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart to itself, to the stranger who has loved you

all your life, whom you ignored for another, who knows you by heart. Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,

the photographs, the desperate notes, peel your own image from the mirror. Sit. Feast, feast on your life.

2000 The congregation said aye!

Present at 2002 service

Fields of new green grasses weaving in gentle winds,With nesting Bobolinks in the quiet.

The sound of a brook washing over rocks,And the song of all the coyotes surrounding you up the hill.

Music in the house you built yourself for your family.Music in the church; quiet prayer and meditation in the church;Your own words of reflection each week;

Laughter and good food at countless potlucks and parties;Times at the Pizza Oven!

All the people for whom you gave counselOr performed weddings and memorials.The difference you made to young people here.The greetings each morning as you walk into town.Welcoming hugs on Sunday.Remember all this and remember usAs we send you with blessings on the journey intothe next chapter of your life

Ministers and Christmas Past

Christmas 2014

The organ constructed by the Hutchings, Plaisted & Co. highly recongnized by the Organ Historical Society as “The Thayer Organ,” was built in 1875 for the studio of colorful Boston organist Eugene Thayer. It was restored in 1969 by Robert Newton of Andover Organ Company of Methuen, Massachusetts, and by A. D. Moore, Inc. in 2007.

It was brought via the Woodstock Railroad in1881 to the present building through the influence of Woodstock-born Samuel Whitney, notable Boston organist and composer at the Church of the Advent. It was recorded in 1959 by E. Power Biggs who debuted “Variations on America” by Charles Ives.

Known by its bright yet full sound, it can render a broad range of music with dramatic effect despite its modest size of little more than 900 pipes. This organ is to America as a Gottfried Silbermann organ is to Germany!

In Memoriam: Reverend Sa’adahHaven SpencerNeil WigglesworthEunyce SwiftTerry CopleyDon DelayDavid GatesDon MariettaRon LeonardBeverly LewisDick RandallCurt BourdonCharles EgbertNancy NyeNancy MartinAlice GouldRyland StoutLou KannensteinAnnette ComptonTrish ComptonLucille AtwoodJames ChristyGeorge SchulerKathy WendlingRick Von Unwerth

Requiem by Nancy MartinIt’s gone. Gone to a pauper’s graveWe met the truck coming outBurdened with the giant truck.The splendid body dismembered,Fettered to the truck bed.

What had you done to deserve a death like that?Had you not sheltered the small birds,Harbored a menu of grubsMade a pathway to the skyFor free spirited porcupines?And how about the famous branch?(We could not bear to watch them cut it off.We fled, the sound of the chain saw tearing At our hearts,And when we came back you were gone).

The bench where generations of children Had learned not to be afraidHad learned how to run down the slopeGrab the swing and leap off into space,The branch polished smooth by chaffing rope is gone . . .

So many memories are printed with that swingSmall children, big children, babies on daddies’ legs,Unborn babies, parents hugging tiny ones.

To make a place for weightlessnessA place to smell lilac blooms,A place to be quiet,A place to sing,A place to think,A place to feel the wind in your hairA place to come back to And now you are goneRequiem, Requiem, Aeternam

Grief’s Work by Nancy MartinReceive the SorrowGrind it in.And let the tearsWhen they begin,Flow from wellsToo deep to know;And in their flowingLet them showThe distance you haveYet to go.

Accept the loss,Let it growForce yourselfTo face it. SoFeel the pain, Absorb the ache,Learn from the sadnessHow to makeA new-felt strengthNo grief can shake.

Acknowledge angerFeel it burn,Name the hurtAnd from it learnTo share the griefAnd in the sharingFind reliefThrough other’ s callingNo loss will beBeyond our bearing

Fall 2013 Threat of escalating Syrian involvement Demonstration

Dance in worship, a worship service integrating dance with Peg Brightman, choreographer. Choreographer Peggy Brightman is currently rehearsing with a group of six local dancers to prepare for a special June 23 service, which will integrate three dances into a worship service, led by Rev. Daniel Jantos, assisted by Dian Mellinger, music director and the choir. Brightman’s choreography will include Signs from Earth, (based on a sign language interpretation of an ancient Buddhist prayer,) Simple Gifts – a Shaker dance set to music by Aaron Copland, and Wondrous Love, a joyful dance inspired by the images of saints, carved on the portals of Gothic cathedrals

A festive and original Solstice dance will feature the Moving Spirit Vermont Dancers at NUCS with guest speaker Robert Hanson, long time sixth grade teacher with the Pomfret Schools. The service will celebrate and explore the night sky of the solstice season. With Rob Hanson in the pulpit and dance, music and poetry interwoven throughout. The service will open with a joyful new dance to music by Handel, with the five dancers carrying candles down the aisles to bring light into the sanctuary. The second dance plays homage to the brutal force of winter set to Sting”s evocative song “Cold Song.” The concluding dance of celebration, “River Hymn,” is set to recorded music by noted Vermont composer cellist Eugene Friessen. Moving Spirit –Vermont is an ensemble of five dancers directed and choreographed by Peggy Brightman; they have presented special dance services with original new choreography on five different occasions. The dancers of of Moving Spirit Vermont include Nicole Conte, Jenny Glefan, Suzy Malerich, Gina Sonne, and Hope Yeager. The dancers draw from rich and diverse backgrounds in social dance, modern dance, ballet, and musical comedy.

Power Pair

Alexandra “Finn” McFarland, 18, and Anna Ramsey 18 Woodstock, VT

Anyone who assumes teenage girls would rather spend their time taking selfies than helping others hasn’t met Alexandra McFarland and Anne Ramsey. In 2011, as ninth graders, Finn and Anna volunteered to deliver produce to Woodstock”s local food pantry through the non-profit Change the World Kids.While there they noticed the pantry did not have any fresh veggies. In tenth grade they hit on the idea of a root cellar.

17 Yards of cow manure get dumped on the grass

Hay placed on the manure and then the cardboard

Right: Dirt and compostHave been put down On top of the card-board. The laborious job of digging layers to plant the plants

Below right:Anne and Sarah after the last plant has beenPlanted.

PPlacing the river stones on the paths

Anne placing stones for the Yin Yang symbol

Flourishing garden mid-summer

Anne, Tessa & Kuba placing stones on path

Early fall before the first harvest

Anne and Sharon harvesting herbs

The work crew with RossersNew Iberia, Louisiana

Memories of our work trip to Louisiana 2005

Seth LibbyDonna DurginMike Backman

Dasha, LynnTerra, Frankie& Marissa

Ralph Lancaster Donna Durgin

“Home”New Iberia, LA Ralph Lancaster

Mark Libby

Daniel with Donna Durgin Ralph, Donna, Daniel, Mike and SethKaren Rosser, Mary Waugh

The “Big Project”A new kitchen for theRossers

Fortifying ourselves with a food mart breakfastBefore heading off to our first clean up job

Our first clean up job The last wheelbarrow full of trash for the day

What a trash moving team!After the front yard was cleaned a very happy grandfather demonstrated his sword skills for us.

The owners provided Dunkin Donuts The home we worked to remodel A welcome lunch break

At work cleaning up debris A job well done by the clean up crew. Now to rebuild

The clean up crew, builders, and owner of the homes A feast prepared for us by the family

A roofFor thePizza oven

Joby: Anne Dean Award, Sustainable WoodstockNorwood: Sustainable Woodstock Education Award fddd

2015Spring-Summer

Oneness group 2015

Perma garden grant

____Check in with yourself to see that you are having enough “fun”

The 14th item on the Checklist for Coordinating the Christmas Eve Program 2012 I continue to check in with myself, Thanking you.

Photos taken during lunch break at Artistree during the story telling workshop

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Brenda