The End of an Era?

“Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight,O LORD, my strength and my Redeemer.”                                      Psalm 19

These past weeks we have been dissembling our Estey Organ, built in 1906, and purchased the same year the sanctuary of the Brown Church was established. We have been separating wooden pipes from metal pipes, reclaiming and recycling them properly. In the process, it’s easy to recall the “sweet sound” of the Estey which had, not ornamental pipes on its front (like most organs), but pipes which played “stereo-like”, an innovation for its time. The organ was built in Brattleboro, Vermont by Jacob Estey who, though originally trained as a plumber, reinvented himself by creating organs for small sanctuaries that sounded more like the grand organs of much bigger churches. He did this by “turning pipes in on them- selves”, thus creating a sound twice as full as the pipe length. It was a state-of-the-art instrument of its day. The organ fostered a church community known for its choirs and musical programs.

Our congregation, which first gathered on Main Street in Conway Village, was created by people who saw slavery as an evil against humanity, necessitating their separation from a church community that did not! They were creating a new community of faith. It was a forward thinking, moral, innovative church looking to provide a thoughtful, faith sharing environment which could help others examine their faith in new ways. They believed they could make a difference by sharing their insights within the community which made up the Mount Washington Valley.

Some will say that the removal of the Estey marks the “end of an era”. Yet, the same reality our original community of faith faced we face today. Going for- ward, we ask ourselves:

How is God asking us to Change?

What is God asking us to Become 

as We continue to Serve our Community?

The question before us this year is not what the Covid-19 pandemic, and the December flooding, has taken from us. The question we need to answer is how God is challenging us to share our faith. Are we to be tied down by old traditions, customs, routines, assumptions, perceptions, anxieties? Or are we being released to be the imaginative community of faith we have always been in our 118 years of witness? Our Pledge Program this year will be more interac- tive and imaginative, representing how our community of faith has always functioned.

The 19th Psalm ends with King David singing and asking God to make him transformational, in every word he speaks, and, in every deed, he performs; David seeks to be an instrument of Divine Spirit. We continue this request as we create a new era for the Conway Village Church.

Yours in faith,
Rev. John Hughes