Litchfield Presbyterian

A Note from Pastor Steve Quinlan

Ancient Church records indicate that “At a meeting at the house of the widow Parker in Litchfield on Monday the 20th day of February A.D. 1809… members of the Church of Christ, but of different societies and denominations … expressed their mutual and sincere desires by the peace of God, and with a humble reliance upon spiritual aid, to unite in and form a Church, under gospel regulations, in this town…”  And so they “united in and formed one body under Presbyterian government, gave to each other the right hand of fellowship and engaged to endeavor as God should enable them by his grace to conduct toward each other as brethren in the Lord.”  Thus was formed the Litchfield Presbyterian Church.

It is no small thing for a congregation to continue to worship and serve in one place for 200 years.  In grateful recognition of our spiritual forbears and with renewed commitment to our future ministry in this community and beyond, the Session of the Litchfield Community Church, Presbyterian has proclaimed 2009 A.D. as a year of celebration of our church’s bi-centennial anniversary as a Presbyterian congregation!

The Bi-centennial year will be celebrated with many special events and the inauguration of several forward-looking ministries.  To help us enjoy this wonderful celebration to the fullest, a Bi-centennial Planning Committee is forming right now!  Under the leadership of Pastor Steve Quinlan, the committee will consider and plan a full year of celebrations.  If you would like to be part of the planning process and join this special committee, please speak with Pastor Steve at worship, or contact him at 603-424-6057 or 540-2332.  Come join the celebration!

In Christ,
Pastor Steve Quinlan

Deacons’ Report

Summer is over, the kids are back in school and the Deacons begin to plan for their fall/winter activities.  I don’t know about you, but I’m not exactly sure where the summer went.  It seems like I have blinked and summer was gone.  Thanks to Pastor Steve, the food pantry was up and running two mornings a week and we thank him for helping us with the food distribution.  We have many people to thank for keeping the pantry stocked as well.  It’s a good feeling to know that when our supplies diminish that we are able to replenish them with the generosity of our church members and other community organizations.  Your donations are greatly appreciated.  With today’s economy and the high gas prices, I’m sure we will have more families in need of our services.

Harvest Dinner

The Deacons would like to invite you all to our Annual Harvest Dinner, which will be held on October 25, 2008 at 5:30 PM.  The Deacons will be making a complete turkey dinner with all the fixings.  We’ll be serving roast turkey, my “famous” stuffing, mashed potatoes, squash, cranberry sauce and rolls. All are welcome to come and share in good food and great fellowship.  Last year Stephanie Couture shared her trip to Europe with a great slide show presentation.  There is no charge for this dinner – all we ask is that you bring a dessert to share.  If we’re lucky, Peter and Kristel will make their “famous apple crisp”, and of course bring along Thomas Leland Dobratz so that we can all spoil him.  This annual dinner event is our way of thanking you for all your help and support throughout the year.  We cannot do all that we do without your help and support along the way.  Please come and bring your family members and friends.  We promise you a great meal, good fellowship and a few laughs.  I don’t know if I can top my “mashed potato fling”, and you never know what I will do next.  So please mark your calendar for October 25 and bring your appetites.

Other Upcoming Events

In addition to the Harvest Dinner, the Deacons have set their fall/winter schedule of events.  On November 22 we will be handing out the Thanksgiving baskets from 9 AM to 1 PM.  We are blessed that St. Francis of Assisi helps us tremendously by donating complete Thanksgiving dinner for each family.  We supplement the turkey dinner with other essentials to fill out the food baskets.  This is truly a community event and we thank St. Francis for their generous donation.  Right after Thanksgiving we will put up our Angel Tree for the children of the families we support.  There will be an angel for each child, along with the age and sex of the child as well as a few suggestions for gifts.  There will be a sign up sheet where you can pick an angel, buy a gift or gifts for that child and return it to the church no later than the morning of December 19.  On December 19 we will gather all the donations from Toys for Tots from Barry Bean and the donations from his workplace, as well as the donations from Keith Vessels and Romano’s, and bag all the toys and donations for each child.  I was absolutely blown away my first year as a Deacon to see the angel gifts grow from mountains of toys and other gifts into literally large trash bags arranged all around the church Sanctuary and spilling into the pews.  It truly is a sight to behold.  Linda Peeples and Lorraine Jordan are a well oiled machine when it comes to the distribution of gifts for the angels.  They have the system down pat and I applaud their organization for the monumental undertaking.  Stephanie Couture has chosen the Deacons as her high school community project and trust me, she will be working hard that day and throughout the year as she helps the Deacons with the Food Pantry, Thanksgiving and Christmas baskets, the Angel Tree and any other project we will find for her to help us with out community outreach.  If you would like to volunteer your time and energy by helping the Deacons, just speak with any Deacon.  We appreciate any and all help throughout the year.  So give us a hand, you’ll be glad you did.

The Deacons meet on the first Monday of the month at 7 PM in the church office (the house directly across the street from the church).
In His Service,
Marge Dabrowski

The Music NOTE

Hello everyone! This is your organist, Chris Pelonzi, attempting to proclaim the musical happenings at Litchfield Community Church Presbyterian.  First, the choir has started up again at last!  Second, the music has been planned through to Thanksgiving.  And lastly, the request for any special music or musical events or suggestions is more than welcome.  Nonetheless, the choir is in need of new members.

The choir at Litchfield Community Church Presbyterian is a small choir that aids worship every Sunday with Anthems and music in concurrence with the pastor’s teaching.  The commitment is ONLY two days a week: one practice on Thursday night and one service on Sunday morning.  The only exceptions to this small commitment are Christmas and Easter.  On those holidays, extra practices may be held before and/or after service on Sundays.  Other than that, the commitment of being a choir member is almost too easy to pass up.  ‘What are the requirements?’ you may be asking.  Well, there are none.  I understand that not everyone can read music or understand music, or that they might even want to.  The choir is meant to be an exciting, fun, and a more intimate way of showing your affection for Jesus in the service.  The choir spends its time on becoming closer to one another and God in song.  As it is said, ‘Singing is praying twice!’ (Anonymous).  So, with that in mind, we welcome all people into the choir whether they have a musical background or not.  I do offer help with music or lessons to anyone who wishes to learn more about either singing, theory, or playing music.  I usually start the choir with some kind of introductory lesson on music and its theory, so there is always a constant development of skills and knowledge.  I hope to see as many people at choir as can fit.  The next agenda item is the music selections.

The music during the service is chosen by the Pastor, myself, and members of the Faith committee in accordance with the theme of the Pastor’s sermon (another perk to being on choir, one reserves the right to suggest hymns or anthems or disagree with the ones chosen).  I know the music that has been chosen for the times ahead is not going to be easy for the choir.  The best solution for this situation is an increase in the number of voices and the recruitment of an official director.  This would make the choir much more stable when it comes to a fourteen-page piece.  This is not to say that the choir cannot handle itself without a director; they certainly can.  However, if someone was willing to be the head of the choir and lead them for me, that would make the sound more unified.  I thank anyone and everyone for supporting us and welcome anyone with any suggestions or requests for that position.

Finally, the last subject to cover is the special music requests or suggestions.  We are happy to hear the requests of anyone’s favorite hymn or piece.  We would be more than happy to fit these suggestions into the upcoming services.  Also, if the person who suggested a piece also wishes to join the choir for that one piece, please feel free to do so.  You are always welcome at our table.  Thank you so much!
ADDENDUM: There was one piece I forgot, the ‘thoughts and reactions’ piece.  If anyone has any special requests or ideas for an event at which the choir would be of service, please do not hesitate to send us notification.  For example, if anyone would like us to perform a concert for fundraising in the church, please notify us as soon as possible.  We were thinking that a musical night or a night of music performances would be a possible fundraiser.  If there are any thoughts, suggestions, or reactions to such an idea, please do not hesitate to contact me, Chris Pelonzi.  My contact information is on the back of every bulletin each Sunday. Thank you so much once again.

Quilt Raffle

We are very excited about our raffle quilt this year.  It was made by Marge Dabrowski and is called “Jacob’s ladder”.  The colors are warm and friendly in shades of green and purple.  It is quite lovely and we should be able to match the amount raised last year if not exceed it:  $2300.00.  So we are asking for your assistance in selling tickets.  Please see or Call Terry Jefferson (429-0328) for more information.

Birthdays

September 3: Chris Lepine
September 5: Thomas Dobratz
September 6: Nancy McQuesten
September 15: Marge Dabrowski
September 18: Tom Sommer
September 19: Lori Sommer
September 20: Toby Gill
September 23: Lance Collins
September 27: Phil Durand
October 6: Julia Illg
October 10: Lucy Valentino
October 10: Randy Durand
October 15: Stefanie Couture
October 16: Edith Eldridge
November 19: Bradley Couture

The next Lamplighter will cover November and December 2008.  Please submit articles by November 7, 2008.