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Winslow Congregational
Church
United Church of Christ
History of Our
Church and Community
|
written by Clyde Russell and Ina Stinneford
edited by Tammy Gould
[Editor's Note: In 1978, church member Clyde Russell wrote
a history on the first 150 years of our congregation, from its
formation in 1828 through our then pastor, Rev. Stephen Ericson.
After the first installment, a second history, compiled by former
church historian Ian Stinneford in 1965 was presented to me. As
we look forward to celebrating our 175th anniversary this August,
we revisit Clyde's and Ina's work, now, presented as four
chapters.]
Chapter 1: In The
Beginning (1794 - 1828)
Chapter 2:
Restlessness and Growth (1828 - 1880)
Chapter 3: Building a Solid Foundation (1880 - 1950)
Chapter 4: Our Church Today - Flood and Fellowship (1950 -
present)
Chapter 4: Our Church Today - Flood and Fellowship (1950 - present)
The second half of the twentieth century saw significant changes made
to the by-laws of the church which fundamentally changed how the church
functioned. In March 1949, the church accepted a new set of
by-laws, which provided for two significant changes. First, the
office of Deacon was diminished in power and prestige. Until
1910, there had never been more than two deacons at a time. When
they were elected, it was expected that they would serve for life (as
many did). The new constitution prescribed that there should be
at least four deacons at a time and, following two, four-year terms,
deacons should be ineligible for re-election for at least a year.
Second, a church council was established to conduct the business of the
church between quarterly meetings. The by-laws were amended again
in 1954 when it was voted to have semi-annual meetings near the 20th of
May and October, rather than quarterly meetings.
In 1964, the church was incorporated with a constitution that greatly
increased the responsibilities of the Trustees. In political
science terms, the church was continuing its move from a direct
democracy to a representative democracy -- placing more
responsibilities in the hands of committees and board and limiting the
whole-congregation votes on every issue. In 1966, a Memorial Fund
was established with a committee to accept and distribute gifts to the
church.
Perhaps the Sunday School during the late 1950's and early 1960's was
as large as at any time in the life of the church. There was talk
of building a parish house with classrooms, but the expense seemed
beyond our means. As an alternative, Sunday School classrooms
were built in the basement at the cost of $6,000. The classrooms
were dedicated on December 4, 1960. These rooms were utilized
until the flood in 1987.
Clubs and organizations always seemed to thrive at the Winslow
Congregational Church. From the church's earliest days, the
Female Society for the Support of the Gospel was founded and, today,
continues its June meetings making it the longest, continually meeting
women's organization in the country. During World War II, a Men's
Club was organized. During the 1940's and 50's, the Men's Club
prepared and served its own monthly suppers and then listened to varied
program, usually lectures. In 1950, the Kum Dubble Klub was
organized for young, married couples. It continued until
1964.
In 1965, the church voted at an all-church meeting to sell the
parsonage that had been used by ministers of the church since the
1850's. The church spent $1,300 from the sale of the parsonage in
renovating the chapel and in cleaning and decorating the sanctuary and
$4,400 was used to cover the church with aluminum siding.
In 1967, the Town of Winslow moved its municipal offices to Benton
Avenue and deeded what had once been the chapel back to the church for
$1. This building is today referred to as the Church
Office/Pastor's Study and houses three Sunday School classrooms in
addition to the office space.
In August 1972, a Blueberry Festival was introduced and continues to
this day on the second Saturday of every August. Although
intended to raise money, the Festival brings the whole church together
in a common enterprise. True to its name, much of the common
activity involves cleaning 400 hundreds of pound of blueberries and
baking blueberry pies. For the last decade, an army of bakers
converge at the Winslow Junior High School on the day before the
festival to roll dough and bake pies. Each year, this army
produces more than 400 blueberry pies in that single day! The
Blueberry Festival continues to be the church's primary fundraiser, a
favorite fellowship activity, and a way to promote our mission to the
wider Central Maine community.
One cannot review the history of the Winslow Congregational Church
without looking at the church's sometimes treacherous relationship with
the Kennebec and Sebasticook Rivers. Floods in 1887, 1936 and
1953 are all described in previous church histories. In 1936, the
water was 15 inches high in the vestry. Records from 1953 note
that morning service was "held at Benton Falls Church on account of
flooding of Lithgow Street, again!"
The flood of April 1, 1987 turned out to be no April's Fool. Flood
waters engulfed the church and peaked 96 inches (8 feet!) high in the
vestry. There was little time to evacuate items from the church
and much was lost. The refrigerator and a freezer from the
kitchen; the piano in Fellowship Hall; choir robes and church school
records -- all lost. The Church Office/Pastor's Study was at that
time used as the "Bargain Bin," a used clothing store, and all the
donated clothing was lost in the flood. A newly-built, handicap
access ramp was ripped from the front of the building. But when
the flood waters receded, the church was ready to rebuild, led in large
part by Associate Minister Cindy Lepley and member Ed Morrison.
The furnace was removed and cleaned, sheetrock replaced and church
records were hung, page by page, to dry. The church had survived
the worst flood in its history.
Following the Flood of 1987, the Town of Winslow decided to move the
library from its Lithgow Street location to a former roller rink on
outer Halifax Street. The church jumped at the opportunity to
enlarge its classroom space and reached a long-term lease agreement
with the town in April 1996. Sunday School classrooms were moved
to the former library that fall. Today, the library, known as the
Christian Education Building, completes the Winslow Congregational
Church campus. In 2002, the church sublet one room of the CE
Building to the Taconnet Genealogical Society.
The Winslow Congregational Church has a long history of supporting
seminarians. In 1994, the church was fortunate to have three
seminarians from the church in In-Care status: Michele Wiley and
James Ziobro who both attended Bangor Theological Seminary and Carl
McDonald who attended Andover-Newton Theological Seminary in
Massachusetts.
John C. Quigg served as minister of the Winslow Congregational Church
for more than 20 years -- the longest pastorship in the church's 175
year history. In December 2000, the church voted to separate once again
from the Benton Falls church upon Rev. Quigg's retirement in June 2001.
The suspension of yoking had occurred on two other, brief occasions in
the 1900's. When Rev. Quigg left, the church held a celebration
of his ministry. Going alone and seeking a pastor for the first
time in two decades, the church, under the guidance of interim minister
Allison Smith, went through an extensive self-assessment and search
process. Nearly a year later, the church called Deborah Tate
Breault, who serves as minister today.
As Clyde Russell so aptly wrote:
"It would be a thankless and an impossible task, in such a brief
account as this, to relate the contributions of all the individuals --
men and women -- who did much to keep this church alive for [175]
years. The more that were mentioned, the more there would be left
out. Some of the most valuable service was not of a kind that
even the most efficient clerk would record."
Chapter 1: In The
Beginning (1794 - 1828)
Chapter 2:
Restlessness and Growth (1828 - 1880)
Chapter 3: Building a Solid Foundation (1880 - 1950)
Chapter 4: Flood and Fellowship (1950 - present)
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