2023 Senior Warden Spring Letter
May 2023
Dear Emmanuel Church Parishioner,
I must ask you to bear with me, as this letter may be slightly longer than previous editions. There is a lot to tell you.
The Managing Committee met at Christine Clinton’s house on a snowy Saturday in February and we made some important decisions. It was unanimously decided that we would go ahead with Davis Construction of Peterborough as the contractor to replace the church roof and, furthermore, that we would use a new type of wooden shingle called Wallaba. This shingle went up on the roof as a reddish-brown color, but will fade to grey over a short period of time. It was far less expensive than Western Red Cedar, has an advertised life of 40-50 years and is impervious to rot, bugs and Senior Wardens. Please do not be shocked when you see it. In the end, it will be the same color as the old roof. Several of the louvres in the steeple were rotten and were be replaced. And we found a couple of clapboards that experienced some rot and those were replaced. The stained-glass window screens were all replaced and the wooden screens over the small lancet windows around the back of the church were removed as they were all rotten and, actually, served no purpose, as you cannot open the window and close the screen.
We voted on a $126,000 budget for the project, which included a reasonable contingency amount. I am very happy to tell you that the project is finished. And I am even happier to tell you that the total cost of the project came in at $114,930!
And so, on June 25, 2023 at 9:00 o’clock in the morning, we will open our 135th season of summer worship at our beloved Emmanuel Church. Rev. Cathy George will preach and preside on our opening Sunday. Gideon Pollach and family will be with us for the month of July (Yay!) and I am VERY happy to tell you that the Rev. Abby VanderBrug (rhymes with rug) will be our Priest in Charge for the month of August. Abby is the Chaplain at the Holderness School in Plymouth, NH and she will be here with her husband Michael, daughter Rozzi (4) and son Crosby (1) and a friendly dog.
Abby comes with glowing recommendations. The Wardens and the Managing Committee are very pleased with this choice, and I want to thank Anne-Marie Irwin and her Search Committee (Anna Ritchie, Jack Lewis, Yank Brame) for a well-organized and thoughtful search process, and a fine result. You will not want to miss a single Sunday this summer.
In addition, organist and music director Bob Englund has reported that he has a full slate of visiting musicians from Walden School, Apple Hill Center for Chamber Music and Monadnock Music who will provide service music this summer.
So now, I have given you two great reasons why you should not miss a single Sunday service at Emmanuel and why you should bring your friends and acquaintances.
Ted and Wendy Pearre will have the campus looking splendid. The Altar Guild will have the altar and church looking splendid. Yank Brame and Amy Manley have volunteered to take on the Uber-Board and will be encouraging all of you to get involved in being Lectors, Ushers, Lay Eucharistic Ministers, providers of Altar Flowers, and hosts of Coffee Hours. The Managing Committee and the Wardens will take care of the opening Sunday. Then we will be depending on all of you, so please do volunteer. If you now would like to reserve a Sunday for altar flowers, reading or coffee hour, please feel free to contact Amy at her email address: [email protected]
And finally, it was also decided that we would launch a Capital Fund Raising drive to help offset the cost of the roof project, which we will pay for, initially, out our invested funds. But we’d like to put the money back and have a little extra for future projects, so Cynthia will head up this effort with a target of $150,000. I will save the details for a follow-up letter to all of you.
And finally, as you well know, Emmanuel Church operates each year on our annual donations. Please do prayerfully consider your gift this year, as you can imagine that inflation has affected us just as it has every other institution. A response envelope has been enclosed for your convenience. Checks should be made to the order of Emmanuel Church. Thank you.
New Hampshire Bishop Rob Hirschfeld is scheduled to be with us for the last Sunday service in August, so please put that on your calendar. Rob does not like a fuss, but a special coffee hour would seem appropriate, so we can plan that this summer.
I am very excited about this summer. Please do keep an eye on the Emmanuel website for weekly updates (www.emmanuelchurchdublin.org).
Faithfully,
William B. Raymond
Senior Warden
