We interrupt our busy lives to pause – to step into sacred time. Receptive, we experience God’s still voice; the truth that we are beloved and our lives are a gift. We lift our hearts in song, prayer, and thanksgiving; in joyful communion to live the truth of God.
The Conway Village Congregational Church, “Brown Church,” experienced devastating flooding on December 18th, 2023. The lower level of the church received flooding that damaged the heating system, boiler, and Food Pantry/Dinner Bell storage areas. Freezers and refrigerators are no longer operable due to the 2 to 3 feet of water in the Food Pantry storage area. Church offices and meeting rooms were all flooded requiring all carpeting to be removed and drying equipment to be rented to dry the floors and walls. The line to the oil tanks that were housed in the crawl space broke releasing 650 gallons of heating oil. The oil flow was contained to the church crawlspace and the quick actions of the Conway Fire Department and the Department of Environmental Services were able to recapture most of the oil and prevented a potential environmental calamity.
CVCC Food Pantry
Food Pantry clients are being served at the Vaughan Community Center located at 2503 White Mountain Hwy, North Conway. Their Food Pantry is open on Tuesdays 12-1:45 PM and Thursdays 1-2:45 PM.
Dinner Bell
Dinner Bell free community meals are cancelled indefinitely, until the building can be reopened.
Church Office
The Church office is operating offsite, contact may be made with the Church Secretary or Minister Monday through Thursday 8 am to 4 pm call 603-44-3851 or email info@thebrownchurch.org.
Sunday Morning Worship 10:00 AM
In-Person Worship at the Majestic Theater
Our church home is temporarily closed due to a devastating flood on December 18th. Starting January 7, 2024 we will hold regular Sunday Morning 10:00 AM Worship Services at the Majestic Theater, 36 Main Street, Conway NH. Parking is available at the Station Bistro and across the street at Saco Bay Physical Therapy. Please consider the two parking spots in front of the theater as handicap parking.
Or, Join us Online
We will continue to offer the services via Zoom for those who prefer to worship from home or are unable to attend church. To join us online please go to Zoom.com use this Meeting ID: 832 6656 0783 the Passcode is: 074610 or click the following link to attend the service remotely. Worship Link
Everyone is welcome at the Brown Church!
“For where two or three are gathered in my name,
I am there among them.”
Matthew 18:20 NRSV
Flood Recovery Update
We are striving to reopen our missions, the Conway Village Food Pantry, and the Conway Dinner Bell as soon as its feasible. Our current goal to reopen those missions is October/November. We hope to have all of the necessary ingredients in place in time to make our Apple Crisp for the Fryeburg Fair. Those ingredients include a new hot water heater, new refrigeration units installed and the town occupancy permit in hand by around Labor Day. We need your help to make this happen. If you can and would like to support our church and all that we do for our community, we would appreciate your contribution to our flood recovery fund. All funds donated to this fund will be solely for the purpose of reopening the building to include repair or replacement of equipment and items damaged in the flood.
If you are not able or prefer not to donate but would still like to help, we are seeking volunteers to help with our Fryeburg Fair Apple Crisp fundraising efforts. There are approximately 250 volunteer time slots to fill comprising over 800 volunteer hours of processing apples, mixing & baking the Crisp, and working at the fair selling Apple Crisp.
We are beginning the apple processing and baking earlier this year. In hopes of having all the baking done before the fair starts. Please sign-up for the time slots that you are available to help with the apple peeling and slicing. Our baking team is looking for two more people to assist them in baking nearly 500 pans of Crisp.
The Fair runs September 29th to October 6th. There are two shifts per day for booth coverage. The early shift is 11AM to 4 PM and the late shift is 4 PM to 9 PM.
We appreciate everyone’s commitment to this huge annual fundraising endeavor. Thank You.
If you would like to volunteer or have any questions, please call, or email the church office at 603-447-3851 info@thebrownchurch.org
December 18th Flood ~ A letter from the
Conway Village Church Trustees
Dear Donors and Community Members:
We are reaching out to you on behalf of the Trustees and members of the Conway Village Congregational Church in Conway, New Hampshire. Our church has been in the Conway Village since 1906 and currently has 95 members on the church role. Our church building serves as a community resource for the village and the surrounding Mount Washington Valley.
On December 18, 2023, our church building was inundated with flood waters that caused 650 gallons of oil to spill and collect in the sub-basement crawl space, compromising the building heating system and spreading water throughout all the offices, classroom, and food pantry on the lower level. Due to the fumes from the oil spill rising to the sanctuary level on the first floor and the water on the lower level, the entire building was closed.
We are unable to carry on any church activities: Sunday services, Bible study classes, but the one of the greatest concerns is our inability to serve our clients in our food pantry and serve Monday night dinners to folks in need of food security. Our food pantry served 401 households in the 2023 year for a total of 807 people. The Monday night Dinner Bell serves 150 plus dinners in a night. The American Legion usually serves about 450 Christmas dinners to veterans and their families in our fellowship hall, but was unable to do so due to our building closure. Support and self-help groups that also meet at our facility have been displaced.
Clean-up has been a challenge. Many food items from our pantry had to be discarded and frozen items were transferred to the Vaughan Community Center pantry in North Conway. Volunteers worked many hours to discard damaged goods and clean-up the pantry area. After assessing equipment, we need to replace 5 freezers and 3 refrigerators before our Food Pantry and Dinner Bell can begin to resume storing food. Our entire lower floor may need to replace wallboard, some base flooring and all the carpeting.
Our furnace cannot be repaired and must be replaced and a new fuel system must be installed that meets current codes before the building can be heated. Without heat, the water pipes needed to be drained to prevent freezing, so water and bathroom facilities are not available until the heating and water systems are restored.
Our church, like many, has been challenged to meet our financial obligations and has been holding fundraisers to help us meet our bills and unplanned expenses. We are now faced with circumstances beyond our control and are seeking the help of a state fund to cover the costs of oil cleanup and possible FEMA reimbursement for flood damages. We are also hoping that local resources will assist us to begin restoring our church building and the missions that are so critical to our community. The current estimate to fully restore our building and replace equipment is between $ 250,000 and $300,000.
Along with the above-mentioned resources, we are reaching out to other organizations, individuals and foundations that may be able to offer financial support. We would be grateful for any assistance you could offer to us. As a non-profit organization your donation to us is tax-deductible. Our tax ID # is 02-0236859.
Thank you for considering a contribution to our church and the community programs we provide.
Respectfully and gratefully,
The Conway Village Church Trustees
Click this link for flood photos, videos and updates
Updates
To receive regular updates from our church regarding the flood recovery, building status, worship services, or our outreach missions please follow us on Facebook, The Brown Church Conway NH and/or join our email list via the form at the bottom of this page.
