Conway Village

Congregational Church

September 2020

The Good News!

Yes, you can get your Apple Crisp this year!

Click here to view or download the full PDF version of the

Dear members of CVCC and Choir members,

I have had to face the harsh reality that this pandemic has rendered my ability to do my work as minister of music paralyzingly impossible. I have decided to retire from my position.

I have had to expand my work schedule at the water park and my business to somewhat offset the loss of income.  I held out as long as I could and I had to make a decision. After 46 years as a church organist I did not envision having to make this kind of decision under these kinds of circumstances. I trust you will understand and hopefully we can, at some point, see our lives return to some normalcy.

I am sorry that I cannot participate in the Sunday Zoom services. My work schedule now conflicts with this time of day.

I must say that I have enjoyed my 16 years as minister of music with you. You have been supportive and most kind with your comments regarding service music and choral selec- tions. I have made adjustments to repertoire to provide more guest musicians to provide a variety in styles of music and have enjoyed working with these folks tremendously. Your ap- preciation for these people has certainly been quite clearly ob- vious by your response toward them during and after church.

Of the 8 churches I’ve served, this has been the longest tenure I have had. I had hoped to serve at least 20 years, however, things didn’t work out this way.

Again, many thanks for your support as well as Rev. Hughes’, the Diaconate and Trus- tees. It has been an honor to serve you.

Yours in Christ, Roger S. Miklos

Trustees

A big thank you to the Welds and all the volunteers who helped with the very successful Turkey dinner take out on August 7th. Over 130 meals were sold and we actually ran out of food. The interest took us by surprise but we were very glad it was successful. One thing that was heard over and over is how nice it was to see everyone. This was the first time many of us had seen each other since the building shut down.

Since the take out was so successful, we have decided to do another dinner, mid week, during what would have been the Fryeburg Fair week (10/4 to 10/11).    We are also looking into ways to take orders and sell apple crisp that week. There will be opportunities to volunteer for all.

The Trustees approved Phase 3 of Bergeron Technical Services. This is the development of a master plan to include project phasing and scoping. It looks at the needed improvements and determines importance and feasibility.

Hope everyone has had a great summer so far, and hope all are well.

Trustees:
Co-Chairs: Anne Getchell,  Nancy Divine
Duddie Andrews,  John Edgerton,  Nancy Irving,  Kim Murdoch,  Gabe Necochea,  Paul Weld  Ex-officio member Carl Vitters – Church Treasurer

A Message from the CVCC Virtual Worship Team & Web Team

 CVCC E-Blasts (E-mails)

The regular emails that go out are:

  • Weekly Bible Study Eblast is typically sent out  Thursday                                            Please let us know via email to the web team if you want to receive the Bible Study emails.
  • Weekly Worship Service Eblast is typically sent out Saturday evening
  • Monthly Newsletter Eblast is typically sent out the last day of  the month for the next month,  or first day of the

With few exceptions, such as special events, these are the only emails that are sent out to our

email distribution list. The data is kept securely and we do not share our distribution list with any other organizations.

If you have an email address and are not, but would like to receive our emails please sub- scribe to our email list . Go online to the website https://www.thebrownchurch.org/ in the footer section near the bottom of the page on the right side is a box Join Email List. Enter your email address and your first and last name, and click Subscribe. Once you have done this you should receive an automatic email to confirm that you want to join this email list. If you don’t, please check your other incoming email folders such as promotions, updates, Junk and/or Spam folders. Click Yes, this will confirm your subscription and allow us  to send emails  to you through our mass email service.

We have had a few folks tell us they were not receiving the emails but after further investigation had found that they did receive them they were just not in their regular/primary inbox. If you have subscribed but are not receiving our emails please first check your “All Mail” as it is called in Gmail, other services may call it something different. Then check your Personal, Promotions, Updates, Junk and Spam email folders for emails from “Conway Village Church” with the email address of cvccwebteam@gmail.com. You can also, depending on your mail service search for emails.   Search for the “Conway Village Church” and then try  “cvccwebteam@gmail.com” if you still can’t find them send an email to email listed and we  will see if there is anything we can do from our end.

If you do find you are receiving the emails but they are not going to your primary email inbox. You can usually train your email service to have them delivered to your primary inbox. Search online for the instructions for your specific mail service to “whitelist” an email address. Some services will learn to allow emails from anyone you have sent an email to, so try send-    ing an email to cvccwebteam@gmail.com please let us know that is why you are sending the email and we don’t need to reply.

If you are using Gmail (as the majority of  you are) and the emails are delivered to a  folder oth- er than your primary inbox, you can do the following. I believe this should be done on a com- puter not a phone or tablet. With your Gmail open the top of the page should look similar to image below (this is in Chrome internet browser).

If the email was delivered to the Promotions (or social or updates) inbox and you want it deliv- ered to the primary inbox, click on the Promotions tab at the top. Click the checkbox next to

the email you want to move. Hover the cursor over that email near the name showing for who     it is from, click and hold the mouse button, you should see a blue highlighted message enve- lope. While continuing to press the mouse button, drag it and drop it onto the Primary tab (the actual tab at the top of the page). That email should now be in your primary email inbox (it may not be on top it will be placed in the time slot it was originally delivered). Your emails from this email address should now arrive in your primary inbox. Sometimes it takes doing this more than once for the system to “learn” to deliver the emails to your primary inbox.

September Worship Schedule 2020

Sunday, September 6thCommunion Sunday
Scripture: Psalm 149
Exodus 12:1-11
Romans 13:8-14
Sermon:  “The Glory of Take-Out Food

Sunday, September 13th
Scripture:     Psalm 114
Romans 14:1-12
Matthew 18:21-35
Sermon:  “Do You Believe in Clean Eating?

Sunday, September 20th
Scripture:   Psalm 105:1-6, 37-45
Exodus 16:2-15
Matthew 20:1-16
Sermon: “Give Us Our Daily Bread

Sunday, September 27th
Scripture: Psalm 78:1-4, 12-16
Exodus 17:1-7
Matthew 21:23-32
Sermon:  “Who’s Responsible for My Suffering?

Diaconate Message

In this world of riches, sometimes we are all asked to do without. Fasting as a spir- itual practice would be an interesting idea. Here are some benefits of fasting in the Bi- ble. Usually the benefit of fasting is not for the self, but for the good of the community.
As Matthew 6:16-18 states, “When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have
received their reward in full. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your
face, so that it will not be obvious to others that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. ” This tells us that if we fast it should done in a way that only your Father can see it and he will reward you. Paul leads the church through fasting in Acts 13:2 -4, Acts 14:23, “While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them. So, after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off.” In Daniel 10:3, Daniel fasted for three weeks and at that time he saw the truth which was given to him in a vision. Esther saves her people through fasting in Esther 4:16, “Go, gather together all the Jews who are in Susa, and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my attendants will fast as you do. When this is done, I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish.” Even though she might perish she talked to the King and he followed her instructions. Finally, Moses receives the Ten Commandments after fasting in Exodus 34:28, he was with the Lord for forty days and nights. When those days were over Moses received the tablets with the Ten Commandments written on them. Just like those in Biblical times we too can fast for different reasons, such as to strengthen prayer, to seek God’s guidance, to express grief, to seek deliverance or protection, or to humble oneself before God. Maybe during this difficult time, we too could take some time to do a little fasting to see what God has in store for us.

Dawn Vitters, September Deacon of the Month
Deacons: Louise Saxby, Nancy Divine, Holly Necochea, Mitzi Fitch, Judy Workman,
and Dawn Vitters

History Corner

Pillars of the Brown Church: Eugene I. Smith

Eugene Irving Smith, a valued member of our Brown Church, was a leader in forming and overseeing youth activities in the Town of Conway. It is about time that today’s generations knew of his early influence.

Born in West Hollis, Maine in 1873, he was educated in the local schools there and at Buxton High School, graduating in 1893. He attend- ed the Gray Business College and became an accountant and office manager of Jay Paper Company for three years. The next seven years he worked for DuPont in Cincinnati. He then came to Portsmouth and worked for the Publishers’ Paper Company After a three year stint he came to the Conway Lumber Company, established in 1907 and there he was employed until 1920. In that year he and his wife, Flossalinda (Hadlock) established the Pequawket Camps (on West Main Street) where later our church’s stalwart Helen Cotton, operated out town’s kindergarten during the 1950′ and 1960’s.

Did you ever realize how many of our early members were originally employed for the Conway Lumber Company? Pequawket Camp for Boys was located on fifty-five acres of woodland with a mile of shoreline. It offered horseback riding, swimming, camping facilities, boating, and athletic fields. According to Janet Hounsell, campers and staff were ferried to the shore opposite the main house. The Wigwam was created and the boys slept in canvas, wood framed sleeping structures. A local boy contracted polio at the end of the dec- ade and the camp was closed. Swimming in the pond was suspected as the cause as little was known about polio. In 1931, the property was purchased by Henry Weir who named the place Swanweir. He built the cot- tages that now exist on the property later purchased by Chester and Helen Cotton, both active parishioners of our church.

Mr. Smith also was a leader of the Scouts, the Camp Directors’ Association, a precinct commissioner, clerk, municipal court judge of Conway, a Republican State Legislator in 1927-8, a thirty-second degree Ma- son of both the Scottish and York rites. and the Men’s Club.

He was deeply interested in work for young people and was the Superintendent of both our Sunday School and its branch in the West Side School – where briefly there were more students than in Town. Mrs. Smith was a Sunday School teacher as well. During this time over 150 students were enrolled in our Sunday School and this lasted until the late 1960’s. How we wish the world had not changed in that regard! When Mr. and Mrs. Smith were not living at Camp Pequawket, they lived in an attractive bungalow nearby. May we now remem- ber the Smiths and their valued influence with our Christian education.

Contributed by
Brian P. Wiggin
Church Historian