The First Baptist Church of Bennington, Vermont, welcomes Dr. Joan Sakalas to its 9:30 AM worship on Sunday, June 21, 2009. Dr. Sakalas is the former director of the Project Against Domestic Violence (PAVE). She has returned to teaching, serving as an adjunct faculty member with the Community College of Vermont, Southern Vermont College, and online instruction with Johnston State. Dr. Sakalas will offer the morning’s sermon “Father: What A Concept!” This summer Sakalas is working on a book that focuses on a "Theology of Penology" developed by Miriam Van Waters, the superintendent of the Massachusetts Reformatory for Women from 1932 to 1957.
The morning worship service will celebrate the civic holiday of Father’s Day and the end of the Sunday School year for children and adults. First Baptist celebrates another year of Sunday school, ably taught by Rhonda Harmon, Alyssa Gilleran, and the minister, the Rev. Jerrod Hugenot. First Baptist religious education is coordinated by Alycia Post, director, and the board of Christian education. Sunday school will resume after Labor Day, however, the board is preparing for “Vacation Bible Camp”, a children’s summer program offered jointly by First Baptist and St Peter’s Episcopal Church over the weekends of July 10-12 and 18-19, 2009. For more information, contact First Baptist’s office.
Located at 601 Main Street in downtown Bennington, First Baptist is “a place for healing, community involvement, and spiritual grounding”. To learn more, visit the congregation’s website (fbcbennington.org) or call 802/442-2105.
]]>MARK E. RONDEAU, Religion Editor
Saturday, June 13 BENNINGTON — Three volunteers from First Baptist Church went to New Orleans for a week in May.
The local trio of volunteers flew out of Albany, N.Y., at 7 a.m. on Mother's Day. They joined in a four-week refurbishment project in the Little Woods housing development. The ecumenical group focused on the rehabilitation of 12 houses as part of a Church World Service effort. Cindy Watson, Aleta Bryant and Bob Wilson from First Baptist joined a crew from Virginia. They were continuing rehabilitation of a house damaged by flooding, purchased by a family relocating from the city's Ninth Ward, where the destruction was even heavier.
Watson said the group worked on the home of Chris Weaver, who lost his home in the Ninth Ward when the levee broke. "He stood in his living room window and watched it break," Watson said. "It is, in his own words, only by the grace of God that he is still alive after a harrowing time. His home was destroyed and he purchased the house in Little Woods, northeast of New Orleans, that we worked on. It, too, had been flooded with five feet of water, since it is on the south shore of Lake Pontchartrain.
"So we rehabbed the house. When Chris bought the house, he thought it would come with government money to fix it up but it did not. He is a porter at a local hospital and works 50 to 60 hours a week," Watson said. "His intension was to do the rehab a little at a time so when he was accepted by Church World Service to be rehabbed he was very pleased."
Weaver slept on a mattress on the living room floor to protect the house, which he will live in with his fiance and his mother. His new neighbors have a neighborhood watch set up and are very interested in cleaning up the neighborhood.
"Chris worked with us for two days, just a delightful man, and he was very very appreciative," Watson said.
"When we arrived, the house interior had been stripped, reinsulated, wired, replumbed, sheet rocked and the wall surfaces had the first coat of primed and compound sprayed on. We primed all surfaces and then applied two coats of light colored paint to the ceilings, walls, and trim," Watson said. "Before we left, four rooms had laminate flooring installed, all the doors had two coats of paint and two had been installed. And the ceramic tile on the other floors had been repaired or renewed."
The other volunteers working with the Bennington trio were from the Roanoke/Salem area of Virginia.
"We had lots of help and everyone pitched in doing whatever needed to be done," Watson said. "There was even some time for some sight seeing around the area. We toured the Ninth Ward, stood on the levee and went to the French Quarter. This was a very rewarding trip."
The Rev. Jerrod Hugenot, of First Baptist Church, said he's delighted that the congregation is involved in this work.
"American Baptists have a great historic and ongoing commitment to humanitarian and crisis aid. Our three church members served in New Orleans thanks to their individual commitment to volunteer as well as congregational donors offering travel assistance funds (upwards of $1,200)," he said. "If others in the community are interested in going, there is a second building blitz happening in August. You do not need to be a Baptist or even a person of faith to volunteer. If interested, contact First Baptist for more info."
During the service at First Baptist on Pentecost Sunday, Watson thanked the congregation for helping send the group to New Orleans. "We're very grateful," she said. "We spent an inspiring and tiring week of painting, and painting and more painting."
Support from church members covered the flight, car rental and food. "We want to thank the Lord also for the fellowship we experienced and for our safe travel."
Hugenot said there are also local opportunities to help people in need with housing.
"The Bennington County Habitat chapter is underway on a local home build, so we must remember volunteers are needed locally as well as nationally and globally," he said. "Volunteer service, wherever it takes place, begins with the same place: the individual saying 'yes' to volunteer. Where they go is really secondary."
]]>MARK E. RONDEAU, Religion Editor
Saturday, June 13 BENNINGTON — Three volunteers from First Baptist Church went to New Orleans for a week in May.
The local trio of volunteers flew out of Albany, N.Y., at 7 a.m. on Mother's Day. They joined in a four-week refurbishment project in the Little Woods housing development. The ecumenical group focused on the rehabilitation of 12 houses as part of a Church World Service effort. Cindy Watson, Aleta Bryant and Bob Wilson from First Baptist joined a crew from Virginia. They were continuing rehabilitation of a house damaged by flooding, purchased by a family relocating from the city's Ninth Ward, where the destruction was even heavier.
Watson said the group worked on the home of Chris Weaver, who lost his home in the Ninth Ward when the levee broke. "He stood in his living room window and watched it break," Watson said. "It is, in his own words, only by the grace of God that he is still alive after a harrowing time. His home was destroyed and he purchased the house in Little Woods, northeast of New Orleans, that we worked on. It, too, had been flooded with five feet of water, since it is on the south shore of Lake Pontchartrain.
"So we rehabbed the house. When Chris bought the house, he thought it would come with government money to fix it up but it did not. He is a porter at a local hospital and works 50 to 60 hours a week," Watson said. "His intension was to do the rehab a little at a time so when he was accepted by Church World Service to be rehabbed he was very pleased."
Weaver slept on a mattress on the living room floor to protect the house, which he will live in with his fiance and his mother. His new neighbors have a neighborhood watch set up and are very interested in cleaning up the neighborhood.
"Chris worked with us for two days, just a delightful man, and he was very very appreciative," Watson said.
"When we arrived, the house interior had been stripped, reinsulated, wired, replumbed, sheet rocked and the wall surfaces had the first coat of primed and compound sprayed on. We primed all surfaces and then applied two coats of light colored paint to the ceilings, walls, and trim," Watson said. "Before we left, four rooms had laminate flooring installed, all the doors had two coats of paint and two had been installed. And the ceramic tile on the other floors had been repaired or renewed."
The other volunteers working with the Bennington trio were from the Roanoke/Salem area of Virginia.
"We had lots of help and everyone pitched in doing whatever needed to be done," Watson said. "There was even some time for some sight seeing around the area. We toured the Ninth Ward, stood on the levee and went to the French Quarter. This was a very rewarding trip."
The Rev. Jerrod Hugenot, of First Baptist Church, said he's delighted that the congregation is involved in this work.
"American Baptists have a great historic and ongoing commitment to humanitarian and crisis aid. Our three church members served in New Orleans thanks to their individual commitment to volunteer as well as congregational donors offering travel assistance funds (upwards of $1,200)," he said. "If others in the community are interested in going, there is a second building blitz happening in August. You do not need to be a Baptist or even a person of faith to volunteer. If interested, contact First Baptist for more info."
During the service at First Baptist on Pentecost Sunday, Watson thanked the congregation for helping send the group to New Orleans. "We're very grateful," she said. "We spent an inspiring and tiring week of painting, and painting and more painting."
Support from church members covered the flight, car rental and food. "We want to thank the Lord also for the fellowship we experienced and for our safe travel."
Hugenot said there are also local opportunities to help people in need with housing.
"The Bennington County Habitat chapter is underway on a local home build, so we must remember volunteers are needed locally as well as nationally and globally," he said. "Volunteer service, wherever it takes place, begins with the same place: the individual saying 'yes' to volunteer. Where they go is really secondary."
]]>Thursday, June 4
BENNINGTON — First Baptist Church welcomed the head of its denomination at its Sunday service with a trumpeter, choir, special speakers and interfaith guests, with a dinner afterward.
The Rev. Dr. Roy A. Medley is the general secretary of American Baptist Churches, USA, the pastoral and administrative leader of the 1.5 million-member denomination.
"Most Baptists worldwide don't have bishops or an episcopal sort of authority system," said The Rev. Jerrod Hugenot, coordinating minister at First Baptist. Still, "we are not just one congregation on our own. We are part of a denomination. We're part of the Protestant tradition. We're part of the wider church."
Medley is "the face of our denomination" at meetings of such groups as the National Council of Churches and the Baptist World Alliance, Hugenot said. "He's also known as the pastor of our denomination, the one who cares and tends for the many people and manyorganizations covenanting together as American Baptists in ministry and mission."
Hugenot noted that Medley goes by his first name and is "an affable, caring, compassionate servant of God."
First Baptist has been on a journey for the past few years: "We're challenged to renew our ministry and become more missional in our understanding of what it means to be part of this community," Hugenot said.
He then unveiled a new welcome sign that will be placed at the entrance Nichols Education Building, describing the church as "A place for healing, community involvement, and spiritual grounding."
"I think this is where we're going," Hugenot said. "This is where God is calling us."
Hugenot noted the guests from other denominations and faiths present for the service, which marked the Christian feast of Pentecost, the descent of the Holy Spirit onto the followers of Jesus.
"The interfaith witness of Bennington Vermont is a treasure we need to celebrate," he said. "Whether you're Baptist or Baha'i, Episcopal or Quaker, Unitarian or Catholic, we work together in this town."
Rabbi Joshua Boettiger, of Congregation Beth Israel, and the convener of the Greater Bennington Area Interfaith Council, greeted Medley on behalf of the interfaith council.
Boettiger said that Hugenot and First Baptist have been at the heart of what the council has been able to do in recent years. For instance, the Nichols building at the church hosts the Bennington Free Clinic and Project Against Violent Encounters' Family Time program.
"First Baptist, your community, has really taken it upon yourselves to walk the walk, as they say," Boettiger said. "So let's leap together, let's be audacious together, let's see God in one another, whatever our faith tradition, because surely all of our faiths must teach this: to have holy chutzpah, to have the daring to take a stand and to reach out to one another."
Hugenot, who came to the church in 2006, said that First Baptist has faced some challenges in recent years. Church member Carolyn Peckham spoke of a crisis in 2002 when the oil burner malfunctioned and spewed oily smoke throughout the church. "We really wondered what we were going to do. All we could see were dollar signs."
At that time, the First Baptist choir had been singing periodically the hymn "God Will Make a Way," she said. The church made this First Baptist's theme song and sang it every Sunday until the new refurbished sanctuary was completed. After Peckham spoke, the choir sang this song at Sunday's service.
Church member Cindy Watson spoke of how three volunteers from First Baptist worked for a week earlier this year on a house for a family in New Orleans.
Capping the service, Medley explained the colorful vestment he was wearing. It included colorful stripes and a globe with a cross on it.
"As American Baptists, we are known as probably one of the most diverse mainline denominations in this country. And that's what this stole represents," he said. "It's a sign of the way in which the Holy Spirit is weaving us together out of many different racial backgrounds, cultural and national backgrounds into being one in the body of Christ. All of these stripes coming together represent how God is weaving us together as American Baptists with great diversity, but in our unified sense of service and in our call by Jesus Christ."
Years ago when he was a youth minister at a Baptist church in Trenton, N.J., one of the members of his youth group came up and asked him, "Roy ... I have a question ... Does the Holy Spirit make you do crazy things?"
Medley answered: "Only if you think Jesus was crazy."
"So if you think Jesus was a little crazy. If you think Jesus was out of the box, then yes, the Holy Spirit is going to make you do some crazy things in the eyes of the world," Medley said. "The goal of discipleship, our goal in following Jesus, is to be nurtured and empowered as disciples who are crazy like Jesus, crazy with love and grace for the outcast and ostracized, crazy with concern for the poor and the lame."
American Baptists represent a rich tradition of people "who were willing to be outside of the box, willing to go against the tide of current practice and thinking."
Baptists began as a protest movement 400 years ago this year. They were the underdogs in a religious struggle for freedom of conscience in England, Medley said.
The leader of this tiny group, Thomas Helwys, drafted the first defense of religious liberty in the English language. "He was seen as being dangerous and subversive to the well-being of the community good."
In America, another Baptist, Roger Williams was ostracized by the leaders of the Massachusetts Bay Colony because of his convictions. Evicted from his home he found shelter with Native Americans whom he had earlier defended. Williams later established the colony of Rhode Island, "the first political entity in all of human history to fully guarantee religious liberty to all persons within its boundaries," Medley said.
He said Baptists place a high value on the worth of every individual, and it is this that stands behind their commitment to religious liberty for all. Among the many Baptists in U.S. history embodying this tradition, Medley spoke of Joanna P. Moore, a white Baptist who in the 1800s was a strong opponent of slavery.
After the Civil War, she petitioned the all-male American Baptist Home Mission Society to send her as a missionary among the newly freed slaves. She was denied.
"So like any good Baptist, she ignored the church authorities of her day, and she plowed ahead," Medley said. "She organized the women of the denomination into the Women's Home Mission Society in order that they might support her work, and they sent her into the south."
Moore established hearth-side schools throughout the south so former slaves could learn to read and write. When she died, Moore was buried, as she wished, in the section for blacks in a Nashville cemetery.
"That she might forever rest among those she believe God loved and had called her serve," Medley said. "Joanna P. Moore was a little bit crazy — crazy like Jesus."
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On Sunday, May 31, 2009, Christians celebrate Pentecost, the holy day remembering the Holy Spirit’s descent from heaven to empower the Church. First Baptist, Bennington, will observe the day with its 9:30 AM worship service. This year’s Pentecost celebration will be especially memorable, as the congregation welcomes the Rev. Dr. A. Roy Medley, General Secretary for the American Baptist Churches/USA. Dr. Medley serves as the pastoral and administrative leader of the 1.5-million member denomination, which includes First Baptist as a member congregation.
Bringing greetings to the General Secretary will be Rabbi Joshua Boettigger, convener of the Bennington Interfaith Council, and the Rev. Rohn Peterson, acting executive minister for the American Baptist Churches of Vermont and New Hampshire. The worship service will also feature local trumpeter Mo Raincourt, performing sacred selections and accompanying the congregation’s singing. A reception for the General Secretary will follow worship at 10:45 a.m.
Dr. Medley’s appearance is part of First Baptist’s observance of 2009 as the 400th anniversary of the Baptist movement’s founding. First Baptist celebrates its heritage as well as its commitment for a new day for ministry, as its building and people are becoming “a place for healing, community involvement, and spiritual grounding”.
To learn more about First Baptist, visit www.fbcbennington.org or call the church office at 802/442-2105.
The First Baptist Church of Bennington, Vermont, invites you to Holy Week activities, commencing this Sunday with worship services on Palm Sunday, April 5, 2009, at 9:30 AM. The children will lead the procession of the palms, and the congregation will reflect upon the beginning of Christianity’s most sacred of seasons. The Rev. Jerrod Hugenot, coordinating minister, will offer the sermon “A Faith Vulnerable and Resolved”.
On Thursday evening, April 9, 2009, the congregations of First Baptist and “Old First” Congregational will share an ecumenical Maundy Thursday service. At 6 PM, a community-wide potluck will be offered, followed by the Maundy Thursday communion service at 7 PM. Any person is welcome to attend the meal or the religious service. The Rev. Louis Guariniello will join the Rev. Jerrod Hugenot in conducting the service.
On Good Friday, First Baptist will participate in the evening service to be held at St Peter’s Episcopal Church on Friday, April 10, at 7 PM.
On Easter Sunday, April 12, 2009, First Baptist celebrates Easter with joyous music and proclamation at its 9:30 AM worship service. The service marks the high point of the Christian year, as Christians gather to sing praise to the risen Christ. The Rev. Hugenot offers the sermon “Mark Ends, Easter Begins”. An Easter egg hunt for children and coffee hour fellowship follows the service at 10:45 AM.
An American Baptist congregation, the First Baptist Church is located at 601 Main Street in downtown Bennington. Learn more by visiting www.fbcbennington.org, joining the congregation’s FACEBOOK group, or calling the church office at 802/442-2105.
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The First Baptist Church of Bennington, Vermont, is pleased to announce the selection of the Rev. Jerrod H. Hugenot and his spouse Ms. Kerry A. Shermer as participants in the 2009 Summer Collegium, sponsored by the Institute for Christian Formation and Leadership, part of the Virginia Theological Seminary of Alexandria, Virginia. Ecumenical in scope, the Summer Collegium provides a continuing education experience for clergy serving smaller parishes as part of a Lilly Endowment grant. First Baptist and Rev. Hugenot were one of twenty-five parish/pastor applicants selected for the 2009 program, drawn from a competitive pool of over 130 applicants this year.
The 2009 Summer Collegium explores the theme of Body, Mind, and Soul: Celebrating, Strengthening and Sustaining Clergy Wholeness in Small Congregations. Workshops and small group opportunities will focus on the areas of spiritual, financial, physical, and vocational health, and conflict resolution.
An ordained American Baptist minister, the Rev. Jerrod H. Hugenot serves as coordinating minister of the First Baptist Church of Bennington, Vermont, where he is finishing his third year of service. The First Baptist Church is located at 601 Main Street in downtown Bennington, Vermont. To learn more about the congregation, visit www.fbcbennington.org.
The First Baptist Church of Bennington, Vermont, notes with grief the passing of their former minister, the Rev. Floyd I. LaBombard. The First Baptist Church will celebrate the Rev. LaBombard's life and ministry as part of the worship service on Sunday, February 1, 2009 at 9:30 AM. The Rev. Jerrod H. Hugenot, coordinating minister of the congregation, will lead the morning's worship, honoring the Rev. LaBombard's ministry through telling stories and sharing memories of faithful years of service to First Baptist.
The Rev. LaBombard served as minister of First Baptist from 1970 to 1982. Retiring from full-time ministry, the Rev. LaBombard served interim pastorates, including an unprecedented interim tenure of eighteen years, faithfully tending the congregation of the White Oakes Congregational Church of Williamstown, MA. The Rev. LaBombard served congregations in West Virginia, Connecticut, Vermont, and Massachusetts.
An American Baptist congregation, the First Baptist Church is located at 601 Main Street in downtown Bennington, Vermont. Worship services are at 9:30 AM each Sunday. The Rev. Jerrod H. Hugenot serves as coordinating minister. For more information call 802/442-2105 or visit www.fbcbennington.org.
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The community is invited to observe the Martin Luther King, Jr. civic holiday with an evening of events sponsored by the Peace Resource Center and the Greater Bennington Area Interfaith Council. All events will be held on Monday evening, January 19, from 6 PM onwards, at the Unitarian Universalist (UU) Meetinghouse at 108 School Street in downtown Bennington, Vermont.
Festivities begin at 6 PM with a community potluck. You are invited to bring your family and food to share. (The doors will open at 5:30 PM.) The potluck will conclude with a non-sectarian reflection time regarding King and his legacy, featuring speakers from the sponsoring organizations. At 8 PM, a biographical film about King will be offered with discussion afterwards. The UU Meetinghouse is handicap accessible. Parking is available in the TD Bank North parking lot or in the surrounding streets. If you have questions, please call David at 447-0259 or Barbara at 442-2449.
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