On Sunday, May 3, I stood in the sanctuary of the First Parish Church of Stow and Action in Stow, MA (FPC) surrounded by the members of FPC and the Unitarian Church of Marlborough and Hudson (UCMH). Together we sang, “We shall be known by the company we keep, by the ones who circle round to tend these fires.” I felt the strength and goodness of that fire-tending company who were about to do something big together.
UCMH has faced challenges similar to many of our smaller congregations in the past decade: fewer members, aging building, financial stress. Like many congregations, UCMH had a vision of bringing in a variety of groups and activities to make use of their beautiful space and to help maintain it. They created the Spiritual Growth and Community Center to provide a range of spiritual growth, learning, and practice activities. Just as this effort was beginning to take off, the covid pandemic shut down all in-person gatherings. Coming out of the social distancing phase of the pandemic, the activities were revived, but they were not providing enough resources for the congregation to sustain the upkeep of the building as well as their other ministries.
Thus UCMH began to think about alternatives for their future. One option they considered was joining with another congregation. They had very preliminary conversations with a number of their neighbors, and FPC was the congregation who responded most positively. The two congregations began with occasional joint activities and shared worship.
I had the privilege of witnessing the process of these two congregations as they began the serious discernment about the potential of joining into one congregation. The moment I knew something special was happening was at the first meeting of the complete boards and ministers of both congregations. The UCMH board members were talking through their experience that had led them to this point, and one of the FPC members stopped them. She wanted to note out loud how hard this story was and to acknowledge to the UCMH members that she felt how much grief they were carrying. It was the first of many times that FPC members spoke their love and care for the hard parts of the process for UCMH.
