ALL THINGS BRIGHT and BEAUTIFUL

After a lengthy renovation project, I am happy to report that the first floor of the Parish House and basement of the church building are fully renovated and rented!  Three all-day Head Start classrooms are housed in the Parish House and one half-day classroom and offices for the Children and Family Services of Tri-Cap occupy the church basement.  This is a wonderful outreach into the community as we provide a safe and accessible educational space for many children from low income families.  In return we are receiving rental income that helps to support our operating budget.

While we have had a relationship with Head Start since the mid-1980s, we have newer relationships with two ethnic congregations that rent space from us.  Casa de Fe y Alabanza, is approximately five years old and is a Cumberland Presbyterian Hispanic mission church.  They use Fuller Hall and the third floor classrooms in the Parish House.  Cb'Shalom/Malden is a two-year old American Baptist Brazilian congregation that meets in Judson and Ireland Chapels two nights per week.

In an effort to utilize our existing resources to support our operating budgets, the Trustees have also granted permission to the Haitian Nazarene Church of Malden to use the Social Hall on Sunday afternoons for their youth program.

While our own two-hundred-year-old congregation continues to include a variety of social, economic, and ethnic backgrounds, I am excited that we are also able to provide worship and/or program space for three newer congregations.

As I reflect on all these people and groups with whom we now share space, I am reminded of the words of Cecil F. Alexander:

All things bright and beautiful, All creatures great and small,
All things wise and wonderful, the Lord God made them all.

See you in church!

Pastor Martha Dominy