Category: Bicentennial

We're celebrating our wonderful historic church.

1/16/2015

Join us for the monthly events culminating with our Open House and Banquet, Sept. 20, 2015.

Jan. 17 – Noon - Roll Call & Hymn sing
Feb. 18 – 7 p.m. Ash Wednesday service
March 7 – Afternoon recital in memory of Rev. David Hess.
March 15 – 2 p.m. The Henrietta Historical Society visits for presentation on Elizabeth McFarlane Memorial Class.
April 18 – Choral Festival
May 10 - During Sunday worship, Mama Emile, the story of the late Emily Keyes's life as a missionary in Africa will be presented in a readers' theater using her own words from her poems and formal and informal letters home from the field.
June 14 – Sunday School Picnic at Martin Road Park following worship
July (Date TBD) – Ice Cream Social with neighbor churches
August – Creation of Time Capsule (photos, stories, etc.)
Sept. 20 – Open House/banquet celebration.

The Bicentennial calendar of events has been posted on the Bicentennial Page. Keep watching for updates!
You can also enjoy our history unfold on the Our History page.

0 Comments

Roll Call Meeting

1/13/2015

0 Comments

An old-fashioned roll call meeting will be held at noon Saturday, Jan. 17 at the church. The afternoon will begin with a lunch of subs, homemade soups, and brownies, with the roll call to follow. A roll call really is a fellowship event that improves with attendance, so please come.

In our church's past, the annual church meeting was a daylong event that started with a roll call meeting. (Dinner followed and then the actual business meeting.) The roll call meeting was meant to call all members together and give them an opportunity to encourage and exhort their fellow believers. The clerks's roll was called, and as each person's name was read, that person would stand. They could pray, testify, read a passage of scripture, or request the singing of a hymn. Absent members would send their greetings by letter to be as present as possible.

We will read from the church directory, so please be present when your name is called. Share a song, a prayer, a verse, or a testimony with the congregation. (Remember how much we loved singing hymns that Sunday Rev. Bill Reynolds let us select them?)

Dear snowbirds, please send us greetings to be read aloud. We miss you and would love to hear a warm word from you. (Wind chill factor is minus 20 as I write.) Just drop us a lines by return email.

Hopefully, the roll call will unite our hearts and prepare us for the annual meeting the next day, Sunday, January 18.

Thank you for marking your calendars! We so look forward to seeing you.

0 Comments

December Caroling Party

12/13/2014

0 Comments

In December, we celebrated the bicentennial with an old-fashioned Christmas caroling party organized by Bicentennial Committee member Pat Floyd. Our neighbors at the Church of the First Born joined us for caroling at Woodcrest Commons and Westtown Village. We returned to the church for a chili supper and Christmas treats.

0 Comments

Community Thanksgiving Service

11/25/2014

0 Comments

Members of Rush-Henrietta Interfaith League churches joined us Tuesday, Nov. 25, for the annual Community Thanksgiving Service. We wanted to host this event at the start of our bicentennial to share our thanksgiving with our neighbors, who share so much of our history. Rev. Dr. Jill Bradway, our interim pastor, preached on “Live Thanks!”

Other participants included: Rev. David Inglis, senior pastor, Henrietta United Church of Christ; Rev. Dr. Lynn Acquafondata, pastoral counselor and church consultant; Rev. Martha Koenig Stone, associate pastor, Henrietta United Church of Christ; Bruce Nelson, president, Temple Beth Am; Barbara Swiecki, pastor administrator, St. Marianne Cope Roman Catholic Church; Dr. Rashid Muhammad, member of the Islamic Center of Rochester, Muslim Chaplain at RIT; Mel Witmer, longtime volunteer for FISH and RHAFT; Rev. Dr. Cathy Stengel, senior pastor, Rush United Methodist Church, and Lynne Stewart, member of both the WHBC bicentennial committee and the Rush-Henrietta Interfaith League.

Edo Frenkel directed the choir, and Bev Bixby was organist.

0 Comments

Bicentennial Celebration Launch

10/11/2014

0 Comments

West Henrietta Baptist Church launched its yearlong bicentennial celebration at the annual WHBC Deacons’ Retreat held Saturday, Oct. 11, at the church and Maplewood Cemetery. Evie Scott and Mary’s Gang sang for participants, who also enjoyed soups made by Deacons Kathy Juby and Mary Bailey. Historian Bonnie Healy presented the stories of Elizabeth Eby McFarlane and Mellicent McNall Fenner MacFarlane. The wives of the Rev. J.C. M(a)cFarlane, an early 20th century WHBC pastor, their stories unlock much of the church history buried in the stained glass windows and the portraits of the Elizabeth McFarlane Memorial Class still hanging in the Fellowship Hall. For more information about Elizabeth and Mellicent M(a)cFarlane, see “Mystic Sweet Communion.”