Remarkable developments

Followers of this blog know that the Guilford Community Church has been operating without a pastor for the past five months. The Sunday services have been led by a variety of lay persons, and the three lay leaders plus rhe Church Council have done the administrative work. There has been minimal pastoral ministry, but when Tom Ragle died, for example, both former pastor Lise Sparrow and I took on aspects of that role with the family. But during these months, a committee has been looking for an interim pastor - not a new settled pastor, but an interim, because our relationship with Elisa Lucozzi revealed that the church really had not made clear what its priorities were in terms of what it wanted and needed as a pastor, which is at least partly why she ended up leaving last August - actually, being asked to leave, because she was not the pastor many people wanted or expected. So the church has some soul-searching and work to do before looking for and calling another settled pastor, and that is what interim pastors are for - guiding the church in that process. We were told it might not be easy to find an interim - they are in short supply. But we got lucky. Somehow, a former interim pastor here at the GCC, the person who immediately followed Shirley and me when we retired in i997, Allyson Platt by name, got wind of our need. She was very much liked when she was here back in 1997-98, and I think she enjoyed being pastor here. She was contracted at that time to come for only one year, which turned out to be too short a time, because the settled pastor who followed her, Norene Carter, only stayed one year. But that was clear only in hindsight. In any case, this time, Allyson and the search committee got connected, and by golly, she is going to be our interim, and this time how long she will stay is TBD - "to be determined." It happens that she is in Sante Fe, NM, a long commute! She has been helping to care for a new grandbaby. But it also happens that she was planning to come back east about right now, and had made arrangements to live with a friend in Keene, NH, just 20 miles away from Guilford. So she doesn't even have to look for housing - which was a concern because the housing market in Brattleboro is hopeless. The other coincidence is that she attended Southern Vermont College for a time, I don't know when, but that is where I was on the faculty for about 16-17 years. And I went there because when I was the Executive Director of the Vermont Higher Education Council, the President of the Council was Tom Gee, who was President of Southern Vermont College at that tie, and Tom became a good friend. So when I was ready to leave VHEC, Tom invited me to come to SVC tomjoin the faculty. Well, Tom and his wife, Sue, moved to Santa Fe a few years ago, and Allyson knows them. Knows them Well enough that Tom sent me a picture of Allyson and himself with the note, "Look who I have sent back to you."

Allyson Platt and Tom Gee. ********************************* Allyson's ministry as interim back in 1997-98 was summarized by me in an Epilogue in Safe Thus Far, a history of the Guilford Church. Here is an excerpt: "Without doubt, Allyson Platt was an inspired choice as interim minister. Under her leadership the church grew and thrived in every way. She gave particular importance to the role which stewardship plays in the life of faith and sought to educate the congregation in the meaning of stewardship, not only of financial resources, but of the skills and talents inherent in the congre- gation as well. She organized "Koinonia groups," i.e., small groups within the church, which met to help people get better acquainted, to evaluate the various ministries and missions of the church and to explore possibilities for the future. She brought to the pulpit an outstanding gift of biblical exegesis and preaching, as well as an honesty and directness in addressing difficult and controversial issues. She also brought a wonderful sense of humor to her ministry. She recalled one Sunday on which she was making an announcement which concerned Peg Curtiss, who happened to be absent that day. She meant to say that Peg "was not present that day because she's being installed as President of the Emblem Club," but somehow it came out as, "she's . . . pregnant!" She laughed as heartily as everyone else, and probably wished she could see Peg's face when she got the news. She organized a calling and caring committee which received training in pastoral care. Growing out of this was a series of healing services in December of 1998. At one of these services, she arranged for a "healing quilt" to be invested with the love and prayers of those present by the laying on of hands, and the next day the quilt was taken to Dinah Breunig in the hospital in Keene where she was recovering from spinal surgery. On an earlier Sunday, before Dinah's surgery, the congregation had spontaneously risen and gathered around Dinah and her husband, Fred, laying on hands, praying and singing, "We're going to lift our Dinah up . . ." These acts of love and caring were deeply appreciated, and are characteristic of the way in which the Spirit can move in the Guilford Church. Allyson Platt brought both change and continuity to the life of the church, and as a result, the fears that the church might decline after the retirement of the Crocketts were completely set aside. The church flourished in attendance, in financial support, in more committed discipleship and in the outpouring of the Spirit." All of this is quite remarkable, to say the least. Allyson's first Sunday as interim will be February 18th - coming right up!