Greetings, all! As you may recall, last month I filled you in on some of the new history projects coming up or happening already. I’d like to continue this month with another announcement for another history project upcoming. So let’s get into it!
The Book
Many churches have books which outline and tell their history. These books are incredibly fascinating, especially for New England churches, since a great many of them have stood for centuries and have colorful stories, both uplifting and striking. The books include interesting facts and tell the story of the church itself, its congregants and ministers to date. They tell of volunteers and successful programs. They’re generally supplemented with awesome photos and other details which tell the rest of us all about the church and where they’ve been or what they’re up to. These are incredibly interesting, and I think we can build on that model. This is where we all come in.
I’m writing a history book for us currently, to be ready for publication later this autumn. It will include our church’s history. It will have pictures. It will talk about programs and ministers and volunteers and missions. But…it will also be only the beginning.
This is the first book in a series I’d like to call Welcome Home: The Living History of Marlborough Congregational Church. The idea is to create a series of smaller books which will encompass, yes, our history, but much more. It will create a space in which our shared stories can be written down; a space for photos of fun events and gatherings and other memorable moments that makes this place home for so many of us.
By removing the constraints of packing who we are into one book, a series of shorter books will allow us to tell our stories in a way that can be built on in the future. This can serve as a living history for MCC; a compilation of why this place is, has been, and will be, so amazing for so many.
It is my hope that this project might encourage folks to continue telling their stories and make connections to our history. But I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again: history isn’t just about where we’ve been. It’s also about where we’re going.
So, this isn’t about a history book that I’m writing, after all. It’ll be several small books we’re going to write together. I invite you to share your stories! All are welcome, all are celebrated! We say “Come as a stranger, leave as a friend” so openly, and we mean it. For a historian, I can’t imagine a better way to capture that essence than to put our joy and fond memories into writing, into our history.
For now, I’m history!!
Steve Pozzato
Arcane Technology Solutions, LLC