We the members of the Monterey United Church of Christ recently made the sorrowing decision to hold our final Sunday service of worship on November 23rd, the last Sunday of the church year, with one final gathering on Christmas Eve. 

 

This will conclude 176 years of weekly worship in the church building erected in 1848, and 275 years of this congregation’s Monterey wing by which, yoked with Tyringham, Township #1 was established in 1750. It will also bring to a close Liz Goodman’s 24 years of being pastor here. The service will include delegates from the Berkshire Association and the Southern New England Conference, each covenantal organizations of the United Church of Christ, our denomination. We’ll also honor the lay leaders, members, and participants who've traveled this final phase of the church together.

 

As you might imagine, we’re sad to write this, and you might be sad to read it. The church and its building have been central to much of significance, the passages of life that seem hardly to fit in places of a more secular sort—baptisms, weddings, funerals and the like. It’s also been host to gatherings not explicitly sacred, which has been the pleasure of the membership to make provision for. Due to an endowment whose sources are two sizeable bequests, the sale of the parsonage in 2019, and the sustaining gifts of members of the church, we’ve not had to monetize our property, a fact that’s brought benefit to the whole town.

 

Following our service, there will be many months of winding things down legally, the timing of which is related to when or whether the building finds new ownership in Monterey Meeting House Inc.  (“MMH Inc.”) This is a recently formed tax-deductible nonprofit gathered to take up the task of imagining the next chapter of 449 Main Road. This is not an easy process, so we ask for your good grace as we thread the needle of legality, neighborliness, and faithfulness to the concerns of Jesus’ church, whose charter is often felt to be found in Luke 4:18. Here it’s listed: good news for the poor, release for the captives, healing for the sick, justice for the oppressed, and a jubilee year during which those enslaved are made free.

 

True to this charter, it has been our keenest pleasure to host the Monterey Food Pantry for a number of years. While it’s possible we’ll need to close the building after our last day of worship, we’re doing what we can to keep way for the Food Pantry. We’ll provide further information as we come to have it. 

 

In the meantime, please consider supporting the efforts of the MMH Inc. They’ve committed tremendous time, talent, and treasure to this effort already and will need the support of all in order to succeed in realizing their developing vision.

 

Please reach out to any of these undersigned with any questions,

Donna & Wayne Burkhart

Rev. Liz Goodman

Linnea Grealish

Sally & Steve Pullen

Susan Quinn

Steve Snyder