The ocean is sporting a beautiful clear green in Squantum for St. Paddy’s and the flower stalks are bursting through the ground…spring is indeed around the corner! To celebrate the coming of spring this week, we have a treat for you. Join us on Saturday, March 23 from 4-6 pm for an afternoon of art and conversation, with a bit of Crock-Pot cookery thrown in!

Saturday, March 23, 4:00 – 6:00 PM
First Church of Squantum, Fellowship Hall (lower level)
164 Bellevue Rd, Squantum, MA (map)
This is a free event.

Exhibit of Squantum Artists
The Squantum Community Association is hosting an exhibit of works by our creative Squantum neighbors that will include photography, painting, drawing, and fabric arts. Enjoy the creative vision of photographers Abby Rose Plourde and Deb Squires, botanical watercolorist Ruth Ann Wetherby, along with painter Jean Mayer Green, and mixed-media artist David Rivard, as well as drawings by artist Glen Buscher. Come meet these inspired artists. We’ll also have on display a few hooked rug pieces by fiber artist Emily Robertson, and paintings and drawings by artist Alberta Hodgen Howe.

Crock-Pot Cook-Off!
In between perusing the wonderful art and mingling with your neighbors, put your taste buds to the test at First Church of Squantum’s Crock-Pot Cook-Off! Sample these tasty creations and vote for your favorite. Like what you taste? Pick up the recipe book, available for purchase at the event.

About the Squantum Community Association
The Squantum Community Association provides programming that fosters conversation and community with a focus on topics of interest to the Squantum and Quincy communities, highlighting local talent and history.

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Events
All of Squantum and Quincy proper are invited to join a Candlelight Worship of Celebration on Saturday and a Service of Rededication on Sunday.

Candlelight Worship
Saturday, September 20, 5:30 pm
All are invited to attend
Special guests will include former pastors, as well as Mayor Thomas Koch of Quincy and State Representative Bruce Ayers and other Congregational churches.

Centennial dinner
Saturday, September 20 (following worship)
By invitation only, for guests who have RSVP’d.
Following worship, a dinner for invited guests will feature community story-telling, historical photo and memorabilia displays, and the world-class Irish dancing of the Brady Academy for Irish Dancing.

Service of Rededication
Sunday, September 21 at 10 a.m.
All are invited to attend
Join this service as the congregation rededicates its building and its members to God’s purposes.

A rich history of service in Squantum

The community celebrated the dedication of the First Church on September 20, 1914 thanks to the efforts of Christians of different denominations, community organizers (such as Gordon Nelson and Eddie Carlson), and the construction talents of people like Thomas Curry. Current pastor Rev. Doug Gray reflects, “First Church’s founding seems to be very organic, rising up out of the community’s need to have shared space to worship God and meet together.” The church’s first pastor, Rev. Thomas W. Davison, had been organizing and teaching summer-only Sunday School for children starting in 1910, as a mission outreach of the Atlantic Memorial Church. The children met in a tent that stood at the corner of Huckins and Standish in Squantum, roughly where the fire station currently sits. Rev. Davison observed, “Squantum is without a hall of any kind, and its social activities have been stinted for this very reason. The fact that the Community Hall is separated from the church proper and its religious work, will tend to make [the] Community Hall available for such affairs as the church committee feels will be for the best interests of Squantum.”

The First Church of Squantum continues this tradition of open-minded faith, community service, and partnership as it hosts Cub Scout and Boy Scout troops, Daisy and Brownie troops, Squantum Community Association lectures, a community book group, “Mommy and Me” for pre-schoolers and their adults, and dances for middle-school students. This summer the church offered Vacation Bible School free of charge to anyone who wanted to come as part of their commitment to Squantum. Rev. Gray shares, “This fellowship’s commitment to reaching out to the community, to being a light of grace in Squantum is part of what drew me to this church last year. It’s part of what keeps me excited about the chance to serve here. I think we are really making a difference for God!”

Learn more about the First Church at their website.

First Church, 1914

First Church, 2014