East Barnard
“We don’t have to be told what to do,” quipped John Leavitt, a Pomfret resident who was baptized in the church in 1936.
Between Leavitt, his sister Marian Whitaker, of Barnard, and several others, any dust bunnies that had assembled over the winter didn’t stand a chance.
Like many churches with dwindling congregations in the Upper Valley and beyond, to save on heating costs, theirs holds services only in the summer and on special occasions, such as Christmas Eve.
Leavitt, whose family has belonged to the church throughout its 183-year history, remembers Sundays when the pews were full. But that’s not the case these days.
“We try to keep it going,” he said.
In recent winters, that’s included gathering in parishioners’ homes for informal services.
With fewer people in town and the weather harsh, meeting during the colder months isn’t easy, minister Kellyann Wolfe said in a telephone interview. Yet the effort is worthwhile. “It’s hard to keep packing up a community and unpacking it nine months later,” said Wolfe, who is entering her fourth year with the non-denominational church. “It’s not really how human community works.”
The themed gatherings were potlucks, “both in conversation and in food,” she said. One focused on the book of Ecclesiastes and “the impermanence of things and how that can be really liberating. It’s sort of a hidden tradition in the Bible,” almost a Buddhist idea that things “are always shifting.”
The services help sustain the fellowship and worship year-round, said Wolfe, who later recalled a newer member’s pointed questions: “Why do you close the church? Don’t you guys need Jesus in the winter?’ ”
During the annual cleanup, Sophia Stone took a break to talk about the church, and the home services, which generally include a few prayers, a song and discussion.
“It’s nice to gather during the winters … and not forget that we do this,” the Barnard resident said.
Displays in the entryway provide a map of the building’s history. Among them is a list of 100 or so donors who contributed to a recent steeple renovation project that addressed, among other issues, a leak that had caused timbers in the belfry to start rotting.
As lovely old historic churches often do, theirs has captured the imagination and hearts of Barnard residents and people from surrounding towns, even non-parishioners. That’s why, despite the small congregation, it was possible to raise $75,000 for the steeple work.
The church is “a local landmark,” Stone said. “People care about it as an artifact.”
This summer, services will run through Aug. 27, when communion will be offered. They generally attract anywhere from a dozen to 40 people, including some who have been vacationing in the area for decades.
The 9:30 a.m. services will unpack traditional and central concepts and “get at the richness” of Christian traditions, said Wolfe, who has a doctorate in biblical studies. The topics will include atonement, the theology of the cross and suffering. “There are many atonement theologies,” she said. “One has more to do with God’s (compassion for humanity) than … with punishment.”