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Date: 4/27/2023
EAST LONGMEADOW — First Congregational Church of East Longmeadow United Church of Christ (FCCEL) collaborated with Partners for Sacred Places, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the sound stewardship and active community use of historic houses of worship on an asset mapping project to identify the church’s physical, historic and relational assets in town.
First Congregational Church, also known as “church on the rotary,” was built in 1828. It is in the center of town and one of the oldest institutions in East Longmeadow. The church was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.
Designated Term Pastor Carrie Bail told Reminder Publishing that First Congregational Church have been struggling to keep up in terms of finances and people attending. She was hired on a contractual basis at half time to try and help the church think through the future. Bail came in January of 2020 with that purpose in mind, then two months later the coronavirus pandemic hit. Bail was in a meeting last spring and heard Rev. Shelly Stackhouse, senior director of programs for Partners for Sacred Places and a UCC minister, speak about Partners for Sacred Places program. She thought this might be the program to work well for their congregation.
Bail said, “Although the congregation is struggling, they are in many ways very vibrant and alive and very much involved in the community.” She continued, “The main issue is how to maintain a lot of physical property and also manage to keep on with your church program and have enough people and enough cash to do that.”
Bail enlisted Partners for Sacred Places’ help and asked what programs they thought the church would benefit from. Partners for Sacred Places produced a three-phase approach proposal that included important foundational work with the church’s historical mission. The church created a vision statement for the use of their buildings and learned how to evaluate possibilities. Then they transitioned into planning a community event of asset mapping, a three-hour collaborative process where participants from different sectors of the community bring their knowledge, talents, and expertise to evaluate the church properties and identify potential future uses of their facilities and opportunities for partnering.
The church formed a Community Advisory Committee to expand their reach and connection with members that represent a variety of sectors. The committee comprised of Bail, Gail Holt, a 14-year member of the First Congregational Church currently leading the team from the church that is working with the consultants from Partners for Sacred Places, Olan Johnston, moderator for the church, Marilyn Duffy, Dawn Nowak and Joe Croteau – members of the church that serve on the advisory and planning committee, Erin Koebler and Alicia Smith from the Council on Aging and Jonathan Torcia from the Community Preservation Committee.
The asset mapping event took place on March 28 in the Fellowship Hall of First Congregational Church. Attendees included individuals from human and social services, civic leaders and public safety, small businesses, faith communities and educational institutions. Those attended include: the town library, town recreation department, Town Council, chamber of commerce, Fire Department and Police Department, Superintendent Gordon Smith of East Longmeadow Public Schools and Principal Tom Mazza of Kensington International School in Springfield which has been a longtime mission operator with the church. Other representatives from the Girl Scouts of America and the YMCA Women’s Shelter were also in attendance.
The asset mapping event began with a building facilities tour, followed by facilitated conversations and small-group breakout sessions. “It was very valuable,” Bail replied. “We got to know a lot of people in the community that we hadn’t known before. They got to know us and the space that is available. The connection there was very important.” She went on to say, “Then we also got to hear a lot of ideas of what people think is needed in the community, what kinds of activities would enhance community life in East Longmeadow and finally we got to think about it in terms of what kind of projects would best express our mission in creating more events here.”
Some of the ideas include potential needs that are currently either unmet or limited in the community such as use of the church’s commercial kitchen, classrooms that could be rented out for afterschool or tutoring programs as a teenage gathering place and their Fellowship Hall which has a stage, sound system and could act as a function space for a multitude of events.
“We were thrilled with the success of the event,” said Holt. “We really had no idea what to expect since we had not tried such outreach before. The goals for the event included increasing vitality and partnership throughout the community, imagining new value, making the most of our assets in the community and seeking opportunities for mutual support.”
Johnston added, “We found this process to be particularly valuable as the level of engagement and enthusiasm was phenomenal. Many attendees were surprised at the size and quality of the spaces in our facilities, which stimulated even more ideas, and will propagate ongoing discussions.”
The church will continue the discussions as they move to identify areas to deepen their collaboration with the town and overall community. As they move forward, the church will also expand their outreach to community leaders who were not part of the initial group and to build upon the energy created. They will strive to learn what is known about their building, the use of their space and more about unmet needs in the town. “By sharing the reported outcomes with those involved in the process,” Johnston said. “We will identify priority areas to move forward as we can with available resources, work to expand our mission of community partnering and avail ourselves to conversations regarding community needs that we could help fulfill.”
First Congregational Church of East Longmeadow United Church of Christ is located on 7 Somers Rd.
The office manager is in the church from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. from Monday through Thursday and Fridays from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. For questions call 413-525-4121 or email Office@churchontherotary.org.