FOREST HILL UNITED CHURCH
Subtitle
Forest Hill United Church 50th Anniversary Celebrations
Anniversary Service - February 18, 2018
Anniversary Service - February 18, 2018
On Sunday, February 18th, 2018, exactly 50 years after it was formed, Forest Hill United Church in Fredericton held a service of celebration and thanksgiving to God that was full of colour and music, history and hope and good fellowship.
Photo to the left is the 50th anniversary bulletin cover.
Click here to see the entire bulletin.
View of congregation just prior to the start of the anniversary service.
Video of choir entrance and lighting the candles.
FHUCCHOIR
Video of sermon by Rev Richard Bowley, President of Maritime Conference.
Forest Hill's worship space has always been adorned with colourful banners and our anniversary provided the opportunity for a skilled and dedicated team to refurbish and refresh almost 50 banners.
Our resident historian, Dr. Graham Powell, in consultation with many folk with long memories, prepared documentation on the history of each banner. These will remain on our walls as long as feasible. The above video is a tour of banners in the sanctuary.
Charter members took part in the service, reading Scripture and assisting with communion. The above video shows Jennifer Abbott reading Scripture during the anniversary service.
Robert Hawkes got in touch with as many of our former ministers as possible. The image below shows the back cover of the bulletin which included a list of all ministers. Many sent greetings which were read in the service by Marilyn Lohnes (video below).
Marilyn Lohnes reads greetings from former ministers.
Our anniversary provided a wonderful opportunity to gather artefacts - photos, documents, scrapbooks, Sunday School materials from our history and our present - these were all on display. Many of these were digitally archived by Libby Cassidy; Marilyn Lohnes created a Slide Show featuring many of them. The 50th Anniversary Planning Committee plans to display them again on Easter Sunday, April 1st.
And, of course,
there was cake!
Rev Deborah Ambridge Fisher
and
Rev Richard Bowley with
anniversary cake.
Anniversary Hymn Sing and Concert
Our 50th Anniversary Celebrations continued with a Hymn-Sing on Sunday, May 27th. Over 50 people from our own and other congregations came to enjoy a rousing evening of singing hymns, old and new.
As friends gathered, Marie Hughes played a lovely solo sonata on her viola, then Charlotte Flinn contributed the sweet sounds of her clarinet.
For the hymns, guest piano accompanist, Lynda-Jean Coffin and our own keyboard artist, Alex Good, led the singing with occasional help from Brian and Libby Cassidy on their guitars.
The delightful evening was rounded out with a benediction from the Rev. Deborah Ambridge Fisher and followed by a time of fellowship with sweets being provided by the women of the congregation.
A copy of the program can be found here.
A special thank you to Robert Christie and Rev. Deborah Ambridge Fisher for providing the photographs of this event.
How Great Our Art!
A Weekend Celebrating the Creativity
of Forest Hill United Church Folk
A Weekend Celebrating the Creativity
of Forest Hill United Church Folk
The third and final event to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Forest Hill United Church took place September 21-23, 2018
On Friday, September 21st, we had a wonderful opportunity to look back over our first 50 years. During the winter of 2018, Marilyn Lohnes and Brian Cassidy interviewed our 5 charter members - Jennifer Abbott, Doreen and Ken Floyd, and Patricia and Graham Powell - and then spent many hours creating 4 videos. In the videos, historical photos and video clips were incorporated into the taped interviews, and the result is a treasure for our church and for the charter members' families.
Saturday September 22nd was the day we celebrated our current members' creativity - most appropriate for the Season of Creation. Our curator, Mary Grant, helped us mount an amazing display: fibre artists, visual arts, photographers, wood-workers, authors and a composer, all from our congregation, contributed an eye-catching array.
Five of our artists were featured in the "Spotlight": they were given a half-hour each to share their creative process and their creations. The Spotlight room was jammed full to hear Robert Hawkes (poetry), Elizabeth Savoie (readings from published stories), Margie Roxborough (pysanky), Mary Grant (sculpted rug hooking), Graham Powell (photos from his new text book on birches, ironwood and maples), and Alex Good (excerpts from his new CD "Sapiophobia").
On Sunday September 23rd, our minister, Rev Deborah Ambridge Fisher dedicated the new 50th anniversary banner, which had been designed by Mary Grant from ideas furnished by the Sunday School.
The creation of FHUC's banner took many hours and many hands. Indeed, the special events for our 50th anniversary - the anniversary service February 18, the Hymn-Sing, May 27, our "How Great Our Art" weekend, September 21-23 - would not have happened without the whole-hearted dedication of the committee members: Chair (and "Champion") Libby Cassidy, Mary Grant, Margie Roxborough, Karen Flinn, Brian Cassidy, Joan Mitchell, Rev. Deborah Ambridge Fisher, Marilyn Lohnes, Alex Good, Graham Powell, Ron Blakney and Diane Robinson. Others who helped out were: Lynda-Jean Coffin, Mary-Anne Blakney, Jennifer Abbott, May Houston, Robert Hawkes, Peggy Hawkes, Christine Hughes, Marie Hughes, Charlotte Flinn, Rachel Neville and Robert Christie.
That's a wrap!
