During the months of May and June, we are devoting a “Corner” of our Communications to our Annual Stewardship Campaign. This year’s campaign concludes in June, the end of our “church year.”

This article comes from Jean Thomson, a member of the Stewardship Committee.

Hello! As you may know, we are in the midst of finalizing our budget for the next fiscal year, and that’s where you come in.

And I want to invite you to come right in through the church door you normally use, this time using your imagination.

As you enter, let me remind you of a couple of ways the church spends money. You are entering our building—and the lights are on! The heat is on! As we continue to warm up, the a/c will be on. Our building looks kept up and well-attended too!

This takes budgeting, this use of light and heat, and a/c. And the maintenance! But oh, do eyes glaze over when we talk about the cost of light and heat and a/c and maintenance. Instead, let’s continue on the tour we’re taking as you enter the church. No doubt you are heading for a particular room.

Do you know that most of our rooms are named for people who have come before us? There’s a book about our rooms, written by long-time member Jane Pejsa with help from our Archivist Mary Welfling. I don’t know about you, but I am really looking forward to reacquainting myself with our church rooms!

As you enter, you may pass through the lobby of the Howard Conn Fine Arts Theater, or you may come in via Jones Commons—spaces named for beloved senior ministers Howard Conn and Vivian Jones. In between is a hallway adjoined by the Elaine Marsh Library, a tribute to our much-beloved Elaine, for her 23 years of ministry with us.  Situating in Jones Common, look up! At the end is the brilliantly lit Nancy Baltins window. Nancy is commemorated here and in the Nancy Baltins Room off our downstairs kitchen, used as our Drop-In Center. Do you know Nancy is pretty much singularly responsible for the revival of the Drop-In Center? It’s one of the most important outreaches to the community that we have ever made. Nancy was a good friend and I always love gazing at her window.

Now, when I am back at Church, I know I want to head to the Bovey room, on the second floor. The beautifully decorated room served as a primary Sunday school room for almost 50 years. (I remember!)  In later years it housed junior high activities and served as a meeting room. Recently the room has been restored to its original beauty and now serves as the home for Plymouth’s Archives.

Perhaps one of the most romantic commemorative spaces we have is the choir-robing room—because of its legacy. This room, the Ross Room, commemorates the late-in-life marriage of Hazel Fraker and Archie Ross. They were, respectively, assistant treasurer and treasurer of the Church for 30 years—before marrying!

Time for a little respite, after hiking about? I would go to the Parsons Room, named for dear Jack Parsons, a longtime member, and advocate extraordinaire of our Church.

Now, aren’t these spaces intriguing?? They are not just rooms in a physical plant requiring light and heat and maintenance. These rooms, indeed our whole Church, are made up of people – people who have come before us, people who thought enough of our future to endow us with money to create living, breathing spaces.

We owe our future members the same courtesy – we must keep up the treasured rooms, alive with the memories of people from yesteryear, alive (soon!) with people today, and alive tomorrow, due to us.

Maintenance of our treasure of rooms, peopled as they are with legacy and memory, is a very necessary and important budget item.

Please give generously—before June 30! The rooms we love look to you.