Please join us on June 19, 2024 at 5:30 p.m. to commemorate Juneteenth, the newest federal and state holiday. At this gathering, you will learn about the origins of the holiday and the historical events leading up to it such as the Emancipation Proclamation, the Gettysburg Address and Major-General’s Order No. 3. Included in the program are the reading of Maya Angelou’s Still I Rise, a presentation of a local connection to the Underground Railroad and a demonstration of the recently discovered music of Sawney Freeman. Following the program, a group photograph under the portico, a supper of pulled pork, corn bread, salads and strawberry shortcake made with locally grown strawberries will be served in the Community Room. For further information contact Susan Caufield at 860.324.4267.
Church Newsletter PDF File
To access a copy of the most recent church newsletter which has photos, calendar of events and news , click on the file icon below:
We are very excited to announce that at our congregational meeting on November 12, 2023 Rev. Susan Caufield was unanimously voted in as our settled pastor. Having served as our interim pastor since April 2023, Rev. Susan has already shown us the depth of her dedication, wisdom, and compassionate leadership. The resounding support from the congregation affirms our collective belief in her ability to guide us forward on our spiritual journey. We extend our heartfelt congratulations to Rev. Susan and express our gratitude to everyone who participated in this important decision. Your presence and support during this process have truly strengthened the bonds of our church family. Join us in celebrating this significant milestone on our shared path. We look forward to continued blessings and growth under Rev. Susan's leadership.
Rev. Susan Caufield, pastor of the First Congregational Church of Barkhamsted
Rev. Susan Caufield and the members of the First Congregational Church of Barkhamsted search committee on November 12, 2023 right after the unanimous vote. Left to right: Alice Judd, Bonnie Boyle, Rev. Caufield, Sandy Davis.
Welcome Interim Pastor Susan Caufield!
With the retirement of Rev. Susan Wyman in April 2023, we welcome Susan Caufield (photo below) as the interim pastor of the First Congregational Church of Barkhamsted. Susan Caufield will serve while our search committee works on filling this with a settled pastor.
Pastor Susan Wyman Announces Retirement
Our pastor Rev. Susan Wyman, announced her retirement from the First Congregational Church of Barkhamsted pulpit effective April 10, 2023. Sue has been our pastor since 2014 and we have much appreciated her service to our church over this period. We wish her well in retirement. We will miss Sue's smiling face and positive personality, although it is our hope that we will still see her often after her official church duties have ended. We are currently searching for a pastor to replace Sue.
Rev. Susan Wyman
Old News... below are old news items left here for posterity!
Church to Reopen For Sunday Services Starting June 7, 2020
Church Moderator John Lavieri announces reopening of the church in late May 2020:
When we continued the suspension of worship services through May 31, we said that we would review our situation toward the end of May, and here we are. Having considered the counsel of our church leaders, and state and federal governments, COVID-19 conditions in the world, the nation, the state, and Barkhamsted, we believe it will now be safe to re-open for Sunday morning worship starting June 7.
In Connecticut the rate of hospitalizations and deaths has been coming steadily down for the last month. The rate of new infections is still worrying, but that may be a result of the dramatic increase in testing we have achieved. The state has today started cautiously to allow the re-opening of many businesses. Social gatherings of more than five people are still prohibited, however, faith-based institutions are specifically exempted from that order.
In the nation, rates continue to drop as states adopt various methods and rates of re-openings. And, in the world, we continue to see trouble spots diminish. So, while the crisis is far from over, we are going to re-start our worship together June 7, under the following conditions:
The sanctuary, vestibule, bathrooms, and kitchen will be professionally cleaned before June 7;
We will gather outside, weather permitting. Laurie has graciously offered to bring her own keyboard for music;
Professional advice from Laurie(Organists Guild) and Kathy Hart agree that we should not sing for a while longer. Singing projects the virus more forcefully than speaking. Laurie will play the hymns as we can read along;
4. We will block off half our pews to limit capacity and provide for social distancing; 5. Please wear your masks to services; 6. Please observe 6-foot social distancing guidelines at all times; 7. We will suspend our coffee and social hour downstairs for the immediate future; 8. If you feel uncomfortable in attending under these circumstances, please do what you believe is best for you and others.
If this system works safely for a few weeks, we can consider opening a bit more. If it doesn’t, we can respond quickly in an appropriate way.
Looking forward to June 7, John
"Old Home Day" Observed - Sunday, September 8, 2019
"Old Home Day" is a celebration of the anniversary of the town of Barkhamsted. The 100th anniversary was observed on September 10, 1879 with a huge party attended by about 4,000 people on the grounds of our church. Many of them were former residents who traveled back to the "old home" for the celebration. Virtually every year since then Old Home Day has been observed here on or near September 10. The tradition has been to have all attending gather on the steps of the church for a photo, which we did! After the church service and group photo (shown below), a pot luck lunch was enjoyed by all. Hope you were able to make it.
Photo above- the traditional "Old Home Day" photo on the steps of our church - Sunday, September 8, 2019.
Photo above - progress on the final phase of repairs to the church- shingling the roof December 19, 2018. The shingles were completed and other work done by the end of December 2018. We now have a safe roof that does not leak! It has been a long tough journey. Thanks to all who have helped us during this challenge.
Photo above- church pageant held during the Sunday service on December 16, 2018.
Photo above - progress on the second phase of our roof repairs...workers have put up staging that will be used to access the roof to make repairs on the belfry and to re-shingle the roof. The work is on schedule to be completed by the end of December as long as the weather does not become a major factor.
Meet Laurie Pont Hall, our new organist
We are excited to introduce our new church organist, Laurie Pont Hall. Laurie started in September 2018 and it is so nice to have her with us and listening to great live music again in church.
Some background on Laurie: She is the accompanist for the Connecticut Yankee Chorale. She served as organist for the 2018 summer season of the Church of the Transfiguration in Norfolk. Prior to that she was the organist at the First Congregational Church of Litchfield for 35 years, directed the bell choir, and directed the senior choir as well after being named Music Director in 2008. She and husband David live in Harwinton, and have two adult daughters, Allison and Courtney. Laurie, welcome to our church!
Progress on roof repairs
Roof framing stabilization repairs have been completed in May and the church has been working on the second phase of the project: re-shingling the roof. Bids for this work and some other repairs have been received and a contractor has been selected. Re-shingling work was supposed to start in mid September 2018, but the contractor is late. Work is still progressing but snow and cold weather have hindered progress, and workers have found more damage and rot in the lower belfry than expected. We still hope that somehow the work can be completed by year end 2018. Because we have some leaks in the roof and with all the rain lately, it will be nice to have new shingles and flashing installed. The church will not need to close for this work, but during the construction period, please use caution when in or around the building.
Sunday Services resume at our Church at 6 Old Town Hall Road.
Sunday, June 17, 2018 - our first service back at the church since September 2017! It was great to be back home (see photo below).
Photo above - Sunday, June 17, 2018 - first church service back in our church sanctuary since September 2017.
Church Opens - Building Declared Safe!
Structural repairs to the roof framing have now been completed and our engineering firm has provided written documentation that the work has been successful. Today (June 4, 2018) the Barkhamsted building inspector has issued a work completion certificate and has declared the church building safe for occupancy.
This is a huge step for us. There is still some work to be done, including new shingles on the roof and flashing to stop leaks. We have applied a coat of stain/preservative to the wood floor of the sanctuary. This staining operation and getting things cleaned up have been completed now, and for the first time since September 2017, we will be BACK HOME for the church service starting June 17, 2018 and for Sundays going forward.
Photo above: Church pastor Rev. Susan Wyman and church member Todd Davis remove the "BUILDING UNSAFE" sign
from the door of the church (June 3, 2018).
Church members Marcy Brandow and Mary Anne Stoecker apply the first coat of stain/preservative to the church floor June 4, 2018.
Photo above - work continues on the roof framing upgrade in the "attic" of the church. It may not be readily apparent in this shot, but the scope of the repair work is extensive. Photo taken May 14, 2018.
Photo above - sitting in the church sanctuary are some of the steel plates that will be used to reinforce roof framing joints in the attic. Photo taken May 14, 2018.
Roof Framing Repairs Continue The two photos below show the first day (April 23, 2018) of repair construction on the roof framing of the church building. Workers from the contractor firm Kronenberger & Sons Restoration start actual construction work at the church. How long before the repairs are finished and the church building can open? That's the big question. Surely the construction work on the framing will be done by mid July 2018 and the current estimate is that this work will be done by early June 2018. We are hopeful that the church building will open shortly after. When roof repairs are completed, the engineering firm will inspect and, if all is in order, sign off on the work. Then the town building inspector will review the work. If all is in order, the building will be ready for use. We are not sure when this will all happen, but our hope is by late June or maybe even mid June.
The second phase of construction will involve replacing the roof shingles: removing the existing shingles and possibly the roof boards (plywood) and replacing them. We believe this work will start later this summer. We anticipate that the church building will be open and available for use BEFORE the start of this second phase of the project.
We get a generous grant! The First Congregational Church of Barkhamsted is pleased to announce that on April 5, 2018 we have received approval for an $18,000 grant from the Eva M. Coty Fund, a fund of the Northwest Connecticut Community Foundation. This grant will cover a portion of our costly and extensive roof repairs. We so appreciate this generous grant from the Foundation.
We have been very concerned that roof repair costs could threaten the viability of our church, and this grant helps to alleviate that concern. With this grant and earlier grants from the State Historic Preservation Office of the Department of Economic and Community Development, we can now cover a major portion of the costs. We plan to initiate soon a grass roots capital campaign to request donations from the community, which will also help.
Thank you so much for your support!
Church hires contractor to do framing repairs
The First Congregational Church of Barkhamsted has signed a contract with Kronenberger & Sons Restoration (Middletown, CT) to make repairs on the roof framing at our church building. Preliminary work has started already and the main effort will start in mid April. When the project will be completed we do not know for sure, but we are hopeful that the repairs will be done by mid June. When the repairs are done, we expect that the church building will reopen for use. After the roof stabilization work is completed, we will ask for bids and select a contractor to complete the remaining portion of the project which includes re-shingling the roof, flashing and other work around the belfry and some repairs to our plaster ceiling.
We got four bids by the March 12 deadline, reviewed them, got input from our engineering firm and selected the lowest bidder: Kronenberger & Sons Restoration. They are experienced in repair work involving old post and beam framing which is what we have at our church. Because the church is an historic structure, we wanted to preserve as much of the existing framing as possible. One of the early options proposed was completely replacing the roof framing with a modern truss system, but that was rejected because we did not want to completely remove the original framing. The structural stabilization design done by our engineers will keep virtually all the old framing.
Partial funding for this project will be provided by a grant from Connecticut’s Historic Restoration Fund through the State Historic Preservation Office of the Department of Economic and Community Development and also by a grant from Eva M. Coty Fund of the Northwest Connecticut Community Foundation (see announcement above). We are very thankful to these two for this support.
Unless we get a huge snow storm in April, it appears that we got through the winter without a roof failure caused by snow load. None of the options available to address snow load on the roof were good, but in early December the decision was made to have almost the entire roof covered with a new tarp, this time on both sides of the roof. The goal was to hopefully have the tarp shed snow and also to stop water damage from the leaky roof. On December 8, 2017, the tarp was installed (see photo below). The next day we got about five inches of snow, and within a day or two the snow had been shed from the roof. We realized that the snow would not always come off right after a storm, but we hoped that the slippery tarp would prevent a buildup of snow over several storms, and it did just that. Now (mid April 2018) after several winter storms, the tarp has performed very well, with most of the light snow storms we have received being quickly shed off the tarp on the roof.
Photo above - church tarp being installed on the roof on December 8, 2017.
Photo above- so far, so good! A couple of days after getting about 5 inches of snow, the blue tarp has no snow on it and the area not covered by the tarp (below the belfry) has snow sticking to the shingles. The structural issues in the roof framing are located from the mid point of the roof and toward the right in this photo (taken December 11, 2017).
Photo above - church annual meeting January 21, 2018.
Photo at left- our Sunday, October 15, 2017 church service was held on the portico of the church. We cannot use the interior of the building due to roof framing issues.
Sunday services have been held at the Senior Center, but we were not able to use the Senior Center this Sunday. Each year during Riverton Fair weekend, the Barkhamsted Seniors have a big tag sale fund raising event and needed the Senior Center building to support that effort. So we had our service back at the church, and fortunately the day was fairly warm and the rain held off.
It was nice hearing the church bell ringing again! Sunday services will return back to the Senior Center starting October 22.
Photo above left...the September 10, 2017 "Old Home Day" service held on the step of the Church. Photo above right...the traditional Old Home Day group photo - September 10, 2017.
Roof Issues Update -- August 2017 In late August of 2017, the engineering firm GNCB discovered additional structural issues in the Church roof framing and recommended that the building not be occupied until these issues are corrected. Therefore, regular Church worship services will not be held in the Sanctuary until further notice. We very much regret these developments, but in the interest of safety feel we must follow the recommendations of the engineers. Stay tuned here for updates on the location of future worship services.
Roof Issues Photo at left- our Church. Look closer and you can see a big tan tarp covering part of the roof. We have a leaky roof, and worse- the roof framing has issues. This tarp lasted about a year, now (late 2017) it is pretty much in tatters.
In 2016 we hired a structural engineering firm to pinpoint the framing problems. That investigation is now in process. The first recommendation was to make some critical temporary fixes to shore up the problem timbers. This was completed in December 2016 -- just in time to prevent any damage from the winter snow load!
This church is an old structure that is on the National Register of Historic Places, so we need to make permanent repairs to the framing that will preserve as much of the building fabric as possible. That goal is what we are currently working on.