The “Top Ten” of 2007

For me, 2007 can be characterized as a year with many special and noteworthy moments. I’d like to acknowledge the many contributors who helped produce my Top Ten favorites. These are not listed in any order of importance.

1. We made substantial progress with St. Mary’s Katrina outreach initiative. Lynn Farnell and Tim Green completed their second diocesan-sponsored mission trip—this time to New Orleans, following an earlier trip to Biloxi (MS)—returning with photos and anecdotes about the unresolved devastation they witnessed and courageous, spiritual inhabitants they met. This is despite the noteworthy relief work being done by church volunteer groups. A last-minute substantial, anonymous donation from a St. Mary’s parishioner made the final leg of the 2007 program possible. Lynn and Tim are extremely gratified by the ongoing support from the congregation throughout the year.

3. St. Mary’s unveiled a new, user-friendly website and an expanded capability to communicate with parishioners online. We owe an enormous debt of gratitude to Paul Pyzowski for creating a website that makes a very favorable first impression for St. Mary’s. Not only did Paul create this marvelous marketing tool; he did all of the work himself, saving the church monies that had been budgeted for an outside website designer. The website exhibits a beautiful photo gallery of events, and a video of the 5:00 p.m. Christmas Eve Service.

A letter dated December 29, 2007 was received from the station’s Commanding Officer, Captain Mark W. Roche, which read in part:

“On behalf of the members of Fire Station 2, I want to thank you and your parishioners for the generous donation recently provided for our station. As you may already know, the “comfort” items in the fire stations such as TVs, air conditioners, microwaves, exercise equipment, etc. are all paid for by our members and are not provided by the City of Newton.

“Firefighters perform their dangerous job 24/7 and ask for nothing in return except for a thank you once in a while. The parishioners of St. Mary’s graciously said thank you by providing us with a wonderful gift.”

7. St. Mary’s hosted Spiritual Life Day for the Wellesley chapter of Church Women United on Friday, October 26th with the largest group in years attending to hear Rabbi Weiss and me reflect on interfaith and spiritual life. The service centered on the spiritual life as apparent to all who are grateful to God for the blessings of life. Spirituality is not for the select few, but for all whose lives are touched by God. Elizabeth Comer did a stellar job in organizing this event, and the ecumenical spirit of Anna Brita Perkins and Fran Johnson was felt.

9. Our quinquennial pictorial directory has been nearly completed. This important document provides a photographic history of St. Mary’s families and is meant to be enjoyed by all. Making the directory happen requires a tremendous amount of work. Once again, Judy Haycock, Beverly Hurney and Andrea Gorton stepped up to the plate. They deserve our thanks.

– Peter Chase