by Jared Roberts                                                    

When I was asked to write something for this newsletter, I was unsure what to write about.  I wanted to say something meaningful that would reflect my experience at St. Paul's, and what stood out the most was the St. Paul's Youth group, or SPY.  In my few years with the SPY group, I have developed friendships that have been some of my strongest and longest-lasting.  The activities I've been a part of have also been beneficial to my spiritual growth as well as my understanding of important lessons such as helping others and taking responsibility for my own religious experience.  If there is one part of St. Paul's Church that I would say has been the most influential in my life, it has to be SPY.

 Of all of the activities that I have been a part of through SPY, probably the most in-depth and life-changing would be the mission trip to Chantilly, Jamaica last April.  I and a few other members of SPY accompanied Dr. Mark Carney to the village of Chantilly to help run a medical clinic for the village, as well as to spend time in the basic and primary schools there. We spent the week of April vacation in the community, taking shifts between the medical clinic and the school.  At the medical clinic we helped Dr. Carney perform physical exams for the people of the village, as well as providing the children with toothbrushes and dental sealants to promote good dental hygiene. At the school we taught about where we lived, including information about our climate and location, and our daily schedules and schools.  Every afternoon when we finished our work we would play games with the kids for a few hours.

 What made the trip so meaningful and eye-opening was seeing how gracious the local people were.  These were people from one of the poorest villages in one of the most poverty ridden nations on the planet, and they had every reason in the world to be bitter or distrustful of outsiders.  This, however, was not the reaction I encountered at all.  Everyone we met greeted us warmly, and strangers welcomed us with open arms.  The children were no exception, and the small gifts we gave them that would have been considered minor by our standards were treated by the kids as the greatest things they had ever laid eyes on, and I'm sure for some of the children they were. 

I expected people to be suspicious of us, or at the very least hesitant to visit, and the complete opposite was true.  I was very inspired by the optimistic nature of the village, and I think that this was one of the most meaningful things that I have experienced.  I was very thankful for this opportunity to see a different part of the world, and to be introduced to a very inspiring outlook on life.

April 1984: Kathy and son Tim in front of a burnt-out St. Paul's

Resolutions and New Beginnings

 New beginnings can happen any time throughout the year.  The beginning of my deeper understanding of the power of God in my personal life came early in the morning on Wednesday, April 11, 1984.  My son Timothy Harper was born at 3:50am, the precise moment the fire at St. Paul's was declared under control.

Right up until his birth I had it all under control!  I was a strong-willed first-born, happily married to Bill Harper, my college best friend, owning a cute little home in Penacook, both of us singing in the church choir, both employed, and I was teaching first grade.  Tim's due date was Friday the 13th, which was also report card day before April vacation.  Since firstborns typically come late, I thought that I was all set.  But God had other plans.

Early in the morning of Tim's somewhat earlier-than-expected arrival, I got a phone call at the hospital from friend and fellow parishioner Ranee Washburn.  She broke the news to us about the fire, and also expressed her deep joy at the news of our son's birth.  The next 48 hours were a whirlwind!  How Father David Glendinning found time to visit us in the hospital when our church lay in ruins still amazes me, but I'll never forget the look of serenity and tears of joy on his face as he held my newborn son.  Bill brought Tim and me by the church ruins on our way home from the hospital.  I remember noticing the strong burned smell before actually seeing it.  After the Civil Air Patrol, led by our then Junior Warden Ken Jameson, put the police tape around it, many parishioners, including Bill and my parents, stood watch over the burned-out structure until it could be better secured.  With a newborn at home and family members swept up in this terrible loss, I felt neglected, selfish, and confused.

Easter Sunday services were held that year in the church parking lot, using the Concord Rec. Dept.'s bandstand. My NJ parents had returned home to their own church, Tim's Daddy sang in the choir, and I tried to make sense of it all, both for myself and for the many reporters present. Over 800 people celebrated a new beginning that day!  And God had chosen my son to be the babe from the ashes, a phoenix.  It wasn't about me.  It was about God's love for this fragile, grieving parish.  And what better way than with a wonderful bundle of boy!!

Since then I've always made it a point to seek God first in every resolution I make!

by Frank Spinella

In 1858, the Rev. James H. Eames became rector at St. Paul's, a position he would hold for nearly twenty years.  Under his leadership church membership began to expand quickly, which led to calls for a larger church building.  Hurd's History of Merrimack and Belknap Counties (1885) reports:

"Very soon after Dr. Eames began his work here signs of a new and deepening interest in the church's work were visible, and soon it became evident that the little church would not long accommodate the congregation.  The following appears on the parish records:

"'At a meeting duly notified, and held in the church, May 24, 1858, a committee was appointed, consisting of Rev. J.H. Eames, David Davis, E. Symmes, A.C. Pearce, John M. Hill, William L. Foster and Charles P. Gage, to take into consideration the expediency of enlarging the old church or building a new one, to report at an adjourned meeting to be held in one week.'

"It was finally decided to build a new church, and the following were appointed a building committee: Ebenezer Symmes, Augustine C. Pearce, George Minot, John M. Hill and Abel Hutchins.  Of these gentlemen, John M. Hill survives.

"On Wednesday, the 25th of May, 1859, the corner-stone of the new church was laid.  Two excellent addresses were delivered on the occasion  one by the Rev. Dr. Burroughs, of Portsmouth, the other by Hon. Josiah Minot.  Under the watchful supervision of the building committee the new church went on to completion, and on the 15th day of December, 1859, was consecrated to the worship of Almighty God by the Rt. Rev. Bishop Carleton Chase, of this diocese, the Rt. Rev. Bishop Clark, of the diocese of Rhode Island, preaching the consecration sermon.

"The cost of the church and furnishing was about seventeen thousand dollars."

The following spring, Bishop Chase, in his Annual Address at the Sixtieth Diocesan Convention, was quoted as follows:

 "I congratulate the friends of the Church on the completion of this noble and beautiful structure.  May our Lord bless the warm hearts and liberal hands of this faithful people.  I know not any instance in which a people has more freely and plentifully made an offering of its means.  It is an interesting fact, that although the cost of this church is large, there is no incumbrance, and the debts, if not already discharged, will soon be so."