April: Electing Our Leaders – Through The Years

On April 28 we will hold our annual corporate meeting to elect officers, trustees and deacons. As a Congregational, self-governing church, we’ve always had lay leadership, but the numbers, responsibilities and gender have varied over the years. Pictured below is the General Board elected in 2009 – featuring many people still serving our congregation.

When our Sunday School was formed in 1895, women had no right to vote in US elections, yet there were two women among the nine persons who decided to form our Sunday School.

The first bylaws in our archives are those of January 1912 when our congregation was part of the Westchester Congregational Church. The governing organization was called the Church Council and was headed by the Pastor who was called “Moderator”. Other members of the Council were the Clerk, Treasurer, Deacons, Trustees and the Superintendents of each congregation’s Sunday School. The bylaws all referred to “he” and “him”.

Our first bylaws as an independent congregation, October 1924, described a Board of Officers with the Minister, Deacons, Trustees, Clerk, Treasurer, Superintendent of the Church School, and representatives of church organizations.

The concept of a Board of Officers lasted until November 1951 when a Church Council of 17 members replaced the Board of Officers of 35 members with the principal lay officer changed to Moderator – a position first held by Carleton Everett whose son Robert would be Moderator fifty years later. In this historic reorganization, the Board of nine male Deacons was expanded to include nine women.

It took 19 more years for a woman to be Moderator. She was June Lumby, elected in 1970. Although it was proposed in 1978 to “de-sex” the bylaws to eliminate masculine references, this didn’t happen until 1988.

The last major review of the bylaws occurred in 2015 when responsibilities were clarified and the terms for Deacons and members of their committees were changed from three years to two. Terms for Trustees remained at three years, as required by the New York State Religious Corporation Law.

Opportunities to serve this church abound – one need not be elected to help. Just say “Yes” when opportunities are announced. That’s what we do in this CONGREGATIONAL church.

March: Palm Sunday and Easter Through the Years

Palm Sunday and Easter have always been memorable days in Christian churches. One of the most memorable for the Scarsdale Congregational Church was Easter Sunday, March 25, 1951, when the first service was held in our current sanctuary, Rev. Ned Boynton retired after 21 years as senior pastor, and Rev. Howard Stone Anderson began his ministry. 924 attended the two services at 9:30 and 11:05 AM.

The 11:05 hour was also observed on Easter Sunday, April 8, 1928. At a 4:30 PM Vesper Communion service 17 persons were welcomed into membership.

Rev. Boynton was well into his ministry on Easter Sunday, March 28, 1937. At the 11:05 service the Girls’ Choir sang two anthems, and Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus was the postlude. An 8:00 PM service included a religious drama entitled “The Portal.”

The Order of Worship for Palm Sunday, April 6, 1952 reported Dr. Anderson introduced congregational singing of “The Palms”. “The Palms” was also part of Palm Sunday, March 23, 1975, when Rev. Johnson was Senior Minister.

Easter Sunday, April 15, 1979, the Senior Youth Fellowship left at 3:30 AM for a Sunrise Service at Pound Ridge.

On March 10, 1991 Rev. Washburn announced that instead of two identical Easter services, there would be a 9:30 AM service with parents and children telling the Easter story and an 11:00 AM service “following the standard pattern”. On Palm Sunday, April 9, 1995, Rev. Washburn led talented young singers in presenting “The Singing Bishop”.

Palm Sunday, April 16, 2000 included an Easter Egg Hunt, and Palm Sunday, March 20, 2005 included “Bringing In Easter Family Craft Time”.

Then UCC President Geoffrey Black preached on Palm Sunday, March 29, 2015.

Remember Palm Sunday (April 5) and Easter (April 12) 2020? We saw on our screens Rev. Joya preaching on Palm Sunday, Rev. Kelly preaching on Easter, and Music Director Sandro playing beautiful music, each bringing us joy and hope from our empty sanctuary. This year let us fill our sanctuary with joy and hope on Palm Sunday, March 24 and Easter, March 31, 2024.

February: Lent and Holy Week Through the Years

It was six years before Ash Wednesday 2024 that we participated in the February 14, 2018 Ash Wednesday service with Kelly and Joya, just a few hours after 17 persons were shot at Marjory Stoneman Douglass High School in Parkland FL.

Earlier observances of Lent and Holy Week probably began when we worshipped in the Fire House, but the first mentions in existing documents are a special 1910 service on Good Friday and Lenten services on Sunday afternoons in 1912. These would be services in The Little Stone Church.

Fast forward to 1932 when the Deacons voted to serve communion on Maundy Thursday. In 1944 on another February 29, Rev. Norman Vincent Peale was the guest preacher at Union Lenten Services held at Hitchcock Memorial Church.

Years later a storm with gusts up to 84 mph hit the East Coast on Ash Wednesday, March 7, 1962, but things had calmed down by March 29 when Jackie Robinson spoke at a Lenten program. On Good Friday 1962 the Men’s Fellowship gathered for luncheon and devotions at the Commodore Hotel. 47 men attended.

On Good Friday 1963, there was a special service for children in Cunningham Chapel. The Good Friday 1964 service included Holy Communion and the Chancel Choir singing Lenten portions of Handel’s Messiah.

Within the memory of many congregants were the 1985 Lenten Adult Education Series led by Phil Washburn. In Lent 2009 Fran Grenley hosted a traditional Seder as an interfaith dinner with the rabbi and members of the congregation of Scarsdale Synagogue Temples Tremont and Emanu-El assisting in leading the liturgy.

Even more congregants will remember the Church School Lent Rotations. The 2014 Rotations included learning about the Peace Corps in Namibia, participating in the Pajama Program, and personalizing Easter baskets for the children of the Thorpe Family Residences.

Meditations were an integral part of the 2016 Lenten observance. In 2017 Fran Grenley hosted a pasta and pancake Shrove Tuesday Dinner. On Maundy Thursday she led a service of Tenebrae in Dyckman Hall.

Many will remember the dawn of Zooming in 2020 and the Lenten book group that began meeting on March 20.

Now we enter Lent 2024 with an Ash Sunday Service on February 18 and Joya leading contemplative prayer via Zoom on Fridays and in person on Sundays. May this be a season of meaningful reflection.

January in the Life of the Scarsdale Congregational Church, UCC 

Kelly Hough Rogers, our eleventh senior minister, began to serve this congregation in January 2018.  Theodore Shipherd, our third senior minister, came in January 1924, and Edward Boynton came in January 1930.  Thus January is a good month to learn a little about these eleven senior ministers .  Note that Pritchard and Dyckman, our first two senior ministers, served before we were an independent congregation.  Shipherd was senior minister when we incorporated.  Also note that Boynton (1930-1951) and Washburn (1983-2007) together served 45 of our 100 years as an independent congregation.  In the coming months we’ll learn more about these leaders and those who served with them.