A PREVIEW OF GOLDEN ANNIVERSARY WEEKEND

If you are able to be with us this weekend, September 29 and 30, you’re in for a real treat! We will celebrate our first 50 years with former pastors, staff, and church members. You will see changes to our building, reflecting our ongoing vitality and ministry. You will also receive a new 50-year timeline of UUMC events and people.

Keep reading to get all the details! We are especially grateful to JoEllyn Roe and Jon Stahl for chairing our 50th Anniversary Committee, and to all the members of the committee and the many helpers who have volunteered.

Saturday, September 29, at 4 p.m. we begin with a reception to greet old friends and new, in Copper Chimney Lounge. Church tours will be available. Here are some of the persons we are expecting on Saturday:

• Ruth Tennant McLean, Caroljean Tennant, Ruth Ann Tennant Ziegler and her husband Bud Gilbert;
• Dottie Doten and Dianne Doten Morrison;
• Keith and Robbe Pohl;
• Gessel and Sandra Berry
• William and Janice Dobbs
• Rick and Jayne Erickson
• Benton Heisler, Lansing District Superintendent
• A good number of out-of-town former members of UUMC
• Written greetings will be shared from Sharon and Blaine Rader, and from Carole and Frank Lyman.

Former staff members whom we expect to be here include Susan MacGregor (Christian Education), Carolyn Lucas (Christian Education), Mary Helmic (Christian Education), Gloria Pocock (Christian Education), and Zach Constan (Youth Ministry). There is a possibility others will be here.

At 5:45 p.m. we will gather in Copper Chimney Lounge for a sing-along with Ruth Tennant McLean (UUMC’s first organist) and Gary Cloud. At 6:20 p.m., more than 200 persons will share in the 50th Anniversary Dinner in Asbury Hall. (Please feel free to come to the reception and the evening program even if you are not coming to the dinner.) Conversation at dinner will include historical facts about UUMC, thanks to Emily Wolf and Pam Baker.

The Saturday 7:30 p.m. program in the sanctuary will include spirited music from Three Men and a Tenor, the rededication of Tennant Chapel, and words from former pastors and staff members.

Sunday morning begins with a continental breakfast in Asbury Hall at 9:30 a.m. Sunday School classes will meet as usual at 9:15 a.m. The 10:30 a.m. worship service will include an entrance of the Golden Anniversary Candle by our charter members, presentation of the Time Capsule to be opened in 2057, participation by former pastors, a sermon by Keith Pohl (who served a total of 12 years, both as Wesley Foundation director and UUMC pastor), and a passing of the flame by some three generation UUMC families.

What will you find when you arrive this weekend? Here are some of the things especially prepared for this gala celebration:

• A newly-renovated Tennant Chapel, with brighter walls, new comfortable furniture making it a prayer and meditation room, wood furniture created by Carl McLaughlin, art by Sharon Griffes Tarr, and a picture of Wilson and Ruth Tennant, our founding pastor and spouse. If you have never found Tennant Chapel, enter the sanctuary and go down the left aisle and through the door to the left of the pulpit. (Our thanks to John and Nancy Boyse and the Memorial Garden Committee for spearheading this.)
• Welcome signs over the exterior parking lot entrances, showing visitors which door goes to the office and sanctuary, and which door goes to the Wesley Foundation Student Center.
• New bulletin boards inside the exterior office and sanctuary entrance, created by Carl McLaughlin, providing information on the building, staff and weekly activities.
• Updated pastoral pictures in the Gathering Space, including a new photo of Bishop Marshall Reed, an inspiration in the founding of UUMC in 1957, the preacher at our first worship service, and the donor of the pulpit. (Thanks to John McLaughlin for arranging this.)
• Posters from the six decades of UUMC, showing what happened in each of those decades in our church, community and world. (Created by members of the 50th Anniversary Committee.)
• A 50th Anniversary book, created by Emily Wolf and Emma Reardon, with important dates in the history of the church, and the memories our members have of persons who have been part of UUMC. Your donations will pay for this book.
• A display of special accomplishments over the years of UUMC people. You can add to this display when you come this weekend.
• A PowerPoint presentation of the early years of UUMC, prepared by Caroljean Tennant.
• A Time Capsule, to be preserved in the UUMC archives and opened in September 2057. It will contain many mementoes of 2007. Jon Stahl is continuing to receive items for the time capsule.
• A DVD set of the 50th Anniversary Celebration April 29, 2007, re-enacting the first worship service in 1957. Zach Constan has created this DVD for us, which will be available at cost.
• A Noah’s Ark quilted mural in the 3 and 4 Year Old Room, created by Ruby Freed.

Our lasting legacy of this weekend will be funds donated to the new UUMC Endowment Fund. You will have an opportunity to give to this fund, designating your gift to either Missions or Campus Ministry, with a tithe going to start new churches in West Michigan, in thanks for the conference funds that started UUMC in 1957. So far, more than $7,000 has been given.

Wait! Our 50th Anniversary Celebration won’t be finished on September 30. We will have a float in the MSU Homecoming Parade October 13, and our Music Ministry is commissioning an anthem by a local composer, to be presented on Music Sunday, December 16.

On April 29, we re-enacted the first worship service at UUMC in 1957. This has truly been almost a year-long celebration. What a wonderful way to move into the future!

If you can’t join us, many of these things will be around for months and years to come, as we move on in ministry for Christ in our community. Please pray for us, especially as we soon begin our second half-century of ministry!