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On Thursday night I heard the hooo-hooo of an owl outside the window at the parsonage. I don’t remember hearing an owl here before, and it got me to thinking about them. Since owls are nocturnal, some see the owl’s yellow eyes as a sign that the sun lives through the owl at night, even as it descends in a quick and precise silence to scoop up unsuspecting prey. In that way, owls bring both day and night, life and death, as they call out hooo-hooo into the unseen. The mythology of the owl includes guiding the dead to the afterlife. Life and death, sun and dark, together. That is the owl.
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Our annual Holiday Faire will return on Saturday, November 13. It will run from 8:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., and will feature many favorite offerings from over the years: Crawford’s Famous Apple Pies, the Scrumptious Cookie Bar, baked goods, holiday decorations and other items not found in local stores in the Christmas room, gift ideas, handcrafted goods, vintage jewelry, white elephants & books, toys, and holiday items. This year’s breakfast & lunch snack bar will still feature favorite soups, apple crisp, and more, but all items will be takeaway only — no dining in. Proceeds from the faire will benefit Church operations and ongoing missions.
Back when I thought we would be in the building by now, I had a bunch of different plans for this week. God laughed at my plans, and so now our anniversary is being spread out across a number of Sundays and in a variety of forms, from retired pastors returning to preach, to our October 31 service in Wildwood Cemetery, to a celebration dinner that will happen before the end of the year where we can formally recognize our 50-year members and more.
This Sunday, we will recognize our 150th anniversary in worship by considering how God may be calling us to take the sacred parts of Crawford’s past into a future that is still unfolding. We will hear from three Crawford members about their own sense of call to their work. We’ll hear from the choir. Toward the end of the service there will be an opportunity to go into the sanctuary for a time of prayer and discernment, and at coffee hour we’ll have a fabulous anniversary cake with ice cream sundaes.
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We will hold our annual Blessing of the Saints service at 10:00 a.m. on October 31 at Wildwood Cemetery, beginning at the Mason family monument. After a brief liturgy, we will walk the grounds to bless the graves of Crawford’s founders, friends, and loved ones buried there. We need your help building our list of Crawford “saints” who are buried at Wildwood. Those on our list include founders of the Methodist church in Winchester, more recent members of Crawford Memorial UMC, and many in between. If you have loved ones buried in Wildwood who are connected to Crawford in any way, please send their names to us here, then plan to join us on the morning of October 31 to help us bless them all.