We received a Facebook Message from CUCC member Helen Brown's great nephew, Martin Anderson. I asked his permission to share our conversation with you.
Martin Anderson "Hi, I visited your church grounds this afternoon while on a rare, brief visit to Raleigh. My great aunt Helen Brown made a bequest when she died in 2005 that helped your sustainability/climate change campaign. Excited to see your solar panels! And your wonderful message of peace and inclusivity."
Jane for CUCC "Hi, Martin. Thank you for getting in touch. Your great aunt was a marvel and is dearly remembered at CUCC by those privileged to know her. Her gift continues to inspire us to action. Our latest project is to contract with an industrial scale composter so that we can compost leftovers, plates, cups and even pizza boxes from church events. Some families bring their compostables from home, too. So far we have found that the composting keeps as many carbon equivalents out of the atmosphere as the solar panels. Who knew? Helen's gift provided the seed money to get that project started. May I include your message in the church's newsletter so that more of Helen's friends can see it?"
Martin Anderson "By all means. It means so much to me that the legacy of a relative of mine continues with such a campaign as this. Seeing those solar panels, as I was literally getting back into my car, took my breath away! Great Aunt Helen probably smiled at that."
We thank God for our friend, Helen Brown. Helen joined United Church (our predecessor) in 1940, and was with us through the transition to a new location and a new denomination, until her death in 2005. She was Head Librarian at St. Mary's School. Helen and her husband Harlan were very active at United Church, with Harlan eventually joining sister congregation, the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Raleigh, and Helen bringing her congregationalist roots to the new Community UCC. Among Helen's many roles with us was serving on the committee that invited the speakers for the Institute of Religion. At age 84 she was the oldest member of the delegation on CUCC's first international mission trip, traveling to Puerto Rico to build relationships with a sister church and to volunteer at the local hospital. At her death she had been a part of our lives for 65 years. Other signs of Helen's love of beauty and commitment to CUCC surround us; she commissioned the triptych in the narthex in honor of Harlan, and led a group to honor Joe Clark with the commissioning of the wooden UCC symbol, also in the narthex. Another gift honoring Harlan was her contribution toward the purchase of Pilgrim House. In addition to funding the Justice in a Changing Climate initiative, her bequest brought us the new and brighter lighting in the sanctuary in 2009.
- compiled by CUCC Historian Jane Smith
Martin Anderson "Hi, I visited your church grounds this afternoon while on a rare, brief visit to Raleigh. My great aunt Helen Brown made a bequest when she died in 2005 that helped your sustainability/climate change campaign. Excited to see your solar panels! And your wonderful message of peace and inclusivity."
Jane for CUCC "Hi, Martin. Thank you for getting in touch. Your great aunt was a marvel and is dearly remembered at CUCC by those privileged to know her. Her gift continues to inspire us to action. Our latest project is to contract with an industrial scale composter so that we can compost leftovers, plates, cups and even pizza boxes from church events. Some families bring their compostables from home, too. So far we have found that the composting keeps as many carbon equivalents out of the atmosphere as the solar panels. Who knew? Helen's gift provided the seed money to get that project started. May I include your message in the church's newsletter so that more of Helen's friends can see it?"
Martin Anderson "By all means. It means so much to me that the legacy of a relative of mine continues with such a campaign as this. Seeing those solar panels, as I was literally getting back into my car, took my breath away! Great Aunt Helen probably smiled at that."
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| Helen Brown |
- compiled by CUCC Historian Jane Smith