After road work on Route 370 forced them to dismantle their sign, the congregants of the Plainville United Church of Christ have rebuilt anew. The church held a re-dedication ceremony for the sign, which is framed by hand-built stone pillars, after the confirmation service for its sixth-grade students Oct. 5.
Tim Webb, a trustee of the Plainville UCC, built the stone pillars for the sign by hand. The project, started last summer, is part of ongoing renovations at the church.
“I’m just lucky we had this weather,” Webb said of the sunny — if a little chilly — Sunday the church chose to affix stone crosses to the new sign. “If it got much colder than this, you shouldn’t do it.”
The sixth-grade confirmands recited readings and placed a large piece of a cross in the stone pillar of the new sign. The students also contributed letters, pictures and artwork to two time capsules the church placed within one of the pillars. The plan is for those same children to open the capsules in 25 years.
“When I’m older, I want to come back on that day and open it,” said Gwenyth Madden, one of the confirmation students.
Sunday’s ceremony was even more personal for confirmand Dylan Bramble and his father, Steve. The original church sign was dedicated to Dylan’s great-grandmother and Steve’s grandmother Dorothy Bramble. Dylan fastened a new plaque to the sign in honor of Dorothy.
“It’s great to see it back,” Steve said of the sign.
The Rev. M. Kathleen Chesnut, Plainville UCC’s pastor, said the idea of letting the confirmation students lead the dedication ceremony came from the “cloud of witnesses” mentioned in the Bible.
“People who have gone on before are the foundation that we build our faith on,” Chesnut explained. “We want to be connected to the community and the people in the past and who we’re becoming in the future.”
