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By: David Deschesne

FORT FAIRFIELD—One hundred people were treated to a tour of most of Fort Fairfield’s churches on October 19, as part of the town of Fort Fairfield’s sesquicentennial celebration.

Participants all met at St. Denis Catholic Church to board two school buses that would take them to the participating churches. The first stop was at Friend’s Church on Route 1a.

Friend’s Church is a historic Quaker church building that is no longer in operation. It currently functions as a museum under the management of Frontier Heritage Historical Society in Fort Fairfield.

While at Friend’s Church, dinner attendees enjoyed a round of fruit punch as the first course of their evening’s dinner. Larry Berg gave a presentation on the Jewish Faith at Friend’s church, in lieu of the former Quaker faith that once inhabited that building, but is no longer extant in the area.

The next stop on the tour was the Celebration Center. At 25 years old, the Celebration Center is the newest church in Fort Fairfield and enjoys a non-denominational affiliation.

The Wesleyan Church on Presque Isle Street was the third church for tour attendees. While there, they learned of the history of the church in Fort Fairfield and about the Faith that the Wesleyan community shares with fellow Christians. Hors D’oeuvres were served, then it was on to the United Parish Church.

Diane Langworthy, pastor of United Parish Church was busy that evening also entertaining another church group, who was just finishing up as the tour buses arrived. After everyone was seated, she gave a brief presentation of the history of United Parish and described how the Congregational Church and United Methodist Churches in Fort Fairfield joined together, some time back and agreed to share the same building for their church services. “When they first started, the Methodists sat on one side and the Congregationalists on the other,” she said. “But, we have all merged together now and everyone sits pretty much where they want.”

Youth group leader, Kaitlyn McLaughlin gave a brief presentation on the United Parish Church’s youth group project to help fund raising and bring awareness to the local Domestic Violence group, then all attendees formed a circle in the church sanctuary and shared lighting small, purple candles in somber reflection on Domestic Violence month

After the candle-lighting ceremony, tour attendees were treated to a hot, harvest blend soup of meat, potatoes, carrots and celery before heading off to St. Paul’s Episcopal Church for the main course.

The presentation at St. Paul’s highlighted a brief history of the Episcopal Church on the world stage and select readings from James Smith’s work on the church’s local history was read. The kitchen crew at St. Paul’s, all very experienced in putting on public dinners, did a wonderful job of preparing lasagna and garlic bread as the main course for the All Faiths Community Progressive dinner.

The tour concluded at St. Denis Catholic Church, with Father Aaron Damboise giving the blessing and inviting everyone to the church basement for desert.