WINCHENDON

AND THE TREE LIT!

/ joseph elon lillie / Leave a comment

Last night was Winchendon’s annual tree lighting sponsored by our town’s Parks& Rec department.

Santa came. And the tree was lit!

Santa led Christmas songs with the kids.

And lots of our church folk came out.

Trinity and Genesis.

Melanie and Daniella and Abigail.

Tracy and Adam and David

Ben and Lydia and Naomi.

Gabe and Andrew and Aaliyah.

Then me!

I missed pictures with Savannah and her family and Shaina and her family. All told it was a great event.

WHAT’S GOING ON IN YOUR CHRISTMAS NEIGHBORHOOD THIS WEEKEND?

THE IMPORTANCE OF JOINING IN

/ joseph elon lillie / Leave a comment

I feel like our little community is experiencing and internal revolution.

We are a pretty eclectic town.

It has been very easy to allow our differences to create silos between the agencies that make up our larger community.

While there was a time when we let those difference keep us in our separate corners, I feel that is beginning to change.

As a community, we are not giving up our differences, after all our differences are what make us unique. They are the things that actually give us collective power. But, we are realizing that if we are truly to succeed in the face of all the challenges of our immediate future we must focus not on our differences but our similarities grounded in shared experience.

I believe God is pleased by the work our community is doing. I am waiting with baited breath to see what happens next in our little town.

BRIDGING IDEAS AND BUILDING FUTURES

/ joseph elon lillie / Leave a comment

Last month I was appointed as the Secretary of the Friends of Beals Memorial Library, during their annual business meeting.

One of the projects I am working on, as part of a library team, is a set of four community conversations, to be held throughout the winter months. The title of these conversations will be, “Bridging Ideas and Building Futures”. The discussions will be based around four questions about discovering our community identity.

Photo by Jopwell on Pexels.com

The library sponsored something like this a few years ago in a program called “the town wide read”. As a community we read the Book, HEY KIDDO

That book sparked some powerful discussion back then. This new town wide discussion forum is going to be connected to other reading and viewing opportunities. I am hoping we will see not only interesting discussion but affirmative action towards becoming something new.

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

I will keep you updated. Is your community doing anything exciting this winter?

The Forest Garden Sept. 2025

/ joseph elon lillie / Leave a comment

As always happens at this time of year, I look back and think of all the projects I wanted to accomplish in the forest garden over the summer.

I usually look back with a regret. This year not so much. It’s not that I accomplished all those projects, but I did accomplish some and I did a lot of gardening in comparison to previous years.

I think a part of my satisfaction this year, comes from the fact that we have actually used a lot of the produce from the forest garden. We have been making iced tea from this mint all summer in place of Kool-Aid.

The chickens have been keeping us in eggs as well.

For the first time ever, I had success with potatoes.

And the flowers this year, have been amazing.

Juggle-O-Rama

/ joseph elon lillie / 1 Comment

My newest role in the community is as a friend of the library. The friends sponsor programs at the library that promote its mission and vision. The first project I was privileged to be a part of was a juggling workshop for kids used to promote the library’s summer reading program.

The auditorium was packed with kids several from our church. I am so in love with this little town that provides so much for its citizens.

Here are some pics.

Manuel King, the director of the Beals Memorial Library opened the show with a push for the summer reading program.

BALANCING THE BABY

ALL THE KIDS HAD A GREAT TIME.

SEVII WAS A LITTLE YOUNG FOR THE WORKSHOP. HE STILL HAD FUN PRETENDING THE THROWING SCARVES WERE SPIDERWEBS AND TRAPPING HIS FATHER IN THEM.

TOWN MEETING

/ joseph elon lillie / 3 Comments

Monday night was Winchendon’s Spring town meeting. For those of you not familiar with town meeting…”A New England Town Meeting is an example of direct democracy. It’s a form of local government where residents directly participate in making decisions about their town’s affairs, such as local laws and budgets, without elected representatives. ” Ai Overview

This was the town meeting where the town had to appropriate the money for the town budget which would increase property taxes significantly or not appropriate the funds which would close the library, the senior center and the parks and rec department by June 30th.

It was a long meeting, four hours, and well attended.

In the end after a lot of discussion we passed the budget to a mixed reaction, but it passed. I have set a meeting with the heads of the Senior Center, the Parks and rec. department and the library to see how the church may become a more effective resource for the town.