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It
is with great pleasure I congratulate the
Old
First
Church
on its 350th Anniversary.
As
an active member of the Huntington Group of Alcoholics Anonymous which
will be celebrating its 62 year in
Huntington
beginning May 2008 I can’t express in words my appreciation to the
church members of the Old First Presbyterian Church.
When
I first crawled down the steps and into the basement of the
Old
First
Church
in September of 1990, the smoke coming from the cigarettes from the AA
members almost blinded me as I went to locate a seat. I was so scared I
was going to drink. Thank GOD that the church allowed AA to hold its
meetings. I attended the meeting that first Sunday night at 8pm and
continued to attend the Old First Church, Huntington Group of AA every
Sunday and Wednesday night plus the Tuesday 1pm meeting for the next three
years. I don’t believe I ever missed a meeting at the
Old
First
Church
in my first three years of sobriety. The parishioners in many ways saved
my live by allowing AA to be in their home.
I
continue to have the pleasure of attending meeting at the
Old
First
Church
. GOD willing this August 2008 I will Celebrate my 18 AA birthday in the
wonderful basement of your church. I miss the smoking but other than that
change the basement is one of my homes away from home. I love it there.
Congratulations
to the Old First Presbyterian Church and may GOD continue to bless each
and every one of you who continue to share your home with the still sick
and suffering alcoholic and give them the opportunity to become sober,
joyous, happy and free.
Jack
J.
Huntington
Group of Alcoholics Anonymous
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My
Adopted Home
I first came in contact with the Old
First Presbyterian Church on Main Street in Huntington in the early
1990’s when I joined “The Huntington Coalition for the Homeless,”
which was engaged in building a shelter for the town’s homeless
families. Having no home of its own, or any place to hold large
gatherings, the organization’s meetings were often held in the Old First
Church. The shelter’s
Dedication ceremony was held there, too, in the sanctuary, as the Director
of the shelter announced that the name of the new home was to be, “Haven
House.” The church building, which had been ransacked and nearly
destroyed by the Redcoats in the War for Independence, was itself birthing
a house that would be a haven for the town’s homeless.
I have the first Saturday in November
marked on my mental calendar for the Church’s “Fall Fair.” I know
the building so well that I can hit the ground running (after standing
outside on line in the morning chill for half an hour) and sweep through
it from top (toys and dolls) to bottom (white elephants and books) without
a wasted step. And now I know the Old First Church as the site of the
Women’s Center of Huntington, which has become my own haven.
As a Jewish woman, I might be expected
to fell like a stranger in the church building. But every week when I pass
through the halls of the Old First Church on my way to the Women’s
Center, I look up at the photographs on the wall of the ministers who
served the Church over the past one hundred years and pay a silent
tribute. And on my way out of the building, I glance at the poster of the
Honor Roll of the war dead from what was called, in 1919, “The European
War,” and give a silent thanks.
This is my adopted town; this is my
adopted church; this is my adopted home.
Cheryl
Lynn Blum |
