Today, Nov. 7, is the Annual Village of Church Fairs in Amesbury. Our local faith community has been working toward this day since the moment last year's fair ended. Crafters, quilters, knitters, cooks, photographers, painters and others have all volunteered in yet another community effort to raise money for outreach. Other groups are also having fairs and auctions this weekend. Still others will next weekend. Welcome to fall in New England!
Too many years ago, I remember when my mother, working on her church fair, discovered tole painting. Not a tray, mug or junk store treasure escaped being adorned with apples, flowers or some such motif. All were destined for sale at the fair. The church ladies met regularly to share their talents, from cookbook collections to apron patterns, and gather in their wares while occasionally projecting just how much money they might raise: for missions, for the American Cancer Society (for whom they rolled strips of sheets into bandages every week), for local soup kitchens (where they worked on a regular rotation) and even for those hungry children in China.
As a mother, I, too, participated in my share of fairs and auctions. Once, after volunteering to co-chair my young children's big school event, reality hit hard when the school head sat us down and informed us just how much depended on the profits from this annual fling. Talk about shock and awe. It was our task to raise enough money to buy a traffic signal for the school parking lot, where it intersected with a four-lane highway! The town couldn't afford one but would happily "partner" with the school on the town's terms. We mothers and other volunteers became desperate mercenaries for "Safety First" and cunningly developed a campaign to guilt donors into contributing vast sums.
Some two decades later, at my first parish, yet another church fair loomed on the horizon. The leaders felt an obligation to raise money, and that seemed to be their focus. But as the days and weeks passed, I observed the faithful worker bees and marveled at the community growing among them: retired men and women patiently priced donated goods during the day, young people lugged heavy boxes of books after school, and even children sorted through toys with their parents on the weekend, enthusiastically demonstrating how certain donations were still very desirable. Everyone who showed up to help prepare for the fair had something in common: They had a shared ministry. They were committed to work together.
And it is together that we can help one another recognize that we are, indeed, God's beloved, and as such, we are to respond by recognizing the gifts each person has to offer. For each and every one of us has a gift: Some are large, some are small, but all are valuable. Sometimes, it takes someone to help us discover our gifts, and sometimes it takes something — like a fair. Fairs demand community, and as a community, we affirm those gifts God calls us to offer within our daily lives. Together we work to match our gifts to the needs of the church, the wider community and the world.
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The Rev. Susan Esco Chandler is rector of St. James Episcopal Church, Amesbury.
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