Page 2 - May Spire 2013

2
continued from front page...
use a Christian friend. Our church
has been participating in this program
since the 1980s and hundreds of
Stephen Ministers have been trained
as care givers. Thanks be to God for
this great program that extends our
love to one another.
Finally, we will gather together in
worship on the last Sunday of May
for Memorial Day – remembering
those Soldiers who have died serving
their country in our Armed Services.
Our freedoms are protected by these
brave men and women who made
the ultimate sacrifice for our country.
Is there a better way to honor them
than by going to church and offering
prayers on their behalf?
So join us each Sunday this May.
Weekly worship is a great way to
slow down in this busy season and
give thanks for those who are making
a difference in our world – our
Seniors, Sisters in Christ (who were
mothers), Stephen Ministers (full of
the Spirit) and Soldiers.
Your Pastor, Partner and Friend,
Sam Schreiner
150th Anniversary Celebration
Do you know anything about George Redington
Montgomery? Probably not. But the head spins to
read of only some of his accomplishments. Born in
Turkey to missionary parents on June 17, 1870, he was
sent back to Yale where he became the university’s
first graduate to earn four degrees—A.B., LL.B., B.D.,
and Ph.D. His first wife Emily Emerson died after
giving birth to a son. After marrying Helen Perkins of
New Haven, the births of two more sons, and stints
as Pastor of churches in Connecticut and New York
City, he returned to Europe during the first World
War to serve as assistant to the U.S. Ambassador in
Constantinople and Secretary-Director of the Paris YMCA while traveling
widely through Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Palestine and attending the peace
conference. He used the language skill he picked up abroad to teach French
at Yale while sharing his experience and knowledge in articles for the likes
of the London Daily Graphic, New Haven Register, Stamford Advocate
and Yale Divinity Quarterly. But why go on with more---and there is much
more---about this wide ranging man in a publication of Noroton Presbyterian
Church?
The same George Redington Montgomery finally settled down in 1925
behind the pulpit of a small church on the Post Road in Darien and stayed
there until 1940 when he discovered a young pastor in Buffalo by the name
of Lawrence MacColl Horton who was looking for a new challenge. Certain
that the church was in good hands, the Rev. Dr. Montgomery died peacefully
in 1945 and moved on to Spring Grove Cemetery. But not to be forgotten.
His portrait hangs over the piano in the church parlor to this day.
The 150th Committee is grateful to Samuel Schreiner Jr., author and Uncle of
our Senior Pastor, for this article.
George Redington Montgomery
150th Anniversary Celebration!
allowfullscreen