The
Congregational Christian Historical Society has given an award of excellence
to the First Congregational Church of Royalston for its “soundly conceived
and attractively produced history.”
The church was awarded a First Place Frederick L. Fagley Award for churches
under 350 members for The History of the First Congregational Church
of Royalston by Virginia E. Asel, the senior pastor.
“This is an unusually well-researched study, drawing as it does upon
a multiplicity of histories, organizational records and diaries to flesh
out what might have been a bare-bones list of ministers, deacons/esses,
and meeting-houses,” the Society said in announcing the award.
“What
the Rev. Ms. Asel has come up with is an account that takes the reader
inside the life and times of a small country parish, and helps one understand
the ups and downs of church life as its pastors and people lived it.”
The church was one of six from around the country to receive a Fagley
award. They are named for the Society’s first executive secretary, a
recognized historian of the Congregational Christian way.
The Society also gave an award to Andover Newton Theological School
Professor Eliazabeth C. Nordbeck, along with her co-editor, Charles
E. Clark, for their work on Granite and Grace; Essays Celebrating
the Two Hundredth Anniversary of the New Hampshire Conference United
Church of Christ.
They received the Nathanael M. Guptill Award, which recognizes institutional
histories. Guptill was a former President of the Society.
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