Dear Members and Friends                                                   June 10, 2009

Just once a year the Free Congregation trims the mainsail that advertises its open invitation to the world – to come and experience free thought in religion and experience the warm embrace of like-minded seekers and explorers – and calls an all-hands-on-deck meeting – THE ANNUAL MEETING – [...]

Dear Members and Friends,                                             June 3, 2009

Special thanks to Andrew Kerr for making the round trip to Park Hall last Sunday, and for treating a bunch of members and friends to a tour of Greenspirit Farm, the organic produce CSA that Andrew and Jennifer own and operate just north of Dodgeville.  We had seventeen people [...]

Dear Members and Friends,                                             May 28, 2009

In just a little over two weeks, we’ll be convening the Free Congregation’s Annual Meeting – its 156th, if my calculations are correct.  The Freie Gemeinde von Sauk County was organized in October of 1852 but did not elect its first trustees until March 6, 1853, and did not [...]

Dear Members and Friends,                                            May 14, 2009

Mother’s Day was the most recent of several extraordinary congregational efforts and events of the last month or so, and it reminds me that I’ve been remiss in giving credit, here in the newsletter, to those people who labored heroically and behind the scenes to make them successful and [...]

Dear Members and Friends,                                                May 6, 2009
Mother’s Day Breakfast
Every year for the last several years, early on a Sunday morning, and just as the morels are about to pop in woodlands all over southern Wisconsin, men suddenly and dramatically appear in the kitchen and community hall of the Free Congregation.  They appear with hunks [...]

The newsletter will be on hiatus for two weeks.  We’ll be back on May 6th, just in time to give you all the details about the Mother’s Day Breakfast – when large numbers of men suddenly show up in the kitchen to plug in appliances and throw around bacon and batter – and the program [...]

Dear Members and Friends,                                                  April 16, 2009

I trust everyone’s looking forward to this Saturday’s special event at Park Hall, whether you’re able to join us or not.  Bring your square dancing shoes.  (Perhaps, to avoid damaging any more feet-not-belonging-to-our-own-legs than we have to, I should say bring your square-dancing shoes!) Of course, there’s just [...]

Dear Members and Friends,                                                  April 9, 2009

It’s burn season-and we’re not just talking about prairies and savannas.  We’re burnin’ to get the new website up, burnin’ CDs and DVDs to get stuff UP on the website, burnin’ to get outside and play, and itchin’ – a kind of burn – to put Old Man [...]

Dear Members and Friends,                                                  March 26, 2009

I’ve said it before in these pages: March is going to be March and there’s not a darn thing we can do about it… short of moving to a red state or one in worse economic trouble than we’re in here.  We’ve been massaged by warm temperatures, tantalized [...]

Dear Members and Friends,                                                  March 18, 2009

I hope that some of you will take a minute or two to visit the kitchen this Sunday.  You may not notice much at first, but if you peek behind all the cabinet doors, you’ll notice that some magicians have been at work organizing, culling, and neatening up.  [...]