run by the local library. With its sanctuary’s
excellent acoustics, the church typically
hosted four to five concerts per year. It worked
with the town’s Economic Development and
Tourism Office on a scenic byways initiative
and a 15K fundraising run, thus solidifying the
congregation’s important role in promoting
Killington. Other projects were smaller
in scale yet equally effective in getting the
congregation noticed in the community. For
example, a few members realized that Mission
Farm Road was a popular route for local dogwalkers, so they set up a seasonal water station.
Other initiatives include creation of a network
of trails in the extensive woodlands in concert
with a town effort to identify and map hiking
opportunities, and a partnership with the Farm
& Wilderness Foundation (a summer camp
One of the many projects completed since the Church of Our Saviour went
with an agricultural focus) to utilize Mission
through New Dollars/New Partners training was putting a new roof on their
guest residence, Heminway House. Photo credit: Anne Clarke Brown
Farm’s arable land and guesthouse, as well as
collaboration with the Killington Music Festival and
gifts, and talents, and based on the results, design
the local arts guild to use the church as a performance
and implement a plan of action. They embraced the
venue or gallery space.
“glass half-full” approach by focusing on their assets
rather than what they lacked. These assets were seen
With the help of New Dollars/New Partners, Church
as opportunities for integrating the congregation into
of Our Saviour has gone from passively providing
the wider Killington community, benefiting both and
hospitality and spiritual space to actively pursuing
drawing them together as partners in caring for and
partnerships outside its inner circle. The congregation
maintaining the church.
has been thoroughly energized with a new sense of
purpose. In reaching out and staking its place as a
Once the congregants recognized their church’s
community asset and spiritual center in Killington, the
potential, they began reaching out. Our Saviour quickly
church has truly become a small sanctuary with a big
became a rainy-day location for outdoor concerts
tent.
A girls’ choir performs at
Church of Our Saviour
in Killington, VT, at the
conclusion of a week-long
summer singing camp
sponsored by the Brattleboro
Music Festival. Photo credit:
Anne Clarke Brown
Sacred Places • Summer 2011 • 6