[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 141 (Wednesday, September 21, 2011)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1675]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            IN CELEBRATION OF FLORENCE CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH

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                          HON. RICHARD E. NEAL

                            of massachusetts

                    in the house of representatives

                     Wednesday, September 21, 2011

  Mr. NEAL. Mr. Speaker, I would like to acknowledge the work of the 
Florence Congregational Church located in Florence, Massachusetts. It 
was originally a community church named ``The Church of Christ In 
Florence.'' Its founders visualized it as the center of the 
abolitionist movement in the village, which was already an active 
station on the underground railroad, with its charter members being 
sympathetic to the movement. Its first settled pastor, Horace Carter 
Hovey, had been driven from his pulpit in Indiana because of his ardent 
opposition to slavery. Article nine of the church's bylaws, adopted on 
June 3, 1862, declared ``our decided protest against the sin of 
slavery.''
  The church was dedicated on October 9, 1861, in the sixth month of 
the Civil War. The Reverend Hovey twice took a leave of absence to 
volunteer with the United States Christian Commission, serving troops 
on battlefields in Virginia. Meanwhile, members of the infant church 
sewed clothing for the soldiers and sent them ``comfort bags'' and food 
to supplement army rations.
  During the 150 years that followed, fifteen successive pastors have 
served this faith community in Florence. The original twenty-six 
members increased to a peak of over 900 in the 1960s; subsequently 
membership settled at its current level of about 200.
  The church has continued to function as a center of community life. 
Today it shares its facilities with the Cloverdale Cooperative Nursery 
School and Beit Ahavah, a reformed Jewish congregation. It hosts an AA 
chapter, regular public suppers, a Boy Scout troop, and a summer 
vacation bible school that draws children from the surrounding area. 
The present pastor, the Reverend Irven A. Gammon, is deeply committed 
to his work with the Cancer Connection and to the community.

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