Two New England churches with common roots become one body.
SEABROOK, N.H. — A white poster board decorated with four red hearts greeted worshipers at the Seabrook Church of Christ on a recent Sunday.
“Welcome Brothers & Sisters From Kittery Church of Christ,” declared the handwritten sign near the front entrance.
The simple message reflected a new beginning for the two coastal New England congregations — one in New Hampshire, the other in Maine — as they became one body.
“God has placed us together for a purpose,” minister Nathaniel Hios said in his sermon.
Back in the 1950s, the Kittery church — in Maine’s southernmost town, just across the Piscataqua River from New Hampshire — actually planted the Seabrook church, about 15 miles away.
“Life sometimes is full circle,” said Robert Allen, 69, who first attended the Kittery church as a week-old infant.
Later, Allen’s family became a part of the new Seabrook congregation. In more recent years, he has worshiped at Kittery.
Pam Johnson, 72, came to New England as a child with her Air Force family.
A Seabrook member for decades, she still remembers Sunday school as a young girl in Kittery.
“My father was one of the men who brought the church from Kittery down here,” Johnson said of Seabrook, recalling that he helped create the first baptistery.
“It’s like we’re all home again,” she said of the congregations joining together.
This story appears in the online edition of The Christian Chronicle.
Shutterstock photo of New Hamsphire-Maine bridge
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