About Us 2

Rev. Beth Stotts joined Central Square Congregational Church, United Church of Christ as Preacher and Teacher in August of 2012. She grew up in Northern Indiana, graduated from Hanover College with a double major in Sociology and Studio Art, and went on a life-changing three-month road trip promptly after graduation. From there she spent time living in Kansas, then Chicago, prior to moving to Boston for her graduate education in Theological Research. While in grad school she held her first position in ministry at the Second Church in Newton (United Church of Christ) as the Youth Minister, then as their Director of Christian Education. Upon completing graduate school, she moved to North Carolina to teach in the Philosophy & Religion Department at Western Carolina University where she also worked as the International Student Advisor.

After several years at WCU, she discerned a call to ministry and began working toward her Masters of Divinity degree and ordination. During this time she worked as a chaplain at Deaconess Hospital in Evansville, Indiana in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit and the Trauma Intensive Care Unit. She credits her work as a chaplain as the most formational experience in her ministry. Following her time at the hospital, Beth spent the next three years working as an Intentional Interim Associate Pastor at a church in North Carolina with a focus on Faith Formation and Development, and as a Campus Minister at Guilford College.

Rev. Beth enjoys yoga (but not the hot yoga. Yuck!), reading (mostly religious texts but also young adult fiction), playing music (ukulele, bari sax, recorder, drums…), listening to music (Andrew Bird, Cake, Ben Folds, The Mountain Goats, Pavement, Laura Veirs, Matt Pond, The Grateful Dead), writing (letters, thank you notes, sermons, newsletter articles, reports), visiting breweries (and sometimes having bible studies in them), and dancing (in the kitchen, in the car, in the shower). She is married to Eric, a property manager, and they have two children, Jae and Josephine.

You can reach her by calling the church office at 508-697-6016, or emailing her at csccpastor@hotmail.com

Rev. Beth's Testimony

Imagine a family in the 1980s with three kids and two moms. Imagine the oldest kid had severe disabilities and used a wheelchair. This family was culturally outcasted, two times over, once for homosexuality, and the other for disability. Now imagine that family attended a church where they were not shunned or ridiculed or criticized. Instead, they were welcomed and loved and accepted, just as they were.

That was my family. And I, as the youngest child, grew up understanding that the love of Christ, the love Jesus taught us, has no outcasts. I grew up loving God and I grew up to become a big nerd for God and for the church. I attribute much of who I am as an adult, as a Christian, and as a minister to growing up in a church where I felt loved. Where God’s love for me was real and tangible and unwavering. My family was loved and accepted and nourished just as all families should be. Welcomed to Christ’s community.

This is my story of being an outcast, and of a loving God and a Christian community holding me and supporting me in the ways of Jesus. I know that I am not alone. Each of us has a story of being an outcast and each of us has a story of God’s abounding grace enveloping us, saving us from the powers of humanity that try so very much to harden our hearts. Each of us has a narrative that we carry with us about that which sets us apart from the cultural norm, those who’ve treated us well, and those who haven’t. There is a saying that people won’t remember what you say or do but they will remember how you made them feel. This is the case with the Christian church. Our love, the love that comes from God, through us and into the world should be palpable to those around us.

Through the scriptures we are told of our responsibility to call one another to faithfulness and to be true to who we are as followers of Jesus. If we remember who we are as followers of Jesus, if we live in love and mercy and forgiveness, then we already know how to live. Paul asks us to “shine the light of the gospel on every situation and then to listen for how God is still-speaking”.

My testimony, the story of who I am in Christ, is about taking a look at who we consider as "less than" and challenging us to ask, "How can I change my thinking to accept this person or these people as a brother/sister in Christ? Furthermore, how am I to set an example of mercy, love, kindness, and acceptance to those around us the way God does?”

Julia Scott Carey began her music training at the New England Conservatory Preparatory School, where she received the Lanier Prize for Most Outstanding Graduating Senior. She was one of the first students admitted to the Harvard-New England Conservatory joint degree program, through which she received a master’s degree in composition. She received a second master’s degree in collaborative piano from Boston University.

As a composer, her orchestral works have been performed by numerous orchestras, including the Boston Symphony and the Boston Pops, and her works have been broadcast on national TV and radio in the United States and in Russia. She was the youngest composer ever published by the Theodore Presser Company. She was also chosen to arrange a folk song for Yo-Yo Ma and Lynn Chang to play at Deval Patrick's inaugural ball.

She has served as a music director or accompanist for over forty opera and musical theater productions. Productions for which Julia was the music director include Cy Coleman's City of Angels with the Longwood Players and Alexander Zemlinsky's Der Zwerg with OperaHub. Reviewing a performance Julia conducted of Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi with the Hubbard Hall Opera Company, the Berkshire Hudson Arts Review said “the players and singers were not just led, but were energized. Schicchi is a tough score, and Julia stood the test.”

As a pianist, Julia is one of the accompanists for the Tanglewood Festival Chorus and the Boston Symphony Children’s Choir. She also serves as the accompanist for the Metropolitan Chorale of Brookline, the Dedham Choral Society, the Boston College University Chorale, and the Boston Saengerfest Men’s Chorus. She previously served as the pianist for the Handel and Haydn Society’s Educational Vocal Quartet, the Wellesley College Chamber Singers, and the Boston Children’s Chorus. She is a founder and core ensemble member of Juventas New Music Ensemble, and she has performed in White Snake Projects’ world premiere opera productions for the past three years.

Also passionate about early music, Julia music directed a staged performance of four of Louis-Nicolas Clérambault’s Cantatas with the Harvard Early Music Society, which was taken on tour to Versailles. She also music directed a performance of John Eccles’ Semele with the same organization. Speaking of her performance as a harpsichordist in the Boston Opera Collaborative’s production of Le nozze di Figaro, the Boston Musical Intelligencer said, “The unwavering harpsichord accompaniment of Julia Carey richly and expressively textured the recitatives.”

Julia currently works as a musicianship teacher and department coordinator at the Suzuki School in Newton. She also taught an undergraduate music theory class at Boston College, served as a keyboard harmony teaching fellow at NEC, and worked as a musical theatre teacher at the Belvoir Terrace Arts Camp and the Boston Children's Theatre.

Julia has been involved in religious music for most of her life. She was a member of the Memorial Church’s Harvard University Choir and Choral Fellows during her time as a student at the university. She then sang in the choir at Trinity Church in Boston and worked as the children’s choir accompanist at the Second Church in Newton, before beginning her time as the accompanist, then Minister of Music, at CSCC. Her favorite scripture is Psalm 98, because so many composers have found inspiration in its references to all the different instruments and parts of nature making music to honor God.

Julia lives in Winchester with her husband and her daughter. In addition to music, she loves cooking, running, and spending time on Cape Cod.

Jennifer “Jenne” Foronjy is originally from the North Fork of Long Island, New York, and found her way to the South Shore of Massachusetts in 2004. She is a long-time career administrator as well as an artist (mixed media) and musician (drums and singing). She greatly enjoys attending concerts and volunteering at pop culture conventions, music camps for kids, and animal shelters. Jenne feels her greatest accomplishment and joy has been spending the past 16 years being mom to the most amazing child. She lives quite happily in her adopted home of Bridgewater with her wife, her teen, and also three cats, Spooky, Mabel Bacon, and Lars.

Jenne (pronounced "Jen") is the welcoming face in the office (see the website home page for hours). She can be reached at office@csccucc.com or 508-697-6016.

Paul Holmes has been in Bridgewater since the early 1980s, and came to his video evangelism role at CSCC through his work in electronics (TVs, VCRs) and a lot of photography. That led him into video work, and into CSCC video in 1991, when Rev. Paul Nickerson would have him record the Sunday worship service, and then Rev. Nickerson would take the recording to the nursing home to show the residents. In 1992, BTV got involved rebroadcasting the services and providing further resources, which has evolved into a great partnership over the last 30 years. Around 2015, Paul began utilizing YouTube for CSCC, creating even more visibility for the church.

While Paul was already recording and streaming most Sunday services prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, that ministry became a lifeline for so many in our community, keeping the congregation connected with God’s word and inspiration through Rev. Beth and Minister of Music Julie Scott Carey. It also served to attract many others near and far who were not able to visit their home churches in person, and whose churches were not equipped to livestream. The ministry of Paul Holmes and the support of BTV are truly blessings to our community.

Rich was born in the Houghs Neck section of Quincy and at the age of 2 he moved to Holbrook Massachusetts with his parents and siblings. He attended worship at the Winthrop Congregational Church in Holbrook, and participated in the youth fellowship program there.

After graduating from Holbrook High School in 1968, Rich worked as an apprentice pipe fitter at the Fore River Shipyard until 1971 when he began his career at AT&T Corporation. After 15 years of various positions in the technical side of the business, including a brief position at AT&T headquarters in New Jersey, Rich moved into Business Sales & Marketing in Boston. In Oct 2010, after a 40 year career he retired from AT&T. Rich worked as a consultant and contractor in the IT and Telephony business until 2016 when he took the position of Sexton at Central Square Congregational Church. He has been a member of the Church for approximately 12 years and has served on the Board of Deacons and the Stewardship Committee. Rich lives in Bridgewater with his wife and has 4 sons and 5 grandchildren.

Diane is originally from New Jersey, but has lived all over the US from NJ to California, and North Carolina to Indiana to New England. She has been at Central Square Church since moving to Bridgewater with her husband Dave and their three (now grown) children in 2008.

After getting her degree in Business and Communications from Boston University in 1980, she spent the majority of her professional life in the business side of magazine publishing. Starting at age 16, her mother recruited her into helping with the magazine she founded in the dance industry, and Diane worked on and off in the business before joining her mother full time as her partner in 1991. They sold the business (then comprised of three publications in the arts) in 1998.

Currently the Clerk of CSCC, Diane is also a past Trustee and Moderator at CSCC, and is on the Annual Fair Committee. She is mostly retired, still doing bookkeeping for several clients from home, and is part owner with her siblings of the elastic manufacturing business in Pawtucket, RI that her late father founded. Her interests include travelling with her also-retired husband, being involved in anything that relates to live theater (although that usually just means being an audience member these days), and anything having to do with her kids.

Diane feels that her role as Communication Coordinator is a perfect fit, given her background in publishing and her inclination to keep things organized. She also feels strongly about making sure that CSCC members know what’s going on at the church, what the church is doing in the community both locally and beyond, and how they can be more involved in a way that suits their time and talents. It is with these goals in mind that Diane is involved in the messaging of CSCC on social media, in print, and via email, and constantly striving to ensure the CSCC family feels both included and recognized for all that the church has to offer.