Community Corner

Interfaith Concert Supports Counseling Center

The concert is Sunday.

Sunday, the Westborough interfaith community again will help one of its members.

The Assabet Valley Pastoral Counseling Center’s “assistance fund that helps pay the fees for the folks that can’t pay the sliding scale” again will receive the proceeds from the Westborough Interfaith Clergy Association’s annual concert, center interim Executive Director Mary Taber said Friday.

The  Westborough Interfaith Clergy Association will present the concert, "Making a Joyful Noise!” at 3 p.m. Sunday at the Unitarian Universalist Congregational Society of Westborough, 64 West Main St.

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There is a free will donation of $10 for adults and $8 for seniors. Children under age 12 will be admitted free.

The concert will feature about 11 groups from Westborough’s interfaith community, including the Westborough Interfaith Group Choir, said Cam Sowa, president of the Pastoral Counseling Centers of Massachusetts Board of Directors.

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“We have some people who are singing songs they’ve written, which is really nice,” she said.

The concert will be dedicated to the Boston Marathon tragedy victims and those who helped them, according to the Rev. Cynthia Frado, the Unitarian church’s pastor.

Taber said the pastoral counseling center is "a part of the interfaith community, very strongly. That is how we feel and deal with situations like Monday.”

The center serves about 44 communities, she said.

The interfaith clergy association established the counseling center during the 1970s, she noted.

"In the 70s, they realized they wanted a counseling center rather than having each of the houses of faith bear the burden of all the counseling of the community,” met with clergy neighboring towns, "and formed the counseling center,” Taber explained.

The center was a "satellite of the Worcester pastoral council,” and later became independent,  Taber said.

In the fall of 2011, "they merged with us,” Taber said.

Administrative changes began happening last fall, she said. And Taber became interim executive director when David Russo stepped down, ending 12 years at the helm.

A search committee is working toward hiring a permanent director “hopefully soon,” said Cam Sowa, president of the Pastoral Counseling Centers of Massachusetts Board of Directors.

Taber said the executive director sits on the interfaith clergy association.

Taber noted the counseling center moved on Feb. 2 from the second floor of the Kirkside building, across the street to the Congregational Church of Westborough’s original parsonage.

“That was a huge change,” Taber said.


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