BRISTOL — The members of the First Baptist Church of Bristol are excited to announce that their entire church, including the upstairs sanctuary, is now handicap accessible. The church, located on the back of the Town Park, was built in 1819 and had a major renovation in 1925. Since then a few smaller remodels and additions were done including handicapped ramps to access the lower level nursery, restrooms, vestry and kitchen areas; however, the second-floor sanctuary remained inaccessible to people with limited mobility. About 10 years ago, the small congregation began to look into a way to remedy this and started to raise funds in an effort to give everyone the ability to worship God together. 
Thanks to the many donations from members in the congregation, church friends, the community, fund raisers such as wheelchair basketball at MAUHS and grants from Neat Repeats and the Tarrant Foundation, our prayers have been answered. On Feb. 19, Margaret Owen, a senior member, officially opened the lift at a ribbon cutting with interim pastor Todd Goodyear, assistant trustee and project coordinator Randy Crowe and other members of the congregation. Margaret was the first member to access the sanctuary by riding in the newly installed lift. 
The congregation would like to invite the community to come see our new lift by joining us on Sundays for coffee at 9:30 a.m. and/or to join us for the morning worship service at 10:15 a.m.  We would also like to express our thanks to Access Mobility in Williston Vermont, Adams of Bristol, Ted Lylis, Jack Austin and Dan Nielson for their work in making this project a reality.