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By ANDREA AYVAZIAN

Earlier this month, I was asked to offer the benediction at the Northampton inauguration ceremony, when elected officials are sworn in to their positions of leadership in our city — a request that I was honored to fulfill.These inauguration...

By EMILEE KLEIN

NORTHAMPTON — Palestinian advocates will march 25 miles — the length of the Gaza Strip — from Northampton to Springfield on Sunday to demand Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Edward Markey call for a permanent cease-fire.The 12-hour event, expected to draw at...

By BISHOP WILLIAM D. BYRNE and MEMBERS of CATHOLICS FOR INCLUSION

In 2021, Pope Francis instituted a call to every Catholic congregation, and beyond, to take part in a worldwide synod, an invitation to even non-Catholics who wished to participate, to listen to people and ask how the Holy Spirit was moving them, and...

By REV. ANDREA AYVAZIAN

I have been writing monthly columns for the Gazette since 2009. Often, in November, I would write how painful I find it that the story of Thanksgiving has been misinterpreted, white-washed, and taught incorrectly in schools nationwide.I also have...

By DOMENIC POLI

Don’t worry, radio personality Christopher “Monte” Belmonte will still push a shopping cart 43 miles from Springfield to Greenfield to raise money to combat food insecurity. The journey will simply have a different name.This year marks the first March...

By DOMENIC POLI

SHELBURNE FALLS — The Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield this week acknowledged new credible findings against the late Richard Lavigne, a convicted sex offender and former Shelburne Falls priest believed to have killed a 13-year-old altar boy in...

By ANDREA AYVAZIAN

It was almost seven years ago, after I had retired as senior minister from a church in the Hilltowns, that I began worshiping at different churches in Holyoke and Springfield. I knew then that I wanted to find a new church home in Hampden County.One...

By ALEXANDER MACDOUGALL

SPRINGFIELD — Massachusetts will receive $108 million in federal funds to support improvements to east-west passenger train travel between Springfield, Worcester and Boston, U.S. Rep. Richard Neal and Gov. Maura Healey announced Friday.The money comes...

By ANDREA AYVAZIAN

Our granddaughter Fiona was about a year and a half old when she was playing with my husband and me in our backyard and a bug began circling around her. Her language skills were still quite limited at that time, and so we were surprised when she...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

SPRINGFIELD — Preservation of historic buildings in rural communities, including some in Hampshire County, will be supported through a $750,000 grant from the National Park Service.The federal agency announced on Thursday that the Pioneer Valley...

By JOSH SCHIMMEL

With the passage of many public fiscal year budgets, it is a good time to reflect on what these budgets support and the values they reflect. As we do so, consider what could be more central to our quality of life, public health, economy, agriculture,...

By ANDREA AYVAZIAN

Every joke, stereotype, and snide comment you have ever heard about 50th college reunions is true. I should know, I attended my 50th Oberlin College reunion in Ohio in May. It really was a bunch of old people in awful outfits with large nametags...

By THE REV. ANDREA AYVAZIAN

I remember the stomach-churning jitters I felt on the flight from Seattle to Anchorage. And that was before I had laid eyes on the big mountain — before I saw how it dominated the landscape both vertically and horizontally, before I had stared down...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

SPRINGFIELD — Operating rooms that are double the size and provide space for the necessary technology for surgeries with smaller incisions, allowing patients to recover faster, are opening at Baystate Medical Center in Springfield this week.The...

By ANDREA AYVAZIAN

Every day around noon, my husband Michael, a political scientist and prolific writer, stops writing at his desk and walks to downtown Northampton for lunch. He always goes to the same place, BalaganCafé, and orders a sandwich and café latte. The...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

NORTHAMPTON — A longtime editor and writer whose career in journalism for the past 35 years has spanned much of the Pioneer Valley and the Berkshires will begin leading the newsroom at The Republican in Springfield later this month.Larry Parnass, who...

I was recently interviewed on a local radio program about my reflections on the state of the peace and justice movement in the Valley and around the country. At the end of the show, the host asked: “So Andrea, what keeps you going? What gives you...

By ALEXANDER MACDOUGALL

BELCHERTOWN — A 35-year-old South Hadley man charged with the September killing of his father in Hampshire County’s second homicide of the year, pleaded not guilty to murder and attempted arson of a dwelling in Eastern Hampshire District Court on...

By BERA DUNAU

BELCHERTOWN — A Belchertown man was arrested on a murder charge Monday in relation to the 2021 shooting death of Charleen Figueroa in Springfield. According to a release from the Springfield Police Department, Victor Oquendo, 25, was arrested in...

By LARRY PARNASS

SPRINGFIELD — The former district court judge who lost his job over what he terms a consensual sexual affair has settled a lawsuit against him, seeking “to close this ugly chapter in my life and to focus on the future.”Thomas H. Estes, who formerly...