“The purpose and mission of the church in carrying out its servant task is always so to proclaim its message, so to bear its witness, that every human being is confronted, and re-confronted, with this question and can responsibly answer it, for her- or himself” (Ogden, To Teach the Truth), 166.
We are the church and the question before us at all times ought to be, what is our purpose and mission? Professor Ogden suggests an answer: We are to be servants of the message of the church so that every one of us is somehow confronted with “this question.” But what is “this question?” According to Ogden, the question arises from the very nature of God, who as God, promises to love irrevocably and who promises therefore, never to “destroy on all my holy mountain.” The question then, is, how will we respond to being thus loved? Will we entrust ourselves to God and live loyally to God’s cause? Will we try to be helpful and not harmful to whomever it is we find ourselves next to?
Even during a pandemic, we’ve continued to respond positively to the great question. We’ve been a place where this question is posed in different ways each and every Sunday morning and where we are challenged and encouraged to responsibly answer the question for ourselves. But it isn’t just about our ethics. It’s also about aesthetics – and we have stepped up to the challenge of being caretakers of a 220-year-old historic building that also happens to be beautiful and very public. We continue, thanks to the Nathanial Gage Charitable Fund, to restore the old stained glass windows so that they’ll be solid and beautiful for another fifteen generations or so since they were installed.
And it isn’t only about our beautiful space. We’ve tried to make other lives more beautiful, and more fulfilling too. Through my work with the Waterbury Good Neighbor Fund, I come into contact with dozens of people each year seeking help. Almost always we can offer financial help. Always I can offer, and usually do, I think, an ear and some hopeful leads for other resources for help. Our board of outreach started an eyeglasses collection box this year. This is a simple, but, wonderful way to help, for there are many who cannot afford a pair of glasses. Thanks to your generosity, we provided gifts for four different families for Christmas (two on the Christmas tree, and two arranged after that).
A word should be said about OCWM. If you look at the budget, you’ll see it is a fairly large expenditure. OCWM stands for Our Church’s Wider Mission and is funded, in part, by money we send to the Vermont Conference. The wider mission, means ministry by the Vermont Conference which assists churches in Vermont find pastors, helps churches in Vermont grow (and sometimes close their doors), helps pastors when they need pastoral care, supports LGBTQ+ ministries in Vermont and even starts new churches. Thirty percent of all of the money the Vermont Conference receives through OCWM is sent on to the National UCC which uses that money for all sorts of ministries on a national and even global scale – trying to make the lives of people everywhere more fulfilling, more beautiful, more peaceful. It is a truly great gift that receives not enough attention.
Finally, it must be noted that gathering as a community is one hugely important way in which we live out our servant task to be ambassadors of peace. The apostle Paul, who first used that image to express what it means to be a Christian, was clear that the school wherein we learn to be molded into the shape of such ambassadors, is the church. His great image of a Christian in community, in fact, is of the mold and the molder. We are molded, not by any power of our own, but by the grace of God through the helpful molding of others, to be ambassadors of God’s love, and thereby peace, in the world. Above all, Christians gather in community to be molded and remolded in the way of love, to encourage and strengthen the hearts and minds of one another because the world is not always so congenial to this way.
The pandemic has slightly redefined our sense of community in ways we are still getting used to. People, who have found our way of molding helpful, and who have thereby formed an emotional and spiritual bond with us, continue to join us for worship from all around the country via the power of the internet. I am still learning to embrace that more fully. For indeed wherever two or three are gathered in the name of the one who came to us in love and still continues in love with us, there important things happen.
As the pandemic grinds on we are asking ourselves, what other ways might we carry out our servant task as the people of God? What passions do you have to make the community more beautiful, hopeful, and peaceful? How can we connect more fully with those of our congregation who participate virtually?
You will see in the reports that follow signs of continued good news. Your financial and missional support continues strong. The building continues to be cared for as it should. To be fair, we have some not-so-good news. No one is surprised that our investments have not done so well. More importantly, you’ll notice that our Sunday morning attendance is down again. There is no simple answer here. You’ll see that the Board of Business Administration along with the Church Council is exploring ways to make our sanctuary safer for larger groups of people. We’ve discovered that changing (and using) our filtration system is a highly effective way to make our air quality better. And we continue to explore other options which you can read about in that report.
So thank you for being a community where we can still be growing and learning, where we are molded by love and encouraged, in whatever walk of life we take to be ambassadors of love. Thank you for continuing to support this place of worship and help, of beauty and truth.
Yours sincerely,
Rev. Peter O. Plagge