We are still running the Laundry Love program, thanks to a few dedicated volunteers this past year. It’s not a gang-busters program, but several folk rely on us to help them get their laundry washed and dried.
If you’d like to help, I’ve created a sign-up genius for you! We do laundry once a month and the second Wednesday from 5 pm – 7 pm. They load the machines and we provide the money and the detergent.
It’s a simple process and because it’s a self-help laundromat, all of the instructions for people using the machine are clearly posted. All you have to do is put on a name tag that says “Laundry Love,” and be ready to put quarters in the machines!
Quarters and detergent are kept at the church. I’ll be more than happy to get you set up and will reach out to people who’ve signed up before hand.
God so generously loved the world that he placed his only Son here, so that everyone who has confidence in him may not be lost or be destroyed but may have eternal life
John 3.16
Update: The Board of Finance is hoping to have all of our pledges in by November 15. There is a pledge card at the end of this letter, which you may print and mail to us, keeping a copy for yourself. Thanks!
Dear friends,
Our pledge in-gathering comes at a difficult time. Institutions, churches and businesses all over the world find themselves trying to navigate the Covid-19 waters between the rock of spreading disease and whirlpool of financial ruin and institutional failure. The Waterbury Congregational Church, thanks to skillful navigating by our church council and board of finance, is sound, but challenges loom large.
The world passed a grim milestone on Sunday as I preached a sermon about the above famous line from the Gospel of John: we recorded over 1 million deaths from Covid-19. That’s more deaths than malaria, influenza, cholera and measles, combined. There seem to be less accurate statistics about the number of institutions that have gone out of business, but the rate is frighteningly high.
A few questions might be raised: “Really, God so loves the world?” and “Hey, I thought this was a pledge-ingathering letter?!” The answer is yes and yes and they are profoundly connected.
We have never asked each other to support this church because we promise something incredible or something that can’t be delivered. We have never asked each other to support the Waterbury Congregational Church because of an unrealistically glossy advertisement for an easy life. On the contrary, we have always sought partnership in this endeavor because, when the chips are down and things are not right, one thing remains: the connective tissue of the love of God.
Nicodemus, so that story goes in the 15 verses before John 3:16, is at a loss. Something isn’t right: his institutional confidence is crumbling and so he goes searching for answers. The story is maddeningly elusive. The search goes on. But a few things become clear over the course of the Gospel. Most importantly, Nicodemus’s search finds a home with Jesus because in him, the invitation to life, the life he cannot anymore deny, the life rooted in the love that grounds his being, and indeed underlies the world, is offered and met, over and over again, like one dying and being reborn, like the sun setting and rising on a new day. Nothing, not the prospect of institutional failure, nor of death itself, can take away this love, this renewed confidence in life. It is far more than a gift given by Jesus to a man in need — it is the discovery through him of an ineradicable confidence in the worth of life.
I continue to be buoyed by the pledge of confidence in this worth of life in God which many of us took during worship one Sunday late last winter. Our children had been talking during their church school time about the ways they might promote positive change for a healthy future. They crafted, along with our CE Director, Lori Morse, a call and response which included an affirmation that we make these promises because God so loves the world. We promised with them to refuse to succumb to the pessimistic voices we hear on the airwaves suggesting that we are powerless compared to the rich and connected; we promised to be responsible in our use of natural resources, and we promised to deal with disease effectively. We said:
We give up the idea that even though we are healthy, sickness does not affect us. We give up the idea that we do not have a responsibility to act as healers through prayer and touch and action. We give up the fear of disease, especially the fear that causes us to look away. We let go of the idea that illnesses like AIDS and malaria and dysentery have to happen, or that they don’t matter because they don’t happen here. We refuse to believe that healthcare must be for only a few.
I ask you now to reaffirm that pledge by making a financial pledge to your church. I ask you now to make a pledge not because a financial gift to the church is a guarantee of safety and health, but because we are a partnership of life, with life, for life, come what may. The answer to those two questions, “Why, God this disease?” and “Why, Peter this pledge drive?” are related: there is nothing, neither Covid-19, nor distress, physical distancing nor social unrest which will ever separate us from the love of God. Your continued financial support of this divine/ human partnership is a witness to ourselves, to our community, and to our partnership, of this ineradicable fact that God so loves the world.
May the peace that passes all understanding and the love that never ends, go with you and hold you close.
For the past 40 years or so, our church has been walking each spring or fall to help raise money for Church World Service (CWS) and their worldwide campaign to help end hunger. CWS does this by providing non-sectarian expertise on the ground in all corners of the world to assist in building up food infrastructure and community rebuilding and resilience. A portion of the money we raise in our walk will also stay local and go to our food shelf.
The walk is Sunday, October 11 at 1 pm! We’ll gather at 12:30 for a little socializing and registering. We’ll have freshly baked brownies and crisp apples to eat.
Here you will find information on 1) how to be a walker and 2) how to be a donor.
Last Year’s Walkers making their way through Hope Cemetery
A majority of our fundraising this year will be done online. For the first time since we’ve been doing this, there is no envelope to pick up or hand in. If you want to walk with us on October 11 at 1 pm, register on our walk website (https://www.crophungerwalk.org/waterburyvt/). Once there you will have the opportunity to register, which involves the usual name and address. You will also have a Covid-19 disclaimer to accept. It will ask you for a password, which means that if you want to check out your fundraising progress, you’ll need to remember/record it. The final step in registration is to make yourself a donation.
If you are not walking but would like to contribute, go to the same site (https://www.crophungerwalk.org/waterburyvt/), and instead of clicking on the register button, click on the donate button. There your options or to donate to the team (our church) in general, or a specific walker. You can pay by PayPal or regular credit card. All donations are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law.
“She was an extremely close listener to music. She allowed herself to feel the emotions so intensely she essentially merged with the music.”
Jeffrey Rosen
This Sunday at 4pm on the State House lawn, we will be presenting a celebration of life and music, in honor of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Who: Some program details are still to be determined. So far we know of the following performers:
Daughters of the Regiment, Donizetti
Mary Bonhag, soprano Nessa Rabin, mezzo-soprano Andy Ross, tenor Erik Kroncke, bass Mary Rowell, violin Fran Rowell, cello Mary Jane Austin, piano (keyboard)
What: An operatic tribute to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, who famously loved opera!
Where: State House lawn, on the left side of the steps so that we can be near a place to plug in.
When: Sunday, September 27 at 4pm (approximately a one hour program)
Why: To honor the life of a beautiful soul and fierce warrior for justice and equality, especially for women. To celebrate our shared love for opera in her memory with each other and the community.
Covid considerations – Singers will be singing without masks and wear masks when not singing, and we will all be very careful to provide ample spacing for everyone involved, on and off stage. Instrumentalists and audience will wear masks. There will be a place for audience members to sign in for purposes of contact tracing.
