Whoever you are and wherever you are on life's journey, you're welcome here.
This year, as per our usual practice, the ecumenical sunrise service will be held in the Blush Hill Country Club parking lot, overlooking the Hunger Mountain range to the East. The service is at 7 am and will be led this year by Rev. Sam Newton of the Wesley United Methodist Church.
The weather promises a beautiful early morning, albeit chilly. After the service, come down the hill to the Waterbury Center Community Church to warm up with some homemade breakfast.
Worship last week, as most of you know, had to be cancelled because I did not think through a backup plan in the event that the teleconference service we use, Zoom, stopped working, which it did.
Starting this week, I will publish a backup link along with our Zoom link. I will publish that in the Newsletter, in our bulletin, and in our church calendar. You can join a zoom meeting using the church calendar simply by clicking on the event you want to join and then clicking on the “Join Zoom Meeting” button.
The backup option will utilize Google’s new teleconferencing platform called Google Meet. The advantage to using Google Meet as a back up is that it is immediate. You do not need to have a google account, nor do you need to download anything. The worship service, and all of us, would appear in tiles in your browser window. The disadvantages are several in my opinion and so will remain only a backup option for worship.
You would join the backup meeting by clicking on the link for the backup option in the bulletin or the church calendar. I will not publish it in the newsletter.
Music transforms feelings into landscape, landscape we do not see but hear, landscape we can live in and with, but which is entirely aural.
Rilke
If you have some musical talent, take this post as an invitation to record yourself or your group and share it with the church! If you send me a link to a YouTube video you created or an mp4 file with your creation on it, I’ll see what we can do to play it for a postlude at the end of one of our Zoom Worship Services.
Help us transform your landscape and keep building our community of loving hope.
UPDATE — Mary Jane has volunteered to help in this endeavor by providing accompaniment. The process would be slightly different than described above as it requires Mary Jane to provide you with the accompaniment file first, then you (or your small group) performing your music with a headset playing the accompaniment and then mixing the accompaniment file and your recording into one using iMovie. Mary Jane has some experience with this and would be happy to chat with you about it. Her email address is mjpaustin@aol.com.
For some time now the finance committee has toyed with the idea of making it easy for you to give to the church through an online portal, either with a credit card or debit card, or an ACH (essentially an online check).
The coronavirus has spurred us to action and we are now live with online giving. There will always be a link to the giving form on our Sunday Services tab on our website — here. The link will take you to Church Breeze which is the company we’ve trusted with our data for over five years and through which our weekly newsletter is mailed. It is a secure site and they have a long history of managing church finances and church data. We hope you will take advantage of this opportunity.
Children: On this last Sunday before Lent, we give up the idea that we have no voice. We refuse to believe that we are powerless, that we cannot make a difference in our chu
rches, and neighborhoods, our country and our world. We give up the idea that our vision of a better tomorrow must wait until we’re older or richer or smarter or more holy. How will you help us?
Adults: We will hear your voices and look to your visions. We acknowledge that with God all things are possible and we will help you make a difference by giving you opportunities to serve in your church. We will support your efforts in the community and world. We will enter Lent with you.
All: For the kingdom of God is at hand.
We give up the idea that war will always be a part of our world. We will not listen to those who lie to us when they say we must go to war to be safe — in America or in other countries around the world. We refuse to believe that we must kill in order to bring democracy and freedom to others. We give up the idea that violence ever solves anything. How will you help us?
Adults: We will be honest with you. We will not glorify weapons or violence, or righteous indignation. We will teach you ways of peace and model for you ways of loving our enemies. We will seek out and vote for leaders who, like Christ, are willing to be mediators and peacemakers.
All: For the kingdom of God is at hand.
We give up the idea that we are not responsible for our environment,
that it has always been and will always be. We will stop taking our Earth for granted and begin to hear her voice. We give up the idea that worship only happens indoors and behind stained glass. We will remember that our daily bread comes from God through a living, healthy planet and that we must care for her as she cares for us. How will you help us?
Adults: We will delight in the moon and the stars, we will look for God in the oceans and hear the Spirit’s voice in the winds. We will walk gently, buy and eat locally, and reduce our consumption of all things non-renewable. We will worship among the trees and rocks more often and we will bring you with us. We will see all life as sacred and will join with you in preserving our Earth.
All: For the kingdom of God is at hand.
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. How will you help us?
Adults: We will take on the role of healers, however we are best suited to do so. We will fund research to find cures and will support health education in impoverished nations. We will respond swiftly to natural disasters that threaten to bring new diseases to already battered people. And when sickness occurs in our midst we will not fear it. Through it we will pray and we will touch, and we will be present for each other.
All: For the kingdom of God is at hand.
We give up the idea that poverty is something normal for some people in some places. We will not tolerate poverty in our world, or the thought that the poor don’t matter. We will not believe that poverty is someone else’s problem and we give up the idea that people who don’t have enough stuff or the right stuff are any less worthy of hope. How will you help us?
Adults: We will work with you to end poverty. We will put our own wealth to work, bringing hope and change to those who need it most. We will ask that you watch us as we feed the hungry, clothe the homeless, and care for widows and orphans in all corners of the world. We will stop pretending that the poor are not among us and we will help you find ways to respond compassionately to this very real problem.
All: For the kingdom of God is at hand.
We give up the idea that hatred is ever ok, that people can be treated differently because they are a different color or speak a different language or live on the other side of a border. We will not allow unequal treatment of gay, lesbian and transgendered people, women, or anyone else. We dream of a world where all people, in all places, of all faiths can work together. We give up the idea that hatred, bigotry, and bullying should ever be associated with God. How will you help us?
Adults: We will fight against injustice for you and with you. We will elect leaders who will help you reach your dreams. We will not harbor hate in our own lives and we will speak out any time we hear intolerance, knowing that to remain silent is not an act of love. We will work with you to rid the world of all those very things that Jesus was willing to die for.
All: For the kingdom of God is at hand.