This Sunday will be the Rev. Tom Kinder’s last as our Interim Pastor.  Worship will be followed by a potluck farewell lunch to which all are invited.   We will read the King James Version of the 121st Psalm. We will sing a hymn with words written by Tom and a new tune by our organist, John Atwood, based on excerpts we will read from the farewell words of Jesus in Matthew and John, “I Am with You Forever More.” We will also sing “Be Thou My Vision,”  “In the Bulb There is a Flower,” and a verse of “We Are One in the Spirit.”   The choir will sing two verses of “Still, Still With Thee,” with words by Harriet Beecher Stowe and a tune from Felix Mendelssohn.

This coming Sunday, June 25^th our Conference’s  Associate Minister, the Rev. Pam Lucas, will be filling our pulpit. She will be preaching on our tendency to exclude while God’s heart yearns for inclusion. Her sermon, “Hagar’s Story” will turn our focus to the scripture reading of Genesis 21: 8-21 and to the hymn “I Love My God, Who Heard My Cry.” Continue reading Upcoming Service Notes, June 25, 2017 →

This Sunday we welcome back Bruce and Caleb Freeberg who will provide music with their guitar, fiddle, banjo, mandolin and vocals.  They will play Celtic fiddle tunes for the Prelude and an Irish reel for the Postlude.  Their Introit will be “People Get Ready,” their Anthem “Kneel at the Cross” and their Offertory, “When I Go Away.”  They will lead us in the following hymns:  “Get on Board;” “When the Saints Go Marching In;” “Amazing Grace;” “Just a Closer Walk with Thee;” “Oh Glory, How Happy I Am;” “The Welcome Table;” “I Saw the Light;” and “I’ll Fly Away.”

As you can see, the service will have a much higher music to word ratio this week.  It will also be a service for all generations–the sermon will be an extended children’s time, including the telling of Jesus’ parable of The Prodigal Son (Luke 15:1-3, 11-32).  We will celebrate all the congregation has done in the spirit of that parable, including living up to the Identity and Aspiration Statement goal of being an “increasingly welcoming, loving, helpful congregation.”  We will read responsively the joyous Psalm 126.

Here are three of the hymns we will be singing.  I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait!  See you there!

Caleb and Bruce Freeberg

Pentecost marks the birthday of the first church, when the Holy Spirit burst into the room with a blast of wind and fire and launched 120 of Christ’s disciples into the world on a trajectory that our church is still following.  We will hear the beginning of the Pentecost story in Acts 2 (verses 1-17), as well as excerpts from Genesis 1 and 2 where the Spirit blows like a wind over the waters and brings the earth into being, and then God breathes the Spirit into dust to create humans (Genesis 1:1-5, 2:7).  We will read responsively a section of Psalm 104, the great celebration of God’s creative power.

The children will learn how all the energy and goodness of Pentecost came at a time when Jesus had just left the disciples and they were waiting, unsure what was coming next, going through the various stages of grief at his departure–exactly the kind of place where the Holy Spirit comes with its power of resurrection and transformation.

We will sing “I Sing the Mighty Power of God,” and “Breathe on Me, Breath of God,” and “When Christ Left Earth,” a contemporary set of words set to the tune Finlandia (the tune of “Be Still My Soul”).  The choir will sing verses of the hymn “Let Every Christian Pray” as the Introit and “Lo, a Voice,” by the Ukrainian-Russian composer, D. S. Bortniansky as the Anthem.  Organist John Atwood will play a Prelude and Fugue attributed to J. S. Bach, a Prelude by Pachelbel and an Adagio by Vivaldi.

We have the joy of repaying a visit this Sunday that a congregation paid to us last June.  We will worship in West Newbury at 10:45 AM with uplifting, inspiring Gaelic, gospel, blues and folk worship music provided by Bruce and Caleb Freeberg on their banjo, guitar and fiddle.  The warm and wise Rev. Cindy Batten will preach and Rev. Tom Kinder and Deacon Marcia Tomlinson from our congregation will help lead the service.  It is a joy to get these two neighboring congregations together to know one another better and share their common loves.  Bring friends!

We have so much to celebrate!  We have seventeen children who have been participating in our Sunday School.  Ask around the Upper Valley and you will find that we are extraordinarily blessed!

Recently I heard from a woman who has moved to a distant city.  On Easter she went to try out a UCC church.  She said she sat down in the pew, took one look at the bulletin and started to cry because she felt so at home.  She said that even though the service was different, she knew the basics–she called it a kind of church literacy.

We are giving these seventeen children a gift for the rest of their lives.  Anytime they are far away, anytime they feel lost or are having a hard time, they can walk into any church like ours around the world and feel at home and know the basics of how to pray and sing and connect with that community.

And in the meantime, as we teach them what we know about church and the spiritual and moral realms, they are filling us with their energy and joy and all the wisdom that they teach us.  They are deepening our love.  They are giving us hope.

We will celebrate with a special litany of scriptures and song with the children as readers and the Diverse Musical Traditions Team leading the congregation in singing the refrain of “Every Time I Feel the Spirit.” We will also reflect on a passage from the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 6:5-13) about one of the children’s favorite subjects.  We will sing “In the Bulb There Is a Flower” and “What a Friend We Have in Jesus.”  John Atwood has planned some special child-friendly organ pieces:  “The Swan” by Camille Saint-Saëns; three pieces for the musical clock by Joseph Haydn (1. Allegro moderato, 2. Menuett “The Call of the Quail,” and 3. Vivace “Eight o-clock”), and March from The Nutcracker by Tchaikovsky.

We will celebrate our congregation’s support of Help Kids India this Sunday.  You can learn about the organization at http://www.helpkidsindia.org/.  We will be blessed to have Catherine and Tom Kidder to talk about their first hand observation of the work Help Kids India helps make possible.  (Catherine is a Board Member as is Lora Chatfield, formerly a leader of our Board of Mission and Social Action and a member of our congregation.) It is a deeply moving story of life-changing work done for impoverished and at risk children and mothers and families.  Catherine will deliver a Mission Moment during the service and she and Tom will narrate a slide show in the vestry afterward.

We will read responsively from Psalm 31 that could have been written by one of the people we are helping.  It says, “Take me out of the net that is hidden for me, for you are my refuge.  Into your hand I commit my spirit; you have redeemed me, O faithful God. Let your face shine upon your servant; save me in your steadfast love.”  We will also hear with new ears Jesus’ beautiful reassurance from John 14:1-14 that begins: “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?”  We will consider all this as a form of the “extravagant hospitality” that the United Church of Christ and our Open and Affirming covenant advocate.

We will sing three hymns beloved to many of our mothers and mothers’ mothers, “There’s a Wideness in God’s Mercy,” and “I Would Be True” and “Christian, Rise and Act Thy Creed.”  The choir will sing versions of both Psalm 121 and Psalm 23 (Brother James’ Air).  Organist John Atwood will play pieces that remind him of his mother and mothering (and he is bringing in four of his spectacular orchids as well) by J.S. Bach, E. Satie and G.F. Handel–quite the lineup!

Here are piano versions of the Satie and Bach pieces for your contemplation and pleasure.