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Welcome back to First Church! Our new program year is going to be exciting and fulfilling. While much will stay the same, there is much that is new. We welcome Bill Speed as our new Director of Music Ministries. Bill previously served ten years as the Director of Music at Bethesda Lutheran Church in New Haven, and is also a geneticist. We also welcome Lisa Horst as our Acting Associate Minister of Children and Families. She is a recent graduate of Yale Divinity School, originally from California. In addition Andrea Schmidt, our Church School Assistant, has been given more hours to help transition to new leadership in our Christian education program. Please greet Bill, Lisa and Andrea warmly and give them all the good-will and love they will need and deserve. We are immensely grateful to the search committees that worked so diligently over the summer to find these wonderful new staff members.
In addition to all the programs and groups we have offered in the last few years, we also have some significant new opportunities to set before you this year. There will be weekly Sunday Bible study from 9:00 to 9:50am in the Minear Library. Each month a different Biblical scholar from our congregation will share their Biblical knowledge, wisdom and enthusiasm with us. Furthermore, on the second Wednesday of each month there will be a “Prayer and Healing Service” at 7:00pm in the sanctuary. In addition, we will be working on a new church pictorial directory. This resource is so important for our community life, so please plan to be included. And we will have a “Sacred Conversation on Race in America” throughout the year. As you can see, it is our intention to provide for your spiritual needs and well-being as a solitary soul, as a Christian in community, and as Christ’s ambassadors of reconciliation and hospitality to all God’s children.
Our festive “Welcome Back Sunday” is September 7th. The 8:30am service will remain the same. At 10:00am there will be a family service, where the children will remain in worship as we celebrate our coming back together and our Lord’s Supper. This service will focus on Communion and will engage all ages. After this service children may be registered for Church School and there will be an All-Church picnic. Let us all gather to celebrate and enjoy our church family. I would like to take a moment to tell you about our comprehensive plans for our “Sacred Conversation on Race in America.” It goes without saying that the success of this depends on your participation. Please join us for whatever opportunities seem best for you, but please participate. Race has always been an issue just below the surface. With Senator Obama making a run for the White House and race issues being brought to the forefront of our consciousness, this is the perfect time to deal with a central issue of our time.
Throughout the program year there will be sermons and adult education offerings presented by Yale professors and other competent presenters. Marjorie Colton, our Church Librarian, will have books and other media available in the Narthex for you to borrow. Also, our Peace, Affirmation and Justice Committee will offer special programs such as movie viewings and group outings. The centerpiece of our endeavor will be the dinner conversations. We plan to have dinner groups of 8-10 adults plus children who will gather in the same group but at different houses four times during the program year. The first dinner is scheduled for Saturday, October 4th, the second for the weekend of January 23-25th, the third for the weekend of April 24-26th, and the final meal, which might even be a picnic, is scheduled for the weekend of June 5-7th. You need not attend all the dinners, but the dates are set in advance so as many as possible will be able to arrange their calendars. Gathering for meals is something that the first Christians did on a regular basis and it became the foundation for their love and care of each other. These meals will likewise be church building.
The conversation coinciding with the first dinner will be the sharing of your own race story. Each group will have a trained facilitator who is a member of our church, to ensure that a healthy group process ensues where all are heard and all respected. We are fortunate to have communication trainers from the Community Mediation Center of New Haven to be with us for our Adult Forum on September 28th. What is most important is that we develop a style that listens to each other and seeks to understand as fully as possible the feelings, thoughts and experiences of the other. I will preach about all of this on September 14th. This is an exciting time for First Church. We are a church well-experienced in hospitality and welcome, and this process will bring us to an even deeper level of understanding within our own family. Such an endeavor may raise your anxiety, but I hope you will brave these feelings, knowing that the goal of growing stronger as the Body of Christ and better understanding our neighbor is a worthy one. I look forward to greeting you face to face on Sunday, September 7th.
In Christ’s love, Kendrick
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