Dear friends, One of my favorite parts of my job is working with the Stewardship Team. Each year, we bring together a new group of three or four people to plan and carry out our Stewardship program, to invite our congregation to commit to supporting our mission and ministry for the coming year. This process is […]
Staff
Present to the beauty of the fall
“This is the day which the Lord hath made. We will rejoice and be glad in it.” —Psalm 118:24 Dear friends, I love the fall. I can feel the autumn coming now…shorter days, cooler temperatures, the leaves beginning to turn. I can hardly wait for the fall colors. Although we had such a dry summer, I […]
Back in the Sanctuary
Dear friends, What a gift it has been to worship outdoors for the last four-and-a-half months! We have been blessed with amazing Sunday morning weather, and with the holy coincidence that the one 100-degree Sunday was the day we were already scheduled to worship in Plymouth Church’s air conditioning! We have been blessed with the […]
Turning Toward the Sun
“I don’t think there’s anything on this planet that more trumpets life than the sunflower. For me that’s because of the reason behind its name. Not because it looks like the sun but because it follows the sun. During the course of the day, the head tracks the journey of the sun across the sky. […]
A birthday for the centuries!
Dear friends, 195 years! Wow! For 195 years people have gathered on this hill to worship God. We have sung and prayed, preached and pondered, shared Holy Communion and celebrated baptisms. We have studied the Bible, puzzled at Jesus’ teachings, and inspired our young people to grow in faith. For 195 years we have cared […]
Summer Reflections
“… Peter said to Jesus, ‘Master, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.’ Luke 9:33 Dear friends, Our family traditionally vacations on Cape Cod in August. I have wonderful memories of many long, slow, hot summer days there. […]
Courageous Commitments
Dear friends, For the month of June, our worship theme was “A Spirit of Courage.” We celebrated the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, and we reflected on the courage it takes to live faithfully in our complicated world—courage to fight for racial justice, courage to raise loving, compassionate children, courage to claim and […]
The Church as a Lens of Hope
Dear friends, On September 20, we celebrated Rev. Dr. Karen Nell Smith’s installation as our associate pastor for faith formation and outreach. It was a joyous, memorable occasion on many levels: the Stewart-Morales-Aguirre family’s altar-scape, dramatic scripture readings by Ava Walker and Robert Mitchell, children running all over campus searching for treasure hunt clues. The […]
A Horrible, Horrifying Week: A Pastoral Reflection
Dear friends, What a horrible, horrifying week this has been. Fires are raging in California; an “unsurvivable” hurricane has battered Louisiana—horrible. Jacob Blake is paralyzed after being shot in the back seven times by a police officer; demonstrators Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber were killed by a 17-year-old with an assault rifle—horrifying. A reminder of […]
A Letter from your Pastors
Dear friends, Ahmaud Arberry. Breanna Taylor. George Floyd. Three beloved children of God. Ahmaud loved to jog. Breanna was an EMT. George was a father. Each of them loved and was loved. Each brought gifts to offer our world. The world is poorer because of their deaths. We grieve the loss of these our sister […]