From Hal’s Desk, where Ron has been sitting until today……

As you know, I am literally on my way out the door. We are in town through Thanksgiving to be with the family, but the next few days will involve several things.

I have resolved to finish our Christmas letter. It is crazy and perhaps we will fail, but we decided to do it anyway because we know that our Advent season will be very short when we return home. It seems daunting, but I intend to make the time. It is so important to let loved ones and friends know that you are thinking of them and to share a memory and express a hope that there are things worth living for and dreams worth having. It is a sort of benediction (good words) on the past year and a blessing on the year to come, that we are planning to send out into the world by snail mail. I know it’s only a letter, but I believe that any chance to make the Word flesh is worth taking!

I also plan to complete one last weaving project. It has been a great Ft. Collins visit on that score—I have managed to weave 25 yards of fabric which includes 14 place mats, six table runners, and 7 hand towels. These were completed with the support of the staff at Lambspun, my favorite yarn store in Fort Collins, aided by the fact that I have only worked with this amazing congregation and its staff part-time. One real plus of my weaving time was the presence of a few Plymouth folk, who knit and weave there too.

Next Sunday, I will be sharing in the Baptism of my two Fort Collins grandchildren during the second service. Let’s be clear, I will be doing the traditional motions and asking the questions, but you, dear congregation, will be doing the Baptism. In our tradition, the Sacrament of Baptism belongs to the gathered congregation representing the Spirit of the Loving God. As I explained to the grandchildren, there is nothing magical about Baptism or their "Opa,” other than a biological family and a church family agreeing that they need one another and that they affirm one another as care givers for children in the presence of a loving God. The tradition can wax all theological about it, but Baptism is the church welcoming God’s children in a visible way!

Then the following week, just before we leave, we will share Thanksgiving with our family here. This is a holiday with more than a little freight. We could discuss that at another time, but it does have potential. It might raise a justice question or two in our minds concerning food, or the genocide of indigenous people, or the American fixation on the violent sport of football and the sacrifice of young lives destined to suffer the consequences of traumatic brain injury. Thanksgiving can be much more than well-stuffed relatives sharing a meal. I do love that part of it, of course!

Once again, thank you for the joy of sitting at Hal’s desk!

With love,
Ron

One of the blessings that arrived in my life long before I knew what it meant was the gift of generosity. I didn’t plan it, it just happened, and I find myself deeply grateful every day.

I grew up around generous people. My Mom and Dad were givers. She was an Avon salesperson and he worked in a factory and we lived close to the edge financially, but they found ways to give. There were always strangers at our table, she baked and cooked for others and showed up to volunteer. They supported the church and they shared with other organizations because they had heard Jesus say that the only thing we would ever have was what we were willing to give. We never had much, but we always had enough. To this day, I don’t know how they pulled it off, but because of their love, I grew to believe that being generous was the right way to live. 

Over the years with the love and support of my spouse, I have developed my own pattern of generosity. Several years ago, we made the decision to become tithers. We set aside a percentage of our income each year to support the work of organizations that reflect our personal beliefs. Our churches are at the top of the list. We belong to two congregations—full members of one and associate members of the other. We pledge to both. We also support the congregations where I have been honored to serve since retirement. Then we support the work of our UCC Conference and make annual gifts to several parts of the national United Church of Christ. We support the colleges we attended and the two seminaries I attended and a dozen or so organizations working to make this world a better place: like the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Carter Center and Habitat for Humanity. We have an estate plan which means that after we make our journey into the love of God, we will continue to support the things that have been so important to us in this life.

Each year we make a couple of gifts to organizations that we believe represent an attempt to address systemic racism and offer reparations for past injustices. These gifts have helped us support the historic Black Colleges related to the United Church of Christ and the Franklinton Center at Bricks, NC, a center in the struggle for Racial justice. We support the American Indian College Fund as well. 
Am I bragging about how generous we are? If you want to read it that way, go ahead, but then what do you do with the words of Jesus about not hiding your light under a bushel? 

What I want you to know is that proportional giving that makes a difference in your life and enables you to discover the joy of generosity, makes sense in my life and the life that I share with my beloved. Our lifetime of work has enabled us to have a better retirement than either of us thought possible. We both know that circumstances beyond our control could change that at any time and that no matter how we might fool ourselves, we can’t take any of what we have with us except what we have shared. That is a central part of our faith.

So dear Plymouth friends, please hear me when I say: God is good and God is calling us all to the simple joy of generosity! 

With love,  
Ron

P.S. I will be with you for about another month and would love to get together. Just give me a call. I work Sunday-Wednesday but am always available other times as needed. Let me know. 
 

As some of you know, Charnley and I lived in Manhattan during 9/11. The terror and the pain of that day caused immediate trauma for so many. We witnessed things which we will never forget. Twenty-one years have not dulled the memories of those first few hours. In the weeks that followed, the staff and members of the congregation I served spent hours in worship and conversation, seeking healing. Rumors abounded and anxiety and tension found a home in too many hearts.

Several weeks after the disaster, the Red Cross sponsored a workshop for care givers. They invited clergy, front-line medical personnel, and others in the helping professions to spend a day reflecting and learning together. One speaker shared a powerful insight into what we were seeing in the lives of those whom we sought to help and in our own lives. This person said: “No matter what ‘it’ is in a person’s life, whether it’s an addiction, a medical issue, a psychological issue, a relationship problem or just a stress point; whatever ‘it’ is, will be worse in the days to come…… Understanding that fact will help you help others and help yourself. Be patient, be forgiving, be understanding with everyone in your circle, including yourself.”

Let me suggest that these words of wisdom are relevant today. At one point, we experienced some serious tension and conflict in a small congregation where we were members. Objectively, the issues involved were minor, but several of our fellow members allowed those issues to snowball into conflict. All I could do was remember what that wise Red Cross teacher had said and remind myself that what was bothering these people had more to do with the anger and grief and pain of the pandemic than with the issue itself. It helped put it in perspective. It suggested ways to be loving and helpful.

Have you noticed any negative energy in your life or in our shared life as a congregation? After one month among you, I haven’t seen it, but……. Just in case, let me suggest that we need one another more than ever and we need safe space and faithful space and forgiving space and patient space. That’s why Plymouth exists as an outpost of sanity and occasional saintliness. That’s why we name Jesus as the one among us, helping us treat one another as God’s image bearers.

Now, If you find yourself having trouble doing that, cut yourself and the other person a little slack. Do your best to behave and believe in the power of good intentions. There is a biblical image of our belonging that suggests that we don’t belong to a church, but that we belong to one another and that together we belong to Jesus. That sort of thinking could save your life and one way or another make this a stronger congregation!

Thank you for the joy of being among you again.

With Love,
Ron

P.S. By the way, I am available if you need to talk. Call the church (970-482-9212) and you can be forwarded to me.

Once more, I’m at his desk! As most of you know, Hal is beginning a well-deserved Sabbatical and like the proverbial bad penny, I have turned up again to help, or at least do no harm for the next three months. 
 
I will be here and available to work with your leaders and with all of you as you begin another program year in the life of this amazing collection of God’s people. 
 
I will be with you on Sunday mornings, in some meetings, and in the office on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday or as needed. I will be working half-time with your staff and with all of you as together we seek to follow the way of Jesus. 
 
You can reach me at 970-482-9212 x119 (forwards to my cell) or use the contact form. 
 
For those of you who have not met me, let me reintroduce myself. Charnley, my spouse, and I live in Tacoma, WA. We are active in a small UCC congregation on a nearby island. I teach Sunday School and Charnley chairs the Christian Education committee and leads adult education classes. We are both active in the Pacific Northwest Conference of the UCC. I am on the Board of Directors, and she is on the committee that guides people in the process of becoming an ordained minister. We retired to Tacoma from Naples UCC in Naples, Florida where I had been Senior Minister for 13 years. I am Pastor Emeritus of that congregation. I spent most of my 43 years of active ministry serving in large congregations. Charnley is a retired Systems Analyst and keeps up her computer skills by helping our home congregation with their technology.
 
Together, we have four children and five grandchildren. One of our children, Joanna Lemly, is a Plymouth member.  With our son-in-law Duncan and two grandchildren they participate regularly in the life of the congregation and are the reason we visit Ft. Collins every year. 
 
My time-off activity in Fort Collins is weaving at Lambspun, a local yarn and craft store. I plan to learn more about overshot weaving during the coming few months and to make a few special Christmas gifts for family and friends. Charnley joins me there as she develops her talents as a knitter. 
 
Five years ago, I shared with you that I regard myself as a “work in progress.”  I believe that God is never finished with any of us and that finding bread for the journey is why we are together. I find great joy in being with people and listening. I love to tell stories and learn the stories of the people I meet. I believe that congregations nurture ministers to excellence and that preaching is important. I have the idea that mission in all forms is the reason for the church’s existence and that if we get the mission correct, almost everything else works out. 
 
I am thrilled to be with you until mid-November. I look forward to spending time with as many of you as possible, working with your excellent leaders and staff and serving as your Interim Sabbatical Senior Minister. I welcome your visits, invitations, and phone calls.
 
With love,
Ron

As I end this second time among you, I find myself deeply grateful for your hospitality and warm welcome. The last three months have offered blessings that we will spend the next season of our lives counting. Charnley joins me in thanking you and your leadership team for another opportunity to serve!

I don’t believe in coincidence and live my life trusting that my journey always unfolds within a pattern of “Godincidence.” Often, in the moment I fail to appreciate that, but more often, these small miracles are revealed later.
That’s certainly true of our involvement with this congregation. Our daughter Joanna came to Ft. Collins as a graduate student many years ago. We visited her from New York City and later Naples, Florida and worshiped with you each time we were in town.

We came here because of my deep respect for your Senior Minister as a trusted colleague since both of us were serving important congregations in the United Church of Christ. Little did I realize then that this would lead to your invitation to become Hal’s Sabbatical Interim four years ago. I willingly accepted that assignment because working with you enabled deeper contact with our Ft. Collins family that now included a son-in-law and two delightful grandchildren who had made Plymouth their church home!

That time brought us into deeper relationship with this congregation and with members of your staff. I had the joy of serving then with some very talented ministers and staff members who have moved on to splendid new chapters in their careers and others who are still with you. Can I confess now that I had some role in mentoring Jake to seek and to embrace a more challenging opportunity? It was time for him to do that, and I encouraged him to further develop talents that the larger Christian community needs. You blessed him with a good beginning!

One thing I learned over the years is that great congregations nurture and support great staff teams and that key lay leaders play an important role in encouraging the work of a successful ministry team. That never happens perfectly because of our flawed humanity, but when it is happening, strengthened congregations are made stronger and more vital and leaders, lay and ministerial, are empowered rather than discouraged.

This time I have had the great honor of serving with Hal as part of your team in the limited role of Bridge Interim. This has been a beautiful experience watching and supporting a fine leader doing a difficult job.

The past twenty months of pandemic have turned most of what I understood about church leadership on its ear. Across the religious landscape, church conflict and staff transitions have multiplied and that is going to increase in the coming months. My son, who is a hospital administrator and psychiatrist in New York City reports that similar tensions exist in virtually all institutions, especially institutions charged with caring for others and supporting emotional, spiritual, and physical health. He suggests that we all need to treat one another with grace and patience. That’s a doctor’s order that needs to be closely followed!

I was not surprised that Plymouth has experienced some conflict. But instead of hiding it or ignoring it, your lay leaders, and your Senior Minister, engaged the best professionals available to seek solutions to the conflict, developed a new staffing plan and worked to re-conceive your mission vision as a congregation. At the same time, your leaders found a way to update your lighting, live-streaming and sound capabilities, bring the underutilized and often invisible creativity of the 6:00 pm worship experience to the 9:00 am hour giving it so much potential, hired an amazing person in Christian Education whose presence at Plymouth will nurture my grandchildren and all the children and youth in spectacular ways, took a science-based approach to worship and programming possibilities in these crazy times that include being flexible and nimble given the future’s uncertainties. I’m impressed!

And so, Charnley and I continue our journey with thankfulness, knowing that our family in Ft. Collins is part of a congregation of talented, faithful, and caring people who are in tune with the love of God and alive to new possibilities.

Thank you for allowing us to be with you!

Dr. Ron Patterson

Over the years I have been blessed to work with amazing colleagues. In larger congregations, an effective staff team makes all the difference and working as part of a team like that has been part of my pleasure in serving here at Plymouth for the second time! Thank you!

Four years ago, when I arrived as your Sabbatical Senior Minister, I had the great honor of welcoming Mark Heiskanen to your staff as the new Director of Music. What a joy to be able to renew that working relationship.

I freely confess that I worship in the music and these weeks have been a blessing. Every Sunday is a smorgasbord of hymns, choral selections and instrumental music that have comforted, challenged, enlightened, and carried the scripture and sermon message the pastors and particularly this pastor has sought to convey. 

One of the things I’ve learned over the years is that most members of a given congregation have little idea how a worship service comes together, often viewing the morning worship service as a series of isolated pieces that are randomly strung together to make up the hour. While that might happen in some places, that has little to do with my experience and nothing to do with how that happens here or in the other amazing congregations where I have served. 

Worship themes are often established months in advance through collaborative effort. Often the Season of the Church’s life or the Lectionary sets the theme. Then the tone for a given service is established in dialogue between the pastor and the musician. The best musicians choose music that not only carries the theme, but enlarges it, often using a prism that magnifies and adds color to the theme drawing on texts and tunes traditional and contemporary. 

For example, on September 5, when I decided that I would focus on 9/11 in my sermon, Mark suggested several hymns and other musical selections. Then a fluid process with lots of dialogue began. My initial idea of using a piece of poetry written since 9/11 as a key worship component evolved as Jim Heaton, a Plymouth member, wisely suggested alternative poetry. The musical choices evolved in response to this suggestion. The service included music from contemporary selections to traditional but none of it was random or offered without reflection and serious thought. 

The early service was non-traditional and the later service traditional, but both services flowed from a place of reflection and remembrance to affirmation. Both services concluded with the great praise tune AZMON (O For A Thousand Tongues To Sing), set to words by UCC pastor Miriam Winter, that present a powerful image of God’s reign of peace. In my mind it was an amazing Sunday, but more importantly it was a Sunday when the people you call to serve you did their best!

​It may be no surprise to you that I have often received criticism about my hymn selections or the types of music I have encouraged partner musicians to perform. I came to accept those critics as people Jesus calls me to love, and to meet that criticism with a forthright expression of my goals in worship leadership and planning. (Just ask me—I’ll tell you why I did what I did that you didn’t happen to like!)

In good conscience I know I cannot be a pastor who uses the same dozen or so hymns repeatedly or tolerates safe chestnuts that don’t break any new ground just because someone (especially me!) likes them. At the same time, my goals as a worship leader need to reflect the call to respect and inclusivity that makes our tradition so remarkable! It’s all part of a creative process that is ongoing. Thank you all for the chance to serve again on the staff of this amazing congregation!

Rev. Ron Patterson

Several years ago, after some tragic event that dominated the news, I suggested to a friend that it seemed like we were living in uncertain times. Without missing a beat, they gently corrected me with the reminder that for the majority of the earth’s people now and times are uncertain. Then, not missing the opportunity to enlighten a friend, they went on to explain that modern medicine, air conditioning and lots of other things that define my privileged lifestyle, cushion, and hide so much that is the daily reality for most of our siblings.

I’ve held that thought for the last months as we have lived the Pandemic together. Is what we have experienced the "new normal"? Has the pain we have witnessed and the uncertainty about what comes next damaged our ability to relate to one another?

Just like the small congregation Charnley and I attend near Tacoma, WA, Plymouth adjusted in so many ways to meet the challenge of being a family of faith in a time of crisis. New ways of worship, new ways of gathering, new ways of keeping faith with one another and the Holy emerged over night. We found ways to care but uncertainty was thrust into the middle of all sorts of assumptions about what it means to be followers of Jesus called into a covenant community.

What comes next? Will the pandemic take another turn? Will we be confronted with more uncertainty? Will we need to discover more new ways of “being Church” in covenant locally and with siblings who share this planet with us? How will we let the Christ light shine in the days ahead?

One answer that comes to mind is this: whenever the angel messengers of God appear, they come first with a word that breaks the power of fear. “Fear not!” they proclaim to shatter our illusion of certainty and break open the tough shell of our defenses against anything painful or threatening.

Something I forgot to mention when I preached on the 23rd Psalm two weeks ago is that this spiritual gem does not suggest that God promises a detour around the valley of the shadow of death or an alternative route that leads to paths of certainty. Instead, the promise given assumes uncertainty and offers the abiding presence of God in uncertain times. Times like now. Times like tomorrow. Times like always!

I am happy to be with you! Please know that my door is always open and that I welcome calls.

Ron Patterson
​Bridge Associate Minister