Last night, the Leadership Council made an important decision about the way forward. As you may know the national landscape of mainline Protestantism is changing, as is the nature of theological education. UCC seminaries are struggling mightily to stay afloat. Our oldest freestanding seminary, Andover-Newton, closed its doors in Newton Centre, Mass., and is folding into Yale Divinity School. Bangor Seminary in Maine granted its last degrees in 2013. United Seminary in Minnesota sold its campus last year to move into a downsized location in the Twin Cities. Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley is trying to lease out some of its empty buildings. To say the least, it’s a difficult time for seminaries and divinity schools.

And those turbulent waters spread into the supply of clergy emerging with Master of Divinity degrees – the expected baseline for most ordained ministers in the UCC. After advertising our interim associate position nationally, we only had two applicants. So, the Search Committee beat the bushes and inquired with other ministers we know, and we have another possible candidate as a result.

The changing ministerial search process in the UCC also includes not only “settled” and “interim” ministers, but “designated-term” ministers as well. This third type of ministry is still elected by the congregation, but for a fixed term. At the end of a designated term, typically two years, the congregation would elect a settled pastor search committee and consider the “designated-term” pastor first, if that is her/his desire, before doing an open search.

The advantage of this for Plymouth is that it would allow us to complete our upcoming Strategic Planning process, including recommendations on staffing, during the two-year term when the designated pastor is serving.

Plymouth’s Leadership Council voted to opt for this path forward and invites you to a Congregational Conversation to learn more this coming Sunday, August 18, following the 10:00 service in the Forum Room.

We are excited about the prospects of finding excellent pastoral talent for Plymouth, even in the midst of changing times in mainline churches.

Grace and peace,

I can recall many an organ lesson where my instructor would say, in an effort to help resolve the phrasing of a particular passage, "Well, how would you sing it?" It always worked. The original instrument, the human voice, provides the most natural interpretation of musical expression which other instruments can only attempt to emulate. A sensitive musician can do so very effectively though. Listen to an expressive cellist like Yo-Yo Ma, a solo by a brilliant guitarist such as Pat Metheny or Brian May, or the phrasing of a virtuoso pianist such as Angelin Chang. What do all these players have in common? They impose a sense of breath onto their respective instruments. This is especially vital for us organists who play an instrument that, as long as we have electrical power, never needs to breathe! Igor Stravinsky famously called the organ, "the monster that never breathes." Perhaps he had some bad experiences or was just very biased. Either way, the listener will be naturally inclined to expect an organic (no pun intended) approach to music-making. It is all about the human voice, an instrument we're all intimately familiar with.

It is no secret that Christianity has had a long association with singing in worship. The psalms are song texts after all and often encourage singing. Examples include Psalm 95:1 "Come, let us sing for joy to the LORD; let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation" and Psalm 101:1 "I will sing of your love and justice; to you, LORD, I will sing praise."

There are many more examples in scriptures of course. Ephesians 5.19 states "Speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord." And Hebrews 2.12 offers “I will declare your name to my brothers and sisters; in the assembly I will sing your praises.” 

The relevance of the human voice in worship and in our experience with the divine was further reinforced at a few workshops I attended this summer. In June, I participated in a nearly week-long session with the Church Music Institute in Fort Worth, Texas  The time there included lectures on the history of hymnody, daily morning and evening prayer services, church music seminars, and a hymn festival. Recently I returned from a choral conducting workshop in San Diego with the Proarte Voices. The nuanced emphasis on embodying the breath and vocal mechanism in gesture was profound. Coupled with the appreciation of the history of vocal culture in the church at large, I am feeling quite good about the upcoming program year, beginning this Jubilee Sunday.

The good news is we all have the opportunity to participate vocally in worship via congregational songs and hymns. We are blessed at Plymouth to also have other musical outlets for those who wish. We just completed another season of Summer Choir, a "pickup choir" singing necessarily simple anthems to enrich summer worship. The Chancel Choir begins on August 21 providing accessible quality anthems for the program year normally at the 11:00 a.m. "choral" service. The Chamber Choir is an auditioned ensemble of 12-16 singers who offer high quality choral works ranging from the Renaissance to contemporary eras. The Plymouth Ringers resume rehearsals on September 4. While an instrumental group, we strive to not just ring but make our Schulmerich Bells sing!

Vox humana: It is an organ reed stop meant to imitate the human voice and found on French classic organs as early as the 17th century. It is Latin for "human voice," you have no doubt surmised by now. The desire to speak to God and make music with our voices, even while playing an instrument, is such an innate and interesting impulse. Why resist?

I had no idea what to expect. I have never said goodbye to 700 best friends before.
 
This morning I was asked what I thought of last night’s going away celebration and blessing. My response was to say, that, “I never dreamed that I could ever experience anything remotely like that in my lifetime.” So different from other mile markers in life like birthdays, weddings, or graduations—leaving a congregation as a minister is a truly person-focused event with a great deal of sadness and reflection. I thought slideshows and speeches of that quality and scope happened only at funerals! What a gift it is to see yourself through others’ eyes while still very much alive. I never thought I would have that opportunity in my life, and it will stay with me always.
 
Ministry for me, as I often have said, is about seeing God’s workings in you The People and affirming it and nurturing it. I never take any credit for the ministries that have happened on my watch. That just feels wrong when you all do the work. I describe this work as being a cheerleader of the awe of the Holy Spirit on a playing field of wonder of the capacity of the Holy. Even today, I cannot believe that I have had the privilege to accompany and creatively enable your ministries of love and activism. Thank you, as I heard you say last night, for offering me a small stake in claiming those ministries as my own. I am Deeply Humbled.
 
I am blessed that my first time of closure to a ministry (this time of leaving Plymouth) has been so well marked with clarity of calling, celebration of mutual gifts, and deep and lasting love. Thank you for the greatest gift of all—a healthy and whole time of sending and leaving! There is no way to put a value on that gift of graciousness and kindness.
 
Since the vast majority of the financial gifts offered to me, which totaled a VERY generous sum combined, were channeled through the church into one check, I won’t ever know who contributed or how much. This is a blessing because I received that gift of sending with gratitude to everyone equally: the whole congregation.
 
It does mean that I won’t be able to write my usual hand written thank you notes to each person who gave! I will have to let that go. Do know how profound my gratitude is today for your generosity.
 
Additionally, in the midst of moving, I might miss a thank you note or two in these times. I might not have the chance to tell each and every one of you how deep my gratitude is for you and what you have shared with me over these years. I might not be able to say in person how much I have loved you and your gifts shared with our community. I might not have that opportunity to tell you thank you before leaving for Connecticut.
 
Even today, as I pack my office and home into cardboard boxes, I still have no idea what to expect. I have never said goodbye to 700 best friends before. It will be a process, but I am so grateful for our shared ministries and mutual gratitude that transcends the need for even handwritten thank you notes. :)
 
Speaking of handwritten… I am going to ask that if you choose to stay in contact with me (as we are making a special allowance for Plymouth as my home church) that you consider doing so primarily through handwritten correspondence. First, as a millennial who will be busy with a new call and large congregation, emails get lost and feel like work. Facebook emails are perhaps even worse! The secret is out: millennials hate long narrative emails. Secondly, I love writing handwritten letters.
 
I cannot write to each of you right now as I wish I could (I did consider writing a note to everyone in the directory, but then my spouse thought that wouldn’t be wise… he was right). Send a postcard of the mountains once in a while and know that Plymouth will always be in my prayers.
 
The Rev. Jake Miles Joseph
122 Broad Street
Guilford, CT 06437
 
Adieu, Plymouth! Thank you for the opportunity to dream with you and to serve your mission and witness these past nearly five years. It has truly been the gift of a lifetime.
 
Sincerely in Gratitude,
The Rev. Jake Joseph

As someone who came of age in the late 1960s into the 1970s, I confess I have often bristled at the word “obedience.” I was not quite old enough to be caught up in the protests for civil rights or those against the Vietnam war, yet the cultural milieu of civil disobedience for change in those times still affected me. So did the early women’s liberation movement. I read Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem as a high school senior, wondering if someone headed to Oklahoma Baptist University, a conservative liberal arts college, would have the courage to fully embrace their radical ideas of feminism. Growing up under these influences, obedience was implicitly connected to a duty forced upon one by cultural norms that did not offer everyone the same opportunities in life. I stubbornly stuck to my Christian faith AND I always deeply questioned the “be an obedient doormat for Jesus” brand of Christianity that I encountered in some conservative circles. 

Since that young time I have learned to understand obedience in relation to its Latin root word. According to the Online Etymological Dictionary, the English word “obey” comes from the Latin, obedire, meaning literally "listen to," from ob "to" + audire "listen, hear." This changes our perception of obedience from mindless duty or simply following the rules to“paying attention.” Obedient actions grow out of listening. The prophets of the Hebrew scriptures were charged with listening to God, and with proclaiming God’s word to God’s people (who were not listening to and observing God’s ways). 

Prophetic listening leads to the protest of injustice resulting in some strange prophetic actions. The prophet, Hosea, listened and was led to go against the grain of culture and marry a wife of questionable repute. Hosea, following God’s word, marries the woman named Gomer, has children with her, and takes her back when she is claimed by another man (Hosea 1:2-10). None of these actions would have been easy. Listening to God seems to lead to acts of steadfast love that take strength of character and will, as well as counter-cultural persistence. 

There is a Japanese folktale titled, “The Magic Listening Cap,” that illuminates obedience as listening. It seems there was an old man who was very poor and very faithful. Everyday he went to the shrine of his god to give gifts of thankfulness and to pray. One day he had nothing to give because in his poverty there was no food in his house. He went to the shrine and simply offered himself expecting to lose his life and die. But his god gave him a gift in exchange for his faithfulness. It was a magic listening cap. With the cap on the old man could hear the voices of creation, the conversation of the trees, the wind in their leaves, the intimate talk of the birds and animals. To make a longer story shorter, with this cap and its gift of deep listening to creation, the kind old man saved the life of a dying cypress tree, which was connected to the life of a dying man. The man he saved happened to be wealthy and he was very generous in rewarding the kind old man. The old man was never in want again and, not a being greedy man, put his magic listening cap away, never using it for indiscriminate gain. Every day he brought gifts and prayers to the shrine of his god, giving thanks for how his life had been preserved. (Click on the link above and you can hear the whole story on YouTube.)
​
Listening to our God involves faithful, everyday practice. We enter the shrines of our hearts to seek God’s presence. We offer ourselves as gifts. We wait to see what prophetic action we might be called to do. It might be a simple one of acknowledging someone who is “outcast” in our society--the homeless, the immigrant, the disabled, the mentally ill--with a smile, a direct look of respect, a greeting of kindness. Or it might be a larger action of advocating for justice, for housing for all, for medical care for all, for asylum and legal human rights for all. Or it could be the largest action of all action: working side by side with those our culture puts on the margins, befriending them, learning from them as fellow human beings.

​Our actions all begin with listening to the prompting of the Spirit. When the action takes us to the unfamiliar and hard places, we listen again; for God will be there with stamina and strength and steadfast love.
 
Blessings on the journey,
Jane Anne

What are you taking home with you? How has the Mission Trip impacted your life?
On the Rez, hope is tangible and it looks like chopped wood, split by strangers. Every group who comes to the Rosebud Episcopal Mission spends time splitting wood at the wood barn. Every group takes home a piece of wood that they split so that they can tell the story of Hope on the Rosebud Reservation. This is what I take home with me. I bring home the hope that people will know they are cared for because their homes will be warm this winter. I have brought home the hope of young people who are living out their faith and answering God’s call to love your neighbor as yourself. It is easy to lose hope when you are listening to the news, but I have seen hope. It is a piece of firewood, it is a van full of teenagers driving to a mission trip. Hope is the people of God living out their faith, helping a neighbor in need, loving God and one another. Hope is alive.

So, how was the mission trip? It was great. Our youth are amazing. This was one of the best mission trips I have ever been on.

Grace & Peace,
Mandy

For those of you who missed it Sunday, at our special Congregational Meeting we elected five members of Plymouth to serve on the interim associate minister Search Committee. Thanks to Sara Myers, Harmony Tucker, Curtis Wray, and Denise Morrison for serving along with me, ex officio!

This search process has been underway with national advertising through the UCC and the Rocky Mountain Conference, and we already have some names collected by Erin Gilmore, our associate conference minister. In fact, by the time you read this on Tuesday, the search committee will have had its first meeting. When we have a candidate to present to the congregation, you’ll receive notice of another special Congregational Meeting.

While this stage of transition moves rapidly, so that we can ensure coverage as soon as possible after Jake’s departure on August 1, the Leadership Council and Personnel Committee will take a step back and consider the overall staffing configuration at Plymouth and ensure that our current associate minister job description is in line with what Plymouth needs in the coming years. Then we will form a new Search Committee for the settled associate minister (along with another special Congregational Meeting), and when they have found a candidate, we’ll have a “candidating weekend” when the congregation can meet the candidate, and that weekend will include…wait for it… another special Congregational Meeting!

One of the things I addressed yesterday at our meeting was a great question Fred Frantz asked me a week ago: Why is it that ministers have to sever relationships when they accept a new call? Clergy in the UCC are responsible for setting and maintaining good professional boundaries, and part of the ordained minister’s code says “I will not, upon my termination and departure from a ministry position, interfere with nor intrude upon the ministry of my successor.” How each minister deals with setting that boundary is up to her or him. When Sharon Benton left, she kept very tight professional boundaries, which for Sharon involved “unfriending” Plymouth members on social media…not to be hurtful or cold, but to set a professional boundary. Jake is interpreting that somewhat differently and said in his letter to the congregation that he would not “unfriend” people, but that he would not perform sacraments, rites, or counseling for Plymouth members or talk about our congregation. That, too, is setting a professional boundary, one that allows his successor the space to move into relationship with our members, and it allows Jake to move into relationship with his congregation in Connecticut. On Jake’s last Sunday, July 28, we will engage in a formal rite of releasing Jake from the vows he took when he was installed as our associate minister, and Jake will “release this local church from turning to [him] and depending on [him].”

Transitions are seldom easy…but they can be done with grace, and I trust that this will be the case for us this summer. Yesterday, one of our members commented to me, “You know, we loved Sharon, and I was really upset when she left…but then we got Jake. And Jieun was amazing, and I was really sad when she left…but then we got Mark.” I have no idea who will succeed Jake, but I do know that Plymouth will offer a warm and supportive welcome.

Thanks for being a congregation that communicates well, open, and warmly with your staff!
 
Summertime blessings,

P.S. At a recent staff meeting, I shared one of my spiritual practices: writing out a poem or prayer and adding some (unschooled) watercolor around the edges, and several staff encouraged me to share these with the congregation, so here is poem by William Stafford called “The Way It Is,” which may be helpful in this time of transition.

​On August 24th, something magical will happen in Plymouth’s parking lot and front lawn! On August 24th, we will perform a miracle of goodwill and community strength. On August 24th, lives will be changed by the collective efforts of everyone both great and small. 

On Saturday, August 24th, God will use Plymouth to transform unused belongings (surplus stuff, material possessions) into the greatest blessing of all—an affordable, attainable, safe home for a neighbor in our community. It is an additional miracle for Fort Collins, this year, because it is our community’s first ever Multi-Faith Build.
 
In order to accomplish this transformation in our parking lot, your Habitat for Humanity Ministry team needs your help! We are asking for you to drop off your unused and surplus belongings in our Fellowship Hall on Wednesday morning August 21st, Thursday afternoon August 22nd, and any time all day on Friday, August 23rd. We are also seeking donations of baked goods to sell at the sale in addition to the typical garage sale items.
 
The Habitat for Humanity Ministry Team is also issuing a “giving-challenge” this year for everyone to look for one $50 or more valued item to donate that they are not using or do not currently need. We all have these things around. I know I do. In addition to donating low-value items, adding one nice item each can help make all the difference. This will help us meet a higher giving goal and help empower the work God is doing through our Habitat ministry in Fort Collins.
 
Finally, please sign up to volunteer for the collection and organizing days during the week and for the sale itself! The signup is on the bulletin board. Non-Plymouth community members are welcome as well. Turns out that we also need customers (a lot of them) to make this work. :) Help us spread the word throughout Northern Colorado that a miracle will happen at Plymouth on August 24th... and everyone is invited to be part of it by shopping and donating!
 
This is my prayer for Plymouth on the 24th of August—that God will be present in our donations, our volunteering, and sales to help make home possible in this city for one of our neighbors.
 
In Habitat Hope,
Jake
 
More Information About our Partner Family

When people come into a progressive church setting one of the most liberating and, for some, unsettling things is the lack of a set creed. Many churches and denominations put their beliefs, often in the form of a creed, right up front. They continue a long tradition within Christianity of identifying “the faith” with “a certain set of orthodox beliefs.” Since the Reformation, we are used to the idea that one group’s “orthodox beliefs” might differ significantly from anther group’s “orthodox beliefs,” but in general the idea that a church is defined by its beliefs has reigned unchallenged. Matters of governance, ethics, relationship with the broader society, liturgy, hymnody and discipline all have generally been regarded as secondary to beliefs. 
 
Some people find the lack of a creed as highly freeing, since they are now free (and responsible) to think for themselves. They are liberated from authority figures determining the bounds of their thinking, and can pursue the things they have wondered about. Sometimes they find resolutions, other times one question leads into yet another and another. At times, they then want some guidance to navigate the wide-open spaces, and here is where the challenge begins.
 
The response to “So, what do you believe?” is often quite awkward, because “belief” is not the chief marker or binder of our life together. We generally regard statements like creeds to be “testimonies of faith” rather than “tests of faith.” That is, they are benchmarks showing us what the best thinking and faith work of our ancestors accomplished for their time and place, but are not something we are required to conform to in our time and place. Creeds can be good to know about, since they show what questions vexed our forbears, can alert us to potential dead ends, and provide us helpful tools and categories for our own inquiry. 
 
We are often clearer about what we do not believe than what we do believe. So progressives generally disbelieve in “miracles,” which puts traditional doctrines like the Exodus, Virgin Birth or Resurrection into a bin marked “rethink, retool or reject.” We often do not believe in an interventionist God, who “suspends the laws of nature” at times, which puts traditional understandings of prayer into question; we find answers to prayer not in radical results but in renewed relationship with God. We are suspicious of claims of special revelation, whether for the inspiration of the Bible or the authority of church leaders, which raises keen questions of how we discern and value religious authority in self and others. Moreover, the whole discussion of belief in this or that doctrine seems quite beside the point: We are constituted as a community not by believing together but by working together. 
 
We have found that we can work to end homelessness without agreeing on whether Jesus turned water into wine or Welch's. We can work to prevent war, and end the ones we are engaged with, without agreeing whether to immerse adults or sprinkle babies for baptism. We can open our doors to the immigrant, stranger and alien “because you were once slaves in Egypt” (Leviticus 19:24, etc.), regardless of whether we regard the sojourn in Egypt and Exodus as historical or metaphorical (or whether we are of Israelite descent).   
 
Many times the question is not so much “What do you believe?” as “How do you believe?” What is the motivation for your beliefs? Do you believe this or that doctrine so you can be “right” and someone else “wrong”? Even “liberals” can have “fundamentalist” spirits. Do you believe something so you can draw a bright line between you and the non-believer? And then assume that God will bless you and curse them? But then, “What about the people who I love who are on the wrong side of the church’s bright line?” This is the root cause of so many people who sadly walk away from the church, for they cannot believe that God’s love is so narrow that God refuses to love someone that they are quite able to love.
 
If you scratch at the surface of our working together, you will likely find some common beliefs we do share. We welcome all people because we see no exceptions in “God so loved the world, that God gave the only Son so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life” (John 3:16). We value our fellow human because we are all made in the image and likeness of God and therefore have value like God’s (Gen. 1:26, 9:6, etc.) We are trying to figure out in practical ways what it means to “love God… and our neighbor as our selves” (Mark 12:30, Romans 13:9, etc.). We share responsibility for the ecological health of our planet, to manage it wisely for future generations (Gen. 1:28, Psalm 24:1, etc.). We try to emulate Christ, not as king and ruler, but as servant (Philippians 2:5ff, John 13:1-17). In all these cases, we are working our way into belief, not believing our way into behaving. Just as if you want to feel in love with your beloved, you don’t introspect and try to drum up certain feelings, you do good and kind and thoughtful things for them, and the feelings follow. At core, love is a verb rather than an affection; so is faith. 
 
So maybe the question is not “What do you believe?” or even “How do you believe?” but “What do you love?” If we drill down to Jesus’ Great Commandment, that gives us two great objects: God and Neighbor. There will be lots of room for different beliefs about who God is and how we know God, and there may be a lot of different actions to love our Neighbor.* But by focusing on our common work together, we can create the sort of community where there is space to discuss how God has drawn us together for such action. What would the church be like if its theology had been created not in the classroom over the philosophy textbook but in the company break room, the factory union hall, the immigrant’s detention center, or the homeless encampment?
 
Peace,
Rev. Dr. Mark Lee
 
*Not every answer to these questions will be right: there are ways to go clear off the rails. Recall that the Inquisition claimed it was loving the neighbor by torturing them to get right with G*d as the Inquisitors understood him. But how to discern what is true of God and loving towards neighbor is a discussion for another day.

I am reminded of the changes of life this week as the Summer Solstice, our longest day of light in the Northern hemisphere, arrives on Friday. Astrologically it is the first day of summer though weather and calendar wise we often think of June 1 as the first day. I am barely used to summer weather and already after Friday the days will begin to shorten just a bit each day till we reach the Winter Solstice. Our most ancient ancestors intimately knew these astrological changes. These changes indicated growing seasons and harvest, times to be fallow, times to seek shelter from storms, times to celebrate, times to mourn, times to pray.

Whether we measure our seasons astrologically or meteorologically, by calendars, or by work or school schedules, we live our lives in the midst of change. Each day is a series of changes in light, time and activity which we move through almost without thinking. So we could choose to be very open to all kinds of change as it comes to us. Life is change. And yet we are likely to be resistant to any change that brings even a hint of discomfort, any change that invites a new way to move through one of our routines, any change that rearranges the status quo of a beloved community. Some changes, such as illness, death, divorce, moving are so large that they bring understandable grief. Other changes come that are just not “the way things used to be done” or the way they “should be done because they have always been done this other way.” These changes can stretch us as much as the ones that bring us grief. 

In his book, Quietly Courageous; Leading the Church in a Changing World, Gil Rendle writes of the changes challenging the church in our times. Those of us who were around in the last part of the 20th century experienced a convergent culture during and after World War II. This was a time in America when the people tended to converge, pull together to work for the common good of the country, of the community, the church, the family. This was a culture of joining institutions that built community through the joys and responsibilities of membership. The flip side, of course, was that important differences were swept under the rug so as not to rock the status quo. As the 20th century wound down starting in late 60s, our culture shifted to a divergent culture. In a divergent culture the social contract moves from seeking membership in societal institutions to seeking individual well-being. Now in the 21st century “the correct way to get on with life is to recognize that each of us has the right to live as he or she pleases so long as we do not interfere with the right of the other people to do likewise.”[i] The celebration is that differences are no longer swept under the rug but are free to be expressed!

Historically, strong churches have been built with the social contract of a convergent culture, the culture of the group. But that time has gone. Now we live as the church in a culture of the individual. This is neither good not bad....it just IS. It is the cultural change that we are dealing with as church in the 21st century. We can no longer just say, “The problem is membership. There must be a specific solution from back in the day, from the way we used to do things. If we just return to _______ (fill in the blank), we can rebuild our church membership.” We are learning to say, “Here is our new situation in this new divergent culture. Let’s bring together all our diverse ideas and seek God’s ideas for our changing times. What are the new ways, maybe, some old ways, and more importantly, ways we haven’t yet encountered in which God is leading us to be and build the Body of Christ in the world?” Rendle’s book encourages us to be “quietly courageous” as we lead one another into the future. 

I paraphrased Psalm 23 at the beginning of this reflection because it is a song of encouragement for quiet courage, a song that reminds us that through all changes God accompanies us. We are never left alone! As you move through the changes of your life, as we change and grow at Plymouth, may we always remember the “Accompanying God” of this psalm. 

I also leave you with words from a prayer by the late William Coffin, a former pastor of Riverside Church in NYC and a former chaplain at Yale University.

​O God, whose mercy is ever faithful and every sure,
​who art our refuge and our strength in time of trouble,
visit us....

We need a hope that is made wise by experience 
and is undaunted by disappointment. 

​We need an anxiety about the future that shows us new ways 
to look at new things, but does not unnerve us... [ii]

May the words of the psalmist and the words of the pastor send you forth into the inevitable changes of life “with a gladsome mind, free and joyful in the spirit of Jesus [the] Christ!”[iii]
 
Blessings,
Jane Anne

[i] Gil Rendle, Quietly Courageous; Leading the Church in a Changing World, (Rowman & Littlefield, New York, NY, 2019, 46.)
[ii] Ibid., 10.
[iii] Ibid., 11.

I thought a lot about Going Deeper, our Plymouth annual theme, as I met with colleagues and delegates at the Rocky Mountain Conference Annual Meeting (now called Annual Celebration) in Grand Junction last Thursday through Saturday. And I thought about the Conference’s idea that all of our churches, which span Colorado, Wyoming, and Utah are radically connected. “Radical” comes from the Latin radix, which means root, so radical connection means that our roots are intertwined. And we’re even more than connected…like a clone of aspen trees, we share the same DNA. We are all part of the church universal, the UCC, and the Rocky Mountain Conference.

Our congregations include a rural church with a handful of members and is lay-led because they cannot afford to pay a part-time pastor, a Samoan immigrant church, and a Japanese-American Church … all in Utah, a church in Wyoming with 100 members that still manages to send more than 10 percent of its annual operating expenses for Our Church’s Wider Mission – which is how we support the mission and ministry of the Rocky Mountain Conference and the UCC both domestically and abroad. It is tough work to do ministry in these churches!

One of the things that thrilled me most (beside hearing our keynote speaker, John Dominic Crossan) was our two amazing conference clergy: Sue Artt, our conference minister, and Erin Gilmore, our associate conference minister (who grew up here at Plymouth and is Sally and Terry Gilmore’s daughter). Sue and Erin provide phenomenal conference leadership! They are gifted and grace-filled clergy leaders, and we are blessed to have them! They are not afraid to think outside the box, to try new things, and to step back and ask what God is doing in the midst of our churches. And if that wasn’t enough, our wonderful conference and retreat center in the Black Forest, La Foret, is not only out of debt, but has new energy and new programs thanks in large part to Larry McCulloch (one of our members at Plymouth), who serves as executive director.

Being the church in the 21st century is a challenge, but you are making a palpable difference in making it possible! Because of your generosity, Plymouth’s giving to Our Church’s Wider Mission is number one in the Rocky Mountain Conference! You are enabling conference staff excellence and leadership and making it available to smaller churches who don’t have the same resources we do at Plymouth. Through OCWM Basic Support and the four special offerings of the UCC and other denominational support, last year we gave over $115,000! Way to go, Plymouth!

You may never meet a Samoan UCC family living in Utah or see the work Sue and Erin do in revitalizing small churches or see the transformed lives of campers at La Foret, but rest assured: your giving is changing lives. Thank you for your generosity and for your commitment to the vision of the progressive church in our region and in God’s world.

We are all part of the same cluster of trees, and we are interdependent not only on each other, but on the grace of God to keep us growing.

Gratefully,

​P.S. Thanks to our lay delegates: Vicki & Wendy Thompson and Nic Redavid! And thanks to the 30 Plymouth folks who demonstrated against gun violence in Old Town Square Sunday afternoon!

“Do the rainbows come off… you know, for funerals and stuff like that?”
“I bet that [the rainbow on the new sign] was your idea…[wink]”

The variety of names is vast: Open and Affirming (ONA), Reconciling in Christ (RIC), Welcoming Communities Network (WCN), Believe Out Loud Parish, More Light, Covenant Network, Affirmation, etc. Whatever you call it doesn’t really matter. We don’t really care what it is called. We care how it behaves. What matters is the theological risk you are willing to take to safeguard a community that is more out than ever... and therefore more vulnerable than ever before. The more out we are as LGBTQ Christians, the more reactionary current politics, the more we need the Open and Affirming movement to continue and deepen. With the regression of rights and safe spaces around the world, especially from the highest levels of power, the Open and Affirming movement is only just getting started. Likewise, the durability of the movement is only now being tested. It is no longer just about Marriage Equality and “love is love.” That was easy! Now it is about our whole identity together as Christians. 

Plymouth has been Open and Affirming since 2001, offering a generous welcome and affirmation to the LGBTQ Community in Fort Collins and serving as a beacon for the LGBTQ-Affirming Church movement across our entire region. As a congregation, we have changed many lives including my own. This openness and affirmation were put to the test in 2005 when a lost and scared Evangelical high school Sophomore walked in. As a 16-year-old standing in front of Plymouth, covenanting and joining on my own as a young gay kid; as a young gay adult being accepted as a Member in Discernment in front of our loving board of deacons; as a gay seminary graduate being affirmed as Ordainable by unanimous vote of the Association; as a gay Candidate presented to the congregation for Call as Settled Associate Minister; and these nearly five years as your out gay often-rainbow-clad Associate Minister, mentioning my husband (intentionally) in almost every sermon--I have experienced nothing but the bold and manifest love of my Creator and God through this church, its members, and staff. When out in the community, I always know that these nearly 700 Christians and their faith in me as pastor have my back. Can you imagine the blessing you have been in my life and in the lives of others like me? While I understand that the UCC generally dislikes its ministers to serve their home churches, this ministry has always felt like the completion of wholeness and even Providence. 

What came as a surprise to me this year was the reactions some in our congregation had, initially, when we first installed our new signs. There were many reactions. It is one thing to be Open and Affirming, but does the sign really need to state it that loudly every day of the year with the large rainbow flag? Does the rainbow come off for funerals, when more conservative members come home? The funniest assumption, since I didn’t have anything to do with the design of the sign, was that the rainbow was all my doing. (I wish I could take credit for it, but I sadly wasn’t on that committee.) 

In summary, what surprised me was the shock some had at being publicly outed as members of an Open and Affirming LGBTQ-Celebrating Congregation. What would their friends think? Would this put us in danger as a congregation? Can we feel safe in a church that has outwardly marked itself with a rainbow? What I found was a fear, in this violent world, to be more out than we already are—especially with such great visibility on Prospect! This could expose us to more violence. Shouldn’t we stay quiet? As someone with no choice but to live every single day out and proud, this fear surprised me. 

What was it about the sign that made people uncomfortable? Plymouth is now where Pride Month is every month. It is one thing to allow us to be members, to be your clergy, but it is another to actively counter the dominant culture with a symbol of equality on our sign. It is a sign that not only are LGBTQ people welcome at Plymouth, but we have equal standing and ownership. For me, as a gay man, I feel much safer in a church with a rainbow on it. I found it fascinating that for some straight members, they felt exposed and in danger with the rainbow outside. I wasn’t upset by this. Rather, I felt deeply for them. I felt for them because my body has felt like that rainbow at times. I didn’t judge that fear because that is the fear that LGBTQ people experience every day of our lives. We work hard, intentionally, and with humor, love, and abundance to overcome it in community, art, and Pride. We get it. We understand fear.

Gospel: The fear has gone away over the past year, and a new confidence has emerged in the signs and what they say about us. Plymouth has chosen to go to the next step of Open and Affirming. We are now Open and Celebrating without fear! You, Plymouth, have made the step that the whole of humanity is called to make from passively affirming to active celebration with the Spirit. 

A year ago for Pride Month, I wrote a reflection called, "The LGBTQ Right to Distrust God." So this year… I am offering a counter point to my own letter: "Why the LGBTQ-Celebrating Church Matters in 2019." This is why it matters that we have the rainbow outside and that we continue to pay attention to our Open and Affirming Covenant. 

Our ministry as an Open and Affirming Church is bigger now than Fort Collins. With Social Media, our ministry and mission are bigger than our immediate market. Upon posting a picture of our sign online on Instagram (@plymouthuccftc), we were picked up and reposted by a church sign blog. It caused a lot of commotion and thousands of responses, but it was an email from a Floridan that caught my attention:

“Hey. From south Florida. Saw your sign on a Christian sign page lol. Just wanted to thank y’all for being accepting and affirming of LGBTQ+ community. As a bi Christian, it’s hard and I’ve had so many debates with myself. I’ve had friends say that this isn’t who God made me to be. Tho I can’t change this. Just wanted to say thanks.”

​Even if the $60,000 we spent on the new signs changes one life, saves one life, opens one mind, transforms one heart… wasn’t it worth every single penny?

Here are the reasons why the LGBTQ-Celebrating Movement and Visibility Matters More than Ever in 2019: 

• We aren’t done yet. We need to encourage more churches, even within the UCC, to find this path of life-saving inclusion and love. We are far from done yet as an example. 
• The ministry has an impact in lives both near and far of those who may never even attend. Like the teenager who emailed us from Florida to say thank you, there are so many in need of their daily bread, daily nourishment of inclusion. It isn’t a one time or one month a year sort of bread. It is a daily need of this bread. 
• Unless we actively, intentionally, deliberately put signs out that we are boldly moving with the Holy Spirit against the institutions of Patriarchy and Heteronormativity, God will leave us behind. The Holy Spirit is moving faster and faster with changes in Social Media, technology, and culture. We need to keep-up! 
• There are out gay candidates for president and other offices citing their Christian Faith as the reason for public service, so the Church better be ready to say, “Yes, that’s us!” 
• Open and Affirming is great, but as many of us are now self-affirmed and confident with or without the Church, we have to go further. This is part of wider trends of Secularization regardless of orientation. For those of us, both LGBTQ and Straight who choose religion as a way of life, we need the church to be more than affirming. We need the church to be a co-celebrant of the wholeness we have found in God and in this lifetime. We hope this for all people. The LGBTQ-Celebrating Church is essential to the Millennial Church. 
• The statement can no longer be: “No matter who you are or where you are on life’s journey, you are welcome here.” It has to become: “Because of who you are and where you are on life’s journey, you are welcome here.” 

Do the rainbows come off? No, I’m sorry the rainbows don’t come off anymore. The Church doesn’t have the luxury of time to go in and out of celebrating all people anymore. This is the time in the institution of Church (more than ever before over these 2,000 plus years) to know who we are and to proclaim it boldly. While the Open and Affirming movement started as a Safe Space and a Sanctuary saving LGBTQ people from hateful churches and an uncertain world, it is now the LGBTQ Community arguably saving the Church from meaninglessness and theological daftness in an increasingly secular world. The Open and Affirming Church has given meaning to so many lives like mine. Now, we hope to be co-celebrants with you in a world seeking deeper meaning. Celebration, more than fear, is something we do well in the LGBTQ world. My prayer is that we can offer that joy to the Church and save it. 

Plymouth, thank you for being Open and Affirming and for making the bold move to Celebration. 

In Pride, 
The Rev. Jake Miles Joseph (or just Jake)
Preferred Pronouns: He/him/ his 

Once there was group of well-intentioned Americans visiting the Moroccan city of Tangiers. They went to the famed Casbah to see the market there and to buy brass pots. 

Now the merchants in that place have a particular way of bargaining. When they are trying to settle a price with a customer they step close to the person so that they may exchange breaths with them. Each time a merchant stepped close to one of the American tourists, the tourist grew nervous and stepped back. So the merchant stepped closer. It became a dance with two frustrated partners. The merchant stepped closer; the tourist stepped back. 

Finally the American tourists were so uncomfortable and angry they fled to their bus. This enraged the merchants because they considered the tourists rude and disrespectful. Their practice was to come to some sort of agreement on a price -– even if it was to agree to disagree -– before they parted ways. They followed the Americans angrily to their bus where they proceeded to shout at them and spit on the bus.

There was one woman among the group of tourists who had not been afraid to bargain with the merchants in their way. When the merchant stepped close she stepped closer. She joined the dance in a different way. And eventually she bought a brass pot for a very good price. As she headed back to the bus she saw that she was the last tourist to return. She saw all the angry merchants shouting at the bus and spitting. Not knowing what had happened, she wondered how she would be able to get through the angry crowd. As she neared the bus, the merchants turned as if to begin shouting at her. But from the back of the crowd came a voice -- the voice of the merchant who had successfully sold the woman the pot –- “No, no! She’s all right! She is one of us!” And the crowd parted for the woman to join her group.
 
In John 14, Jesus says to his disciples at their last supper together, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.”

“Peace I give, my peace,” says Jesus; and by implication, this is not the peace the world gives. Are there different kinds of peace? The peace of the world in the late first century when the gospel of John was written was the peace of the Roman Empire, a peace achieved through conquering other peoples, peace achieved through war, peace achieved through all people following the right laws and the right ruler, the Emperor.

This is not the peace of Jesus. Jesus’ peace was God’s peace, peace through compassion and love, peace even in the midst of conflict and persecution. God’s peace crosses the boundaries of otherness between peoples and nations. God’s peace builds bridges in relationships. It is empowering power, power that works in and through people to bring justice to those who have been oppressed and marginalized. God’s peace crosses boundaries without diminishing or destroying human dignity and integrity. God’s peace enabled the woman in the story above to step closer the merchant, to enter into his ways, though they were new and strange to her. God’s peace empowers us to step outside our comfort zones to experience someone we may think of as “the other” with welcome and grace. 
 
Pay attention this week! Where are you called to step closer, to bridge a gap, to enter a new space or relationship and discover God’s peace?
 
Blessings on the journey,
Jane Anne

If you’d like to learn more about John Philip or Celtic Christianity, try one of our two Celtic Christian Spirituality Groups when they reconvene in the fall, at 8:00 a.m. on Wednesdays or 9:00 a.m. on Tuesdays. And you can find his books here on Amazon.
​
Springtime Blessings!

Last week, I joined with a group of Plymouth volunteers to go down to Sebring, Florida, to help with Hurricane Irma Habitat for Humanity rebuilding efforts. I was honored to accompany Plymouth volunteers dedicated to making a difference while grounded together in prayer and Spiritual Practices. What a gift and a blessing it is to be one of your members of the clergy!

This was our first official team to go on an “International Build.” It was made possible by the Ministry Team leadership of Lynn Wartgow and Bruce Lieurance. As the last officially scheduled visiting volunteer group to go to this Central Florida location before the autumn (when it cools off again), we felt an increased sense of purpose and persistence. Painting and flooring a house built on a “floating foundation” in the sand was a new experience for our volunteers. More than anything, we learned about the ongoing need that sets into disaster impacted regions years after the initial rush of help comes. When the news changes subject and the national attention moves on from the initial impact of the storm, it is Habitat for Humanity that stays for the long haul…bringing with it the love of Christian community (open and accessible to all people) and missional vocation.

At one point, everyone was taking turns looking deep in my eyes with sincerity and concern. You could say that this mission trip was eye opening. They say that the eyes are the widow to the soul, but it turns out it is also the way to detect a concussion! While getting in the van one morning, I aimed too high (carrying two cups of coffee, one in each hand) and hit my head hard on the door of the van. While there was no concussion after all, the world was spinning for a while that morning. The care I experienced touched me deeply and reminded me what church community is all about. Mission Trips, like this inaugural one with Habitat, both allow us to have a material impact in the world beyond our pews and town, but they also bring us closer together in care for one another.

My ultimate reflection on this Mission Trip comes down to three phases: Home for All, Human Family, and Real Connection. That is why The Outreach and Mission Board and I hope that this trip to Sebring won’t be a stand-alone effort. We pray that it might be the catalyst that ignites our congregation sending more and more groups to go deeper in relationship with each other and the needs of others around God’s diverse world.

Here are two additional reflections from Plymouth members who were on this Mission Trip for Adults:
 
Lynn Wartgow, Habitat for Humanity Ministry Team Leader wrote:
“I am so grateful for the group of eight wonderful people who joined me for the trip to Sebring. Everyone was incredibly positive, kind, timely, fun, hardworking and enthusiastic. I loved getting to know everyone and feel as if my extended family has just grown. Habitat building trips are a fabulous way to see new places, meet new people, provide a 'hand up' to a deserving family and have a bunch of fun at the same time.”

And Vanessa Reed wrote the following, entitling it, Benefits of Working for Habitat:

“At the age of 78, I have just gained a new family. No, I did not adopt or get married. I spent a week with eight people sharing, giving, and loving hard work. We traveled together to hot, humid Florida to work with Habitat for Humanity. Even though the work, a five-bedroom home for a mother of nine, was often repetitive with lots of walls to paint and floors to lay; there was nothing but laughter, sharing, hugs, and becoming aware of muscles we have not used in a long time.

Hours of work to help this mother and her family become home owners and giving back to the community gave us all a deep feeling of satisfaction. We gained a sense of pride when the building manager said that he never expected us to complete so much work in such a short period of time. His praise sent us home to Fort Collins knowing we had made a difference in the lives of the people we did not know. Even more important than that, however, is that we created a new family with memories to never be forgotten.”
 
With eyes wide open to the needs around us and the hope for transformation in and through community…let us be Church together.
 
In Hope,
Jake