I was stunned to see that some Roman Catholic parishes in Colorado are opening for in-person worship…though with masks, social distancing, no communion, no one over 65. When I read about the Catholic parishes, I couldn’t help thinking about the Evangelical-Reformed Cathedral in Berlin, where 59 of 78 choir members were stricken with the coronavirus…or the United Church of Canada congregation in Calgary that gathered for a birthday party in March; 24 of 41 people were infected with coronavirus, and two died. Their minister said, “I would do anything for a do-over.”

Later this week, your ministers and program staff will start a discussion about what (not when) it might look like eventually to reopen. And it will be different from what we knew before, and various groups will have different types of gradual re-opening. It will be done with the utmost care…I don’t want to need a do-over. Please continue to be wise and safe!

The Leadership Council is in the process of forming a strategic planning team, something we had on the docket for 2020 anyway, but our planning this fall will be in a very different context for a church than it would have been without the pandemic. We will be consulting with John Wimberly of Congregational Consulting Group (alumni of the late Alban Institute), and we will really consider the future of the church in a new reality. It may seem crazy, but I am really excited about the possibilities of who Plymouth can become! One learning for most of us is that the church is the gathered body of members, not our building at 916 Prospect Road. We are still the church! We are still people at worship, in service, doing ministry together.

We won’t waste the opportunity of a crisis to make something beautiful happen with God and with each other!

Shalom,

P.S. If you haven’t seen this pandemic-related story, please watch it and wonder…

It is great to have your Congressman visit your church, and it is even better when he comments, “You are the most active church in the area, if not in the state of Colorado.” That is what Rep. Joe Neguse told an overflow crowd in Plymouth’s Forum Room last Sunday morning. Neguse was with us as part of the Adult Ed. Forum series on Ending Gun Violence, and he is sponsoring several bills in the House of Representatives aimed as sensible gun legislation, including national background checks. (Special thanks to Anne Thompson and Mark Lee for arranging this extraordinary visit!)

Carla's sermon on putting John 3.16 into context was a winner, and the choir’s a cappella rendition of Ola Gjeilo’s setting of “Ubi Caritas” was deeply moving.

And then a crowd of Plymouth folks gathered along Prospect Road to show signs of support for the full inclusion of LGBTQ+ people in every aspect of the life of the church and society. Again, kudos to Mark Lee for helping organize the event across several congregations…I designed the signs. : )

The event was planned by a group of progressive clergy in Fort Collins as a positive response to several local evangelical congregations that sponsored workshops on what to me seems like a “kinder, gentler” form of homophobia. Rather than dwell of condemning others or arguing with them, we chose the path of trying to present a response that affirms who we are as Christians and sends a message of inclusion and welcome to all LGBTQ+ folks.

I was heartened to see so many of you literally out in front! We had members in their teens through their 80s waving colorful placards and rainbow flags I counted three flag variations!) to passing motorists, many of whom honked or waved in support. (We know what Plymouth stands for — the same thing Jesus stood for — love.) It was a beautiful and affirming time for Plymouth last Sunday!

I also want to acknowledge that for many of us news about the coronavirus is getting overwhelming and maybe even scary. Please be assured that we are keeping abreast of the news and CDC recommendations and will do everything we can to keep you safe while you’re at Plymouth. (And we are working on a live stream of one of our services, which is likely to come out via Facebook, so if you haven’t “liked” Plymouth's Facebook Page, it’s a good time to do so!) I’ve just heard that we have the first coronavirus diagnosis in Larimer County, so stay tuned for further information about how we will continue to respond.

In the meantime, here is a prayer:

God of all things, we ask for your presence
with all those affected by the corona virus.
We ask for your strength
to be with all those who are working for treatment and prevention.
As we continue our pilgrimage this Lent,
help us to trust in you and your desire for our wholeness.
Grant us wisdom, grant us courage. Amen.

The season of Lent has two faces: one that is a lead-in to Holy Week, the crucifixion, and Easter; and another that reflects the 40-day journey of Jesus in the wilderness. There are conflicting theories about the origins of Lent, but a 40-day period of daytime fasting (as our Muslim sisters and brothers do during Ramadan) was discussed at the Council of Nicea in 325. In the Reformed Christian traditions (of which we are a part), Lent was abandoned as non-biblical…but we have been trying to reclaim some of the baby that was tossed out with the Reformation bathwater.

This year we are working with a Wilderness theme. Wilderness for Jesus was a place of testing and clarifying and preparation for his ministry. Wilderness for us may be a metaphor for wild-ness and the glories (and the threats) of Creation. Wilderness can also be a metaphor for chaos and the unknown.
Come and join us this Lent as we worship using Wilderness themes now through April 5 (Palm Sunday).…I guarantee that you’ll hear some new perspectives that will cause some new growth on the branches of your faith.

Tomorrow evening, you are invited to a simple soup supper (generously provided by a ministry team under the Deacons) and to a service at 7:00 p.m. If you have never been to an Ash Wednesday service, I’d encourage you to come and give it a try! You might be surprised at how meaningful it is.

Also, there are Lenten devotional booklets using the Wilderness theme available in the Fellowship Hall at Plymouth, containing poetry, visual art, reading suggestions from your Bible, and space for your own reflections.

May our journey together through the Wilderness bear the fruit of faith.
Shalom!

One of the things you may have noticed on the front page of each Placard issue is the emergency contact numbers for your clergy. Carla, Jane Anne, and I all care deeply for you and want to be available when you need us for spiritual support.

Sometimes we learn that a congregant has had surgery or a hospital stay that we weren’t aware of. (It is perfectly okay if you don’t wish to share that information, but in order for us to provide spiritual care, we need to know if you’ve been hospitalized.) In the old days, Poudre Valley Hospital kept a binder on the visitors’ desk with all patients listed by religion and denomination, and there were times when I dropped in for a visit with a UCC patient from outside Fort Collins, because I saw them listed that way. But with full implementation of HIPAA regulations, hospitals are no longer allowed to share that information. And the upshot is that you need to tell us if you plan to be hospitalized or when you are there unexpectedly…otherwise we have no way of knowing. With all of the option in northern Colorado, we also need to know where: PVH and Med Center of the Rockies, Banner and McKee, the Orthopedic Center and other surgery centers provide lots of options, so please help us know how to find you.

What is it like to receive a hospital visit? Before surgery, with your consent, ministers are allowed to come into pre-op with you to have a prayer. We often pray not just for a positive outcome of your procedure, but also for the people who care for you. Recently, Carla got the enviable task of visiting Ruby Louise Cronk, the newborn daughter of Cara and Owen, who are new to Plymouth…but not as new as Ruby Louise!

There are times, too, when we are present with members when they breathe their last. We don’t have “last rites” like Roman Catholics do, but it can be a comfort to have one of us there to offer a prayer and a blessing after the moment of death. The transition from this life into the next is a sacred time, just as a birth is, and we it is a privilege to accompany you in this journey.

You can also schedule a pastoral counseling appointment with your pastors. We are happy to listen and try to help you through the rocky times that all of us encounter. If you are experiencing depression or anxiety or another serious concern, we can also help refer you to a counselor or psychologist here in town. You don’t need to go it alone!

If you are home-bound, even temporarily, we also can arrange visits. Unlike most other professionals, we still make house calls. Carla is handling most home-bound visits, along with lay caregivers from our Calling/Caring Ministry. (Several of our deacons are also trained to bring communion, as well.)
Please be in touch and let us know how we can be of help. Again, you can find those numbers on the front page of the Placard. Read this month's Placard here.

Thank you for trusting us to care for you!
Deep peace,

“We are pilgrims on a journey;
we are travelers on the road.
We are here to help each other
share the mile and bear the load.”

I love that line from the hymn, “Won’t you let me be your servant.” It speaks to a dominant metaphor in our age: that our spiritual lives are a journey. 2020 is an important year in Congregational and U.S. history as it is the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the Mayflower in what is now Plymouth, Massachusetts. (Great book recommendation: Mayflower by Nathaniel Philbrick.)

Pilgrimage is an important metaphor and action in our faith tradition. For most of us, it does not involve doing penance for past wrongs, but rather a way of deepening our faith. When Muslims make a pilgrimage — the Hajj — to Mecca, or when Jews travel to Jerusalem, or when Buddhists walk from temple to temple in Japan, they are engaging a deepening of their spiritual journey. Like the journey of Abram, the forebear of three of the world’s great religions, left Haran and set out, he set a pattern for one-way pilgrimage that doesn’t include a return trip. Likewise, the early Irish saints called themselves peregrini, and they went out on a one-way pilgrimage as well.

In this coming year, I invite you to imagine a new pilgrimage for this congregation, whose name itself bears the indelible mark of pilgrim journey. As we engage a new strategic plan this year, we will imagine new vistas for our congregation. We will dream new dreams for our congregation: who we are, how we serve our neighbors, and where God is calling us to go.

T.S. Eliot in Four Quartets wrote, “We shall not cease from exploration / And the end of all our exploring / Will be to arrive where we started / And know the place for the first time.” May God help us this year help us to journey together, explore and expand our view, and to see Plymouth again for the first time.

Shalom!

Lately in our staff meetings and at last night’s Leadership Council I’ve heard a common refrain: Let’s do less at Plymouth…and do it better.

Does it seem to you that we sometime confuse being effective as a congregation with just being busy? Do we sometimes form Ministry Teams or launch events that may not align with our mission? We need to get better at saying, “No, thank you” to good things that just don’t fit in with our mission priorities and direction.

All of that sounds very hard-and-fast, but it also has deep resonances with Advent. We must be willing to say, “no” in order to keep ourselves focused on what is really important in this season. If you are a parent, it may seem supremely important to buy the right toy or technology for your child. There may be family traditions (making cinnamon bread at our house) that may sometimes seem like more of a burden than a joy. Decorating your Christmas tree and the inside of your home, not to mention illuminating the exterior, make take up more of your time than seems reasonable to you. Left unchecked, the shopping, cooking, traffic, dreaded holiday parties, and general busyness all can, ironically, keep us from our Advent task as Christians.

I’ve been preaching about newness and transformation the past two Sundays, and it occurs to me that these are part of my task (and perhaps yours) in this season. Old Testament scholar Walter Brueggemann writes,
 
Imagine a whole company of believers rethinking their lives, redeploying their energy, reassessing their purposes. The path is to love God, not party, not ideology, not pet project, but God’s will for steadfast love that is not deterred by fear and anxiety. The path is to love neighbor, to love neighbor face-to-face, to love neighbor in community action, to love neighbor in systemic arrangements, in imaginative policies.
The decrees of Caesar Augustus continue to go out for taxes and for draft and for frantic attempts to keep the world under our control. But the truth is found in the vulnerable village of Bethlehem outside the capital city, the village that disregarded the imperial decree. It will take a village to exhibit this alternative, and we are citizens of that village.   (from Celebrating Abundance)
 
What newness may be breaking into your life this Advent? What unexpected direction might God be luring your toward? What may be gestating within you that God may be calling you to deliver?
 
In anticipation of transformation,

This Saturday, you have the opportunity to meet a wonderful woman; The Rev. Carla Cain is the person we’ve been waiting for as Plymouth’s Designated-Term Pastor. It has seemed like a very long stretch between Jake’s departure on August 1, but it’s only been four months! My staff colleagues and I have been trying to keep all the plates spinning in the meantime, and I offer my thanks to them!

The Search Committee I’ve been privileged to chair includes Denise Morrison, Sara Myers, Curtis Wray, and Harmony Tucker. We have done an incredible amount of soul-searching discernment and flat-out work that included reviewing 15 applicant profiles and conducting eight interviews by Zoom teleconference. We brought two finalists to Fort Collins on two weekends that began with dinner on Friday evening, and a Saturday packed with breakfast meetings, interviews with the committee, drinks with available staff members, and dinner with the committee on Saturday. Both finalists were also able to be a “fly on the wall” and observe our 9:00 service. Kudos to our searchers!

Now, it is your turn, fellow members of Plymouth! You’ve read about Carla in a special email from the search committee and now you have the opportunity to meet Carla in a less-formal setting this Saturday, November 16, from noon to 2:00 p.m. at Plymouth. And then attend our single service on Sunday at 11:00 and our Congregational Meeting immediately following. Please make every effort to be with us this Sunday: It will be great to ALL of our members worshiping in one place at one time!

A colleague once remarked, “You’ve never really been welcomed into a church until you’ve been welcomed as a pastor,” and I remember how warm Plymouth’s welcome was to me in 2002. This is when we “kill the fatted calf” and help someone transition into ministry among us: getting to know her gifts and graces, offering a hand with settling in, helping her get acquainted with Fort Collins, inviting her to a meal. Pending a favorable vote on Sunday, Carla will start at Plymouth on December 15!

See you on Sunday!

P.S. And on Monday, November 18 please join us at 7:00 p.m. for a screening of a new documentary, American Heretics, in our sanctuary. The film deals with Progressive Christianity in the Bible Belt and features Mayflower Congregational UCC in Oklahoma City. You can see a preview by clicking here!
 
P.P.S. If you still need to pledge, you can do so online.

A wonderful hymn, “God of the Sparrow, God of the Whale” (NCH 32) poses couplets of questions for us: “How does the creature say awe…praise, grace…thanks, care…life, joy…home.” Think about those pairings and how they play out in your own life: Do you respond to an awe-inspiring sunrise by praising God? Do you answer God’s grace by saying thanks? Is your response to being cared for by God to regard the sanctity of all lives? Do you respond to joy by acknowledging that you are at home with God? I wonder if a prevalent sin many of us commit is taking it all for granted…as if we deserve it and that it will always “just be there for us.”

Our church home is at a crossroads, and we need your help. Because we don’t want to burn out volunteers, this year we hired a great business manager to do Plymouth’s accounting. And because technology is moving faster than any of us can imagine, we hired a great IT/Communications professional to manage our database, ensure our computers and networks are working, lay out the Placard and send you this Staff Reflection. The rub is that we, the members and friends of Plymouth, have to pay for the services of gifted staff members, and that is going to mean that all of us need to Go Deeper and ask how we can respond to God’s grace and say thanks in a tangible way: through our giving to Plymouth.

Stewardship means different things to different members of Plymouth. To some, it implies giving a tithe – one-tenth of one’s income – to support the mission and ministry of the church. To others, it is one financial obligation among many others. For some of us, considering our financial pledge to Plymouth provides an opportunity to reflect on God’s abundance and grace, and as God’s creatures, we say, “Thanks!”

This week you will receive in the mail a letter and brochure from our Stewardship Board with all kinds of inspiring and useful information. I invite you to read it, to look closely at the Graduated Giving chart on the back and calculate what your pledge for 2020 might be, relative to your household income. (Jane Anne and I did this, and we’re increasing our own pledge to Plymouth in 2020.) And I invite you to pray about how you, as a creature of God, will say thanks.

Gratefully,

P.S. At a special meeting of board chairs a few weeks ago, there was a suggestion that we emulate Heifer Project with sample giving opportunities…knowing that we aren’t actually giving a flock of geese or a water buffalo. So, I’m including some samples of what your pledge can help fund.

Dear Plymouth Friends,
 
I’m writing to you at 5:30 on Tuesday morning, and I’ll soon be getting ready to drive down to the UC Health Cancer Center for my last radiation treatment! YAY! I’m just a little excited to be finished with this chapter of my cancer journey (though I’ll keep reading the “hormone-therapy chapter” through November). But there is a part of me that is also a little sad, because I’ll no longer be cared for by a phenomenal team of folks at the Cancer Center — people who remember my name each day, greet me with a smile, ask about my sons or my weekend or how the fishing was. (What a different world it would be if we all did that for others!)

For the last two months, I have spent a half hour, five days a week, with these lovely people whose primary goal was to irradiate the cancerous cells in my body, but whose more visible aim was to see me as a whole human being and to treat me lovingly. I hope that I and the members of Plymouth’s staff can do that for you! And I so appreciate the cards and prayers you all have sent!

There have been moments when the fatigue and hot flashes and thoughts of my own mortality were pretty overwhelming…and there is a lot going on at Plymouth, too! One of my learnings in this part of my cancer journey is that there is a way to cut through the miasma of fear and side effects. It’s not terribly complicated, and I know some of you are well-acquainted with it already.

One morning as I walked out of the Cancer Center after an acupuncture treatment (which really helps with fatigue!) I was overwhelmed with a feeling that I had been blessed: held up by an acupuncture therapist with a great sense of humor and a broad smile and a positive attitude that won’t quit; held up by a radiation therapist who shared Chris’s WWOOFing experience in Japan with her parents; held up by an oncology counselor who really understood me and all I’m going through.

So, here is the “secret sauce” that I will try to carry with me from this part of my cancer journey: Gratitude is the key to being joyful, even in the midst of a crisis. If we are able to stop and notice the love around us, the glory of God’s creation, the miracle of being alive, we are likely to experience not superficial happiness, but deep joy.

Some of us walk around focusing on what we don’t have or what isn’t perfect. (Eeyore is a wonderful character in “Winnie the Pooh,” but a really poor model for life!) Others of us see the blessings of our lives every day. It’s up to us how we perceive the world.

So, what is today going to bring for you? Blessings or woes? Even in the thick of it, you can turn to see the face of God in what you experience…and give thanks!

Gratefully,

As you may know, my younger son, Chris,* has started his gap year WWOOFing (working on organic farms) in Japan. He is having an amazing cross-cultural experience, and interestingly is staying on a farm for another week with a Christian family with whom he is attending church. At 18, Chris is getting to have his first independent conversations about religion not only with his hosts, but with his fellow workers, who include a Muslim student from Malaysia. In a message this morning, Chris wrote that he was having longer, interesting talks with his hosts, who identified as evangelical Christians who “do not support abortion and I think not gay marriage and people.”

I am thankful that Chris was raised at Plymouth in an environment where he was encouraged by the whole community to think through his faith and to ask questions not only of other people, but of himself. I’m grateful that he counts as friends LGBTQ folks in our congregation: people who have loved him and nurtured his faith. I appreciate that we have raised Chris in a congregation where he has learned the value of intergenerational community, where he has learned that he is not the center of the universe. And I’m grateful for his experiences in Sunday school, youth group, confirmation, and at camp at La Foret, and on mission trips. Thank you all for helping to shape Chris and who he is becoming! Truly, it does take a village, and you have given Chris and our family a tremendous gift!
 
This coming Sunday is Friends & Family Sunday, when you are encouraged to invite a friend or family member to worship: someone who needs the gift of Plymouth. I know that many of us are uncomfortable speaking with friends and colleagues about our faith — even some of us who have advanced degrees in theology — but it’s time to work to get over it, because the stakes are too high. This community, our nation, and God’s world need progressive congregations like Plymouth, and they will die without your participation.

I can hear you asking now, “Why in God’s name would I invite someone to Plymouth?” So, here are some answers:

1. Many families in Fort Collins need an amazing faith-formation program for their kids. Don’t they deserve what Chris had?
2. We need to be a visible, vocal presence for progressive faith in Fort Collins. Of 43 people demonstrating for sane gun laws at Sen. Cory Gardner’s office in August, half were from Plymouth!
3. People have no idea that a church can offer a safe welcome to LGBTQ folks…not a church where we will simply be tolerated or tokened, but truly welcomed!
4. Many Christians, particularly of the evangelical or Roman Catholic variety, are ready to give up on the church and God…because they don’t know a church like Plymouth exists.
5. Each of us has received the gift of Plymouth — relationship to God, community, love, making a difference in the world, giving and receiving care during crises, the list goes on — we cannot horde our gifts or hide our lamp under a bushel.
6. We all want to make a positive impact in the world, and Plymouth is one of the most effective ways of creating change in our community.
7. We are deeply rooted in the Christian faith and tradition, but we have the flexibility to listen to the still-speaking God and to adapt. Our tradition is 2,000 years old; our thinking is not.
8. In our culture, it is hard to find a place to ask meaningful questions about the deepest parts of life: why we are here, who we are called to be in the world, what God is drawing us toward. Plymouth encourages that!
9. There are amazing people in our community who know something is missing in their lives. What if it’s something as important as a relationship with God? You can help.
10. You know that you want one of those nifty Plymouth pint glasses…you and your guest next Sunday will receive one!

 
So, invite a neighbor, a colleague, a family member to experience the gift of Plymouth. You can do it! I’ll see you (and your guests!) at all three services on Sunday!
Peace,

* Chris approved my sharing this…I know better than to use family stories without permission!

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,

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.

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!

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.
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Springtime Blessings!

Being part of a congregation makes each of us aware of the transitions of life: births, baptisms, confirmations, graduations, marriages, retirements, and deaths. Being an intentional part of a community of faith exposes us to the exigencies of what it means to be alive. Just by being engaged during Prayers of the People in worship, we tend to hear about and pray for more people experiencing illness or loss than many of our neighbors do.

We are in a time of passage for three of our members: John Geter, Ruth Minter, and George Bryan, for whose lives we offer God thanks with the rites of the church, helping provide a ritual marker at the close of this life. Jake led John Geter’s memorial service on March 30, and I hope that you will join us for memorial services for Ruth Minter this Saturday at 11:00 a.m. and for George Bryan on Holy Saturday at 11:00 a.m.
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When Jane Anne and I arrived in Tokyo at the end of March, a few cherry blossoms were just beginning to emerge from the buds on early-blossoming trees. Viewing the cherry blossoms is a major celebration in Japan called hanami, which dates back centuries when the aristocracy would have viewing parties that included food and drink under the white-and-pink canopy of blossoms. While today thousands crowd into parks and picnic under the trees on blue plastic tarps, the spirit of hanami remains.

A woman we met in Tokyo explained the Japanese fascination with cherry blossoms. “The blossoms are with us for only a short time each spring,” she explained. “They burst into bloom and very quickly, they fade, and their petals fly like snow. The cherry blossoms for us are like looking at life: we are born, we live, and we die. It is all part of the process.”
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We had wonderful travels around Japan with my son, Cameron, and got to spend a few days with him and his wonderful girlfriend, Aki Regan, in Akita Prefecture, where they both teach English. We returned to Tokyo as we concluded our two weeks in Japan, and by then many of the trees were a profusion of pinkish blossoms, though some trees had begun to lose their floral array. As the wind came up, the blossoms swirled through the air like so many large snowflakes, and I felt a sense of melancholy rising up as the season was drawing to a close. I was standing in Yanaka Cemetery in Tokyo when I filmed the video clip below, so the end of life was already present in this place of beauty and remembrance.

Our own tradition, though without hanami, acknowledges the transitory nature of life. The first hymn in the New Century Hymnal, “Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise,” contains these lines: “We blossom and flourish as leaves and as flowers, then wither and perish – but naught dims your powers.” The nature of life is indeed transitory. And our tradition also tells us that in the midst of every transition, the power of God and companionship of the Spirit are within and among us. “In life, in death, in life beyond death, we are not alone,” says the New Creed from the United Church of Canada.
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As we move into spring in Colorado, and as we walk through the pattern of Holy Week, going from the triumph of Palm Sunday to tragedy of Good Friday to the triumph of Easter, may we each remember that death is never God’s final word. Thanks be to God.

Shalom,