Waiting and Welcoming

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!

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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.

Author

The Rev. Hal Chorpenning has been Plymouth's senior minister since 2002. Before that, he was associate conference minister with the Connecticut Conference of the UCC. A grant from the Lilly Endowment enabled him to study Celtic Christianity in the UK and Ireland. Prior to ordained ministry, Hal had a business in corporate communications. Read more about Hal.