Early Summer Beauty. Last Week's Picture of the Week. Ghanaian Lunch





It is a beautiful time of the year, pictured is a rose blooming on a little island in the midst of the Church parking lot. At home I think our Rhododendrons are fuller and more beautiful than they have ever been before. Our peonies are coming into bloom, one oriental poppy with three blooms at once is making a spectacular show, and I counted a dozen smaller poppies in bloom this morning.





Holly Billings finally identified the swords into plowshares sculpture as being located in front of Hartford City Hall. To the shame of city maintenance the base of the sculpture has been buried under soil and mulch so the inscription calling for an end to gang violence in the city can no longer be read. Today shootings seem more drug related than gang related, although some are simply personal beefs over being disrespected or arguments over a woman. In any case a plea against violence seems relevant and needed when there is at least one a week and often more.




On May 20 we had a guest preacher from Ghana, Dr. Elizabeth Amoah, and following service we had a festive Ghanaian lunch. Pictured above is myself surrounded by some of our very attractive members from Ghana, Francisca, Juliana and Yaa. We dedicated a first gift of $350 to the Salvation Army hospital in Anum, Ghana and received a free will offering of over $800 for continuation of the work of building a relationship with the homeland of so many of our members. More Pictures

Last Sunday the members who were doing the coffee hour had a beautiful cake decorated in honor of the 40th anniversary of my being ordained to the Gospel Ministry. My pretty wife took me to dinner at Abbotts in the Rough, the prime place in Connecticut for delicious lobster dinners while overlooking the Long Island Sound. One person wanted to order 2 seven pound Lobsters, but they only had one that large on that day. I was standing at the pick up counter while they were showing it to him. It would take several people with my appetite to deal with that baby.

Same Sex Marriage - Picture of the week.

We have been publishing a picture of the week on the Church Web Site, all objects within walking distance of the Church. Do you know where this Biblically based Sculpture is located?

It was disappointing to read this morning that the proposal to recognize same sex marriage in Connecticut has been withdrawn for this session.
Story from CT News Junkie.
Comment from Love Makes a Family.
Those who count votes predicted that the bill would lose by a few votes in the House. We can be certain that the proposal will be back in the 2009 legislature, and likely that it will pass then.

Walk Against Hunger

Sunday, May 6 was a beautiful day for the annual Walk Against Hunger. A couple of dozen members and friends from First Presbyterian Church joined thousands of others in the great event. We shared lunch before traveling to the Hartford for walk check in. Two personal friends, Paul and Mary Berlejung from Vermont arrived in time for both morning service and lunch before participating in the walk. Several people who joined us for the mission trip, Joy and Beth from Manchester and Sue and Debbie from Provincetown also joined in lunch and walk.

First Presbyterian raised over $11,000 for the walk. Because our team designated contributions for Center City Churches, Center City will receive 80% of this amount for the MANNA Food Programs while the rest is retained by Foodshare to support over 350 Hartford Area programs. Overall Center City Churches hopes that the 45 teams designating their contributions to the event will bring in $62, 500 (Gross $50,000). The MANNA basic needs programs annually provide more that 65,000 meals to homeless and low-income individuals, 76,000 pounds (that is 38 tons) of food to struggling families as well as weekend meals for hundred’s of frail seniors as well as supplemental food for children through the weekend backpack program.

View Pictures

Grace (Eventually) – Thoughts on Faith by Anne Lamott

Just finished this her latest book on faith, enjoyed it greatly. It is a collection of essays many of which originally appeared in the Boston Globe, Salon and a dozen or so other magazines.

Anne is a white woman with dreadlocks, above all honest and open with her own experiences, usually witty, sometimes side-splittingly funny. She is an alcoholic who has been in recovery and sober for 20 years, a single mom, and totally committed member of St. Andrew Presbyterian Church in Marin City, CA. In both the preface and the Acknowledgements she mentions her gratitude to the members of St. Andrew and her pastor the Rev. Veronica Goines. She gives them credit for helping her become sober and a person of faith.

I have met both her pastor and several of the ladies from St. Andrew at Multicultural and can testify that the ladies were very loving people who reminded me of many of the mothers in my first church (also a largely African American congregation). Veronica is obvious an outstanding pastor and preacher.

I would recommend the book to any believer, for that matter any seeker, who is not offended by honesty and by unconventional ways of talking about the faith we share. I was enriched by reading about the lay ministries she is involved with, I quoted her last week in my sermon on belonging, and I probably will quote from the last chapter when I preach Sunday about eating and drinking with Jesus.

This is the paragraph: “The best way to change the world is to change your mind, which often requires feeding yourself. It makes for biochemical peace. It’s almost like a prayer: to be needy, to eat, to taste, to be filled, building up instead of tearing down. You find energy to do something your hadn’t expected to do, maybe even one of the holiest things: to go outside and stand under the stars, or to go for a walk in the morning, or in such hard times, both.”

I Am My Own Wife

My expectations were not particularly high when I went to Hartford Stage last Sunday night to see Doug Wright’s play, I Am My Own Wife. I have seen a number of plays with only a single actor or actress, and most have been disappointing. Not so with this play. Kathleen and I were both on the edge of our seats during the whole production, simply fascinated by the story of Charlotte von Mahlsdorf. I gather that the author did indeed interview her extensively, and what is portrayed is largely her self reports of her life as a transvestite; a man who dressed and lived as a woman and was openly the center of Gay and Lesbian life in Berlin during both the Nazi and the Soviet rule. The author enters into a brief discussion of the difference between her self accounts and official records as well as press reports, and leaves unanswered the question of how one might resolve these conflicts.

James Lecesne plays almost three dozen characters in the course of the play using little besides his voice, movement and gestures to convey who is speaking. His skill is unbelievable, and you believe you have met all these different people. Costuming is no more than a skirt, blouse, shoes and a string of pearls donned early in the first act, and a similar but slightly different outfit for the briefer second act. The staging is very minimal, although the skillful use of perspective makes the stage seem much deeper than it is. All of the extensive furniture is added only by Charlotte’s description of the unseen pieces.

We had seen Lecesne before is the fast paced farce The Mystery of Irma Vep. In I Am My Own Wife he displays an entirely different repertoire of skills. It is a play well worth seeing.

I am looking forward to the summer season when Hartford Stage will present The Good Body by Eve Ensler, and Mahalia, A Gospel Musical.