Easter Sunday was Wonderful -- Except

More photos from Easter

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The Lilies were beautiful, the Church was full, (well not really since the sanctuary can hold over 300 and our attendance was 125, but it looks much fuller than the usual 75 people) and a few ladies had on their Easter bonnets. Actually very few had on Easter bonnets since straw hats and wool clothing just doesn’t go together and it was a very cold and very early Easter. I thought that the sexton with his cap on might be the only hat I had to photograph, but then more people showed. If you look at the picture set, however you will have seen all the hats there were.

The choir was in its best form following a prelude for Organ and Piano with Dianne Ney on the organ and Tonya Spears on the piano, and then Ray Gonzales came in with the trumpet on the first Hymn. Dianne invited all the singers in the congregation to join with the choir in singing the Halleluiah chorus from the Messiah after the benediction and over a half a dozen did. It sounded spectacular. I thought I had a good sermon, and it was brief.

There were just the two of us for dinner and we had pistachio encrusted rack of Lamb, it was delicious!

It was a Wonderful Easter – Except, Except, on Easter Sunday on the other side of the world the 4000th officially recognized casualty to an American serviceperson took place in Iraq. On Easter, the holiday of life, resurrection, hope, renewal we go on with business as usual in Iraq, and business as usual involves killing and being killed.

Photos from Holy Thursday service at Westminster

Yesterday was the fifth anniversary
of the war in Iraq.

I was among 200 plus protesters on Main Street in Hartford on a cold and rainy day. After over five minutes of conversation with a Hartford Courant reporter I got one sentence quoted. "As nasty as [this weather] is, I could not, not be here. Other people are making much worse sacrifices than walking out on a cold day," said Terry Davis, pastor at the First Presbyterian Church in Hartford. Link to full article. (Pictures from Courant Web Site)

The protest started on the steps of Center Church (UCC) and ended at the Federal Building. At the Federal Building five of the protesters blocked the employee entrance to the building (leaving the public entrance open for those needing to conduct business with the immigration or other offices and courts in the building). They were eventually arrested by city police, although from conversations I overheard at the edge of the crowd the city police at first insisted that they should not make arrests on Federal Property. They wanted the private security officers guarding the building to call the federal Marshals to make the arrests.

Among those arrested were two people over 80 years old. The Rev Kathy McTigue, senior minister at the Unitarian Society in New Haven, said moments before she and the others were taken into custody. "It is a way of putting our bodies in the way of business as usual and business as usual is killing people.”

The cost of the war have been tremendous, nearly 4,000 dead American Soldiers, and no counting how many have been injured physically, mentally and spiritually. It has cost over $3 trillion to pursue the war according to Bob Beckel, a liberal Democratic strategist who also estimated that over 150,000 Iraqis have died. This war has now lasted longer than World War I, World War II, or the Civil War.

Barack Obama asked in a recent fund raising letter: “And where are we for all of this sacrifice?

We are less safe and less able to shape events abroad. We are divided at home, and our alliances around the world have been strained. The threats of a new century have roiled the waters of peace and stability, and yet America remains anchored in Iraq.

Enough!”

Palm Sunday was a great day at
First Presbyterian Church, Hartford, CT

Click Here for More Pictures

In every way Palm Sunday was a wonderful time to celebrate the goodness of God at First Presbyterian. We started off with a Breakfast planned by Parish Life with a speaker arranged by the Multicultural Team. The speaker was Heidi Hadsell, president of Hartford Seminary who spoke about Multiculturalism in Church and Society.

The historic sanctuary was beautiful as always, enhanced by live palm trees and two large Salvador Dali prints, one the last supper, the other the crucifixion. (I bought the eight foot live palms from BJ’s Discount Warehouse at the bargain price of $19.99 each) Choir and worshipers carried palm fronds and processed around the sanctuary singing “Hosanna, Loud Hosannas…” The choir sang “Ride on King Jesus” and “Sing Hosanna!”. Both were beautifully done. I thought I had a very good sermon which you can read on line. Carl Dudley was at both the breakfast and service, back at the Church for the first time in four months. Carl has been and continues to fight a very serious disease.

The Bluest Eye

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On Sunday we saw The Bluest Eye at Hartford Stage. This is a stage adaptation of Toni Morrison’s novel of the same name. It was a tremendously powerful production, had a great cast, and obviously a very good director as well as a creative set designer. I recommend it to anyone. Looking around the nearly filled theater on Sunday (not usually not a prime time for attendance at Hartford Stage) it was obvious that the play has great appeal to African American audiences, but all of us who seek to understand racism in our country will benefit into this look at the psyche of African American folk in a white world. The protagonists are children, honest in their expression of their feelings and experience.

Their ways of dealing with a white world are very different, Claudia tears up and destroys her blue eyed and blond hair doll, while Percola wants to be that doll, someone no longer looked at as ugly and invisible.

Go to the Hartford Stage website to view two reviews, both excellent and far more descriptive than anything I could write, or better still run out and get tickets and see this outstanding performance yourself.

Three Church Retreat

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More pictures from the retreat

Last Saturday we hosted a Presbytery sponsored retreat for leaders of the three Churches participating in a revitalization consultation. Our Consultant, Ann Philbrick from the Heartwood group did a presentation about the life cycle of Churches, like our own lives Churches move from their founding (birth) growth and development, (she calls this incline), then a Church reaches its prime, membership and program development plateau, these are the Church’s golden years (she calls this recline, besides rhyming it symbolizes a leaning back being satisfied with maintaining the good thing we have going). She says no Church stays at this point forever, at some point decline sets in, and eventually will end with death with out a new birth, without a resurrection. Churches call this redevelopment or revitalization or the new in word is transformation. I like the resurrection image since that went with the scriptures for the following day, the dry bones (Ezekiel 37) and the resurrection of Lazarus (John chapter 11).

I suggested Sunday (read the entire sermon) that this was our hope as a Church since First Presbyterian peaked near its 100th Anniversary when there were purportedly 600 to 800 members. The Church has been in a 50 year decline, although we have halted the loss of members over the past 10 years adding 75 new members to replace the 75 we have lost. I said that death was not the inevitable end, but when the spirit blows and when Christ’s power intervenes, and when we engage fully in the revitalization process resurrection is a possibility.

I also noted in thinking of the resurrection of Lazarus that there was a strangeness about the story, although the emotions of grief and pain, crying and anger are vividly portrayed as John tells this story that what is missing is that there is no picture of great joy and gladness and no expression of gratitude toward Jesus when Lazarus is raised. The shepherd has a party for his friends when he finds the one lost sheep, the woman invites others to rejoice with her when she finds her lost coin, the Prodigal’s father throws a banquet complete with veal and wine, music and dancing, but it is many days later before Martha and Mary have a dinner party for Jesus.

The women seemed to still be in shock, so overwhelmed by their grief over their loss that they cannot rejoice. I suggested that we also might be focused on our losses, those who have moved away, drifted away or passed away and be missing signs of hope and joy that we have received so many new members and families into the Church. Our newer members are younger and more racially and ethnically diverse than those who are gone.

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What I believe that these passages challenge us to do is to deal with our losses, but also to see what God is doing and what God will be doing in our midst and to celebrate the hope and the already present reality of resurrection and new life, in our personal lives, and in our life as a Church.

Was Lethal Force Necessary?

The Hartford Courant reported this morning that a man was shot by state police within a five minute walk from my office (and even closer to the State Capitol). Did he have a gun? Was he holding a hostage captive? Had he committed a capital felony? Did the confrontation take place in the dark of night? Did two trained and highly experienced state troopers have a reasonable fear for their lives? No, no, no, no, no. He had left the stolen auto at the corner of Russ and Broad Streets and was running from the police. In the parking lot of the Firebox Restaurant he pulled a knife and refused to drop it; both of the troopers, members of the state police SWAT team, fired their weapons and the suspect was taken to Hartford Hospital where he was pronounced dead. All this took place shortly before noon yesterday. It is a wonder that no one else was injured by the gunfire, the last time I was at the Firebox there were lots of people around at noon.

There is no doubt, the man who was shot was one of the bad guys; in a short period of time he had committed sexual assault, auto theft, & bank robbery. He was on probation after committing first-degree robbery and he did lead police on a chase during which he had been involved in a traffic accident. He needed to be stopped and arrested, but is it not reasonable to expect that two trained and experienced members of a SWAT team could disarm and arrest a single man with a single knife. Where was the Tazer? Where are the other non-lethal means of subduing a person?

I am not buying that this was a necessary use of force.

More Light Sunday

Guest preacher Heather Reighgott and myself, click for more pictures

What a great day we had on Sunday. We were celebrating our session’s decision to affiliate with More Light Presbyterians, a national network of people seeking the full participation of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people of faith in the life, ministry and witness of the Presbyterian Church (USA).

Elder Lois Maxwell coordinated our celebration and invited Heather Reichgott, a member of the national More Light Board be our guest preacher. Heather is a graduate of San Francisco Theological Seminary and a candidate for ministry in the Presbyterian Church (USA). She now lives in North Hadley with her wonderful wife Gillian Woldorf to whom she was married in 2005 in Amherst, Massachusetts. They are joyfully expecting their first child (due in April.)

We found Heather to be a wonderful preacher and very open to tell her personal story and relate her story to THE story told in scripture. She has a great sense of herself and confidence as a preacher and was eager on almost no notice to bring the Children’s message as well as the sermon.

Deacon Keith Rhoden and I traveled to New Haven that after noon for our Presbyterian Promise meeting and an opportunity to meet with another candidate for ministry (for 22 years) Lisa Larges. At last Lisa has been certified ready to receive a call; she presently serves as national director of That All May Freely Serve, another national organization that advocates for “an inclusive church that honors diversity and welcomes lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender persons as full members. Full membership includes eligibility for ordination to the offices of elder, deacon, and pastor.”