Job Opening: Zoom Master and Recording Engineer.

Click here for the job description and how to apply.

We Offer Hybrid In-Person and Zoom Services

Sundays at 10:00 AM

The Zoom link is https://us02web.zoom.us/j/110184919

You can find the Zoom instructions by clicking here.

You can find recordings and texts of past services here.

Our services begin at 10:00 AM, ending by 11:30 or earlier.  You are invited and encouraged from the start to be at home in our loving community, including staying for refreshments and the pleasure of neighborliness after the service in our Parish Hall.

We love children and provide weekly childcare and occasional children’s programming (for example, see the Story Sunday description below).  Our choir is open to all who love to sing—all you have to do is show up at 8:55 AM on Sunday.

We offer a live, interactive Zoom option as well, and hope that all those who are away or homebound will join us by Zoom.  It brings us joy to have people with us who otherwise would not be able to attend!  You can find the Zoom instructions below.

Live Zoom Sunday and Recorded Online Services

We are open for in-person services but we urge you to attend by Zoom if you cannot make it to the sanctuary.  You will find the Zoom instructions and link by clicking here.

It is a special joy to have people with us who otherwise could not be, so thank you in advance for that gift!  Our service begins at 10:00 AM and ends by 11:30 AM at the latest, and with Zoom you can quietly slip in late or leave early if need be.

We have an extended time of focused conversation in the second half of the service bringing together those in the sanctuary and those on Zoom.  You are invited to participate but may always feel free not to speak.

We also video record the services, except for the conversation part.  Go to Past Service Videos & Sermons to view the videos and read the sermons.

Our Daily Heartfulness Circle Meditation Sessions and Thursday Extended Sessons

Our Heartfulness Circle offers an informal meditation gathering on Zoom every evening from 7:30 to 8:10 PM.  The meditation begins with 25 minutes of silence for contemplative practice and ends with an optional fifteen minutes of supportive conversation for those who can stay.  On Thursday we begin at 7:00 PM with ten minutes of silence followed by conversation and coaching, ending with twenty minutes of silence for practice from 7:50 to 8:10.  You can find more details and the different Zoom links by clicking here.

Weekly Newsletters

You can read our newsletters by clicking here.  Not all are our letters are included on this website.  You can be sure to see them all by letting us know you would like to subscribe.  Click here to subscribe.

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Donations

You can quickly and easily make online donations to the church by clicking here.

To read about our decision to move to online donations and the company we use, click here.  Thank you!

OUR CHURCH

Worship Time: 10:00 AM

Directions: On the common in Strafford Village, 230 Justin Morrill Highway, just up from the Justin Morrill Homestead. 

 Our community church is nestled in the beautiful valley of Strafford, Vermont. Services are every Sunday at 10:00, with child care available.  We are a diverse gathering from a variety of faith backgrounds – an extended family with official ties to the American Baptist Church and the United Church of Christ, yet with Methodist hymnals and Taize and Iona Community chant books.  Music is very important to us.  If it is important to your spiritual life, please come and sing or play or simply savor this gift.

Whoever you are, wherever you are on life’s journey, you are welcome here.

 Contact Us at:

Email: unitedchurchofstrafford@gmail.com

Church Office: 802-765-4585

PO Box 124, Strafford, VT 05072

OUR FUTURE DIRECTIONS VISION:

The United Church of Strafford aspires
to be a community of open hearts and minds
embracing differences and diverse traditions,
extending faithful Christ-like love and support to all,
reaching out especially to those in need.
We intend to be a force, not merely a presence,
effecting positive social change
for peace, justice and the care of God’s creation.
We come to this sanctuary to be renewed to serve,
finding inspiration and wisdom
in traditional words and music
and in new insights and expressions.
We want to learn and grow.
We want to provide training in contemplative practice
and to experience our lives and the world as sacred.
We hope to address big questions and controversial issues
openly and humbly, respectful of varied views and feelings.
We want children to be involved in every aspect of church life.
We seek ways to serve the changing needs of each generation.
We appreciate the beauty of this building
and what takes place within it
as we celebrate and follow the way of Christ
with Spirit-filled acts
of creativity, compassion and love.

*This is the vision as a Unison Reading. To see the full version click here.

OUR CHURCH COVENANT

We gather together with freedom of conscience in a community of love and inquiry. All are welcome, without exception. We practice Christianity with faith and compassion. We covenant with one another to embody the love of Christ, to nurture contemplation and action, and to offer our gifts, talents and energies as we are able.

OUR HISTORY

 The United Church of Strafford began with the joining of the Free Will Baptist Church of South Strafford (organized in 1789) and the Congregational Church and Society (constituted in November 19, 1820). The reorganization of these churches began in 1948, to form one church. On December 3, 1967, the two churches dissolved themselves as individual entities in order to allow their membership to form a new, united church.

OUR PASTOR

Pastor Tom Kinder began serving here in September of 2017, but his roots in the church go back much farther.  Tom was a lay leader here for ten years in the 1980s and early 90s before beginning the journey into the ministry, lovingly shepherded by this congregation.

Tom served as a student minister at the Norwich Congregational Church and as the settled pastor at the West Newbury Congregational Church.  He then served as pastor of the Thetford Hill Church for seventeen years.  He came back to Strafford from the Bradford Congregational Church, where he served as Interim Minister for three years after leaving Thetford.

Tom was a Deacon and on a Search Committee and the Pastoral Relations Committee as a lay member here.  He also served on the Town of Strafford’s Planning Commission.  He was employed before entering the ministry as the executive director of nonprofits working on the environment, sustainable agriculture and rural communities, and he was the marketing director of an environmental catalog company.  His undergraduate degree is from the Creative Writing Program and English Department of Princeton University and his Master of Divinity is from Harvard Divinity School.  He is ordained in the United Church of Christ.

At a Poor People’s Campaign rally in Montpelier

Tom is a Registered Life Planner and has additional advanced training as an Interim Minister and a presenter of Centering Prayer.  He has been a teacher of Christian contemplative practices and led weekly meditation groups for over twenty-five years.

Tom is bi-vocational as a part-time pastor and part-time writer.

Tom has lived off of Miller Pond Road for the better part of 40 years, although his work has often kept his focus and presence in neighboring towns.  He is overjoyed to be back home to serve the church and community that nurtured him as he found his way into the ministry.

Anti-racism Events

Click here to read about upcoming antiracism events in Strafford.

Opportunities for Climate Action:

Click here for news of upcoming actions from Strafford Climate Action.

Click here for resources for a unified nonviolent social justice-environmental movement.

Click here to read about Strafford’s Resolution to Declare a Climate Emergency that was passed at Town Meeting on March 3, 2020.