I think about Bill Coffin often, of course, as pastors of this church will do for a long time to come.  One of my favorite stories about him is from his Yale chaplaincy days. He would ask young atheists to tell him about the God they did not believe in, and when they were done, he would say, “I don’t believe in that God, either!”

It is similar with the church.  Many people I know are turned off by institutional religion and especially Christianity.  When I ask them to tell me what turns them off, I agree wholeheartedly.  It turns me off, too.  I would never want to belong to that kind of church.

The reason I am serving as pastor here is because there are higher and deeper ways of understanding God, and because the church has contemplative and social justice and nonviolence traditions that can provide help we need to save this world from the self-destructive path it is speeding down.

This United Church of Strafford wants to be a different kind of church where anyone in the community can come with doubts and questions and a desire to explore the wisdom and resources that these lesser known aspects of the Christian tradition can provide.

We have an urgent need right now for world-transformation.  This particular church is a place where you might find something useful to your own efforts to make sense of and respond to these times.

Please talk with me about this if you are interested, or join us at 10:00 AM on Sunday mornings for a service of word, music and silence.

Thank you!

Pastor Tom Kinder