United Church of Strafford, Vermont

Welcome to this service. 

Today’s service is the first of four “unpastorized” services we will hold while Pastor Tom Kinder is on break. In Tom’s absence, we are simplifying the online service format to place the focus on meaningful sermons that you might have missed the first time around. We’ll be digging into our video archives of sermons, readings, messages for children, and music, as well as offering some new elements. 

During today’s worship, we especially hold in our prayers the family of Bill Burden, as we share their sorrow at his passing, and our Music Director, Annemieke McLane, as she and her family cope with the loss of their home in a fire earlier this week. (Information about how to support the Burdens and McLanes is under Announcements.)

You can respond with thoughts about the service or with anything you would like to say by using the comment feature at the end of the post or by emailing us.  You can also bring others into this experience by sharing the link to this service by email or social media.

Please note that we are gathering as a congregation by Zoom at 10:30 AM on Sunday mornings to say hello to one another and share our Joys and Concerns and Prayer requests and offer our compassion and support and company for this journey.

With love,
Becky Bailey, for the UCS Deacons

Today’s Order of Worship
Prelude
Call to Worship
Announcements
Time with Children
Sermon
Hymn
Offering
Postlude

Prelude  “Water” Toccata in E minor, Fugue, J. S. Bach, piano and photography by Annemieke McLane

Today’s prelude video was created for the June 28 worship service and celebrates Annemieke’s life-giving music and photography.

Call to Worship This haiku by Mel Goertz is dedicated to Annemieke and family:

Trudging through clouds
And mist
Searching for glimmers of lights.

Announcements

Condolence notes for Dot Burden can be sent to her at Genesis Health Care, Lebanon, 24 Old Etna Rd, Lebanon, NH 03766. Donations are being collected for Annemieke and her family on the United Church online offering link as well as by checks made out to “McLane Recovery Fund” and sent to the United Church of Strafford Deacons, P O Box 124, Strafford VT 05072.

Our Heartfulness Contemplative Training Circle is also meeting by Zoom on Thursdays at 6:00 PM.  This is for anyone who is interested in practicing mindfulness or meditation, or heartfulness and centering prayer.  It is a time for talking about those practices and also more generally about our spiritual life. You can find links to instructions on how to be part of those Zoom gatherings on the Welcome Page of our website.

If you are not on our weekly email list and would like to be, please email us at unitedchurchofstrafford@gmail.com and we will make sure you receive all our church news.

It is extremely important that we stay connected now.  Please reach out by phone or email to neighbors and other members of the congregation, especially those who live by themselves or are struggling or vulnerable.  Our Deacons, Becky Bailey, Kim Welsh and Maggie Hooker, are coordinating our Deacons Fund and our outreach to people in need of support, and Danette Harris, Chair of our Mission Committee, is leading our work with the Food Shelf.  Becky, Danette and Joey Hawkins are on the town committee that is coordinating outreach as well.  If you would like to donate or help please email us or use the comment feature on this page.

 Time with Children (and Adults—For Everyone, Really!) 

Created for the May 24 service, this session with Pastor Tom considers what we can learn from high places – like the top of this nearby hill.

Sermon You Have What the World Needs by Rev. Thomas Cary Kinder, created for the June 28 service. Pastor Tom looks at people who embody the ways of Christ here on Earth, including the example of Bradford, Vt., and Freedom Rider Jonathan Daniels. You can find the text of the Sermon by clicking here.

Anthem  “The Lord’s My Shepherd/Brother James’ Air,” Becky Bailey, voice and piano, recorded in the United Church of Strafford sanctuary.

Writes Oxford Press: “Most of us have heard of an anthem called ‘Brother James’ Air,’ but just who was ‘Brother James’?  Well, turns out the good Brother was James Leith Macbeth Bain, born in Perthshire, Scotland in the mid-19^th century. He attended several Scots colleges with the view of becoming a minister, and his calling took him to Liverpool and later, to London. He was the author of several books in addition to composing this morning’s anthem. An attribute of a gifted composer is his ability to use poetic license to slightly alter the text of existing poetry to make it more musical, while still upholding its inspiring essence.  In this anthem, Brother James gently edits the 23^rd Psalm in this beautiful way:

The Lord’s my shepherd, I’ll not want:
He Makes me down to lie
In pastures green;
He leadeth me the quiet waters by.

My soul he doth restore again,
And me to walk doth make
Within the paths of righteousness,
E’en for his own name’s sake.

Yea, though I walk through death’s dark vale,
Yet will I fear no ill;
For thou art with me,
And thy rod and staff me comfort still.

My table thou hast furnished
In presence of my foes;
My head thou dost with oil annoint,
And my cup overflows.

Goodness and mercy all my life
Shall surely follow me;
And in my Father’s heart alway
My dwelling place shall be.

Offering

This congregation is a small but meaningful part of the movement to establish God’s realm of peace, justice and care for God’s creation on earth, actively engaged in serving our community and supporting the wider worldwide movement.  One of the ways we work together and increase our strength beyond our individual abilities is by pooling our resources.  This is hard to do when we are forced apart by the pandemic, so we hope you will take just a minute to use our online donation service.

To make your offering on line, please click here.  (This is a service we are providing through an extremely well established on-line donation company specializing in churches that is recommended by the national United Church of Christ and used by thousands of churches like ours.  To read more about our decision to allow on line donations, click here.)

Postlude French Suite IV – Sarabande, J. S. Bach, BWV 815, Annemieke McLane, piano.

Welcome to this service. 

The theme of today’s service is “Do Not Let Your Hearts Be Troubled vs. Jesus Wept.”  The Bible and our entire tradition hold together these two seemingly contradictory approaches to loss and grief.  This service will explore where they lead us.  You will find three different approaches to the theme, first in the Call to Worship, then in this week’s Children’s Time (which is for adults as much as older children) and finally in the Sermon.

(I got talking about our beloved Bill Burden in the sermon, so it ended up being a little longer than sometimes—over twelve minutes.  You can find a link to both the Call to Worship and the Sermon’s written texts below as well.)

We have two guest contributions to this service, local chaplains and spiritual directors who have extensive experience and wisdom related to grief, the Rev. Deadra Ashton and Rachel Guaraldi.  Please be sure to hear them.

You will find an “Orientation to this Service and Announcements” after the first few videos. You can watch the entire service in under an hour or spread it out watching in shorter segments.  You can also find links along the way to read some of the service instead of watching the videos.  Please feel free to respond to the service using the comment feature of this website or you can email us at unitedchurchofstrafford@gmail.com.

Prelude  from Messe de Minuit by Marc-Antonin Charpentier

Annemieke McLane, piano and voice

Note that this week’s prelude was last week’s postlude.  Not many people heard it, and it is extraordinarily beautiful.  Its “Kyrie” tone fits today’s service perfectly.

Introit When Peace Like a River (with new verses)
tune: Ville de Havre (NCH#438) 11.8.11.9. with refrain, Music by Philip Bliss
verse 1 by Horatio G. Spafford: verses 2-4 by Thomas Cary Kinder

Sung and produced by Becky Bailey of the United Church of Strafford Choir, with Annemieke McLane playing the organ.

Teaching One: Do Not Let Your Hearts Be Troubled vs. Jesus Wept—Call to Worship and Mel Goertz’s Haiku

You can find the text of the Call to Worship and Haiku by clicking here.

Orientation to this Service and Announcements

Welcome to this online worship service of the United Church of Strafford, Vermont for July 19th, 2020.

You can respond with thoughts about the service or with anything you would like to say by using the comment feature at the end of the post or by emailing us.  You can also bring others into this experience by sharing the link to this service by email or social media.

Here is the order of worship on this page:

• Above: Welcome, Prelude, Introit, Call to Worship and Mel Goertz’s Haiku;
• This orientation;
• Talking with Young Children about Grief  Rachel Guaraldi;
• Time with Children (and Adults);
• Alternate Lord’s Prayer read by six members of our congregation;
• Reading “Spring and Fall” Gerard Manley Hopkins, read by the Rev. Deadra Ashton;
• Scriptures John 11:25-36; 14:1-6a, 27;
• Sermon by the Rev. Thomas Cary Kinder;
• Anthem  “When Jesus Wept”  William Billings
• Offering;
• Benediction from Romans 8;
• Choral Benediction “Pues Si Vivimos” United Church of Strafford Choir;
• Postlude  “Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen,” Annemieke McLane, piano.

Read More

Welcome to this service.  This week’s service features three teachings entitled “The Spirit Intercedes: If God Is For Us, Who Is Against Us?” You will find three different approaches to the theme of the Spirit’s presence and power and how we can work with it to transform our lives and our world, first in the Call to Worship, then in this week’s special Children’s Time on prayer (which is for adults as much as older children) and finally in the short Sermon.

You will find an “Orientation to this Service and Announcements” after the first few videos. You can watch the entire service in under an hour or spread it out watching in two to twelve minute segments.  You can also find links along the way to read some of the service instead of watching the videos.  Please feel free to respond to the service using the comment feature of this website or you can email us at unitedchurchofstrafford@gmail.com.

Prelude  Edvard Grieg Edvard Grieg, “Album Leaf,” Lyric Pieces Book I, Op. 12 No. 7, Annemieke McLane, piano

Introit “Lord, Listen to Your Children Praying” by Ken Medema.

Sung by members of the United Church of Strafford Choir.

Teaching One: The Spirit Intercedes: If God Is For Us, Who Is Against Us?—Call to Worship and Mel Goertz’s Haiku

You can find the text of the Call to Worship and Haiku by clicking here.

Orientation to this Service and Announcements

Welcome to this online worship service of the United Church of Strafford, Vermont for July 19th, 2020.

You can respond with thoughts about the service or with anything you would like to say by using the comment feature at the end of the post or by emailing us.  You can also bring others into this experience by sharing the link to this service by email or social media.

Here is the order of worship on this page:

• Above: Welcome, Prelude, Introit, Call to Worship and Herbert Goertz’s Haiku;
• This orientation;
• Time with Children (and Adults);
• Alternate Lord’s Prayer read by six members of our congregation;
• Anthem “O Lord, Hear My Prayer” from the Taizé Community, sung by Annemieke McLane;
• Scriptures  Romans 8:26-39; Matthew 13:31-33, 44-46
• Sermon by the Rev. Thomas Cary Kinder;
• “Human Rights Campaign Remembers Civil Rights Icon Congressman John Lewis”  ;
• Offering;
• Benediction from Romans 8;
• Choral Benediction “Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Round” Eric Essix/Brenda McKenzie,  Legends Tribute to Rep. John Lewis and Rev. C.T. Vivian;
• Postlude by Annemieke McLane from Messe de Minuit by Marc-Antonin Charpentier.

Read More

[You can watch a video recording of this Call to Worship at the end of this text. To see the entire service, click here.]

Teaching One: The Spirit Intercedes: If God Is For Us, Who Is Against Us?—Call to Worship and Mel Goertz’s Haiku

Imagine the urgency the Spirit of the universe feels right now.  It is calling to us, begging and pleading that we see what it sees and respond as it would respond.  More than that, as the Apostle Paul put it, the Spirit is interceding—it is shaking and waking people up, it is stirring a new consciousness.  It is on our side, the side of life and love and light, and if the Spirit is for us, who is against us?

Many times since my first sermon here three years ago I have told the story of how we got to this time and place, how the universe exploded into being thirteen billion years ago, how the solar system formed out of molecular gas and dust four and a half billion years ago and after five hundred million years life miraculously came into being, how those first single cells organized into ever more complex life forms and after three billion years the first reptiles crawled out onto land, how five times almost all life died out on earth and yet slowly came back after millions of years each time, how the human mind evolved over the past two hundred thousand years, and how just a blink of an eye ago, a mere 25 centuries, a new awakening in philosophy and religion and art emerged promoting an ethic of empathy, compassion, forgiveness, unconditional and universal love, the Golden Rule, justice, freedom, equality for all, based on the vision of the most evolved, wisest human consciousness, a vision of the true oneness of all life, loving our neighbor truly as our self.  Then yet another breakthrough happened—societies began to organize themselves based on that wisdom.  Not perfectly, but recognizably—democracies and republics emerged, and great social movements of reform moved those societies ever closer to the ideal.

Some saw the spirit of the universe as a force or power flowing through all time, places and beings.  They saw how it worked toward building harmonious communities of cells or humans that could provide the conditions for the sustainable flourishing of life on earth, not just for one species but for the whole.  Some called this force God and called the ideal world toward which the Spirit flowed the realm of God on earth.

They established institutions to help individuals evolve over the course of their lives beyond selfishness into citizens who would serve the common good, who would lay down their lives out of love, who would guide their communities and nations wisely and virtuously, who would move steadily toward the most expansive wisdom that humanity had attained so they could be entrusted with the wellbeing of all and help society evolve toward the ideal of the sacred way of God’s realm.

And yet at the same time some did not evolve along that path and could not extend compassion and empathy beyond their own tribe or believe in universal equality, equity and oneness, who believed that the highest good was the pursuit of self-interest and the individual’s acquisition of power and wealth regardless of the cost of destruction or diminishment to others, and this counter-culture became dominant and its wars and toxic wastes and oppressive abuses of the poor and vulnerable brought the entire planet to the edge of extinction, undoing all that the spirit of the universe had worked toward over four and a half billion years.

Look at this through the spirit of the universe’s eyes.  Peer down at this poor, precious, rapidly dying planet, and let your vision focus in on one little village in a remote, quiet corner of one devolving democracy.  See the worry, grief and longing in their hearts, see their love of nature and of one another, see their cherished ideals, see how fervently they are working to make their village and world fulfill the values that they know are essential to the survival and flourishing of life.

Imagine how much the universe wants to intercede and help them. Read More