Thursday, April 6 9 pm – Friday, April 7 12 pm

Each year we open the Sanctuary for an overnight Vigil. It has become a sacred moment in preparation for Good Friday and Easter. The Sanctuary will be darkened but still navigable. We begin at 9:00 p.m. following the Maundy Thursday service on April 6. The Vigil runs overnight and ends with a Good Friday service at noon on Friday. Two individuals or pods are welcome for each hour. In order to insure that, we ask you to sign up beforehand.

Ripley Chapel 4-7 pm

As the temperature and tension rises in our country in the face of another election, we want to open Ripley Chapel as a space for you to come and pray for our country before or after you vote.

Divided as we are, we can all pray with undivided hearts that God’s grace will be present to us in victory or defeat, that all violence and intimidation eschewed, that the elections will be fair and just and our democracy strengthened.

We will have candles burning and someone holding the space in prayer and you are welcome to come for as little or as much time of silent prayer as you need.

Peace in Christ,
Your Ministry Team

Tenebrae Service

Tonight at 7 pm find a darkened room in your house and listen with us to the story of Jesus’ passion from the Gospels of Matthew, Luke, and John. The sacred words will be read by your Ministry Team and Deacons with special music by Jeffrey Mead and Peter Owens.

We hope this presentation will deepen your experience of Holy Week as we remember Jesus’ suffering and death, offered out of love for a broken and hurting world.

Then on Friday at noon we will gather on Zoom – go here – for an interactive but prayerful closing Good Friday Service. We hope these services will help you experience the depth of Holy Week in preparation for the celebration of Easter.

July 11, 2019

Jesus tangled with politics when he healed a stranger on the Sabbath.

Jesus tangled with politics when he shamed a few “good” men who were preparing – rocks in hand – to exact justice on a woman caught in adultery.

Jesus tangled with politics when he submitted himself to capital punishment by crucifixion, revealing the depraved injustice of Rome’s renowned justice system.

Many say “be careful tangling church and politics!” I agree we should be careful.

But “careful” does not mean keeping the church a place of personal spirituality and silenced on broader issues of human welfare.

When Jesus, the Son of God – a politically loaded emperor’s title, btw – offered us examples for how we should be, he pointed directly, time and time again, to how we treat the foreigner and the stranger. Herding groups of them into detention centers to keep them apart from us is antithetical to His gospel.

Won’t you be careful tangling church and politics with me and Rev. Judy and consider coming on Friday night at 7pm to the steps of the State House to hold vigil for an end to our country’s detention camps? We’ll be joined by thousands and thousands of others across our country all calling for the same thing. Email me if you are interested and for more information see www.lightsforliberty.org