Six Months

August 8, 2006

Friends,

Grace and peace!

Six months, if you can believe that. That's right, we've been on this journey together for six months now and the first leg of our journey has been full of excitement and hope for the future of the United Church of Colchester. We have prayed together, broke bread together, served the poor together and we have even climbed mountains together.

As we begin our second six months together and begin to climb even greater mountains I pray that we will each dedicate ourselves to being more intentional in finding time to be shaped by the stories of our faith. Our Scriptures are not just an account of lives lived, they are the definitive account of life itself. I pray that we will begin to more completely see our own stories in the stories of faith, and share those connections with one another. The leadership of the church is working hard to create more opportunities for shared study and I hope everyone will make a genuine effort to be involved in this important piece of Christian formation.

Sunday worship is becoming an exciting event. And indeed it should be. Worship should reflect the life with God, which is anything but boring. It is my hope that each Sunday we will hear and sing great music which reflect the time-honored tradition of the church, that we will pray with and for one another, and that the hope the resurrection will be preached in a fresh and inspiring sermon. Pray as we seek to make put together a worship service that is all-at-once welcoming to outsiders, reflective of who we are as a particular part of Christ's church, and true to the great tradition of our faith.

Finally, as we continue our journey together, let us set our minds on continuing to be a people dedicated to loving one another and to seeking the peace of the community around us. A vision for being the beloved community should inspire us to share our lives more with one another, and with our neighbors. We are the broken fragments of Christ's body and we offer ourselves to one another as tokens of the promise of His salvation.

Alan Jones writes, "The opposite of faith is not doubt. The opposite of faith is certainty." The American Church is addicted to the certain. "Little ventured, little lost" seems to be its motto. But when I look out on the faces of the United Church of Colchester, I see a body of people who look like they are ready to take a giant leap of faith - together.

Who knows what we will leap off into? And who would want to?


Proud to be your pastor,

Ryon