Newsletter September 27

Come see the pictures, hear the stories and learn more about where your money is spent when you support the people in the village of Huai Krai. Thai crafts will be for sale - we even have a couple of new items! Hope to see you this Sunday, following the worship service.

This Sunday, Sept 30^th, will be the last one in our "Noah" rotation. (actually being in the classroom) We will have a video, or learning centers, about Noah on Oct 7^th, but you'll hear more about that next week! I've heard some grumblings from the 7^th and 8^th graders that they are tired of learning about Noah. Hmmm, they must know everything there is to know - which is really good news, because they will have a chance to test that knowledge this Sunday in the Bible Skills/Games Workshop. Good luck to you all!

I welcome topics for study from all church school students. If you have a favorite person or story from the Bible that you would like us to focus on, by all means just let me know! You can even help me plan it.

Wow! What a toe tapping worship time, so great to see and hear Red Letter Day again! Special thanks to Wes Zinn from Wellspring Church in Kensington for filling in for our Interim Sue Prichard this past week at Sunday Light. Dave Anderson also introduced our new settled minister, the Reverend Jack Cook and his wife Nancy. The Sunday Light Ministry team welcomed them with a gift bag of CD's, a candle and all kinds of goodies for their teenage daughter, Jen.

*Note: Check out our new ad for our Church on the internet radio station JunCTionradio.org Our ad is on the connections page. We can advertise all our church events here! Special thanks to Al Kim who has been instrumental in helping us here at First Church to move forward with new technology in many ways.

A Contemporary Christian radio station on the internet, 1^st in Connecticut. Check it out; you'll hear Al Kim, Band leader from RED LETTER DAY and Program Director for the station.

September 30^th- Acoustic Music by the First Church Youth Band. Guest speaker is Suzy Rivera, Outreach minister for the Friendship Center of New Britain, filling in for our Interim Sue Prichard.

The Search Committee wishes to thank all who participated in our activities this week. The Dessert Drop-In gave everyone a chance to meet the Rev. Jack Cook and his wife, Nancy. Attendance at worship and at the congregational meeting was spectacular, and the vote was overwhelmingly affirmative! The celebratory Sunday Brunch was a great success as well. We are thrilled to welcome Jack Cook as our next settled pastor, and extend our thanks to all those who offered up their First Church hospitality.

YOUTH CHOIR!!

First rehearsal is Sunday, Sept. 30, 11:15-12 noon

in the Choir Room.

EVERYONE in grades 2-8 is welcome!!

Please bring bag of bottles and cans to the Kitchen. Thank you in advance for your very generous donations!

What has been happening is, they build up, get rained on, and even stolen. This fundraiser benefits the youth program, to help cover unbudgeted expenses as well as donations such as over $200 to the orphanage in Thailand from the Youth of First Church.

Also, if you have not done so already, to adhere to our safe church policies, we need to register all children for youth groups, youth choir, and Sunday School.

We had a wonderful visit from Pastor Cook and his wife, Nancy, this past week at youth group. We had more lively discussions about Christian character. They had lots of questions and were eager to participate, and what fun we had together! We look forward to welcoming their daughter, Jen, who is in 9^th grade, *to our ?rag tag' bunch of Sr. High youth! (*Quote from Nick Mangan in prayer time)

We split the youth group up this week. It sure sounded like the Jr. High was having fun, with a lot of laughter coming from the Jr. High room! (Thanks Sarah) Aaron Mangan did a great job with his first "Word up with Aaron", a brief Bible story read to the group that goes with our lesson, continuing a tradition started by Dan Neiman, who now is in his 2^nd year at Springfield College.

And last but not least, a thanks to Pete Gacek who stepped in to cover lessons while I explained youth program to our new minister and his wife.

9/28-29-- Revolve Tour Girls only sleepover 5 pm Fri. - 5pm Sat. (to register-561-8557)

The congregation's affirming vote to make Jack Cook our next settled minister on Sunday concluded the Pastor Search Committee's hard and thorough work. Every member of that Committee deserves our thanks for a job well done and I hope you'll take opportunities to thank them in person. They are: Lynn Anderson, Chairperson, Dave Anderson, Vice Chairperson, Glenn Anderson, Betsy Armitage, Kingsley Boayke, Mike Duncan, Peter Gacek, John Gemmell, Margo Thompson Madore, Meg Nieman, Charlie Slate and John Thomas.

This Committee met at least weekly over the past 10 months and sometimes more frequently. Members saw the big picture and attended to the smallest detail. It was a pleasure and a treat to see hear that they became acquainted, spoke frankly amongst themselves, grew in mutual respect, divided duties, handled them competently and ultimately presented us with an outstanding candidate.

THANK YOU FOR EVERYTHING, SEARCH COMMITTEE. I have a feeling you won't ever forget this experience.

Please come to discuss the purpose of this group and its plans for the coming year! The group is welcoming women to participate in its wonderful annual Women's Retreat being held Nov. 16, 17, and 18th at the Mercy Center on the shore in Madison, CT. Women are welcome to attend the entire weekend or on Saturday only. The retreat is being led by two professional retreat leaders. Please come on Sun. Oct. 17th to learn more about this group and the retreat. For more information contact Janet Culton at 224-1320 (paul_t_culton@sbcglobal.net) or Gina Ohanesian at 214-4994 (ginao@snet.net.)

Sue Prichard wrote these articles about her trip before she left. Since then I have heard from her twice by e-mail. The first was to let us know that she had arrived safely (but exhausted) in Rome. A few days later her message simply stated, "We're having a blast!"

As I was getting ready for this trip, I tried to imagine what might be the most meaningful. The first week, we'll be in Italy. I did a lot of reading so that I would be better prepared for the many exciting places we'd see.

I started with Rome. During New Testament times Rome was the capital of the world. The Roman Empire controlled most of Europe, the Middle East, and northern Africa. It was in Rome where both Peter and Paul would be crucified for their faith. Rome would go on, over the years, to become the center of western Christianity.

In R.A. Scotti's book, Basilica: The Splendor and The Scandal: Building St. Peter's, I learned about the politics, history, and artists who put their mark on this grand structure. St. Peter's and the Vatican are the heart of Roman Catholicism, even today. It was from there that the affairs of the western world were controlled through religion for nearly 1500 years.

The other Italian city that I most wanted to visit was Assisi. In On the Road with St. Francis of Assisi, I learned where Francis lived and grew up; how he founded his order; and how he went on to become one of the most famous saints of the church. In and around the countryside of Tuscany and Umbria, he started monasteries, preformed miracles and taught the people that God was a God of love who wanted Christians to care for the poor as well as all living creatures.

We will be going to several Italian cities that were centers of art and culture during the Middle Ages such as Florence and Venice. While they have no direct connection to my Journeys with Paul, they played a role in the religious life of Italy and Europe. In Thomas Cahill's Mysteries of the Middle Ages: The Rise of feminism, Science and Art from the Cults of Catholic Europe, he talks about the great cathedrals, the religious artwork (painters, sculptors and architects) and the politics of the times. The Church was a major benefactor and patron of the arts. I'll bring back pictures.

Last week I left you with the question: Why did 120 of the 327 church members leave 1st Church to form another church in 1842? And: Which one? Some may know that the answer is: South Cong. Church right here in New Britain. But why did they leave? What was their "beef"? Among the reasons that I've found are differences of opinion over states' rights, abolition, "infant damnation" and total abstinence. But I haven't found yet which church took which side on these issues. Since many of the people who went to South Church were major industrialists who depended on getting raw materials from the Southern US, I assume that the abolitionists stayed at 1st Church. I invite your comments and thoughts on this. Carol North, First Church Historian, carolnorth@usa.net and 612-0692.