On April 28th, twenty people gathered at the First Baptist Church in Essex to discern the ways in which we can support the children and youth here on the shoreline. The congregation was joined by Gail Beck and Cate Bourke from Tri-Town Youth Services and Lynn Fairfield-Sonn from Child & Family Agency. Pastor Joy Perkett began […]
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Community Conversation and Potluck on Youth and Children Tuesday, April 28th at 6:30 p.m. In February, First Baptist Church in Essex had a half-day retreat in which we decided to have a series of community conversations and potlucks on specific areas of interest as a way to listen, learn and discern what direction God is […]
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The women’s feet pounded on the dirt path. The three women had just come from Jesus’ tomb, where they had met a strange man who had told them the news that Jesus is alive. They responded by fleeing, by running, and even now their feet continued to press on the hard-packed dirt as they tried to make sense […]
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Scripture: Mark 16:1-8, John 20:1-18 When I was in the ordination process, I was required to write a twenty page paper that summarized my beliefs about God, Jesus and creation among other things. Obviously this paper was an important one, so I worked hard on my answers, researching the best books, and articles that I […]
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Worship with us during Holy Week! Maundy Thursday, April 2, 7 p.m.: We commemorate the last evening of Jesus’s time on earth, with communion, foot washing, and a Tenebrae service. Holy Saturday, April 4, 9:30 a.m.: We lift together our prayers for our community and our lives during our Moving Our Prayers Together event. RSVP […]
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I have been pondering this week what would it look like if Jesus’ procession had taken place today, right here in Essex? One poet suggested that we might buy balloons and mark out a parade route … perhaps right in downtown … we could get all different colored balloons and wave them as Jesus passed by… […]
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In my sermons, I have talked about several different ways to understand the Gospel, which means Good News. Last fall, I preached about the Gospel in two words. Does anyone remember what they were? Jesus stops. I talked about how Jesus doesn’t walk by people instead … Jesus stops and calls out to them and […]
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One afternoon, one of my colleagues, Pastor Rachel McGuire, was walking through Toronto, through Chinatown. The streets were all packed full. Toronto inspires walking and everyone walks, fast and focused. It was commuting time and everyone was off getting their errands done, running off to streetcars or picking up things from various stands. They were all kind […]
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