We invite you to join us in worship and on Welcome Home Sunday on September 18th at 10 a.m. It will be followed by a potluck at the church. Please bring something to share. There will be options to eat both outside and inside. It is a great to connect and re-connect with others!
The mini-retreat will be December 18 from 9 to 10:30 a.m. Join us for a time of meaningful time of connection and growth as we reflect on theme of journey. The retreat will be hosted on Zoom. Please contact Pastor Joy Perkett for the Zoom information (revjperkett@gmail.com, 860-581-0493).
PrayerEveryone
(1) “Happy and helpless / At the same time” verbalizes what it may have felt like, humanly, for Jesus to be baptized and to receive being beloved. Then, by extension, it becomes what it could feel like for us to be baptized, to remember our baptism, and to receive being beloved. (2) “Held in the […]
Read More »
Luke 6:27-38 Water changes everything. This truth washed over me with the summer rainfall as Matt and I trekked ever upward, determined to reach the top of the mountain peaks that beckoned us. We had been working on a patch to hike the highest 46 mountain peaks in the Adirondacks – and time was of […]
Read More »
VALLEY FORGE, PA (ABNS 6/16/18) — A letter has been sent to Jeff Sessions, in response to his remarks which cited Romans 13 as justification for practices such as separating children from their parents in immigration cases. After discussion with the Board of General Ministries at its meeting in Green Lake, Wis., June 13-15, Dr. Lee […]
Read More »
Psalm 118:1-5, 19-29 & Mark 11:1-11 The psalmist writes: “Out of my distress I called on The Lord; the Lord answered me and set me in a broad place.” What does it meant to be set in a broad space? Two years ago, during Lent, my friend and colleague Jennifer Zogg came to Essex and […]
Read More »
Joel 2:12-17 American Poet Langston Hughes writes: “Gather out of star-dust, Earth-dust, Cloud-dust, Storm-dust, And splinters of hail, One handful of dream-dust Not for sale.” Great things come from dust. Hughes reminds us of that with his words; the book of Genesis reminds us of that when it tells us that God fashioned humankind out […]
Read More »
Every Saturday, 10 a.m., Helen Henry Fellowship Hall Join us for a time of prayer. Centering Prayer is a method of setting an intention to consent to God’s presence and action within. Briefly, it’s a method that allows one to “rest in God,” which, in turn, sparks an inner transformative process. Most would say that […]
Read More »
In her book Thirst, Mary Oliver writes a poem called “The Messenger” which reads: “My work is loving the world. Here the sunflowers, there the hummingbird – equal seekers of sweetness. Here the quickening yeast; there the blue plums. Here the clam deep in the speckled sand. Are my boots old? Is my coat torn? […]
Read More »
The First Baptist Church in Essex 