Greetings -

Let me first express appreciation for the many kindnesses the people of FPCC have shown to Susan and me during my mother’s illness and following her death. It has been wonderful to have such a supportive community.

My mom was an energetic, highly intelligent woman who loved family, her community, and her church. Her career spanned over 44 years in the Madison, CT school system, where she served as a children’s librarian and educator. The last conversation I had with her was a very lucid one, even though she was quite sick. She instructed me to purchase some books, to be “from her”, for our daughter’s yet to be born child. My mother loved reading, and instilled that passion within me.

It is in part, because of her, that I so appreciate the work that the Library Committee is doing. They have been gathering for quite a while now. They have done a great deal to enhance our upstairs library. They have sponsored all church “book reads,” as well as adult study. They were responsible for putting together the Advent Reader before Christmas. Last year, during Lent, thanks to the generosity of Bill Gregory, the Committee made books available for borrowing to deepen people’s spirituality. The Library Committee does this out of their passion for reading and the belief that reading can deeply affect us, and help us in the transformation process.

The Committee is seeking your assistance in a couple of ways. First of all, they would like to hear from you about the books, poetry, novel, theological treatise, biography or piece of music that has affected you or has made a difference in your spiritual journey? We would love to make a list, and begin to collect your choices so that we can display them during Lent making them available to others, perhaps helping them to go deeper spiritually.

And we would like to go one step further. We would love it if each month in our newsletter we could have a feature that would include a description of a book or two, a poem, a piece of music etc. that has made a difference. Bill Gregory has written a piece for this month describing a book entitled, Falling Upward. Becca Green has also written an article, sharing how the words of music, during the season are intentionally chosen.
Blessings, Kent

Note: the Library Committee is planning a bulletin insert in February which will offer a place for members and friends to record their selections. In the meantime, check out Church Life for Bill Gregory’s and Becca Green’s spiritual journey choices.

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It feels like we have just finished Christmas and it’s hard for me to believe that we are already preparing for the season of Lent. As some of you may know, at the beginning of this program year I asked the church school and other groups not to meet in the chapel with the hopes of exploring the possibility of setting aside the chapel as sacred space. The question then becomes, what is sacred space? Does having a group meet in the chapel necessarily negate the sacredness of the space? What about the church school? What about a movie? What about a one-time education event? I don’t know the answers to those questions. But what I do know is that plenty of people have told me that the chapel just doesn’t feel like a place for “real” worship.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I am as much of an advocate as anybody that almost any space can be made into a sacred space. But what we are talking about here is setting the chapel such that by simply entering the space you begin to feel more prayerful and you feel a sense of the holy. And so, during Lent we will begin exploring the chapel as sacred space. This will include “setting the space” and also gathering in the space as we mark the season of Lent. I invite you to take the season of Lent to prayerfully consider and interact with the chapel. We are all journeying together, so please feel free to share your thoughts with me or Kent or the deacons so we can continue to shape our life together as a community mindful of ourselves as embodying God’s story in this place and at this time. Blessings on the journey, Kate.