What Does it Mean?

(April 21, 2022)

After the exhilaration of Easter Sunday and the joy of so many of us being together, face-to-face for the first time in many months, the question occurs to me: What makes our Church, and specifically our Sanctuary, such a wonderful, light-filled place to feel the presence of God?

Last week we celebrated the Empty Tomb. This week we ask, where did Jesus go, and how do we welcome him into our lives, our hearts, and our church? Surely the feeling that we experience in First Church is the result of what our church leaders, at the beginning of the 20th century, wanted to achieve when fire leveled our fourth meetinghouse to a pile of ash. To use a tragedy to create something sustaining for the future is, after all, the core message of the Easter story.

Church Services on Sunday

In-Person Service begins at 10 a.m. Facemasks are optional if you are fully vaccinated.

Watch us on Facebook: We livestream our services to Facebook. You may view them live or on demand at www.Facebook.com/DanburyChurch/videos.

Finding a Healing Spirit

All of us have had to deal with a pandemic tragedy. But right now, a number of us are coping with personal challenges – challenges to our health, our relations, our finances, and our families. Where can we bring ourselves to feel the healing nature of Spirit for all these disruptions? The answer can start at First Church.

Why did the church leaders respond to their 1907 tragedy by building this edifice, so different from a New England white frame building?

Hidden Symbols of God’s Presence

I think the answer to that question is embedded in this community’s love of music. I think the German poet Wolfgang von Goethe captured it perfectly for our church:  "I call architecture frozen music."

Our Sanctuary is definitely “frozen music.” It sings to us. It reverberates with the organ and with instruments with which we praise God. It lifts our hearts just looking at it.

This Sunday I will explore with all who are in attendance the hidden symbols and spiritual meaning of so many elements of our Sanctuary and church that we’ve been looking at all along, but haven’t understood their deeper intent for all these years. After all, it was Jesus in the Gospel who instructed us to build our houses on firmer foundations by learning from the insufficiency of our previous “dwellings.”

Come and join us for a different look at First Church and this fifth Meeting House.