Visions for Our Community
(Posted November 18, 2021)
“In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams.” -- Acts 2:17
Wow! It took so much visionary planning and hard work for so many people at First Church to pull off a smashing celebration of our 325th anniversary!
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.
My profound thanks to all of our Fellowship Group, our Deacons, our Staff, our amazing Jim Moriarty and Meeting House Quartet and of course, our three guest speakers who set the tone for this event. Bravo to all! These representatives from the Southern New England Conference of the UCC were most impressed with you all. Our special thanks to Reverend Darrell Goodwin, Reverend Bob Naylor and Reverend Michael Ciba for being such wonderful assets to our service.
What's Your Vision for the Year Ahead?
Speaking of visions, it occurred to me that when we talk about Christmas, we often refer to certain kinds of "visions" -- as in "visions of sugarplums danced in their heads" for little children dreaming of St. Nick’s visit. But what about Thanksgiving? Do we have any visions for that holiday? I know it’s true for me and for many people. This is my FAVORITE holiday of the whole year, because it is surrounded with less commercialism and hawking of stuff that most people don’t need in the first place.
So I’m asking, with this being the first time in over 18 months that the pandemic has eased enough with vaccinations and sound planning, that we can gather with loved ones.
- What visions do YOU have for the year ahead?
- What would you like to see grow that is positive?
- What negative things would you consign to the "fires" of oblivion that has disturbed your thoughts in the middle of the night during this period of crisis?
As we sit around the table and realize, perhaps more deeply after a year apart, how truly blessed we are, let us all remember the role that America’s indigenous peoples played in helping the first Pilgrims to even survive their first year on this continent.
Our Thanksgiving Service this Sunday will give us a chance to discuss the vision WE want to have in our church lives and in our personal lives.
Christmas collection for Women and Children
In addition, this Sunday will mark the beginning of this Christmas Season’s collection for the Center For Empowerment and Education, formerly the Women’s Center of Danbury. The focus this year are on badly needed things by women and children, especially diapers and wipes, baby food and baby snacks, cereal, feminine products, and gift cards from Target, WalMart, grocery stores and pharmacies. We will be collecting these items at Church until Sunday December 19 which is the 4th Sunday of Advent. It seems especially fitting that a time that celebrates the movement of a mother and Child to a manger in Bethlehem is when we’ll be helping mothers and babies nearby.