School’s out for summer, the Sox are in first place (hopefully) and we are celebrating the end of another exciting year at TCC. Let’s take time to celebrate a couple of highlights and take a well-earned rest as we move into our summer worship time and a period of enjoying God’s gracious creation.
For those who attended Children’s Sunday, you were witness to the incredible talent, creativity, and energy of our kids. Through the efforts of Sarah Goyette (Church School Director), Renée Fossey (Music Director), and Heather Mulrenan (Christian Education Director), we had a great celebration of how the children of the church have learned to pray, and it was a lesson for us all delivered in a light-hearted, humorous, yet faithful manner. Want to know the secret to prayer? Well, you’ll just have to talk to God to find out.
We had five more of our youth become full members of the Church on Pentecost Sunday, May 15. Congratulations to Benjamin Mulrenan, Benjamin Hersey, Melissa Genoter, Dominic Capone, and Ray Cutler for completing (and enduring!) 15 weeks with Pastor Mark and learning, experiencing and living the Christian faith. We have strong partnerships now with our sister interfaith and ecumenical partners at Jewish Reformed Temple Isaiah in Lexington and the Greek Orthodox Church of the Transformation in Lowell. We look forward to them visiting us someday to learn about the progressive Protestant tradition of the Christian faith!
As we make the transition to become a community Church that serves all of Townsend’s people, let’s remember that our faith remains strong (loving God with all our hearts, minds, and spirits, in whatever form or person God comes to us) while we adopt both old and new traditions. I am personally warmed by the ecumenism we are sharing with our sister churches (Townsend Baptist, Townsend UMC, and St John’s Roman Catholic) as we do more stuff together: youth activities like the Six Flags trip; coffee get-togethers after worship; the summertime ecumenical hymn sing; and community gatherings like the Memorial Day parade and the Christmas Tree lighting. The more we remember as a people of God that all is given from God and provided for us to share with one another, the more we will strengthen both our churches and the community which underlies the gathering and healing place we call Townsend Congregational Church.
As we approach my second anniversary leading you (June 30), I am pleased and proud to be your Pastor, and look forward to our continued partnership as servants and disciples in this our Kingdom of God-Townsend. God gives us the gifts of time and relationships, and so let’s continue to enjoy each of these as we go into and grow through the summer season: come to church to meet new friends and faces, and get in the game to know that it’s through giving our time and energy that we will find joy, no matter what else befalls us in our lives. Because God is faithful and good, and we need more of that in our lives every day.
Blessings to you all,
Pastor Mark
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