February Courier
First Congregational Church of Stratford
February 1, 2011
Super Bowl Bake Sale!
The Annual Pilgrim Fellowship Super Bowl Bake Sale will be
held after morning worship on February 6th!
Support JPF by buying and eating tasty baked goods!
Inside this issue:
“Did Jesus Give Us a New
Law- Rev.
Rawls
February Worship
Lenten Dinners
3
3
3
Board of Benevolence 4
Valentine Potluck/
Talent Show
5
The Lord’s Kitchen
Feeding the Hungry in Stratford-Bridgeport Area
Will be held at First Congregational Church
February 9, 2011
11:30am to 1pm
Sponsored by The Stratford Clergy Association
The Annual 18th Valentine Potluck Dinner and Talent
Show, sponsored by the Music Committee will be held
on Sunday, February 13, 2011
Come join us for a evening of fellowship,
fun and good entertainment.
Super Bowl Bake Sale
Women’s Service
League-Knitting
5
6
Women’s Service
League-Meeting
All church retreat
6
6
PF Sledding
Historical Notes
7
8-9
Kids page
Calendar
10
11
“Did Jesus Give Us a New Law?”
When I speak with people about our moral obligations as Christians, often people will say, “Well it boils down to being a good person; or being
good to each other.” Some might go so far as to say, “Treat others the
way you want to be treated:” or “Love your neighbor as yourself.” All are
true. But these bring up other questions in my mind. You see, I thought I
was set free from the law and that I now lived under grace? How do we
speak of law and grace? What does it mean to be holy in an age that
mocks even the idea? What does it mean to be a citizen of this new
kingdom?
These are questions we need to grapple with. But one thing is for sure.
The writer of Matthew wants us to see Jesus as the new Moses. And
just as Moses received the law for Israel on Mount Sinai, Jesus goes up
on a mountain to give us a new law. We call it, “The Sermon on the
Mount.” It begins with ten beatitudes the way the law began with ten
commandments. Or is it nine beatitudes? And then for the next three
chapters, we are told how to live as citizens of this new kingdom; the
kingdom that Jesus told us was very near. It’s radically different from
the law of Moses. For one, it’s a lot shorter. But also its focus is much
different. I had a friend tell me that this was all he needed to know live
a Christian life. I’m not sure. Maybe he’s right. In fact, if we could
come close to living by this new law, we’d understand the meaning of discipleship. So for the next month or longer, we will go through the Sermon on the Mount to learn who we are and how to be good citizens. We
will learn of the relationship of law and grace. We will learn how to pray,
how to deal with worry, how we are to relate to each other, and much
more. I hope you’ll join us as we grapple with the meaning of faithfulness
in this hectic world.
The Rev. Ed Rawls
Page 2
February Courier
WORSHIP FOR FEBRUARY
February 6 – Holy Communion – Isaiah 58:1-9a, Matthew 5:13-20,
Sermon: “A New Law”
February 13 – Deuteronomy 30:15-20, Matthew 5:21-37,
Sermon: “How Should We Then Live?”
February 20 – Leviticus 19:1-2, 9-18, Matthew 5:38-48,
Sermon: “Beyond Fairness”
February 27 – Isaiah 49:8-16a, Matthew 6:24-34,
Sermon: “Our Relationship with Money”
Lenten Dinners 2011
Lenten Dinners will begin on Friday March 11, 2011. We will be
serving fish, clams, scallops, and shrimp each of the 6 Fridays in
Lent. This is an event that needs many volunteers to cook, set-up
tables, wait on tables, and wash dishes. Please call Sue Wilson at
375-3074 to volunteer to work at the dinners or Sharon Brown at
377-4599 to volunteer to wait tables. This is a fun time for everyone who works at the dinners. Please join us for one or more of the
Lenten Dinners.
Volume 1, Issue 1
Page 3
Board of Benevolence News
MANY THANKS, to our wonderfully generous Church Family for your pledges. Though
many continue to face economic challenges, pledges for 2011 have surpassed those of 2010.
Because of you, we are able to help so many people in need!
In an effort to help everyone learn more about the organizations that our congregation funds we will periodically be including an informational section called
“Learning About Our Mission” in the Courier. It will focus on one or two organizations and how they make a difference in peoples’ lives. This month’s focus is
on Project Learn and The Janus Center for Youth in Crisis. These two programs are run
by the Council of Churches of Greater Bridgeport, a 66 year old ecumenical and social
service agency that responds to human need and develops cooperative action to leverage
hope and change lives.
Project Learn helps Bridgeport elementary children as they strive to keep up academically
and socially with their suburban peers. They work with children, ages 5 through 15, in safe,
welcoming neighborhood locations, providing help with homework, tutoring in basic subjects, the use of computers and other learning tools, and a variety of positive recreational
opportunities. Staff and volunteers provide children with the love, encouragement and respect they need to thrive.
The Janus Center for Youth in Crisis provides intervention services for conflicted youth
facing serious problems with their families, schools or the juvenile court. The mobile intervention team supports the program’s Safe Place network, responds to the 24-hour Youth
In Crisis Hotline, and provides counseling and referrals to necessary services. Each year
Janus Center for Youth in Crisis helps more than 400 teens by intervening, offering counseling, the option for brief respite care, and a workable plan for the future. Their goal is
to keep the family together – and the child out of state systems – where they cannot receive the individual care they need – and where they will be exposed to older, more serious
offenders.
YOUR BOARD OF BENEVOLENCE THANKS ALL OF YOU FOR YOUR ONGOING
GENEROSITY!
Page 4
The Music Committee Presents:
---------------------------...
th
The 18 Annual Valentine’s Potluck Dinner and Talent Show
Valentine’s Day, Sunday, February 13, 2011
----------------------The Annual Music Committee’s Valentine Potluck Dinner and Talent Show is scheduled for
Sunday - February 13th, 2011 at 5:30 pm in Lower and Upper Packard Hall. This has always been a sold
out event – great food, wonderful fellowship and outstanding talent! If you have been before, we will see
you back again. If you have never been, it is a great way to spend a Sunday Evening.
The sign ups for the Valentine Dinner will be after church services January 23rd, January 30th
and February 6th. There is a limited amount of seating-sign up early. Talent participants should speak to
Dr. Joe.
The cost is $ 7.00 for adults, $ 5.00 for seniors, and $ 3.00 for children over 5 years old. You will
be asked to bring a dish (main dish, salad, side or dessert)
when you sign-up.
The fees are payable at the time of sign-up.
We hope to see you there!
Your Music Committee
After dinner is the famous talent show and raffle, including the “Requests to Dr. Joe” clipboard
on which you can enter your favorite songs!!
All proceeds go to the Special Music Fund.
Super Bowl Bake Sale!
The Annual Junior Pilgrim Fellowship Super Bowl Bake Sale will be
held after morning worship on February 6th! Support JPF
by buying and eating tasty baked goods!
Page 5
Women's Service League Knitters
Since the ice and snow cause difficulty parking and walking, especially at night, the
Women's service League knitting group will meet at 10AM on Wednesday mornings
for a while beginning February 2. Please join us. All are welcome!
WOMEN'S SERVICE LEAGUE FEBRUARY 12TH
The Women's Service League will have its next meeting on Saturday
February 12th at 10AM - Upper Packard Hall
Let’s hope for better weather, so we can make plans for the new year.
Please join us as we look forward to the new year.
Irene Breault
ALL CHURCH RETREAT 2011
This year’s All Church Retreat will be held on June 10, 11, and 12 at the
beautiful Camp Bethel in Haddam, CT. We will meet at the camp on Friday
evening to share a meal and spend the week-end together sharing our faith
journey. There will be songs, games, crafts, discussions, worship, and swimming on Saturday afternoon. Please consider attending this week-end event
to meet and get to know your fellow church members in a rustic, relaxed
setting that overlooks the Connecticut River.
Your Retreat Committee,
Jen Nyquist, Don Coulson, Shenequa Ewers, Mary Tompkins,
Lucia Smith, Terry Kneece, Dick Breault, Bill Wilson, and Sue Wilson
Page 6
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Page 7
Historical notes on First Congregational Ministers,
researched by Zoltan Toman, church co-librarian."
"
The following was read in church on November 30 by Walter Dunbar, Al Brown and
Bob Preto-Rodas. Source materials are from Orcutt's History of Stratford and
Wilcoxson's History of Stratford."
Israel Chauncey was minister to this church after Adam Blakeman from 1665 to
1703, 38 years in all. He was graduated from Harvard in 1661. He resided in
Stratford and was paid a yearly stipend of 70 pounds sterling and a residence
was also granted to him. The meeting house stood near Mac’s Harbor. At his
ordination in Stratford, one of the lay members, Elder Brinsmead, imposed his
hands on Chauncey wearing mittens. Thereafter the Episcopalians called this the
"leather mitten ordination."
There was great strife and consternation at Church of Christ, as our church was
called, since the name "congregational" was not yet in wide use, at this time.
It was a question of church membership. By the original laws, only those could
be members who were original planters, those original colonists who established
themselves here by covenant. Among those who petitioned the town for membership
could become members only by a petition to the members and a religious
conversion experience.
Apparently, the original 17 God fearing landowners and their descendants who
inhabited Stratford grew to over 2000 by the end of King Phillip’s War with the
Narragansett Indians, around 1675, with many settlers and tenants moving in.
Since some of the descendants could not become members because of a lack of a
conversion experience, a half-way covenant was proposed into existence in New
England around 1662.
Full membership in the tax-supported Puritan church required an account of a
conversion experience, and only persons in full membership could have their own
children baptized. Second and third generations, and later immigrants, did not
have the same conversion experiences. These individuals were thus not accepted
as members despite leading otherwise pious and upright Christian lives.
In response, the Half-Way Covenant provided a partial church membership for the
children and grandchildren of church members. Those who accepted the Covenant
and agreed to follow the creed within the church could participate in the
sacrament of the Supper. Crucially, the half-way covenant provided that the
children of holders of the covenant could be baptized in the church.
Continued on page 9
Page 8
Puritan preachers hoped that this plan would maintain some of the church's
influence in society, and that these 'half-way members' would see the benefits
of full membership, be exposed to teachings and piety which would lead to the
"born again" experience, and eventually take the full oath of allegiance. Many of
the more religious members of Puritan society rejected this plan as they felt it
did not fully adhere to the church's guidelines, and many of the target members
opted to wait for a true conversion experience instead of taking what they
viewed as a short cut.
What did this have to do with our church, well listen and learn by this
dramatization:
Rev. Chauncey: Dear Brethren, I am encouraging you to stay true to the faith of
our fathers and become members by a true religious experience, and do not adhere
to this heresy, smacking of popism.
Rev. Walker: With all due respect, the learned pastor Chauncey does not
acknowledge the fact that we are just as fervent in our faith, just as pious,
and just as devoted to the teachings of Jesus Christ as are the respected Elders
and their families.
Rev. Chauncey: This church is not big enough for both congregations to exist side by side.
Rev. Walker: Verily, I am asking the General Court to grant us our petition to
establish our own ecclesiastical society, and in so doing, our own church,
without having to split membership.
Rev. Chauncey: I hope I will never see the day when the General Court abides by
such an odious request.
Well, my friends, the long and short is that the General Court granted the
petition, Rev. Zecharia Walker was given 3 hours to preach every week in the
first church at Mac’s Harbor, and a portion of the land for living, and a salary
by the settlement of Stratford, in 1668. The General Court later became the
Colonial Legislature. Reverend Walker took his adherents away from Stratford and
established a church in Woodbury, and Reverend Chauncey enthusiastically
supported the building of a new meeting house on Watch Hill, which is now known
as Academy Hill. Since he knew his constituency very well, he pledged 60 pounds
sterling of his salary over two years toward this endeavor in 1670.
And now let me respectfully ask you, dear brethren, when was it that the least
of you had a conversion experience, and let the Lord Jesus into your heart?
Page 9
Matthew Ranilla
Henry Silberger
Ana DiBlase
2/26
2/10
2/10
Courtney Thompson 2/27
FEBRUARY 2011
Sun
Mon
Tue
Wed
Thu
Fri
Sat
1
2
3
4
5pm Table Tennis
10am Knitting
7:30pm Choir/AA
7pm Seventh Day
5
9am-6pm Seventh
Day Adventist
7pm AA
7:30pm Camera
club
6
7
10am Worship w/
Communion/Sunday
School
4pm Bells
7pm Council/
Boy Scouts
7:30 Sister Cities
11:15 Fellowship/
BOCE
1:30 FSBC
5-7pm PF
13
10am Worship/
Sunday School
11:15 Fellowship
1:30pm FSBC
5-7pm PF
5:30pm Valentine
Potluck & Talent
14
20
10am Worship/
Sunday School
11:15 Fellowship
1:30pm FSBC
5-7pm PF
21
4pm Bells
7pm Boy Scouts
7:30 Sister Cities
27
10am Worship/
Sunday School
11:15 Fellowship
1:30pm FSBC
5-7pm PF
28
4pm Bells
7pm Trustees/
Boy Scouts
7:30 Sister Cities
4pm Bells
7pm Boy Scouts
7:30 Sister Cities
8
5pm Table Tennis
9
10am Knitting
7:30pm Camera
club
Adventist Church
10am AA
10
7:30pm Choir/AA
11
6pm-8pm Girl
Scouts
7pm Seventh Day
Adventist Church
15
5pm Table Tennis
16
10am Knitting
7:30pm Camera
club
17
7pm Diaconate
18
7pm Seventh Day
7:30pm Choir/AA
Adventist Church
22
23
24
25
5pm Table Tennis
10am Knitting
7:30pm Camera
club
7:30pm Choir/AA
7pm Seventh Day
12
9am-6pm Seventh
Day Adventist
10am WSL
Brunch/AA
19
9am-6pm Seventh
Day Adventist
10am AA
Adventist Church
26
9am-6pm Seventh
Day Adventist
10am AA
Brian F. Goodrich
Edward J. Dillon & Sons
General Contractor, Licensed &Insured
FLOWER & GIFT SHOPS
Building and Property Maintenance
Ph: 377-6672
Cell Ph: 382-4971
2168 Main Street
(203) 378-2226
Backhoe Services Available
1-800- 562- 1074
Recommended by Bill Hickey, Facilities Manager
First Congregational Church
Stratford, Connecticut 06615
Dennis &D’Arcy
The WilliamR. McDonald
Funeral Home
Funeral Home
2611 Main Street Stratford, CT06615
Burials - Cremations Transportation
203-375-0798
180 Boston Avenue
(203) 375-0057
2591 Main Street
Stratford, Connecticut
203-378-0758
Recommended by Bill Hickey, Facilities Manager
First Congregational Church
KNOTT & KNOTT
That ye love one another; as I
have loved you, that ye also love
one another. (John 13:34)
Attorneys at Law
1656 Main Street, Stratford, CT 06615
Telephone 375-1433 Facsimile 378-7192
Barry C. Knott - Kathleen M. Dunn
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Pro-Klean
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Carpet Cleaning & Window Washing
203-735-3351 or 800-442-7765
Raymond Pistey
Employ ed with great satisf action by
First Congregational Church
2155 Main Street Stratford, CT
Phone: 203.378.2213
Adzima Funeral Home
50 Paradise Green Place
Stratford, CT 06614
(203) 375-2200
David Banks
Licensed Massage Therapist
Relieve Stress and Aches and Pains
with Therapeutic Massage
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203-520-2246
CT License #005704
Funeral Director
Richard G. Ross
Attorney at Law
203-381-0092
IMAGINE
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Stratford, Connecticut 06614
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203-209-0008
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