 Welcome to this edition of Vantage Point. We are about to enter into the holy season of Lent, a time where Christians across the world are observing this time, a time of fasting, a time of almsgiving, a time of repentance, a time of confession, and a time to prepare for the coming of the resurrection of Christ. Welcome to this edition of Vantage Point. Give me today is Eric Anderson, our Minister of Communication and Technology for the Connecticut Conference of the United Church of Christ. Welcome, Eric. Thanks, Kent. It's great to be back here. It's good to have you here. So today we're going to have a conversation, Eric, about Lent and about this season that we are entering into. One of the most important seasons for the Christian Church and a time of observance among many of our congregations here in the Missionary Society of Connecticut. Eric, you wrote something in the Spirit Calendar, which really caught my attention. And you said in that calendar that this Lent you were going to try to believe the good news. Could you say something more about that? I'm intrigued by that. Sure. Two things came together for that particular statement. One is that I personally am in a state of grief this season. A much-loved aunt died just at the end of January. And the second thing that came together was one of the classic phrases that we use when we place ashes on people during an Ash Wednesday service. It's not the one, remember you are dust and to dust you will return. It says, repent of your sins, believe in the good news. And so this Lent where grief is such an overriding reality, believing in the good news is just that much more of a stretch. And that became my challenge as a Lenten discipline. Thank you. One of my favorite writers and teachers is a man named Henry Nowan. Henry writes these words about Lent. Lent is the most important time of the year to nurture our inner life. It is the time during which we not only prepare ourselves to celebrate the mystery of the death and resurrection of Jesus, but also the death and resurrection that constantly takes place within us. True repentance is an interior attitude in which we are willing to let go of everything that prevents us from growing into spiritual maturity. And there's hardly a moment in our lives in which we are not invited to detach ourselves from certain ways of thinking, ways of speaking, ways of acting. Lent is a gentle but also demanding time. It's a time of solitude but also community. It's a time of listening to the voice within but also a time of paying attention to other people's needs. It's a time to continuously make the passage to new inner life as well as to life with those around us. Believing in the good news involves proclamation and the good news needs to be proclaimed and people need to hear the good news. We've been trying to share the good news on our staff with our communications ministry by having members of the staff write reflections every week. This Lent and beginning this Lent, we're starting a new series not just relying on staff for reflections. Can you share something about what's happening in the conference around writing? I am so excited about this. We're calling it Spirited Wednesday and the very first issue comes out today on Ash Wednesday. We've recruited, I believe the number is now up to 28 folks from around the conference. Most of them are clergy, a few of them are lay people, a couple of members in discernment, people who have a faith foundation that they're interested in sharing. The very first piece is by Maxwell Grant, the senior minister at Second Congregational Church UCC in Greenwich, and I can't wait until everybody sees this one. I've already read it, it's just filled with charm and wisdom and depth and I think a lot of people are going to really find some value, some spiritual value in the things that these folks are going to share. How would I access Spirited Wednesday if I wanted to get those, is it an email subscription service, is it on the website, how do I find this? Yes and yes, it's actually fairly typical of our media in the Connecticut conference. Spirited Wednesday will go to the folks who are already subscribers to our spirit calendar, which is the weekly reflection from our staff members. That's an email, they sign up for it at ctucc.org slash phyto and there's a sign in process, put in your email, select the services you want, make sure you click spirit calendar and Spirited Wednesday and you'll be getting the next one. But you can also find it on our website at ctucc.org and we make sure that when we post a new one that it is highlighted in our Twitter feed and on our Facebook page. The Gospel text for Ash Wednesday is from the 6th chapter of the Gospel of Matthew. Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them, for then you have no reward from your God in heaven. So whenever you give alms do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be praised by others. Truly I tell you they have received their reward, but when you give alms do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing so that your alms may be done in secret and God who sees in secret will reward you. And whenever you pray do not be like the hypocrites, but they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners so that they may be seen by others. Truly I tell you they have received their reward. But whenever you pray go into your room and shut the door and pray to God who is in secret and God who sees in secret will reward you. And whenever you fast do not look dismal like the hypocrites for they disfigure their faces so as to show others that they are fasting. Truly I tell you they have received their reward. But when you fast put oil on your head and wash your face so that your fasting may be seen not by others but by God who is in secret and God who is in secret will reward you. Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal, but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is there your heart will be also. In the spirit of interdependence our conferences in New England are participating this Lenten something that is now the fourth year of practice around it, the Lenten Carbon Fast. And I'm excited to lend my support and my name to this endeavor to encourage people to also sign up for yet another reflection on how people can be mindful of reducing their carbon footprint. Can you say something about the Lenten Carbon Fast, the Ecumenical Carbon Fast? The Ecumenical Lenten Carbon Fast is a daily email message. You again subscribe to it there is a link to it right from the homepage of our website. Each day's message includes sometimes a reflection on an environmental reality in our world. Very often it's a practical step that you as a homeowner or a renter or just simply an ordinary citizen can take in order to reduce your use of energy and your harmful impact on our environment. It's a great service. So we are finding ways to deepen our relationship with God during this season of Lent. There are various ways that's done, some in writing, some in reflection, some in prayer, some in giving alms, a word that we don't talk about very much, but a way of making contributions to those who are in need of some support. Is there anything else you want to say in closing around the season of Lent that we're now entering into? Lent is an underappreciated season. We tend to associate it with some kind of a radical penitence and a penitence that increasingly seems to be disconnected from the actual state of our souls. But there is a reality I think that most of us, whether we be Christians, non-Christians, followers of some faith tradition or followers of no faith tradition at all, we are disconnected from our best selves. We are disconnected from those around us. And seasons like Lent remind us that it takes work to make those connections, to keep those connections, to renew those connections, to strengthen those connections, and when Lent comes to an end, to celebrate those connections, to see new life springing forth from what we thought was gone. Thank you. My guest today has been Eric Anderson, the Minister of Communication and Technology for the Connecticut Conference. We are grateful for your interest and vantage point. If you do have suggestions about our content for this video series, please email Eric Anderson at webmasteratctucc.org. Thank you and blessings to you. So here's a prayer for Lent. O God, be with us through this tender and delicate time. Be with us in the narrow and the thin places of the world. Break through and find us, for we are often wandering lost, and we seek the shepherd who seeks us. Amen.