 Greetings, friends! Welcome to CTUCC Conference Cast for April 3, 2014, the regular podcast of the Connecticut Conference of the United Church of Christ. Whoever you are and wherever you may be on life's journey at this very moment, you are welcome here. We begin this week's conference cast with this meditation from the Reverend Barbara Libby, Interim Associate Conference Minister for Clergy Concerns. In the 11th chapter of John's Gospel, Jesus comes to the tomb of Lazarus, four days after he had died. Jesus tells Martha that he is the resurrection and the life, and then orders the crowd to move the stone away. At Jesus' call, Lazarus comes forth alive, and they release him from the bindings of his burial shroud. Here we are, just a week away from Holy Week, with all its details of Jesus' last supper, arrest, trial, crucifixion, and resurrection. Throughout each Lent, we move towards Jerusalem with Jesus and his disciples. As poet Anne Weems writes in The Way to Jerusalem, the pilgrims trudge toward the death of God, only with bowed heads and closed eyes will they be able to see the way to Jerusalem. And yet I would counter her declaration for this week's text from John's Gospel, challenges us to really open our eyes to see Jesus, the Messiah, on his way to Jerusalem and his own death. In Bethany, at Lazarus' tomb, we are here confronted with both death and resurrection. After four days, Lazarus walks out of his grave. We hear Martha testify that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and we hear Jesus declare that he is the resurrection and the life, not in some future time, but here and now. We could so easily gloss over these declarations, if our heads are bowed and our eyes and ears are closed. We could miss that this story wants us to move into an active struggle with life as a process. We all know our lives are terminal. We know that death awaits each of us. No one kids themselves about that reality. Yet we also know that at some point in our own lives we have experienced the feel of those strips of cloth, the apparel of the grave, the shroud that wraps us so tight and so blind on this side of our physical death that we long for release and freedom. We know that we too have longed for the light of day and the feel of fresh air in our lungs. We know all that can bind us, our addictions and our fears, our feelings of incompetence and anxiety. We know the bindings of grief and loss, of resentment and hopelessness. We know that our own lack of faith can sometimes put us into a tomb where we struggle for every breath in this life. Barbara Brown-Taylor suggests, maybe that is why the lectionary gives us John's story about Lazarus on the fifth Sunday of Lent. It is a kind of rehearsal for what lies ahead, in which Jesus does for his friend what God will do for him. She continues, it is his and our assurance that there is power loose in this universe that is stronger than death, stronger even than our fear of death, which is able to call us out of our stinking tombs into the fullness and sweet mystery of life. I believe death can happen on both sides of the grave if we let it. Let us hear the words of Jesus for each of us, for our lives, be unbound and live. Here is a prayer for this week. God our inner Lazarus strains through the wrappings to hear your call. Summon us from our tombs. Call others to unwrap our shrouds. May we, at your word, come forth and live. Amen. In the news this week, the Connecticut conference offered thanks to 90 churches who had made pledges for their 2014 giving to our church's wider mission basic support yesterday in a live web telecast. Conference minister, the Reverend Kent Solati drew the names of two churches who had made pledges to receive special thank you gifts. And so the winner of the week of scholarship at Silver Lake is First Church of Christ in New Britain. And so the winner of the iPad mini is the church in Winstead. Our church's wider mission basic support which each of our local churches decides about itself is a primary funding source for the ministries of the Connecticut conference and the national and international work of the United Church of Christ. We thank all of our congregations for their support. So do you think you're invited to Silver Lake this summer? Oh you are and you'd better believe it. Here's a word from that amazing storyteller and longtime Silver Lake Dean Valerie Tudson. Are you wondering if there's a place out there where you can be the self you know you are and not the one others tell you you are? Are you wondering if there's a place out there where both sun and rain can give you a smile? Are you wondering if there's a place out there which fills your spirit? There is and we call it Silver Lake Conference Center, your conference center. Spend a week here this summer, swim, dive, play rock music, make new friends, play great games, create your own art, climb tall trees and enjoy the wonders of the natural world. Visit silverlakect.org to find out about all the different ways you can find a place here and hurry to register because no matter who you are or where you are on life's journey we are looking forward to welcoming you right here in God's backyard. This past Tuesday we said farewell to a wintry march and also said hello to the beginning of this year's Mission for One Earth initiative. Between now and June 15th, UCC members and friends around New England will strive to plant 50,000 trees, write 5,000 advocacy letters and perform 75,000 hours of engaged earth care. We've posted a submission form for your reports now and the first hours have come in. So take the time, spend a few dollars, put your mind and hands to work. Our precious planet needs our aid. Be part of Mission for One Earth. And here are two more deans' invitations to their Silver Lake Summer Conferences. Both of these have environmental themes as part of their program. Hi, I'm Josh. And I'm Emmy. And we are the deans for Speak for the Trees. I'm so excited to be doing Speak for the Trees again because we had such a great time last year. We have a whole lot of fun working with Dr. Seuss, which is of course a lot of fun. And I always end up coming back to the line about if someone like you doesn't care a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not. And I'm excited because I know that you care. And what we do in our conference is learn how to actually do stuff to make the world better. So come to Week 6 to Speak for the Trees. We'd really love to have you here. Hi, my name is Jared Altman and I'm going to be deaning food for thought this year. We're going to learn how to make some amazing dishes at camp. And we're also going to learn some sustainable agriculture practices. So maybe you can even raise some of the food you cook. Come to Silver Lake and we'll have a great time. And we're pleased to welcome conference archivist John Van Epps to the studio today for a multi-syllabic Touchstones with History. Our theme this month is anti-disestablishment and humanitarianism. Yes, that long word in English is part of our heritage. In the good old days, we were the established church in Connecticut, the standing order. We were the only church in town. In fact, all residents had to pay taxes for the support of our church and its minister. Governor Salton Stahl in the early 1700s was a congregational minister and was instrumental in the adoption of the Sabrec platform for the governance of our churches. In time, change happened. By the mid 1700s, Episcopalians were allowed to have their own churches and were exempt from the taxes for our churches. Soon, by the end of that century, other churches were allowed and people could choose whether or not to have their town taxes go to our churches of the standing order. But our churches were still the established order for the colony and later the state. When our missionary society of Connecticut was founded in 1798, Governor Treadwell was the first president for many years. Every year in May, there was a brief sent to the churches from the governor, authorizing a contribution in our churches to support these missions and the new settlements. In fact, as a legally incorporated body of the state government, the missionary society submitted annual reports to the state legislature until about 1870. Then in 1810, when the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions was established in Farmington, Governor Treadwell again was its president. Ah, but the times they were changing. The phrase Wall of Separation of Church and State is not in the U.S. Constitution. It was popularized in a speech Thomas Jefferson gave to the Danbury Baptists around 1790. In fact, the Constitution only prohibits a religious test for office and anything by the federal government to establish a religion. The Federalists of New England supported the standing order. Many ministers, including Lyman Beecher of Lichfield, opposed efforts to disestablish our churches. But by 1810, the Jeffersonian Democrat Republicans were in the ascendancy, and the Federalist Party was in decline, even in New England, where those Jeffersonians were known as the Toleration Party. They swept the elections in 1817 and called a convention for 1818 when the standing order and our establishment was dissolved. Although our ministers and clergy regretted the end of our privileged status, there are few records in our General Association minutes opposing these changes. Although Lyman Beecher said initially that this was the worst day in our history, several years later he remarked that this was the best thing that ever happened to our churches, because it propelled our churches and organizations to become free voluntary associations. Want to know more? Our State Historian, Dr. Walter Woodward, will be speaking on the 1818 Disestablishment at our annual Church Historian's Workshop at First Church in Coventry on Saturday, April 26th. And see our conference website for more details. The Spring Women's Spirit Retreat of Yoga and Sacred Chant will be held at Silver Lake this weekend. The film Gasland, part two about the risks of hydraulic fracturing or fracking, will have a showing in Southington on April 11th. The 86th annual gathering of the Connecticut Women of the UCC will be April 12th in Plainville. The weekend of April 25th is a busy one. That's Spring Action Weekend, which prepares Silver Lake Conference Center for the summer program. It's the weekend of the Awakenings Conference in Holyoke, Massachusetts. On Saturday the 26th, the Historian's Workshop will be held in Coventry, and the Connecticut Conference Choir begins its rehearsals for next fall in Nagatuck. This year's Journey to the Waters Edge Conference on Trauma Ministries is titled, Join Need Not Wait Till Morning. It will be April 29th in Madison. The Farmington Valley Association and Simply Smiles are timming up for a mission trip to the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribal Reservation in South Dakota beginning May 3rd. Silver Lake will host its annual open house for those interested in learning more about the summer program on May 4th. By all means come then, and bring a friend if you can. But also visit silverlakect.org to find out about summer offerings and to register. A new Silver Lake program this year is Clergy Camp. For pastors to spend three days renewing themselves in God's backyard, registration is now open. Clergy Camp runs May 13th through 15th. Mark your calendars now for May 17th, the fourth annual youth revival to be held this year at Dickswell Avenue UCC in New Haven. And golfers, go get your clubs ready for the eighth annual Silver Lake Golf Tournament on June 3rd in Waterbury. You can always learn more about what's coming up in the Connecticut Conference by visiting us at ctucc.org slash events. We conclude today with a spirited Wednesday thought from the Reverend Susan Izard, Minister of Spiritual Life for the First Church of Christ Congregational UCC in West Hartford. On a trip to Nepal last fall, a child greeted her with a bow and the words Namaste, Namaste, Namaste, which means the essence of who I am greets and honors the essence of who you are. Reverend Izard writes, Christ's spirit dwells in us. In the spirit, God greets us. In the spirit, Christ greets us. God and Christ bow to us offering a greeting. I see you as you see me. Together we can be about truth. Namaste, Namaste, Namaste. And that brings this conference cast to a close. Thanks to Barbara Libby for her reflection and to GarageBand for our music. Primary funding for conference cast comes from your congregation's gifts to our church's wider mission, basic support, changing lives to the United Church of Christ. This is Eric Anderson, the Minister of Communications and Technology for the Connecticut Conference of the United Church of Christ, praying that your days this week may be filled with the presence, the guidance, and the grace of God.