 Greetings, friends. Welcome to CTUCC Conference Cast from March 20, 2015, 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 Kent Silotti, Connecticut's conference minister. In the 31st chapter of the book of Jeremiah, that relentlessly gloomy prophet suddenly records words of deep and moving hope. God promises a new covenant saying, I will put my law within them and I will write it on their hearts and I will be their God and they shall be my people. God creates covenants with people. Think of some of the covenants from Scripture. The covenant made with Noah, with Abraham, with Moses, with David, and the new covenant that God established with Christ. God as the initiator of covenant keeps a promise like a parent loves a child. God's covenant is sure, solid, and everlasting. There's nothing conditional about God's covenant. One member's failure does not destroy the relationship. It is unconditional free and filled with grace. Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. Jeremiah 31, 31. Jeremiah offers words of hope. While the people had broken their end of the bargain, God did not abandon them. The God of creation would recreate them. The God of Exodus would embrace them again. The merciful, tender, loving God would forgive all their sin and absolve them of the sins of their ancestors. The sin that led God to surrender Judah and Jerusalem to the Babylonians, it would be forgiven. This time it's about a new heart. It's God transplanting hearts. We don't need to get a second opinion about this one. It's about moving beyond the old agreements and entrenchments that have us sitting in a funk about where the church is headed. It's about building and planting. It's about God doing a new thing. It's about God writing a new song on our hearts. It's about a new heart allowing God's spirit to break through our hard-heartedness. It's about a new heart for prayer. It's about a new heart for community. It's about a new heart for unity. It's about a new heart for covenant. It's about a new heart for justice. It's about a new heart for healing the nations. It's about a new heart for love. Here is a prayer for this week. Creating us a new heart of God. You are doing a new thing in our midst and we give thanks that you love us beyond measure with a love that simply will not let us go. Thank you. Thank you for your incredible gift of grace in this season of Lent. Amen. We ask your prayers for the residents of Vanuatu today. The Pacific nation whose islands lie northeast of Australia suffered beneath a category five cyclone last weekend. And as you pray for them, we ask also that you pray with your gifts sent through your church or online to bring aid swiftly to those who need it. In the news this week, Connecticut Conference clergy and lay people reviewed the ethics of ministry last weekend. Friday morning at the first congregational church UCC of Southington, two members of the UCC's legal team, General Council Don Clark and Associate General Council Heather Kimmel met with approximately 70 clergy and ministry students to survey some of the ethical challenges of their profession. In particular, they focused on questions of confidentiality. When is it appropriate to share information someone has shared with you? And on what basis do you make that decision? The two recommended that ministers accept as a working standard for confidentiality this definition. We define a confidence as a covenant to only tell those who need to know what they need to know when they need to know it. It's a covenant to tell those who need to know what they need to know when they need to know it. Clark and Kimmel hinted at their dramatic talents during the workshop, offering a series of scenarios to challenge the assembled ministers' assumptions about sharing information. But later that evening, they took to the stage at the congregational church of South Glastonbury, UCC, with clergy ethics the musical. CTUCC Chronicle, the Reverend Sarah Jane Munchauer, has a review of the performance on our website now, and she says in part, they kept their audience listening and laughing. Starting with the out of the gate topic of sex, they went on to cover ethical questions around technology, confidentiality, public witness in social justice issues, questions around former pastors, and the all-important fitness reviews. She goes on to quote a member of the audience who said, it was a painless way to convey a lot of important information. The conference is ready to accept applications to the Joseph Clemens Job Training Program. Racial Justice Ministry Program Associate Isaac Montz describes it as a life-changing job training program, providing experiences of group fellowship and support, as well as skills building for young people of color. They'll spend time at Silver Lake Conference Center working alongside the summer staff there, and reinforce the skills they've learned with further orientation to the ministry of the Connecticut Conference. From the relationships and bonds which are built over the course of the program, he writes, to the moments of struggle and triumph that are shared with the brothers and sisters. This experience will equip youth with the tools to be successful not only in the blue-collar work world, but also in the white-collar professional work world. Silver Lake Summer Deans were also getting ready last weekend, coming together for their annual retreat to renew their skills, reconcile their program schedules, and rejoice in the wonders of outdoor ministry. The Reverend Ryan Gackenheimer, Associate Pastor at First Congregational Church UCC in Essex, Vermont, and a longtime leader in the Vermont Conferences program at Covenant Hills, encouraged the Deans to help young people as they try on different hats and explore who they are and who they want to be. The Deans also took some time to record invitations to potential conferees, which are now posted on Silver Lake's YouTube channel, youtube.com slash silverlakect. The Connecticut Conference is seeking nominations for the Living Waters Award, which recognizes a layperson for the ministry they do in their day-to-day life in the working world. Learn about that, find out more about all these stories, and check out the current headlines at ctucc.org slash news. Super Saturday is this weekend, featuring keynote speaker the Reverend Ruben Duran, who promotes new church development for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. I'll be there with cameras and recorders, and I look forward to seeing you in Lutlo, Massachusetts. The women's yoga and spirit retreat is at Silver Lake, March 27th through the 29th. The maple sugaring weekend welcomes middle school age youth for an experience of the sweetness of creation, tapping trees and boiling sap as people have for hundreds of years. That's also being held the weekend of March 27th. Stepping Stones offers part one of keeping our churches safe on April 9th in Hartford. You can also register for stewardship in the changing church from consumerism to generosity. This year's Ecumenical Stewardship Event, which runs April 17th and 18th in Boxborough, Massachusetts, and come back to Hartford on April 21st for part two of keeping our churches safe. Silver Lake's Spring Action weekend is May 1st through 3rd, and that's our opportunity to get the outdoor ministry center in Sharon ready for the summer season. The conference youth revival is May 3rd in Bloomfield. And registration is open for the New England Association of United Church Educators gathering, which runs May 5th through 7th in Craigville, Massachusetts. Authorized ministers can renew their boundary training on May 7th in Tolland. Silver Lake's Spring Open House is May 17th, a great opportunity for first time conferees and their families to get to know the blessings of the place we often call God's Backyard. In Silver Lake will host the Environmental Justice for All Retreat, the weekend of May 29th, for high school age youth of color to explore the environmental concerns of their own neighborhoods. Registration is also open for the 9th annual Silver Lake Golf Tournament, to be held June 8th in Wallingford. To learn more about all these events or to register, visit us at ctucc.org slash events. Our spirited Wednesday thought comes from the Reverend Erica Thompson, Associate Minister at the Asylum Hill Congregational Church UCC in Hartford. We've had a troubling winter here in New England, and as we approach Holy Week, Reverend Thompson recalls that Jesus confessed that his soul was troubled as he spoke to others before his arrest and crucifixion. Jesus also said during those incredibly difficult times, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain, but if it dies it bears much fruit. Life is a part of death, as death is a part of life, inner and outer storms. However, it is only when the storm has stopped, or the snow has melted, that we are able to recognize the beauty and the transformation which has taken place, even when we could not see. That brings this conference cast to a close. Thanks to Kent Solati for his 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 through the United Church of Christ. This is Eric Anderson, the Associate Conference Minister for Proclamation, Identity and Communication 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.