 Greetings, friends! Welcome to CTUCC Conference Cast for January 16, 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 Dr. Michael Siba, Senior Regional Minister. In the sixth chapter of the Apostle Paul's first letter to the Corinthians, he writes about what is permissible and what is beneficial. Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, says Paul? Which you have from God and that you are not your own, for you were bought with a price. Even as a child, I was not much of a body person. I knew I had one and gradually came to understand that it pretty much worked the way it was supposed to. As I grew into adolescence, I came to understand that my body was weak and awkward compared to many of my peers. While I experienced some shame about this, the shame mostly came from others. Inwardly, I didn't care very much. As a young person, I cared about my mind. I wanted to understand everything, to learn more and more, and to invite others into the process of teaching and learning. I believed that knowledge was the path to happiness and the way to make the world a better place. Our bodies were pretty much along for the ride. Many years later, I now know that we are more than just our minds and more than what we can know. Human beings are not disembodied intellects and spirits. We are made of matter. We are our bodies as well as our minds and our spirits. Matter matters. As Christians, we affirm that God is incarnate, that God is embodied in Jesus Christ. Paul affirms that each one of our bodies is also a place where God dwells. Paul wants the believers in Corinth to stop doing things that dishonor the presence of God that dwells in each of them and in all of them together. This is a good place to start. Can we recognize that each of us body and soul is a place where God dwells? Can we treat our bodies and the bodies of others as we would treat the holiest of places? Here is a prayer for this week. Loving God, we know you most fully through your incarnate presence in Christ Jesus and through the presence of the Holy Spirit that dwells in each of us. Help us to love you with body, mind and spirit. May we love the bodies, minds and spirits of our neighbors in whom you are pleased to dwell. Amen. We ask your prayers for the family and friends of the Reverend Dr. Joseph A. Porter. In his long career, he served congregations in both the Methodist Church and the United Church of Christ, including two here in Connecticut. The first congregational church UCC of Ledyard and the Whitneyville Congregational Church UCC in Hamden. He died on January 3 at the age of 92. And we offer our prayers for those mourning loved ones lost to violence today, for those slain in Nigeria by Boko Haram, for those in Paris, and for those in the homes and streets of America. May God's comfort carry you when your feet no longer have the strength to bear you on. In the news this week, Silver Lake opened registration for summer conferences this Thursday and over 70 have come in in less than 36 hours. There are 39 offerings this year including service opportunities in rural Maine and South Dakota, active camps like Fun in the Sun or Biking North, conferences for family groups, or for a fourth grader and mom. There are conferences if you're entering your senior year of high school and there are conferences if you're in fourth grade. Thanks to long time Silver Lake or Devon Mulvaney, we've released a new video describing a new three-tier pricing structure designed to let people know the true cost of a camping experience while allowing families to pay according to their means. At Silver Lake, we continue to provide life-changing outdoor experiences within a Christian community to every new generation of young people and we are committed to keeping it affordable for all. We do this by partnering with our outside donors and our families to help cover the costs of maintaining a safe and welcoming camp atmosphere here in God's backyard. This is why we have created a more balanced tiered pricing structure that identifies our true costs and invites families to pay what they can. If you can pay the top tier, please do that. If you can pay more than that, great! Make a gift and we'll write you a receipt. So at the end of the day, we just really want to make sure everybody gets to come to Silver Lake. Learn more about it and about the experience of summer at Silver Lake at SilverLakeCT.org or view the video on our YouTube channel at youtube.com slash SilverLakeCT. With the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday this weekend and in the midst of a new civil rights movement active in the United States, the conference and its congregations are actively engaged in justice work. The conference has renamed its efforts the Racial Justice Ministry and having developed a robust training program for its event facilitators will make that training available this year not just to further leaders in the ministry but also to local church pastors and lay leaders. Amidst the struggle there is good news says associate conference minister for leadership and vitality the Reverend DeVita McAllister. We have heard people saying that they want to have conversations. In response the ministry has prepared two-hour discussion programs for local churches on the Black Lives Matter movement and on immigration reform as well as offering the congregation focused training in the fall. At the United Congregational Church UCC in Tallinn they continue to confront an evil associated with the history of race in America an evil which has persisted into the present though we wish it had not. Slavery. There are more slaves in today's world than there were at the time of the American Civil War and as a criminal enterprise it is exceeded only by narcotics trafficking. The Tallinn Church has a long-standing partnership with Sarah Simons of the Emancipation Network which works to free young women from sexual slavery in India. Thanks in great part over $20,000 in contributions from the church over five years Simons has been able to open a school for the emancipated girls this year. She'll be speaking at the Tallinn Church this Sunday. For more on these stories including the full video of Silver Lake Executive Director Tim Hughes keeping those objects in the air please visit us at ctucc.org slash news. The Reverend Dr. Verdi Powers is the featured speaker at the Hartford area celebration in honor of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on January 19th at Faith Congregational Church UCC. Pray and Play is a retreat for UCC clergy under the age of 40 at Silver Lake running January 27th through the 29th. If you're a high school age youth who's thinking about working for God for a living there's a weekend retreat for you at Silver Lake the weekend of January the 30th. Clergy women are invited to a special retreat day to refresh themselves with soul food for the journey on February 3rd in Glastonbury. There are still openings in this year's confirmation retreats in February and March. Be sure to sign your group up while there's space for you. Get ready for summer with a workshop called Unpacking Vacation Bible School on February 7th in West Hartford. The Stepping Stones Workshop Team Building with Youth Groups and Adults 2 will be February 10th in Cheshire with another Stepping Stones event on Church Asset Mapping for Faith Formation on February 26th in Milford. You can learn more about all the Stepping Stones workshops at ctucc.org slash Stepping Stones. Young people have an opportunity to prepare to be a counselor in training at Silver Lake with a weekend conference March 13th through 15th. Get Super Saturday on your calendar. The day of workshops features keynote speaker the Reverend Reuben Duran who works on promoting new church development for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. This joint venture with the Massachusetts Conference will be held March 21st in Ludlow, Massachusetts. The women's yoga and spirit retreat is at Silver Lake March 27th through the 29th as is the Maple Sugaring Weekend. Stewardship in the Changing Church moving from consumerism to generosity is the theme of this year's Ecumenical Stewardship event April 17th and 18th in Boxborough, Massachusetts. To learn more about these events or to register visit us at ctucc.org slash events. Our spirited Wednesday thought comes from the Reverend Zachary Mabe pastor of the Terryville Congregational Church UCC. He remembers how his life changed when he traveled to La Plante, South Dakota and saw the conditions on the reservation during a Simply Smiles mission trip. He writes, come and see. In a day and age when everything can be looked up on the internet we could choose to stay in our homes or offices and view everything through our computers or smartphones. In person we may find something much more meaningful than a like button. We may find Christ present in the world and we may find our lives forever changed for the better. And that brings this conference cast to a close. Thanks to Michael Siba 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.