 Greetings, friends! Welcome to CTUCC Conference Cast for October 10, 2013, 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 Conference Minister. After the catastrophe of Jerusalem's fall to the Babylonians, with many of its leaders taken away into exile, the Prophet Jeremiah wrote to those who were now far from home. He told them to build houses and live in them, to celebrate marriages and births, and to seek the welfare of the city of Babylon, where they were now in exile. For in its welfare, he told them, you will find your welfare. The people were in exile, they had left their homeland and they were not a happy bunch. When you leave your home behind, you leave behind the familiar. You may also leave behind a sense of security and being located in a place where the rhythms of life have some sense of predictability. This was not a job or a retirement relocation. The people were forced to leave the place they loved and they yearned for the day when they could return to their homeland. I would imagine that thinking about returning to their homes occupied their hearts and minds for much of their waking hours. The Prophet Jeremiah speaks the word of the Lord to the exiles, build houses and live in them, plant gardens and eat what they produce. Settle in, folks, this time of exile is not going to be a few days or a few weeks. While this might not be your first choice, you should be prepared to make a home right here, right now. And then Jeremiah proclaims this, but seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile and pray to the Lord on its behalf for in its welfare you will find your welfare. Talk about a counterintuitive statement. Let me see if I have this right. You want me to get a mortgage, buy some burpee seeds and plant tomatoes and you want me to work on making the city a better place? Don't you have a better plan than that, God? One anonymous blog writer puts it this way. To people who are still mourning the homes from which they have been torn, God says, build new ones. To people who remember with tears the backbreaking labor they put into cultivating the land, God says, plant more crops and then eat them. To people who look at their neighbors with suspicion and dread, God says, get to know them. More than that, marry them and have children and let your children marry. More than that, pray for them. Pray for your captors the Babylonians. Not an easy word for the prophet to bring to the exiles. I think it's an instructive and an adaptive word that we might need too. We can mope and cry and lament that things are not what they used to be or what we once imagined them to be. We can feel like we are in exile, cast out of all that we once knew and pine and dream away for the good old days. We can play if only all day, or we can in essence find ways to love God and love neighbor, right where we are today. Here's a prayer for this week. When we feel like exiles, oh God, remind us that you call us to make a home where you place us. When we feel like we are in a foreign land, remind us that you are with us wherever we are. Help us to seek the welfare of the city and to work for justice in the city. Remind us of your continuing and abiding presence. Amen. In this second week of the federal government shutdown, we raise our prayers on behalf of all those who suffer for it. And we ask that God's wisdom come to our elected officials. We echo the prayer of U.S. Senate Chaplain, the Reverend Barry Black, who said, Deliver us from the hypocrisy of attempting to sound reasonable while being unreasonable. Amen. In the news this week, the October issue of contact has begun arriving in mailboxes around the state, and you'll find its content on our website at ctucc.org slash contact c-o-n-n-t-a-c-t. Our theme is new beginnings go boldly. And we've tried to tell stories of churches and faithful people striving to meet new challenges with courage and with faith. We're highlighting our sacred conversations on race initiative, which has a profoundly ambitious goal, no less than to eradicate racism. In addition to the leadership provided by ministry team chairs, the Reverend Dr. Keith Bolton and the Reverend Deborah Blood, we're currently searching for a staff person to support their work and hope to announce that person's selection soon. As associate conference minister for youth and young adult ministries, Day McAllister told us a few weeks ago. The fact that we have completed enough of our task that we're in a position now to hire someone says a lot about the way that this ministry has really taken hold in the conference and individuals and congregations and committees on ministries, their general interest and enthusiasm in the work. And our congregations are saying they want to have conversations about race. At Silverlight Conference Center this past summer, the dining hall echoed with a new song each meal time. Now, I'm afraid I didn't record it while I was there, but it sounded something like this. The Oort Report, I say OO-A-Oort Report, yeah! And in case you're wondering, yes, doing this podcast frequently is a lot of fun. The Oort Report would inform the conferees about the waste from the previous meal, how many pounds of food had to be thrown out, versus how many pounds could go to create compost for the vegetable garden. These would also spend time in the garden learning about sustainable agriculture and doing the regular work of planting, weeding and harvesting. They'd see some of those vegetables on their tables. Silverlight Sustainability Director Pam Ariffian plans to further develop the educational program there to make our Outdoor Ministry Center in Sharon a center for environmental justice work throughout the Northeast. When the Connecticut Conference assembles for its annual meeting on Friday and Saturday the 18th to 19th of this month, the Connecticut Conference Choir will be ready. They've held four rehearsals over the summer, and in addition to music they've given their time and attention to sacred conversations on race rooted in that music. The selections they'll present at Saturday's worship service come from a range of traditions and will resound in no less than three languages, plus one more silent one, American Sign Language. We're very pleased to have this be the first program to receive sacred conversations on race funding, and we look forward to many years of further sacred dialogue and sacred music. We're also delighted to report that we've posted no less than eight videos from Kent Salade's installation to our YouTube channel over the last week. You'll find the sermon of the Reverend John Dorhauer, all six calls to Covenant and the ritual of installation itself. They're on our YouTube channel at youtube.com slash ctucc. Remember as well to check out all these stories in contact at ctucc.org slash contact, and any day of the week you'll find our current headlines at ctucc.org slash news. Materials and registration for this fall's annual meeting to be held October 18th and 19th in Hartford are online at ctucc.org slash annual meeting. Reservations for meals must be made by the end of today, October 10th, so get to that site and get your registration in. The Reverend Mike Piazza is the keynote speaker, and the Reverend Kent Salade will preach at Saturday afternoon worship. The Reverend Quinn Caldwell is the featured speaker for the authorized minister's luncheon that begins the weekend at noon on the 18th in Meridan. Give Squared will have a service day in Hartford on Saturday the 19th in parallel with the annual meeting. They'll be commissioned in the morning service and return for afternoon worship. The registration again is open, the registration for annual meeting and the authorized minister's luncheon is made together, the registration for the Give Squared event is separate. Visit us at ctucc.org to sign up. The Women's Spirit Retreat runs that very same weekend again October 18th through 20th at Silver Lake. The Tree of Life conference on Israel and Palestine is Sunday October 20th in Old Lime. And on that same day the Reverend Dr. Frederick Streets will be installed at Dickswell Congregational Church United Church of Christ in New Haven. Spend some time in conversation with our new conference minister. We're looking at six opportunities before the end of December. The first two happen, one on October 22nd in Marlboro and the second October 24th in West Hartford. Silver Lake's Fall Action Weekend runs October 25th through 27th and you can learn about facilitation skills for more effective meetings in West Hartford on October 28th. On November 7th the Interreligious Eco Justice Network hosts a Climate Stewardship Summit in Hartford. Authorized ministers can update their boundary training that same day November 7th in Southbury and the Saints Group of Retired clergy will have their Fall Gathering on November 19th in Cheshire. Registration is open for the Christmas at Silver Lake Retreats held at Silver Lake December 6th through 8th. There are two that weekend, one for 5th and 6th graders and the other for 7th and 8th graders. You can learn more and sign up at SilverlakeCT.org. And registration of course is still open for the 2013 and 14 series of confirmation retreats. Keep in mind three of the five weekends are full, so be sure to learn more, select dates and get your registration in at ctucc.org slash conf retreats. You can always learn more about what's coming up in the Connecticut Conference by visiting us at ctucc.org slash events. And 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 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.