 Greetings friends! Welcome to CTUCC Conference Cast for March 27, 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 Rev. Dr. Tom Clough, Eastern Regional Minister. The Prophet Zechariah was among those who returned from exile to Jerusalem, among the children and grandchildren of those who had seen it fall 70 years before. In the ninth chapter of his book, he celebrates that return with these words, Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion, shout aloud, O daughter Jerusalem, lo, your King comes to you. Triumphant and victorious is he humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. In this day of attack ads and negative campaigning, the juxtaposition of the words triumph and humility seems to be nothing but a non sequitur. But our readings for Palm Sunday suggest that this power filled humility that we reject as nonsense may with God's help indeed prove to be the very cornerstone of the way life should be. Like the people of Jerusalem on the first Palm Sunday, we often find ourselves stuck in the expectation that leadership ultimately involves control, domination, and when necessary, violence. Quaker Visionary Parker Palmer has offered a very helpful insight into why we find it so hard to imagine a humble leader. He suggests that for survival purposes, we rely on the functioning of the most primitive part of the brain. This brain stem responds to the world in one of two ways, fight or flight. It is a basic survival center in our brain which assumes that the world is a dangerous, violent place and that we must be prepared to respond accordingly. Palmer goes on to say that the history of civilization is the story of humanity's attempt to transcend this tendency to perceive the world as a battleground where we must kill or be killed. He points to the development of drama and art and religion as examples of civilizations learning to live in the tension of unresolved conflict. Palmer is talking about what we call the working of the Holy Spirit. It is that power, that grace of God which gives us the courage to choose some path other than revenge. Palmer points to an extraordinary moment in recent history, that brief moment in time after the terrorist attack on September 11th, before our government organized a military response. He observes that at that moment of our vulnerability the world responded with a compassionate drawing closer to us, closer than we have known before or since. In that moment of solidarity we may have experienced one of our greatest opportunities to have a most profound influence for good on the entire world. That was the moment, had we only recognized it at the time, when we were offered the humble power of the King riding on a donkey tragically. Like the people in turmoil in Jerusalem 2000 years ago, in our fear we allowed the primitive brains to call the shots and rumble down the well worn path of revenge. As we turn from the Palm Sunday euphoria to the story of the passion, we are reminded that this is not the first time that humanity has missed the point that Jesus was making when he rode into Jerusalem as Zechariah had prophesied. Let us thank God the story doesn't end there. Almighty God, grant us the wisdom and the courage to celebrate leadership grounded in humility and compassion. Amen. We ask your prayers for the family and friends of the Reverend William T. Scott Jr. He served in Cornwall, Connecticut in the course of a 60 year ministry that also brought him to New York, North Carolina, Rhode Island and Florida. He died on March 19th at the age of 85. And we also raise our prayers for so many grieving after the crash of German wings flight 9525. May God give them strength, resilience and hope. News this week, around 450 local church leaders from Connecticut and Massachusetts came to Ludlow last weekend for Super Saturday. Some of those from the Connecticut shoreline overcame slippery conditions from yet another snowfall in order to get there. The Reverend Reuben Durand celebrated the close relationship between the United Church of Christ and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and strengthened by the support of the triune God whom he lovingly called the three amigos called the assembly to go out and do great things for God. Because it's not about us, it's about the spirit of it. Willing, propelling us to do greater things for God. Turning us into engineers and call architects of mission or communities that we can offer to God and to the world with just determination and full confidence that the gospel is the power of God for salvation, for all. This is a day for you to say God, grab me gently and melt me and mold me and fill me and use me. I want to be part of your team to accomplish greater things and nourish for you on behalf of the gospel, for the sake of the world, for the glory of God who call us out of darkness into God's power and part of our life. Can we be together, community mission, of the trouble we have in the three amigos? Attendees browsed information tables, shared conversations over lunch and explored other topics in more depth in a broad set of workshops. Massachusetts conference minister, the Reverend Dr. Jim Anton had accepted a challenge from environmental justice intern, Patrick Cage, that if ten churches began the process of divesting from fossil fuel companies, he would accept a pie in the face. Sure enough, those ten churches came through and the punch-out and goggle conference minister took not one but four shaving cream pies with a merry life. The day before, and over newton theological school in newton, Massachusetts, honored a truly distinguished alumna with a truly distinguished award. Former Connecticut conference minister, the Reverend Dr. Davida Foy Crabtree, accepted the spirit of the kill award from and of her newton president, the Reverend Martin Colpin Haver, and gave thanks for the support she had had while a student in a day when many resisted the very idea of women as pastors and church leaders. I owe a great debt of gratitude to certain members of the faculty here who are able to help me convert my pain and my sense of alienation that hurt on discovering sexism, which I don't believe I've ever really seen or encountered until I encountered it in the form of people believing that I could not become a minister. It was what I had set my heart on starting in seventh grade when I had just a late conference center. The Reverend Michael Piazza, who addressed the Connecticut conference annual meeting two years ago, was the keynote speaker for the Seminary Spring Convocation, a spring still marked by large mounds of snow around the campus. Speaking on the revitalization of the local congregation, he commended the idea of vintage church, a church which knows and understands its past, one which gives real life and vigor to the old forms they employ, and one which welcomes new participants and their energy to new expressions of faith. He quoted Tom Selig, director of the Turtle Creek Corral in Dallas, Texas, a gay men's choir, which, as Piazza put it, drew thousands of people each year to hear gay men sing Christmas carols. How did they succeed? He asked Selig, who replied, At every concert, we made them laugh, we made them cry, we gave them children, and they kept coming back for more, that the people here were the spirits saying to the church. Three other working pastors, the Reverend Molly Baskett of Somerville, Massachusetts, the Reverend Dr. Douglas Scalise of Brewster, Massachusetts, and the Reverend Dr. Todd Youngman of Providence, Rhode Island joined Piazza for a panel discussion later in the day. All three have led churches which have experienced profound renewal. Their congregations, they said, all embraced enthusiasm for the faith, the distinctiveness of their neighborhoods, and the history which had formed them up to that day. And they all nodded when Dr. Scalise said this. Jesus says, with God, all things are possible. Do we really believe that's true? And if we really believe that with God, all things are possible, then with God, all things are possible. And everything is different. And everything for us flows from that. At the First Church of Christ congregational UCC in Glastonbury, three young people also participated in a panel discussion, but they came from three different faiths, not three different churches. They talked about the way they lived their faith, as it interacts with contemporary culture and their high school peers. Janna Michelson worships at Congregation Cole Havarim in Glastonbury, a reformed Jewish synagogue. While Adid Ahmed prays at the Islamic Center of Connecticut in Windsor, Lucas Grove is a member of First Church. All three of them find that they have to correct misunderstandings about their faith and how it shapes and forms them. But both Janna and Adid sometimes find it a rather harder challenge and one that sometimes lonely with fewer peers who share their beliefs. They applauded the interfaith conversation in which they were engaging and the promise it holds for better understanding and better interaction among people of faith and people of no faith for the future. We acknowledge with gratitude and a little sadness an upcoming retirement in the Connecticut Conference. For 11 years, Chef Bob Slegel has combined great culinary skill with a gentleness of spirit, and these have provided a feast for the soul as well as for the body at Silver Lake Conference Center. This quiet and humble man has asked we not hold a big event for him, but please send gifts, cards and letters of appreciation to Silver Lake so that we can share them with him. He retires on April 17th. We're in the last week of the Leadership Studio campaign. Thanks to all of you who have already contributed, you've brought us halfway to our goal of $15,000. If you haven't given yet, well you can make this an Easter gift of Thanksgiving and an Easter gift of promise. A promise to support the ongoing enrichment of church leadership skills in the Connecticut Conference. You can learn more and give securely online at ctucc.org slash studio. We're still seeking nominations for the Living Waters Award to recognize a lay person for the ministry they do in the day-to-day life of their working world. And you can always read more about these stories and of course get the full low down on the Leadership Studio campaign by visiting us at ctucc.org slash news. The Women's Yoga and Spirit Retreat and the Maple Sugaring Weekend are both being held at Silver Lake starting tonight. Stepping Stones offers Part 1 of Keeping Our Churches Safe on April 9th in Hartford. You can 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. Part 2 of Keeping Our Churches Safe is April 21st and like Part 1 also in Hartford. The annual Church Historians Workshop is April 25th in Rocky Hill. Silver Lake's Spring Action Weekend is May 1st through 3rd at our Outdoor Ministry Center in Sharon and the Conference Youth Revival is May 3rd in Bloomfield. Registration is also open for the New England Association of United Church Educators event, which runs May 5th through 7th in Crickville, Massachusetts. Boundary Training for Authorized Ministers will next be held on May 7th in Tolland. Clergy Camp returns for its second season May 12th through 14th, a time for busy ministers to take a step into being a camper once again at Silver Lake. Registration is open. 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. Silver Lake will host the Environmental Justice for All Retreat the weekend of May 29th for high school-aged youth of color to explore the environmental concerns of their own neighborhoods. Registration is also open for the 9th annual Silver Lake Golf Tournament, which will be held June 8th in Wallingford. To learn more about these events or to register, visit us at ctucc.org-slash-events. Spirited Wednesday Thought comes from Elevet Mendez Angulo, Minister of Christian Education at Manantial Gracia UCC in West Hartford, and a seminary student at End of a Newton. In Mark's Gospel, Jesus sends his disciples out to fetch a colt for him to ride, and instructions for what to say if anyone asks them about it. She writes, Has God given you a charge? If the answer is yes, know that you have at your disposal the necessary tools to accomplish that responsibility. I know it might sound trivial, but when God sends you, you have a job to do. And each word that you utter should be based upon that. Brings this conference cast to a close. Thanks to Tom Clough 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. I believe that your days this week may be filled with the presence, the guidance and the grace of God.