 Greetings friends! Welcome to CTUCC Conference Cast for January 30, 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 Tamra Moreland, Northwest Central Regional Minister. In the first chapter of Mark's Gospel, Jesus comes to Galilee to proclaim his core message, the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God has come near, repent and believe in the good news. He sees four fishermen with their nets and boats, and he summons them to follow him and fish for people. And they do. Next week, many of us celebrated the official holiday for the late drum major for justice, the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. I attended an interfaith service at the historic faith congregational church, UCC in Hartford, and listened intently to the Reverend Verde Powers, Associate Conference Minister for the Illinois Conference, as she preached about unfinished business from the Civil Rights Era to Ferguson to New York and beyond. Her comments took me back to my own experiences growing up in Connecticut with parents transplanted from the South during the great African American migration. My family would gather around our black and white television and watch horrific and heroic news footage of blacks being beaten and fire hosed for seeking to live as human beings and equals in these United States. Our elders would interpret for us what was happening and share our own family stories and secrets from the segregated South to prepare us and to equip us for taking up the mantle and continuing the fight. We felt their passion and conviction and lived in the tension of the battle and the relative racial peace of the North. There weren't any marches happening here and opposition either real or imagined was chucked away behind well-meaning smiles, newly integrated neighborhoods, and a plethora of decent paying jobs for all, black and white. 2015 marks the 50th anniversary of the marches that led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Civil rights leaders including Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., Amelia Boynton and John Lewis led hundreds of marches across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama. The marches knew what they were up against figuratively, racism and prejudice, and literally, cops, rioters, dogs and water cannons. But still they pressed on. They were determined to cross a bridge in every meaning of the word. The critically acclaimed movie Selma is educating a new generation of Americans about that historic time. Those who weren't a part of the 60s civil rights movement, who didn't learn the truth in any history class or history book, who didn't watch key events on a black and white television in their living room. Selma is also for those of us who have become complacent, tired and angry. It calls us to get busy because there is yet unfinished business to tend to. There is yet another bridge to cross and yet another hill to climb. There is yet another call to follow and yet another protest to march. There is yet another song to sing and yet another slogan to proclaim Black Lives Matter. Still a prayer for this week. Dear still speaking God, please help us to hear your call to follow you into places and spaces that are not comfortable, but that challenge and convict us. May your precious Holy Spirit empower us to trust in you as we handle your business. God's business. Amen. In the news this week, well frankly most of the news this week in Connecticut has been snow. There wasn't as much as forecast in western parts of the state and there was quite that much and more in eastern parts. It's always startling even to us natives how much variation there can be in the weather in what is after all a relatively small part of the world, but accumulations varied from less than six inches to close to two feet. Which gives us some leisure to think of a warmer place at a much hotter time. New Orleans, Louisiana, when the chill of winter did not match the heat of battle in January of 1815. For the story we turn to conference archivist John Van Epps with this edition of Touchstones with History. January is the 200th anniversary of the battle of New Orleans. In 1815 we took a little trip along with General Jackson down the mighty Mississippi. This was the last battle of the war of 1812 and yes we were there. Samuel Mills Jr. was one of the missionaries from our Missionary Society of Connecticut to the lower Mississippi Valley and in early 1815 he was in New Orleans. In his letters back here he says nothing about the battle. He does mention that the soldiers there needed French and English Bibles. He visits the Sikh soldiers both American and British and gives them Bibles. He reports on the polyglot character of New Orleans with many languages spoken and many denominations present, Catholic, Presbyterian and others with whom he had cordial relations. Mills cites the recent U.S. census stating that of the 25,000 residents there, about 40% were black. He reports that a Bible could not be found for sale or to give away in all New Orleans. His concern over the lack of Bibles in much of the South led into push for the establishment of a national Bible society. He returned North and was present in 1816 for the formation of the American Bible Society. You may remember Samuel Mills as being one of the students of the Hickstack Mission from 1809 who pledged their lives to foreign missions. Mills was considered the leader of the brethren. Perhaps because of his health he was deemed not suitable for foreign missionary work so he went out west and then south. After Mills returned from New Orleans he became a Presbyterian. He advocated for a united foreign mission society for the controversial idea of colonization of Africans and the start of an African school based on his concern for the quote elevation of black people in this country and the regeneration of Africa. This group was formed in 1817 along with the support of the evangelist Charles Finney. Mills sailed for West Africa in early 1818 seeking a good site for this school in what is now Liberia. He then returned from Africa with the desire to reunite with his friend Henry Obokaya for his return to Hawaii. However Mills died at sea at the age of 35. So in those brief years Samuel Mills Jr went from Torrington to the Haystack meeting to seminary to the west and the south including New Orleans then to New York and out to Africa with the hope of going to Hawaii all on behalf of the wider missions of our churches. For all the current headlines visit us at ctucc.org slash news. Learn about the human costs of the war on drugs at a screening of The House I Live In with a discussion time to follow on January 31st in East Hadam. 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. Sign your group up soon while there is a 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. The Stepping Stones Workshop Radical Hospitality with Youth will be March 9th in South Glastonbury and you can learn more about all the upcoming Stepping Stones workshops at ctucc.org slash Stepping Stones. Clergy and laypeople have a unique opportunity to learn about the ethics of ministry and church life with the UCC's General Counsel Don Clark including a performance of Clergy Ethics the Musical the weekend of March 13th in Southington and Middlefield. Young people have an opportunity to prepare to be a counselor in training at Silver Lake with a weekend conference March 13th through 15th. Registration is open for Super Saturday. This day of workshops features keynote speaker the Reverend Ruben Duran who promotes new church development for the even juggle 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 on 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 your podcast host the Reverend Eric Anderson as I considered Jesus casting out of unclean spirits even as I was enduring a cold this week the world is filled with forces that have the power to invade us to reconfigure us to move us to act contrary to our best selves things such as viruses addictions the scourge of racism human selfishness and pride would that it were as simple as commanding them to go it isn't and yet it is the first required step to banish them all is to choose to banish them the silent unclean spirits and come out and that brings this conference cast to a close thanks to Tamara Moorland 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 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