 Greetings, friends. Welcome to CTUCC Conference Cast for February 27, 2014, 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 Cecile Gilson, assistant to the conference minister. In the 17th chapter of Matthew's Gospel, Jesus takes Peter, James and John on a walk up a mountain, where the three of them see Him transfigured, glowing with light and talking with figures they recognize as the emancipator Moses and the great prophet Elijah. At this site and at the hearing of a great voice, the three of them are terrified, but Jesus tells them to get up and not to be afraid. First let me say that I need to talk to Eric about the rotation for conference cast. It feels like I always land on a transfiguration story, and it is a challenging text for those of us securely grounded in the realm of the tangible. For the last four months, I have been dealing with some medical issues that, while not life-threatening, are in fact life-impactful. I am not looking for pity here, though it would be gratefully accepted. I have to recognize that I am no longer in control and that I need to ask others for help. I have found a new respect for those who have had to deal with pain on a daily basis. I have also found a new appreciation for medical professionals who do their best to find answers and heal us. Imagine how Jesus must have felt on a daily basis. He knew in His heart that He was the beloved Son of God, and He had a way to live that would offer a life free of certain kinds of pain for all humankind. But even those who followed Him found it difficult to give up control and ask others for help. On that mountaintop, Jesus shared with Peter, James, and John the true essence of who He is, the blinding white robes, the revered prophets from old, the voice of God proclaiming this is my Son, the beloved. With Him I am well pleased. Listen to Him. This would surely cause me to quake in my boots, but Jesus calmed them with His presence. When we experience something that is frightening or painful, we have only to remember that Jesus' calming presence is just a prayer away. Let us live our lives as if Jesus is with us always. Our prayer for this week comes from the Weekly Seeds online Bible study of the United Church of Christ. O God of the Covenant, the cloud of Your splendor and the fire of Your love revealed Your Son on the mountain heights. Transform our lives in His image. Write Your law of love on our hearts and make us prophets of Your glory that we may lead others into Your presence. Amen. In the news this week, Sandy Hook happens every week in America. Every week in the United States more than 50 of our children and youth die due to gun violence, and many dozens more are injured. Most of us just aren't paying attention. Those are the words of the Reverend Matt Creben, Senior Minister of the New Town Congregational Church UCC, as he offers an invitation to the members and friends of the United Church of Christ to participate in the Gun Violence Prevention Sabbath, which runs March 13th through 16th. The weekend will open with a worship service at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., and organizers hope the event will both raise awareness and also prompt action. Connecticut Conference Minister the Reverend Kent Solati added his voice to the invitation this week saying, we have suffered the loss of far too many lives to gun violence, both here in Connecticut and across the nation. Let us take the time to pray for God's guidance and to commit ourselves to following our Savior's lead, who stood for non-violence and compassion in the midst of the troubled world. At the Wilton Congregational Church UCC, Senior Minister the Reverend Dr. Arnold Thomas welcomed the actors of New York's Shades of Truth Theatre Company to the sanctuary a couple of weeks ago, where they performed Jeff Stetson's short play The Meeting. It portrays a fictional conversation between civil rights movement leaders the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Nation of Islam founder Malcolm X. The complex contest of ideas gets expressed in subtle dialogue but also in three arm wrestling matches between the two men. The idea of bringing the play to the church, said Dr. Thomas, is to learn about the influences that continue to shape our thoughts and perceptions about race. The season of Lent begins next Wednesday and once again the Conference Ministers of New England have invited churches, members and friends to participate in the Ecumenical Lenten Carbon FAST. Those who sign up receive a daily email with some information to learn or a carbon saving technique to try. People of every Christian perspective and people who are not Christians, say the Conference Ministers, have benefited from this opportunity to become more conscious and conscientious in their daily lives. Visit our website ctucc.org and click on the Ecumenical Carbon FAST button in order to learn more. We'll take this opportunity to remind you that Lent will bring a new devotional publication to the Connecticut Conference. We're calling it Spirited Wednesday. Authored by clergy and lay people from around the UCC here in Connecticut, it will arrive as a weekly email, be posted to our website, and highlighted on our Facebook page and Twitter feeds. You can sign up to receive it and the Spirit Calendar email on our website at ctucc.org slash F-I-D-O or FIDO. Okay, stop me if you've heard this joke about the church trying to clear the bats out of its bill free. Well, they tried everything without success until they finally found something that worked, explained the pastor. They baptized and confirmed them all, and they were never seen again. That troubling reality about young people in the church led youth ministry experts Cara Powell and Chap Clark to years of research into what does actually work to keep young people connected to the faith. It is now published in their book, Sticky Faith. Chap Clark will be the keynote speaker at the New England Association of United Church Educators Conference at the Craigville Conference Center on Cape Cod in Massachusetts this coming May. You can find more on all these stories as well as additional headlines by visiting us at ctucc.org slash news. And as February Black History Month draws to an end, we welcome conference archivist John Van Epps to the studio for a timely Touchstones with History. Since this is Black History Month, we're exploring the Underground Railroad in Connecticut. And for those wanting more information, a basic resource is Horatio Struthers' 1962 book of that same title. The Amistad event of 1839 and the freeing of those many captives was a major impetus in this movement. The church and town of Farmington housed the freed captives for several years. Afterwards, Farmington became a central station in this underground railroad, as this term began to be used in the 1840s. Several homes are recognized as being stations on this railroad. In fact, Ratio Struthers called Farmington the Grand Central Station of the railroad. Also active in this movement were several African Americans. One was James Pennington, pastor in the 1840s of what is now Faith Church in Hartford. His home became a major station in the Hartford area. Also active was Amos Beeman, pastor in the 1840s and 50s of what is now Dixwell Avenue Church in New Haven. It must be remembered that such actions to harbor escaped slaves and aid their flight was illegal, according to the Fugitive Slave Acts of 1793 and later 1850. Thus most of these actions were very secret and clandestine. In recent years it has become popular to declare that many an old house with a secret passageway or hiding place was a station on the underground railroad and it ain't necessarily so. Nevertheless there were several dozen authenticated safe havens from New London to Torrington and Guilford to Bloomfield and especially in the Farmington area plus several sites in Brooklyn Connecticut. From these areas the escaped slaves were then transported to Springfield, Massachusetts and often then to Canada. Super Saturday is this weekend featuring a keynote address from Diana Butler-Bass. We're sorry to say registration is completely full to the point where we're unable to accommodate walk-ins but if you've registered join us this Saturday in Ludlow, Massachusetts. We'll be glad to see you there. A workshop on community and church gardens will be held on March 8th in Vernon. A series of webinars on the new resource Children's Ministry in the Way of Jesus will begin on March 10th. Stepping Stones takes up the challenges of the pastoral care of youth on March 19th in Southington. Silver Lake's Maple Sugaring weekend for young people in grades 6 through 8 will be March 21st through 23rd. Tapping trees, boiling sap and renewing a sense of the sweetness of God's creation. Stepping Stones hold a workshop on Sacred Dance on March 25th in Southington. The New England Women's Celebration will be held March 28th through 30th in Portland, Maine. You can register now at UCCwomencelebration.org. On March 29th learn about fossil fuel divestment in Hamden. The Spring Women's Spirit Retreat of Yoga and Sacred Chant will be at Silver Lake the weekend of April 4th through 6th. The film Gasland Part 2 about the risks of hydraulic fracturing or fracking will have a showing in Southington on April 11th. Spring Action weekend which prepares Silver Lake Conference Center for the Summer Program is April 25th through the 27th. That's also the weekend of the Awakenings Conference in Holyoke, Massachusetts. The Farmington Valley Association and Simply Smiles are teaming up for a mission trip to the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribal Reservation in South Dakota beginning May 3rd. Silver Lake will host an open house for those interested in learning more about its summer program on May 4th. Now by all means come then but you can visit silverlakect.org ahead of time to find out about summer offerings and to register. We'd like you all to mark your calendars now for May 17th, the 4th annual Connecticut Conference Youth Revival to be held this year at Dixwell Avenue UCC in New Haven. 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 Cecile Gilson 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 for 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.