 Greetings, friends. Welcome to CTUCC Conference Cast for November 1, 2012, 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 your podcast host, Eric Anderson, the Minister of Communications and Technology. Jesus spends much of the 12th chapter of Mark's Gospel arguing with one group after another in the Jerusalem Temple. Impressed, one of the scribes steps forward and asks, what is the greatest commandment of them all? Jesus says, the first is, hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these. The scribe wholeheartedly agrees, and Jesus tells him he is not far from the kingdom of God. And nobody else dares ask another question. It's fascinating to me how this story took different forms in the narratives of Mark, Matthew, and Luke. Mark uses it to give a triumphant close to an extended debate sequence in which Jesus takes on the challenges of suspicious authorities on all facets of Jerusalem's contentious religious climate. Matthew uses it to set up Jesus' own follow-up question about the relationship between David and the Messiah, and that becomes the question to silence the debaters. Luke uses it as the introduction to that splendid story of the Good Samaritan when the scribe asks, who is my neighbor? On a day when literal turbulence—a hurricane, a superstorm, they call it, is at hand—alongside the social turbulence of our divided politics and the cultural turbulence of major shifts in the ways we work and live, I'm grateful for the way that Jesus and this scribe return to the essentials, the foundations, even if you like the fundamentals. What's most important? Love God, love neighbor. That's it. Now, I never ever underestimate the challenge of this charge, or at least I try not to. Let's face it, our loving, giving, forgiving God can be frightfully trying. We wonder at and we decry the suffering so endemic to the world, the suffering which all too often visits us in our own hearts and homes. Our neighbors can be even more trying, though that strains credibility. They never seem to run out of needs. They never seem to quite even the score of favors and goodwill. And, of course, in these days where we step from our houses to our automobiles and go, how much do we know of our neighbors anyway? And so comes this week's challenge. To love the God who disappointed baseball fans in New York, St. Louis and Detroit. To love the God who let my loved ones get sick. To love the God who let the storm spin toward our homes. And to love the neighbor I hardly know. To love the neighbor who just won't help himself. To love the neighbor when, to be honest, I'm not even sure how to love myself. Fortunately, this is the same God who extends to us the freedom to feel and to choose. This is the neighbor who gives us a wave from the driveway. This is the same God whose rain nourishes the soil. This is the same neighbor who lent us the snowblower two winters ago. This is the same God who gave us life. This is the same neighbor we share this life with. Love God, love neighbor, even as the winds of heaven and the winds of change blow. Here's a prayer for this week. Only one preserve us we pray from the worst of the storm. The blowing gale, the changing times, the miseries and mischances to which we are so vulnerable. And the Holy One be with us as we step out into these mornings after the storm to help our neighbor move the branches to enjoy a meal, to have a hot shower, or just to find the simple reassurance that no one is alone, not even in the storm. Amen. In the news this week, on Monday the enormous storm bearing the deceptively friendly name of Sandy bore down on the east coast of the United States. In its wake it has left so far 74 known including three confirmed here in Connecticut. 620,000 homes and businesses were left without power in this state among the millions on the eastern seaboard. The storm reached as far as Cleveland where it shut down the national offices of the United Church of Christ because of massive power failures. In Connecticut electric crews have reduced the number of outages to 370,000 as of this morning. Like Irene and the October snowstorm of last year, Connecticut experienced significant tree damage, particularly in the hilly sections east and west of the Connecticut River. Far worse was the flooding along the shoreline where the storm surge pushed high tide into homes and business districts from Greenwich to Stonington. The Reverend Jeff Rider, pastor of the Greens Farms Congregational Church UCC, simply described the low-lying downtown area in Westport as a mess. Conference staff have been collecting reports from local church leaders and pastors throughout the last two days. So far very few churches have suffered damage, though we remain very concerned about the ones we have not yet been able to reach. We retained our communication systems in Hartford during this event, but the hardest hit areas of the state did not, especially along the shoreline. Churches have been working to provide aid to those suffering from the loss of homes and resources. First Congregational UCC of Branford, a shoreline community, had stocked up on supplies, but with the loss of its electric service was not yet able to distribute them as of yesterday. United Congregational Church UCC and Bridgeport is working hard to meet the additional needs for clothing and food imposed by the storm. Many churches that still have power are making it available to charge cell phones and electronic devices and also to provide a warm place away from the chill winds. Members of Union Memorial Church UCC in Stamford, whose homes still have power, have begun taking in their less fortunate friends and neighbors. Pastor the Reverend Blaine Adele said, this is the small church at its best. In East Hampton, a falling tree stripped the electric meter from the side of the Congregational Church UCC there, leaving them without power until an electrician can restore it. The United Congregational Church UCC of Norwalk lost its chimney flue to the wind and can't run the furnace until it is replaced, so others report missing shingles and other roof damage. And we do wait to hear from other churches that we haven't yet been able to reach. As we look to our neighbors just to the west in New York City and New Jersey, our hearts go out to them. We urge gifts to the Red Cross for immediate relief efforts or through the United Church of Christ for long-term recovery. You can contribute at ctucc.org slash donate. We do have some good news to report in the midst of the storm. We're pleased to announce the appointment of the Reverend Tamara Morland as Intrum Regional Minister for the North Central Region of the Connecticut Conference. Currently on the staff of Liberty Christian Center UCC of Hartford, Reverend Morland will begin her ministry on December 1st. She'll have a month to work with her predecessor, the Reverend Enika Mitchell, before Enika departs to take up the interim senior pastorate at United Congregational Church UCC in Tolland at the beginning of next year. And let it not be said that we don't know how to welcome new staff around here. Sue Willis joined us as conference registrar on October 15th. Just five days before the full meeting of the conference, our biggest endeavor of the year, and 14 days before the Superstorm hit. We're pleased to report that she's hit the ground running, displaying resilience, enterprise, and good humor at every turn. Welcome, Sue. And we assure you, it's not always like this. It's time now to welcome conference archivist John Van Epps to the studio for October's Touchtones with History. The topic of our authorized minister's luncheon last month was James Pennington, a prominent African-American pastor in the mid-1800s. He was born a slave in Maryland in 1809 with the name Jim Pembroke. At the age of 21, he escaped toward Pennsylvania following the North Pole Star. After several harrowing experiences, he found refuge with a Quaker family who taught him to read and write and develop his blacksmith trade. After a couple years, he made his way to New Haven, eager to continue his education, become a preacher, and be involved in abolitionist activities. Because he was black, he was not allowed to enroll at Yale or borrow books. However, he was able to attend several classes. He became the first black pastor of Temple Street Church, now Dixwell Avenue, UCC. He completed his studies and was ordained there in 1838. Then he went to pastor a church on Long Island. But within two years, he returned to become the first settled pastor of the Talcott Street Church in Hartford, now Faith, UCC. He was pastor there from 1840 to 1847. Because of his abilities, he was several times elected moderator of the Minister's Association in Hartford. James Pennington was not involved in the initial support and defense of the Amistad ship captives. However, after their release, he gathered support for them and for the Mendes return to Africa, as well as for black missionaries to be sent to Africa. His abolitionist supporters did not seek support from the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, since it received financial support from slaveholders in the South. Instead, in Hartford in 1841, he helped found the Union Missionary Society with five Amistad Africans and attendants. He was its first president. He declined the offer to become the first black missionary. Instead, money was raised and within a year, the Amistad survivors and five missionaries, including two blacks from his church, sent sail to return to Sierra Leone to establish a mission there. In 1846, the Union Missionary Society was absorbed into the newly formed American Missionary Association, which continued the work to send black missionaries to Africa. Pennington served on its executive board until 1851. In 1848, James Pennington left to become pastor of a black Presbyterian church in New York City. He traveled in Europe and received a doctor of Divinity degree from Heidelberg University. In 1850, he published his autobiography, The Fugitive Blacksmith. He served churches in New York, Maine, Mississippi, and finally Florida, where James Pennington died in 1870. As one tribute said, a fugitive slave wholly illiterate in 40 years by his own efforts, sat among the princes of the land, crowned with academic honors and professional attainment. For more stories, including an anniversary celebration for Farmington and Kensington Churches, up-to-date reports from all of our churches after the storm, and of course, all the latest headlines, visit us at ctucc.org slash news. The Tree of Life Conference examines the role of education in fostering peace in Israel and Palestine in Old Lime November 3rd and 4th. The Mosaic of Grief, Care and Counseling in Times of Grief, will be held in Williamstown, Massachusetts November 9th and 10th. Evian McAllister offers a workshop on growing sustainable ministries for and with youth on November 14th in Hartford. You can still register for On the Edge of Fire, a men's spirituality retreat, which will be the weekend of November 16th at Silver Lake, and get your child signed up for the Christmas at Silver Lake Retreat for 5th through 8th graders, which will be held December 7th through the 9th. You can always learn about what's coming up in the Connecticut Conference by visiting us at ctucc.org slash events. We've reached another significant milestone in the life of ctucc conference cast. This is podcast number 100 100. I'd rather hope to do something a little celebratory, but you know this is not the time. Instead I invite your prayers and your generosity for those whose lives have been tossed about this week by wind and waves. I thank you for your support these last two years and I ask you to let that support go now to our neater neighbors as well. And that brings this conference cast to a close. Thanks to you for listening and to garage band 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.