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Young and old rally ’round Comma
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May,
2003
By Caroline Murphy
For months, red buttons featuring an oversized comma had been showing up on assorted coat lapels, backpacks, and bulletin boards. “Meet Me at the Comma!” they exclaimed, and on a bright blue, blustery Saturday in early May, more than 500 members and friends of United Church of Christ churches throughout the Southeast Area of the Massachusetts Conference and beyond did just that.
As people arrived at Hanover High School on the morning of May 3rd, they were greeted by commas in all different sizes, colors, and forms, all bound together by the new UCC identity theme: “Never place a period where God has placed a comma… God is Still Speaking.”
Children soon found fast friends in Ruth Shaver (Director of Christian Education at Second Congregational Church, UCC, Attleboro) and her assistants, who helped them hear God’s voice through a variety of craft projects, stories, and drama workshops with the Just Peace Players.
Debra Moore (Commissioned Minister of Education at Christ Church, Brockton) and a dozen other youth leaders worked with an energetic group of youth as they assembled mission items, folded paper cranes for the Paul Sinn Peace Event, and cooked a meal for Brockton’s MainStay Shelter, all in preparation for a youth rally that rocked the walls of the First Congregational Church UCC in Hanover’s parish hall.
Meanwhile adults shuttled between a town meeting with UCC General Minister and President John Thomas, a Bible Study with Conference Minister and President Nancy Taylor, vendors’ displays, and a variety of workshops on everything from spiritual gifts to restorative justice to visioning in the local church. Throughout it all, the Spirit of a still-speaking God could be felt blowing as briskly as the early spring breeze.
Thomas set the tone at the opening town meeting. After describing some of his own encounters with God’s presence in places as far flung as Israel and China, he fielded questions on a range of topics – the Open and Affirming movement, communion, Iraq, and Sunday morning soccer, to name just a few. His responses encouraged participants to keep an eye out for God’s comma, for the new vistas God is constantly opening up at the very places where we are most inclined to place a period.
Participants in the day’s children’s events process into the tent for worship. Photo by Christopher Ranney |
Speaking, for example, to the frustration that many of our regular churchgoers feel about the encroachment of Sunday sports, John Thomas reminded us that the church is no longer part of the dominant culture. This means that, though the world no longer automatically serves the church, we in the church have new opportunities to grow in service to others.
In her Bible study on the story of Paul preaching in Athens (Acts 17:22-34), Taylor emphasized the importance of respecting those whose theological views may differ from our own, and of avoiding a sense of discouragement when only a few people seem to be persuaded by our preaching.
By mid-afternoon the festival choir was rehearsing, balloons were being inflated, and church banners were being unfurled. Brightly swirling commas on the stoles and paraments (specially designed by fabric artist and UCC minister Katrina Clinton for this occasion) added to the festive atmosphere, as people of all ages gathered under a large tent for worship.
“Let everybody give praise to the Lord,” the choir sang in the words of an African call to peace, and with that the people of God processed in: children and youth, denominational leaders, and banner carriers. Through music and scripture, prayer and sacrament (and in spite of occasional feedback from the sound system), God’s voice could be heard speaking with eloquence and passion.
Preaching on the story of Jesus’ post-resurrection encounter with two of his disciples on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:26b-48), John Thomas drew out the nature of a God who comes to us, both individually and communally, when we least expect it and overturns our assumptions. This still-speaking God is much closer to us than we often imagine, and at the same time is subject neither to our manipulation nor to our fantasies, he said.
The Burial Hill Declaration, as he reminded us, had reaffirmed that the gospel is “not merely the ground of . . . personal salvation” but speaks to society as a whole, possessing the ability “to mold and redeem, by its all-transforming energy, everything that belongs to man in his individual and social relations.” This insight is as crucial for us to reclaim today as it was for our Congregational forebears in 1865.
The worship service also included a surprise gift for the Rev. Dale Hempen, to celebrate his fifth anniversary as Associate Conference Minister in the Southeast Area. He expressed his appreciation for the churches and for all who made this festival such a success, especially the Rev. Sue Remick, Associate Pastor of the Hingham Congregational Church UCC, who devoted countless hours and boundless energy to putting everything together.
“Let’s do this again next year!” someone remarked as people filed out of the tent at the end of the day. Well . . . maybe not next year, but God has surely not finished speaking to us yet.
Caroline Murphy, pastor of the West Yarmouth Congregational Church, wrote this article on behalf of the Comma steering committee.
Photo by Christopher Ranney |
(Left to Right) Conference Minister and President Nancy S. Taylor, United Church of Christ General Minister and President John Thomas, and Associate Conference Minister in the Southeast Area Dale Hempen serve communion. |
