Welcome Sunday at Christ Church

No matter who you are you are welcome here.  This is the motto of the UCC.  This means all people regardless of race, sexual orientation, economic status etc are welcome at Christ Church.  It has been said that Sunday morning is the most segregated time of the week in some towns because people worship in different churches.  As a budding historian, I know that in a town Pittsfield Massachusetts where my mother lived they had two Congregational Churches, First Congregational and Second Congregational which was founded by a Black minister for the Black people of the town.  I don't know if my mother and grandmother worshiped there, my great grandfather was a AMA minister.  AMA was a part of the Congregational church.  As far as segregation in church, if there was not a separate church Black people had to worship in the balcony, if the church had one.

That was then but now ALL are welcome.  The point of this as you are asking people to come to church, think of your cleaning person, your gardener, the people where you work, if you work in town, your child's teacher etc.  In other words think outside the box because all are welcome.  You might even find out that you have something in common.  My cleaning woman can hardly speak English but her son is in high school and she is thinking about his college education.  She lives too far away for me to invite her as I do, but we have some choir members who make long commutes to come to our church so that should not matter.

I have invited and brought my "grandchildren" to church events and even church when they helped me with the Homeless Hospitality People.  The family is Muslim but they are nothing.  Maybe when they grow up they will remember and decide for themselves. Since this is a blended family I remember one time when the two girls from my neighbors first marriage were arguing with their little sisters.  The little sisters were saying we are Muslim and the older sisters were saying they were Christian.  It was cute to see them discuss this.

What got me thinking about this is this morning's Daly Devotion from the UCC. 

Jeannette Brown

UCC Representative

 Here it is:

The Separating Power of Possessions

Excerpt from Genesis 36:1-8

"Their possessions were too great for them to dwell together."

Reflection by Martin B. Copenhaver

Jacob and Esau, the twin brothers whose tussles began in their mother's womb, eventually reconciled enough to be able to settle in the same neighborhood in Canaan.  They prospered, but eventually became the victim of their own success.  The land was not able to support the herds of cattle of both brothers, so Esau had to move away.

This was a matter of environmental sustainability, but also something more.  As the author of Genesis put it, "Their possessions were too great for them to dwell together."  This is not an ancient problem.  Today—whether it's in Canaan or New Canaan—prosperity has a way of separating us.  The fastest growing segment of the housing market is exclusive gated communities, whose chief attraction is the way they separate people.  If you have enough money to buy sugar in large quantities, you are less likely to have to go next door to borrow a cup from a neighbor.  When you have your own car, you never meet your neighbor at the bus stop.

Our prosperity can be too great for us truly to dwell with one another.  There is another way of putting it:  Sometimes the more wealth we have, the more impoverished our lives can become.  Is there a way you can think of to keep your possessions from coming between you and your neighbor?

Prayer

Dear God, everything I have is a gift from you.  May I express my thanks by never letting my possessions create distance between me and those around me.  Amen.

About the Author Martin B. Copenhaver is Senior Pastor, Wellesley Congregational Church, United Church of Christ, Wellesley, Massachusetts. He is the author, with Lillian Daniel, of This Odd and Wondrous Calling: the Public and Private Lives of Two Ministers.