Sunday, June 16, 2024

Dear Friends, 

I am writing a short note today to acknowledge the Men’s Retreat this weekend.  

As you know, it is an annual event that brings together 20-30 men.  Most of the men are active members of Talmadge Hill.  But the event is also a form of outreach which typically draws a handful of men who are “friends” of the church. 

People ask, “What is the purpose of the Men’s Retreat?”  If I were to answer in a general way, the purpose is to get to know each other on a deeper level.  The purpose is to have some fun.  The purpose is to identify ways to be a better husband, father, friend and citizen.  Then of course, the underlying purpose is to consider what God’s role might be in shaping and instructing us along the way.  

Yet the purpose cuts even deeper.  It has layers.  For too much of history, men have led with distorted forms of masculine energy.  (Frankly in more recent times, women have sometimes done the same.)  However in healthy institutional cultures, masculine and feminine energy is in balance.  Thus on the Men’s Retreat, we emphasize vulnerability.  We encourage men to identify their primary emotions.  We ask men to take risks, do something different, change the paradigm, seek different outcomes.  At least in part, this is the value of feminine energy which is sorely missing in too many places.  

So I/we ask for your prayers this weekend.  May we seek and find a better balance of the masculine and feminine.  Jesus embodied it.  We aspire to do the same. 

Carter

Sunday, June 9, 2024

Dear Friends, 

The last week has been quite an emotional ordeal.  When I arrived in San Antonio last Friday, the doctors announced that my daughter (Rebecca) might not make it.  It was sobering and thank God I was sober.  I was present to every moment.  I felt everything I was supposed to feel.  My heart belonged to me. 

By early this week, the tide had turned.  Becca was out of danger.  It might have played out differently.  But somehow by the grace of God, it didn’t.  So I have been reflecting on Carl Sandburg’s poem, “Our Prayer of Thanks”.  It is a lovely piece, an invitation to sentient beings, to pay closer attention.

“For the gladness here where the sun is shining at
         evening on the weeds at the river,
    Our prayer of thanks.

For the laughter of children who tumble barefooted and
         bareheaded in the summer grass,
    Our prayer of thanks.

For the sunset and the stars, the women and the white
         arms that hold us,
    Our prayer of thanks.

    God,
If you are deaf and blind, if this is all lost to you,
God, if the dead in their coffins amid the silver handles
         on the edge of town, or the reckless dead of war
         days thrown unknown in pits, if these dead are
         forever deaf and blind and lost,
    Our prayer of thanks.

    God,
The game is all your way, the secrets and the signals and
         the system; and so for the break of the game and
         the first play and the last.
    Our prayer of thanks.”

I must confess that I do not know the mysteries of the game.  I do not understand the rules, nor am I able to foresee any outcomes.  But I am learning on a much deeper level how to be thankful.  What a blessing – a simple gift which threatens to change my every waking moment.

See you on Sunday. 

Carter       

Sunday, October 18, 2020

Dear Friends,

One of my favorite movies of ALL time is “Il Postino”, a beautiful story about a postman who by chance forges a relationship with the exiled South American poet, Pablo Neruda. It is a story about the power of relationship. It is perhaps even more a story about the power of poetry.

Poetry is not simply an artistic nicety. It is not merely a clever play on words. It is a pathway to the sublime. It is the cracking open of imagination – which some would describe as the gateway to hope and transformation. In the above-mentioned film, a man’s life is forever changed by his introduction to poetry. Listen to Neruda’s poem, “Poetry”, describing the transformation:

And it was at that age … Poetry arrived
in search of me. I don’t know where
it came from, from winter or a river.

I did not know what to say, my mouth
had no way with names,
my eyes were blind,
and something started in my soul,
fever or forgotten wings,
and I made my own way,
deciphering that fire,
and I wrote the first faint line,
faint, without substance, pure nonsense,
pure wisdom of someone who knows nothing,
and suddenly I saw
the heavens unfastened and open.

And I, infinitesimal being,
drunk with the great starry void,
likeness, image of mystery,
felt myself a pure part of the abyss,
I wheeled with the stars,
my heart broke loose on the wind.

As most of you know, Mich Zeman loved poetry. He shared it with this congregation over the course of many years. It was not just a passing fancy or casual pastime. He believed in the creative power of language to move souls and reveal the hidden depths of reality.

On next Tuesday night, we will hold the 3rd Annual Mich Zeman Poetry Fest (see below). As with most other THCC offerings, it will be virtual. But you won’t want to miss it – this chance to call up some memories of brother Mich, listen to some poetry, and have our hearts break loose on the wind.

Carter

Sunday, September 6, 2020

Dear Friends,

Rob, Jennifer and I met on Tuesday morning to talk and plan for the upcoming months. We asked ourselves, “What is God doing in the world? How is our faith speaking to us? What is the message that we hope to bring at a time like this?” It was a rich dialogue, and we are excited about the fall and early winter. As we start a new school year, I share with you our firm commitment to begin in-person worship at THCC on Sunday September 20th. We have a bit more work to do on the details, but you will hear more about it next week!

As I have pondered ‘what message do we need to hear’, I am conscious of the wearying effects of Covid-19, of deep political divisions, and heightened uncertainty and anxiety. To be sure, we are in unsettled times. Yet for me personally, the pandemic is mostly an inconvenience; and the ‘us versus them’ political circus has helped me to crystallize my convictions on important issues. I am not in the midst of an existential crisis, and my faith remains strong.

I have been reading a book called “The Coddling of the American Mind”. It is a provocative and challenging read. The authors argue that Americans have been taught in recent years to see themselves as fragile, as victims of circumstance, as needing protection from every danger. They also argue that the fragility mindset is a self-fulfilling loop. It makes us more anxious, and weaker. I am wondering if that is true.

On a pastoral note, I want to acknowledge all of those who have suffered in very real ways over the past 6 months – the loss of loved ones, the loss of jobs, explosive civil unrest, and real distress about the future of our country. We stand with you on this journey.

At the same time, I want to declare to our beloved church community, “We are not fragile. We are strong. The pandemic is not the defining characteristic of our lives. Tragedy does not determine our mindset. Rather, our love for God and our willingness to put love into action is the steadfast and unchanging backbone of our identity.”

By grace,

Carter

Response to Apparent Murder of George Floyd

Partners in ministry,

Doubtless you are disturbed as I am by the apparent murder of George Floyd, especially after the Ahmoud Arbery and Breonna Carter deaths.   Frankly, what with 100,000 deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic, and a disproportionate number of those among persons of color, I think there is too much death around us at this moment in time not to have a Cross Walk this year. You might recall we cancelled the Good Friday Cross Walk due to fears around the pandemic.

Now that we are all getting back out there, I propose we do a Cross Walk this Sunday, May 31, 2020 at 1 pm beginning from the steps of First Congregational, Darien and ending at St Luke's Episcopal.  We will observe safe practices of social distancing.  Everyone who participates is  expected to wear a mask.  Instead of handing the cross from one person to another, the one who carries it will lay it down for the next person to pick up.  I will bring wipes to clean the cross between our turns carrying it.  I will provide gloves for a further degree of safety for us pilgrims.

Also, invite your people to bring a small Bible with them.  Maybe bring a small towel also as the cross will feel sharp upon the shoulder without the heavier coats that we wear in the spring.

Our churches, our town, and our nation feel anguish in this moment.  Anger is understandable but staying angry leads to attacks and violence.   Perhaps we can help our people move from anger to sorrow and lamentation.  We already had so much pent-up grief before this agonizing and violent course of events. We know how dangerous unprocessed grief is. Helping people to grieve is right in the wheelhouse of our calling as Christ's church.  There is no way around all of this pain; the only way is that of Christ straight through it.  The Cross symbolizes that as well as the powers taking the lives of God's children who count ever less in the schemes of this world.  

At the very least, I ask you to mention this at your virtual services on Sunday, and invite your people to join us.  At most, I invite you to cast your lot with us and join us.  My wife and I both have shoulder problems. We need your help for that reason and other more profound reasons.  

Let me know if you can be with us and how many might you bring.  God bless you all in this tough time to do ministry in any case. Thank you! 

Peace in Christ,

Dale Rosenberger

The Reverend Dale Rosenberger, Senior Minister
The First Congregational Church of Darien,
UCCDarien, Connecticut 06820
203 655-0491  x. 101