First Congregational Church
Fall Events Begin with Homecoming
Game Night; Howl with Wolves; Children’s Chorus and more!
(September 8, 2022)
Ah, September! You are the doorway to the season that awakens my soul.
– Peggy Toney Horton
This Sunday is our official Homecoming Sunday at First Church, where we gather once again to see old friends, meet new people, and rekindle the feelings of peace and joy that we need so much these days. And this particular year, after we were kept apart for nearly three years by the pandemic, getting back together is particularly poignant.
I know Jim Moriarty has been hard at work on the music for Homecoming Sunday, along with the full Meeting House Choir.
Church Services on Sunday
In-Person Service begins at 10 a.m. Facemasks are optional if you are fully vaccinated.
Watch us on Facebook: We livestream our services to Facebook. You may view them live or on demand at www.Facebook.com/DanburyChurch/videos.
Fall Events and Programs at First Church
We at First Church have also lined up a number of special events this autumn to enrich our experience of worship for the whole family:
Sunday, September 11 – Homecoming Sunday
- 10 a.m. Homecoming Sunday: The whole Meeting House Choir will sing this Sunday morning!
- Ice cream and cake during Coffee Hour following the service.
- The Thrift Shop’s exciting new Opening Sale will be available for shopping after this Sunday’s coffee hour and services.
Game Night Begins on Sept 16
- Our popular Family Game Night and Dinner resumes Friday, September 16, with food and a Trivia Contest. Cost: $10 per family, or $5 per person. Please register on Eventbrite.
Children’s Activities
- Church School begins on Sunday, September 18. Call the office at 203-744-6177 to register your children now. Pat Moriarty is our new Church School director and is looking meeting your children.
- September 18: Our very popular Children’s Community Chorus resumes on Sundays at 1 p.m. Call the office at 203-744-6177 to register your children. An effort has been made to place gatherings with our young people on Sundays so that families can engage with activities without adding to their jammed weekday schedule.
- October 29: Howl with the wolves on Howl-O-Ween -- A field trip to the wolves for Halloween. We will meet at the Wolf Conservation Center at dusk (5 p.m.). We will be with at least two live ambassador wolves, and we will howl along with them as the sun sets. Costumes are encouraged. Space is limited, so adults and children please sign up early – call the office (203-744-6177) to save your spot! First Church will pick up the cost for young people. Tickets for adults are $20 and include environmental education about the challenges of protecting this important species. A trip for ice cream afterward is also included.
Real Theology Sunday on October 23
“How to have Respectful Discussions About Difficult Things.” Learn how to communicate in social settings with people who may have differing opinions from yours. Just in time for the midterm elections and holiday season family gatherings. This Fall’s first Real Theology Sunday will begin with Pastor Pat sharing the pulpit with a guest speaker, and follow up with a Q&A session in Annie Orr Hall after the service.
If you live in the Danbury area, I sincerely hope you’ll join us at church for Homecoming. Or, if you follow us on Facebook, I hope you’ll be watch us and sing with us!
Blessings!
A Path to God.
Focus upon keeping things honest with God.
(September 14, 2022)
“…Since you went away The days grow long
And soon I'll hear Old winter's song
But I miss you most of all, my darling
When autumn leaves start to fall.” -- Johnny Mercer
Personally, I’ve always loved the fall, especially when the air turns crisp and the leaves turn vibrant colors. For me it’s a happy time. But autumn – especially THIS autumn – is not necessarily a time of joy for many people who have weathered the pandemic.
Church Services on Sunday
In-Person Service begins at 10 a.m. Facemasks are optional if you are fully vaccinated.
Watch us on Facebook: We livestream our services to Facebook. You may view them live or on demand at www.Facebook.com/DanburyChurch/videos.
Bring Your Grief to God
Too many of us bear a sense of loss this year. We may be mourning the loss of friends or family. We may be missing our old sense of security, when it comes to our health, our housing, our livelihoods. Autumn looks utterly different to the families who lost a dear person to the violence that has stalked our streets and school classrooms.
Sadly, it seems as if in the rush to get out of the pandemic and back to what we call “normal,” there is a tendency to hustle other people through their grieving process for the people and things that counted to them. “Let’s get back to business.” And as we all know, grieving a loss is not something to which we can attach a “one size fits all” tag.
Grief will last as long as it needs to last. Jeremiah reminds us this Sunday that lamenting our losses is not an embarrassment. It is an important part of the Psalms and the Hebrew Bible when Israel was in honest dialogue with God, calling out with their own pain.
Your Path to God
This Sunday we’ll not so much focus on mourning, but upon the pathway to keeping things honest between ourselves and God.
- How do we teach our children and grandchildren to be honest in a world that seems to reward people who are not?
- When God seems to be hiding from us, where to we seek God?
Join us this Sunday to explore the answers.
(P.S. - Church School resumes this Sunday!)
What You Won’t See in the Bible
Money is not evil. (But the *love* of money is.)
(Posted September 21, 2022)
“When I was in seminary … we had a running joke. Whenever someone said something was in the Bible that wasn’t, we’d say it must be from the Book of First Opinions. I can tell from all the misattributed Bible quotes I’ve heard through the years, First Opinions is a pretty long book. It doesn’t need anything added to it.” ---Kyle Chastain, Koinina
Church Services on Sunday
In-Person Service begins at 10 a.m. Facemasks are optional if you are fully vaccinated.
Watch us on Facebook: We livestream our services to Facebook. You may view them live or on demand at www.Facebook.com/DanburyChurch/videos.
Just about everyone I know at one time or another has quoted something that sounds like it’s from Scripture that actually isn’t found anywhere in the Bible. Kyle Chastain compiled a few that you may have used yourself, including:
- God helps those who help themselves.
- This too shall pass.
- Love the sinner, hate the sin.
- To thine own self be true.
….AND, my favorite: Money is the root of all evil.
Is Money Evil?
This last one is actually quite close to the real quote that this week we find in 1 Timothy: For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Now, even at first glance, reading this may evoke in you, “So…what’s the difference?” But there is so much importance in the actual quote’s words: The love of money.
Money in and of itself is an inanimate object. It can’t be the agent of evil. However, humanity’s obsession with enriching itself to the detriment of others IS the root cause of so much heartache, so much division. The truth is we are given free will to make a choice. Do I CHOOSE to do what is supportive of the community to which I belong, or do I exploit, cheat and plunder others to seize way more than my share of material blessings?
Is Being Rich a Sin?
We’ll be discussing these points on Sunday, but also we’ll see one important thing: Being rich is not a sin.
Having the talent and ambition to become rich is not a sin. It’s what you do when you get there and what you did to make it that holds the difference. So if you do come this Sunday you may learn a thing or two. As the Bible DOES NOT say, “God works in mysterious ways.”
Information
First Congregational Church
164 Deer Hill Ave.
Danbury, CT 06810
Est. 1696
Phone: (203) 744-6177
Email: office@danburychurch.org
Office Hours:
Monday 9 a.m. – 3 p.m.
Tuesday 9 a.m. – 3 p.m.
Wednesday 9 a.m. – 3 p.m.
Thursday 9 a.m. – 3 p.m.
Friday 9 a.m. – 3 p.m.
Thrift Shop Hours:
Saturday 10 a.m. - 2 p.m.
Sunday Worship:
Sunday 10:00 a.m.–11 a.m.