If you haven’t been involved in our tutoring program at Noah Webster School, we hope you will consider getting involved next school year. The following is a first hand account from Barbara Howard, one of our current tutors. “I have been one of the tutors at the Noah Webster School, just down the street from our church. It is a magnet school and its emphasis is “microsociety.” The school, I’m told, was recently renovated, and the entryway is like a town square with big windows and little street signs. It is a welcoming place, very well run, and the folk who work there are friendly. A great place for learning. The children look great in their red and tan “uniforms”, and they seem to love school. That says a lot for the dedicated teachers and administration. So it is a privilege to be a part of this “society of learning.”

Mark 10: 46-52
Rev. Bryan Travis Hooper

What needs healing in your life?

That’s a tougher question than it might first appear to be. What made Bartimeaus special was his relentless clarity about what needed healing in his life. He wanted to see. He knew perfectly the deepest desires of his heart. He had no questions, no reservations, about what needed healing in his life. (more…)

Mark 10: 35-45
Rev. Bryan Travis Hooper

I thank all of you for the many cards, phone calls, and notes I received over the last week. My father’s death caught me quite off guard, and my brother and I and the rest of our family, had a lot of work to do this past week, not the least of which was simply to be together and grieve his loss. My father visited this church twice, so some of you had a chance to meet him. I apologize for not communicating this to you better and earlier, but if you would like to honor my father, you are invited to make a donation to the American Heart Association or the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. And please know that your pastor is doing ok. It is not easy, but I’m ok. And I heard that last week didn’t quite go entirely as planned, but that this church managed things with grace and competency, and I am grateful to serve such a church. (more…)

A United Methodist Volunteers in Mission (UMVIM) team is one that serves locally, nationally, or internationally where it is invited; works in a ministry endorsed by the host Methodist church, partner church or agency, or nongovernmental organization (NGO); and serves in cooperation with the local host group….The UMVIM motto, “Christian Love in Action,” is taken from 1John 3:18, in which Christians are asked to love “not in word or speech, but in truth and action.” Living our faith is at the very heart of our Christian calling and reflects the purpose that has grown out of our understanding of who we are and what we want to be: those who express “Christian Love in Action.”…There are currently a number of 2010 UMVIM trips to Haiti and to Thailand/Cambodia being scheduled. If you would like to know more about joining one of these trips, click here to learn about the Haiti trips or click here to learn more about the Thailand/Cambodia trips.

What a wonderful Consecration Sunday! Over 120 adults, youth and children participated in the worship experience, filled with prayers, Scripture, and music spanning 105 years of this church in this location (singing of hymns, clapping, a choral piece, percussion instruments.) Our Bishop Park gave a message of hope, witness, and aliveness in Jesus Christ and in our church. At the close of worship, we brought our Commitment cards for the coming year forward to the Communion rail. The celebration then continued as folks shared in fellowship and food at the catered 105th Anniversary Reception in Wesley Hall.

Our sanctuary is enhanced by flowers on the altar during worship on Sunday mornings. You can sign up now for the upcoming date on which you would like to honor or remember an event or loved one. The cost is $35, and you should note “flowers” on the memo line of your check. You can sign up on the bulletin board outside the church office, or by phoning or emailing the church secretary.

Few places have collected more dust in recent years than that attic at the parsonage and the church library. This is true of my parsonage attic and our church library, but is also practically universally true of all parsonages and libraries. Dan Dick recently reflected on this reality across Methodism, and his thoughts inspired me to think about our library situation.

Another thing parsonage attics and libraries have in common: they are full of antiques. When I look through our library (right next to my office, on our neglected second floor) I don’t find many books written in the last year. In fact, I don’t find many books written in the last thirty years.

Our library used to be well maintained. The books there represent a respectable collection – for 1970. But since then, the library has been in decline (with a few efforts at reform along the way). I can only think of one or two times over the last few years that anyone has asked to use our library, as a library. Now it is a place for the occasional meeting and the collection of dust.

Dan’s observations describe our situation well:

Church libraries are odd little repositories for an eclectic and uncritical assemblage of writings and ideas. Many churches do little or nothing with their libraries, and in fact in about one-in-ten the last new title was added sometime in the late 1970s (usually by Billy Graham or Robert Schuller). Only about one-in-three church libraries I visit is “active” in the sense of people actually borrowing and returning books, new titles being added regularly, and some kind of organization and display of featured titles employed.

Growing up, we used to joke that Methodists were Baptist that read books. I wonder if we could still make that claim. Given the shaky state of libraries in Hartford generally, I wonder if anyone reads books in our community. It seems to me that a well run, well staffed, technologically savvy library would be a great tool – not only for our congregation to grow in faith, but for our community as a whole. Is it possible that in an urban context, a well run library could be a mission project?

Reading is a great joy of my life. It is also a source of power. Reading makes us larger than we were. Reading invites us to grow, to learn, to be amused, to laugh, and to expand our understanding of others. As libraries are being quickly transformed by technology, perhaps now is a time to revisit our library, and ask how it might serve the needs of our community.

Adult Forum resumed on September 27 with a study of the book of Hosea in the Hebrew testament. Adult Forum, led by Harold Craig, provides a context for adult Bible study, with in-depth and open discussion. Newcomers are always welcome to join in for lively conversation and warm fellowship. Adult Forum meets on Sundays (Mid-September through May) at 11:30 a.m. in Wesley Hall.