Litchfield Community Church Presbyterian

As part of its continuing 200th anniversary festivities, on June 20 the historic Litchfield Presbyterian Church celebrated the community and the beginning of summer with the second annual old-fashioned Strawberry Festival.  God blessed us with one of the very few dry and sunny days in June and the townsfolk shook off their cabin fever and turned out in droves to make the festival a smashing success.  The church grounds were crowded with cheerful residents and the sounds of laughter and good conversation were everywhere as several hundred people enjoyed delicious strawberry shortcake made with berries courtesy of McQuesten Farm Stand , a baked goods table with many strawberry confections, hot dogs, sausage (courtesy of Mr. Steer Meats), soft drinks, games and face-painting for the children, craft tables, raffle tickets and more.

At the Historical Society Building, Mrs. Alice Dickinson provided a highlight of the day as she shared some charming reminiscences of the Litchfield community and the church.  Many thanks to Dr. Stephen Calawa, President of the Society, who open the Historical Society building and displayed a number of  interesting antiques and Litchfield artifacts.

We are very grateful to all who pitched in and contributed their time and energies to the day.  Especially those who worked for hours preparing and serving the delicious hotdogs and sausage sandwiches and the fabulous strawberry shortcake.  A delightful Litchfield tradition is happily revived!

We are part of a grand and glorious creation, sharing the world with “all creatures great and small.”  It would be difficult to over estimate how important the rest of the animal world is to human beings.  Animals of all kinds are our protectors, providers and friends. From dogs that see and hear for us, to sheep that give us wool and chickens that give us eggs, to the family pet that keep us company and cheers us when we are sad, to eagles in flight that inspire our dreams, animals are a big part of our well-being.  Like us, animals are God’s precious creatures.

In gratitude to God and in respect and affection for our animals, we will share together in a service of “The Blessing of the Animals.”  The special outdoor service is a first for our church, and will be held this Sunday June 14, 2009 at 10:00AM.  Invite your human friends and bring your animal friends to be blessed.  Animals of all types and sizes are welcome, but please be sure they are under control.

The yard sale to benefit the Deacons has been postponed until August.  If you have items that you would like to donate for the yard sale, please contact any Deacon.

The Litchfield Community Church, Presbyterian is seeking an organist to coordinate music and perform during weekly worship service and other special events. Our Church is a small, but growing, vibrant community with a small, dedicated choir.

This opportunity begins in late summer, 2009. Our current organist is a very talented young man who will be attending college in the Fall.

ORGANIST Job Description

• Play at regular Sunday Worship service (currently 10:00AM) and weekly rehearsal with choir (currently 7:00-9:00PM, Thursdays, but possibly flexible). Provide appropriate choral music and responses in coordination with the pastor.
• Play at special services such as Maundy Thursday, Christmas Eve service and Ash Wednesday service, and other special services that may be approved by Faith Committee and Session.
• Coordinate special music to be played during the worship service with the pastor as may be appropriate for the Sunday theme and season of the church year.
• The organist is entitled to four (4) paid Sundays off to be used as vacation or personal time; also two (2) Sundays for sick time with pay.
• Play for weddings and funerals, as required, at negotiated rates.

Contact:

Mike Couture
Personnel Committee Chair
Litchfield Community Church, Presbyterian
603.305.9427

Hot off the press!  Check out the May/June 2009 Lamplighter newsletter.

This Saturday, May 9, the US Postal Service’s mail carriers will be collecting non-perishable food items to benefit local food pantries under their Stamp Out Hunger campaign.  Our Litchfield community food pantry is a major recipient of food items from this drive.  You can help in the following ways:

• Place bags filled with non-perishable food items next to your mailbox.  We always have needs for the following items: spaghetti sauce, peanut butter, jelly, canned spam, canned chicken, canned ravioli, and breakfast cereal.
• Meet us at the Riverside Cottage across the street from the church to at 3:30 p.m. on Saturday to help sort out the donated food items.
• Support the food pantry with a monetary donation.  Mail checks payable to Litchfield Community Church Presbyterian to 259 Charles Bancroft Hwy, Litchfield, NH 03052 (put Food Pantry on the memo line so we know where to direct your contribution).

Thank you for supporting us in this valuable mission to the Litchfield community.

Out of my distress I called on the LORD;
the LORD answered me and set me in a broad place.  Psalm 118:5

There once was a man named Hobson who owned a livery stable.  He had a few horses to rent out and in order to rotate the use of the animals, he would move them, each in turn, to a stall nearest the door of his establishment.  He would then offer his customers a choice.  They could take the animal in the stall nearest the door, or they could take no animal at all.

Thus, so the story goes, originated the term “a Hobson’s choice.”  It is a choice, which in point of fact, is no choice at all.  “Like it or lump it.” “Take it or leave it.”  It is the appearance of multiple options when there is actually only one.  As Henry Ford famously said of his Model T, you could choose to have it in any color you wanted, so long as it was black.

The hard economic times we are all facing reminds me of another story.  In Bisbee, Arizona, in the early years of the 20th century, a dispute between copper mining companies and mineworkers developed. In 1917, the workers had organized in labor unions and approached the company management with a list of demands for better pay and conditions. The mining companies responded by giving their workers a choice.  On the one hand, they could continue to accept the harsh and underpaid work at the rock-face of the copper mines or, on the other, they could accept unemployment and poverty.  The workers said that this choice put them “between a rock and a hard place.”
I hate to be “between a rock and a hard place” don’t you?   The worst part of hardship, economic or otherwise is to have no good choices.  It is horrible to feel hemmed in by circumstances, to feel stuck in a dead end situation, to feel powerless, constrained and constricted.  It is like the walls are closing in on you.  You feel hopeless, as though there is nothing you can do, or as though anything you try to do is futile.  Every option is a bad one.  Every human feels this way sometime.

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Greetings!

Spring is slowly making its way upon us and it’s time for a clean-up day to get ready for the Easter season.

Saturday April 4 is

CHURCH CLEAN-UP DAY

9:00 AM til when you need to leave.

Bring Yard Tools

PASS THE WORD!

Here are some thoughts distilled from a recent sermon on Wisdom. The reading are from Proverbs 8 and John 1:1-3

Before the beginning of the cosmos, before physics or mathematics, certainly before geology or biology, and long before psychology, there was a reason, a purpose, a logic, a will, a desire, an intention.  In the New Testament this purposeful energy is personified as the “Logos” of God.  In the Old Testament, and especially in the book of Proverbs, purposeful energy is personified as the female principle, Sophia - Wisdom.

This logic, this wisdom, has to do with the right order of things.  It is the principle by which everything from subatomic particles to humans in society is intended to operate.  It is an intention of deep harmony, mutual care and interdependence.

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Scripture Lessons:    Geneis 2:7 “Then the LORD God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being.”

Galatians 5:14 “For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote, “The … great nature in which we rest, as the earth lies in the soft arms of the atmosphere; [is] that Unity, that Over-soul, within which every man’s particular being is contained and made one with all other.”  (The Over-Soul, 1841)

Today I want to show the nature of our relationship to one another, and then based upon that relationship, I want to show our responsibility to one another.

Do you know what is the world’s largest creature?  We may think of elephants, giant squids, or whales, perhaps we’ll even think of a dinosaur. But we’d be wrong on every count.  It depends upon how you measure it, but by some measures, the world’s largest living organism is the Populus tremuloides (trem u low id eez).  It is 80,000 years old and  weighs 12 million pounds.  Imagine that!  Of course this creature is not an animal at all, but a giant grove of quaking aspen trees in the Rocky Mountains of Utah.  Extensive DNA testing has shown that the entire grove is in fact one vast male aspen tree with a huge interconnected root system.  This forest, which covers many acres of land, appears as many individual trees, but in fact it is only one giant organism.

I believe that the entire human race is connected in a way something like this.  We are one vast organism – in our case, not merely a biological organism, but a spiritual organism.  We all share the same life… we are animated by the same spirit.

The Source of our life is a Unitary Spirit.  It is a single Life Force, a single Creating Energy, a single Over-Soul (as Emerson called it).  In the language of the Bible, this creating, animating, life giving Source is called Elohim: the Divine One.  The Jewish name for Elohim is Yahweh, “I Am.”  In common parlance we call it God.  Read the rest of this entry »