Litchfield Presbyterian

This sermon was recorded on March 7, 2010. To listen to the audio recording of this sermon Click Here.

This sermon was recorded on February 28, 2010. To listen to the audio recording of this sermon Click Here.

Hot off the press!  Read all about Easter and other good stuff.  Check out the March/April newsletter.

Today I want to offer you an interpretation of the earliest years of this congregation.  It’s certainly not the only interpretation possible, but it makes sense to me and it is, I think, quite instructive.  It has become cliché to say that those who do not learn from the past are bound to repeat it.  Cliché notwithstanding, it is in the hope of gaining some useful insights from our past that I ask you to turn your attention for a few minutes to the very brief career of the first minister settled in this town, the Reverend Mr. Joshua Tufts.

Tufts was not the first minister to preach to the people of Naticook – as this area was first known. There are indications that at least three ministers preached here in the 1730’s.  Nor was Joshua Tufts the townspeople’s first choice for a settled minister.  Mr. Josiah Brown and Mr. Isaac Merrill (see Rev. Newhall’s Address) both were extended calls to settle here, but both declined.  Maybe they were just not the right men for the times.  Maybe Joshua Tufts was.  The story goes like this… Read the rest of this entry »

This sermon was recorded on February 14, 2010. To listen to the audio recording of this sermon Click Here.

This sermon was recorded on Boy Scout Sunday, February 7, 2010. To listen to this Sermon Audio recording  Click Here.

This sermon was recorded on January 31, 2010. To listen to this Sermon Audio recording  Click Here.

This sermon was recorded on January 10, 2010. To listen to this Sermon Audio recording  Click Here.

Jim and Bekki Spotts have been members of our church for about two years now.  Both Jim and Bekki are graduates of the United States Coast Guard Academy, and Jim is currently serving as commanding officer of the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Tahoma.  Right now, Jim and the crew of the Tahoma are engaged in life-saving relief efforts in Haiti.  On Friday, January 15 a feature article appeared in the Washington Post detailing the work that Jim is heading up in Haiti.

According to the article, “At first 10 children came, then 20, then 50. Finally, more than 100 young earthquake victims crowded into the clinic, where crew members of the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Tahoma were delivering desperately needed medical supplies and assistance late into the night.

“It was one of those days where we didn’t keep count. We treated a bunch of kids. We saved a lot of lives,” said Cmdr. Jim Spotts, commanding officer of the Tahoma, weary but still working with his crew at 9:15 p.m. But, he added, “a lot of older people had to wait.”

According to the article, Jim “brings his own expertise on Haiti. A former Coast Guard intelligence manager who has worked both the northeast and southeast marine borders near Canada and the Caribbean, Spotts from July 2008 until last May served as military liaison to Haiti at the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince — contributing to largest previous relief operations in the region, after four hurricanes smashed Haiti in 2008.

Tuesday’s earthquake, Spotts said, left his former colleagues reeling. At Haiti’s century-old former Admiral Killick naval base, now a Coast Guard station that houses a Sri Lankan battalion and a Uruguayan maritime police unit that are part of the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti, “only two or three structures” are left standing. It’s been hard,” Spotts said. “Obviously we need medical supplies . . . then food and water, and essentially the rebuilding of the entire city of Port-au-Prince,”  Spotts said.”

For more information and an interview with Commander Spotts, you can visit the WMUR TV 9 website.

Please pray for Jim and Bekki, their children Meredith and Ben, and for the crew of the Tahoma and the people of Haiti in these very difficult days.

Millions of people have been affected by a major earthquake that struck the country of Haiti on Tuesday, January 12. As the extent of the devastation in Haiti gradually becomes clear, people of faith and good will search for meaningful responses. Our first response is to join our hearts in prayer:

Let us pray,

God of compassion

Please watch over the people of Haiti,

Surround those who have been affected by this tragedy

with a sense of your ever-present love,

and hold them in faith.

Though they are overwhelmed by grief,

May they find in you some comfort;

Guide us as a church

to find ways of providing assistance

that may heal wounds and give hope.

Help us to remember that when one of your children is injured

we all suffer – Amen.

Beyond our prayers, there are other important ways we can help. Read the rest of this entry »