Where everyone is welcome...NO EXCEPTIONS!
Welcome to Central Congregational Church United Church of Christ
An Open and Affirming Congregation
Join us for Worship Christmas Eve when we worship by Candlelight with the Sacrament of Holy Communion and the Choir in the Sanctuary and online using Zoom. Anyone who considers him or herself to be a Christian is welcome at the Communion Table.
WELCOME
You are Welcome Here...
We are officially an ONA Church - Open and Affirming.
You are welcome here. You are celebrated here with all the diversity you bring in race, background, country of origin, beliefs and doubts, class, education, age, abilities. You are celebrated here with all the diversity you bring in gender orientation, gender identity; our LGB TQ+ siblings you are welcome here ….
In a world where it sometimes feels unsafe to be who you are you are safe here;
You are seen here
This is God’s home
This is sacred space
God is here with us and we are here with God.
We are a people who honor God experienced by us as father and mother, Christ and Holy Spirit, but we don’t have a religious test for participation. So come with your beliefs, questions and doubts. Just come…with an open heart to where God is still speaking in your life and ours.
Because, we seek to honor the dignity of every human being, speak the truth to one another in love, listen with compassionate hearts and walk humbly with each other and our God. We’re not perfect, neither are you, and you don’t need to be.
So bring your traumas and triumphs, your fears and fervor, your anxieties and awakenings, your worries and weariness, your joys and laughter.
Bring the sounds of children and the sounds of silence and the songs we sing together.
You are welcome here, you are safe here, you are loved here, you are home here.
About Us
Worship
Please join us - no matter your age or stage in life - young families, singles, seniors, empty-nesters or young adult - there's a place for you here at Central Congregational Church.
Come and see!
Worship is held at 10:00 am each Sunday in the Sanctuary September through Memorial Day.
Join us for Worship at 9:30am June - August in our Air-Conditioned Sanctuary.
Our Church building is easily accessible and air-conditioned.
We have plenty of accessible parking and an elevator
with trained staff to assist you.
Join us - come as you are! You are welcome here!
Pastor's Ponderings
December 2025 - Acknowledging Grief during the Holiday Season and Soon & Very Soon, an Advent Devoti
The Road of Grief:
Each year on All Saints Sunday we remember the people who have left their mark on our church, our lives and our hearts. We focus on the journey of grief. In my sermon I mentioned resources I would include in our Triad. These insights are helpful markers along that road:
We’ve learned a few important things about grief:
· “Grief is not a straight road—it winds through laughter and tears, memory and silence.
o It’s not something to get over, but something to grow through.”
· It is unique and non-linear:
o It can come, subtly quietly whispering to your soul, or like a crashing wave overwhelming you with emotional paralysis.
o There is no normal or prescribed way to move through grief. There are some helpful typical patterns of grief, but don’t presume they apply universally or linearly.
· It involves more than just the initial loss:
o You don't just lose a person; you also lose their roles, the dreams you had together, and the meaning in the role you played in their life.
· It can be a process of rebuilding, not just recovering:
o The goal is not to "get over" the loss, but to learn how to build a meaningful life alongside the memory of the person you lost.
o Time does not heal grief. You may feel you have gotten past its intensity only to be incapacitated by some small sight or sound or smell that activates it all over again.
o Grief is normal, but if you still feel that it handicaps your capacity to live, or work, or relate after a few months it may be helpful to seek a therapist or group that specializes in grief work.
o It means discovering the textures and images of a new landscape with that empty chair.
ADVENT DEVOTIONAL
Advent is quickly approaching. I’ve heard so many folks talking about how quickly time seems to be moving. To help us find a sacred pace to the season we have a devotional crafted by a writers group from our denomination. It is entitled: “Soon & Very Soon”. It draws on images from that song that speak to how hard it is to wait for relief or justice or healing or resolution. We’ll be weaving some of the themes from the devotional into our worship themes. Copies will be available Sunday morning in the Narthex.
We also have an Advent Calendar. Each day you will have an opportunity to ‘scratch’ off a surface to reveal a prompt for prayer. Building on the worship themes of waiting for Hope, Peace, Joy and Love, the calendar will give you thoughts for reflection and prayer. It will also be available in our church Narthex.
THANKSGIVING THOUGHTS:
Do you know that research tells us that the wiring of our brain makes it difficult for us to hold gratitude and anger in our minds at the same time. That’s true as well for gratitude and depression. Or gratitude and sadness. Or gratitude and most any ‘negative’ emotion. The circuitry of our brain will toggle between one or the other, but won’t activate on both at the same time. It may seem like we are feeling both because that toggle can happen quickly; instantly. But the more we focus on gratitude, the harder it will be for those other emotions to take hold of our hearts.
See you in Church,
Rev Don
