Where everyone is welcome...NO EXCEPTIONS!
Welcome to Central Congregational Church United Church of Christ
An Open and Affirming Congregation
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
A New Season
Summer seems to have passed too quickly. Maybe it’s because the extended heat waves kept us indoors. Maybe it’s because each year, time seems to move faster. Now Fall is upon us. And it is full of its own rhythms of life: leaf color, life piles, apple cider donuts, apple picking, pumpkins, back-to-school, sports, cooler nights….
I preach and pray a lot in worship about the power of the present moment. It is the place where we find God and our most authentic selves. We won’t find it in reminiscing or regretting the past. We won’t find it in fearing or framing the future. And while the insights of the past are important, and planning for the future has a value, both need to be done from mindfulness of God in the present moment.
Fall will offer us many of these opportunities. Each season does. Each day does. Each moment does. I think that is one of the most crucial values of worship. When we gather as the body of Christ something shifts inside us. When we can fully bring ourselves in the present worship moment it realigns us to what is most real. It’s the strength we gain from each other in “Our Oasis of Caring and Joy”. It’s the acknowledgement that we can’t do this alone. It’s the opportunity to offer praise and gratitude along with our vulnerability and needs.
And whether we fully know each other’s stories or not, we know that we are joined in worship by a group of people struggling and savoring in life, just like us. That seems most real to me as I read our long list of names during the time of prayer. Even if we don’t know the story behind each name, we know our own stories and the many stories we have encountered and we lift up each other in trust.
May this Fall season and each new season bring your heart home to the healing of God’s community of faith.
See you in Church,
Rev Don
