From the River's Edge

by Rev. Dr. Dale Azevedo,  Sr. Minister Years ago, the church I was serving had a guest speaker on Laity Sunday. It was one of our lay leaders and Church School teachers. The premise and title of his sermon was pretty simple:      "Love is a verb." I'm not quite sure why I had never really heard that sentiment before. On the surface, it seems pretty simple and obvious. But there was something...

by Rev. Racquel Ray, Associate Minister of Congregational Life In a country where we have declared to be created with inalienable rights to choose life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness it is remarkable that we should need to talk about the limits of those freedoms. Yet, here we are in the course of human events where we, as a church community, must decide where we stand. I have made clear...

by Rev. Dr. Dale Azevedo,  Sr. Minister With the recent announcement of my retirement from church ministry, I thought it might be helpful to talk about how pastoral transitions typically work in congregational churches. Now, every Christian tradition handles a change in pastors differently. In some traditions, like Roman Catholic and United Methodist, the local congregation has little to no say...

by Rev. Racquel Ray, Associate Minister of Congregational Life Happy New Year! The change of the calendar and the change in the weather bring also remembrances and renewals. Many of us review the previous year and resolve to make changes in the coming year. Some may choose to release actions that are not beneficial. And some may choose to add aspirational activities. I tend to ‘reset’ toward a...

by Rev. Dr. Dale Azevedo,  Sr. Minister Almost all of us in the church office are sick or have recently been sick. That's strange…although perhaps not unexpected. What's interesting is that none of us have the same thing, meaning we didn't all give it to one another. That would be explainable. But each of us, in our own personal way, has been ill recently. I say this is not unexpected because it...

by Rev. Racquel Ray, Associate Minister of Congregational Life The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness— on them light has shined.~ Isaiah 9:2, Matthew 4:16 Behold. Behold, beloved, is a term often used in the scripture to announce the presence of the Divine or the work or word of the Divine. ‘Behold’ informs the biblical reader that...