From the River's Edge

by Rev. Racquel Ray Assoc. Minister of Congregational Life   I am not a pacifist. Try as I might to change myself through prayer, worship, contemplation, study, and reflection, I still believe in the value of confrontation and defense when needed. I am not one to ‘turn the other cheek’. I am more of a New England sports fan in the ‘mess around and find out category’. That is to say, I won’t...

by Rev. Racquel Ray Assoc. Minister of Congregational Life   In October of 2021, I wrote my first blog for Barrington Congregational Church, UCC on the importance of the presence of children within our congregation. That blog began with, “Children’s presence in the community has been acknowledged from Jesus to today. However, at times, the church failed to recognize the importance and...

by Rev. Dr. Dale Azevedo,  Sr. Minister I have to admit it. I was salty. Last Saturday was my birthday and I was required to spend all day at a church training in Connecticut. You see, I'm a delegate for General Synod. General Synod is the bi-annual denomination-wide meeting of the United Church of Christ. Every two years clergy and laity from across the country gather to worship, celebrate, and...

by Rev. Racquel Ray Assoc. Minister of Congregational Life Last week, my colleague wrote that he was troubled; troubled about the realities for LGBTQ+ communities, especially among children and youth. I am also troubled. My heart is heavy for the senseless and violent loss of life in the epidemic of school shootings. Most recently, the tragedy at the Covenant School, a private Presbyterian...

by Rev. Dale Azevedo, Sr. Minister   I Am Troubled Last night, I went to bed troubled. I have two rules at bedtime: Don’t look at your church email before going to bed. Don’t read the news before going to bed. Doing either of these tasks before going to bed rarely, if ever, ends well. And of course, I periodically break these rules. Last night I broke the latter. I read the news. And the...

by Rev. Racquel Ray Assoc. Minister of Congregational Life   We know the familiar stories of miraculous Biblical healing. God “restored the fortunes of Job and gave Job twice as much as he had before” (Job 42:10). The prophet Elijah healed the widow’s son.  Jesus healed the woman with the issue of blood, the paralytic, the blind man, lepers, demoniacs, and more. Scriptures say, “large...