In two video messages released today, Southern New England Conference staff responded to the news of 20 children being shot and killed in an elementary school in Texas with words of lament, words of prayer - and suggestions for how to act in response, both out of love and out of a desire for justice.

"If you are like me, you are torn," said Executive Conference Minister the Rev. Darrell Goodwin. "You're torn today between a sense of feeling numb, then maybe you're feeling lamentation and grief. And maybe on the other end, this sense of righteous anger about 'how are we here again?'

In a separate message, Rev. Emma Brewer-Wallin and Rev. Liz Garrigan-Byerly spoke about how to respond to the shootings both from a place of love and from a desire for justice. They talked about reaching out to local schools with love and appreciation, as well as contacting legislators and joining in some upcoming actions. Read & Watch 4 Min Read; 11 Min View

Related

• Resources, including pending legislation and upcoming actions, are available at: sneucc.org/gun-violence
   
• A prayer from the national officers of the UCC can be found here at ucc.org.

In the latest Go Tell it On The Mountain video, Executive Conference Minister The Rev. Darrell Goodwin spoke with the Rev. Gretchen Elmendorf as her church, the East Weymouth Congregational Church in Massachusetts, was preparing to celebrate it's 200th anniversary.

Read 3 Min Read; 10.5 Min View

After 12 years serving in various roles for the Southern New England Conference and historic Massachusetts Conference, Event Coordinator Andrea Bellarosa is leaving the Conference staff for a local church position. 

Bellarosa will stay on the staff through the June 18 Annual Meeting, at which time she will transition to the Wellesley Hills Congregational Church in Wellesley, MA, as their administrator. 

Read 2 Min Read

Rev. Liz Garrigan-Byerly, Area Conference Minister, writes:

We are not very good at listening to our bodies, these holy temples of God’s own making, are we? It’s almost a badge of honor in our culture to “work through the pain,”  and we Christians are not immune. Before Covid, pastors led worship with the flu; deacons prepared communion with migraines; Council members sat through meetings with excruciating back pain; chaplains sat with the grieving and ill while their chronic illnesses flared up.
 
The Covid-19 pandemic has made us much more aware of our bodies and our health. That has brought anxiety and frustration. It’s also brought blessing, because it’s forced us to acknowledge what our biblical tradition proclaims again and again: our bodies matter! Not because of their functionality and productivity, but because they are divinely created.