From the Fairfield County Regional Minister, Rev. Susan Page Townsley

Susan Townsley

Transforming people from no people into God’s people: That is the work of the church. The way this is accomplished is as varied as the combinations of letters that make up town names in our state. It is as varied as the people that God brings to the doors of our church, as varied as the communities we serve.

It is my great honor and privilege to serve with you - churches, church leaders and clergy. In particular, I have seen transformation happening in these ways:

• Search committees growing from 12 people with disparate points of view to a covenant community of consensus building and deep discernment.
• Church leaders moving from fear and avoidance around difficult topics to people willing to deepen our appreciation and understanding of the variety of viewpoints.
• Churches wanting to enhance their sense their ministry not just to their membership, but also to their communities, to the Wider Church, to all of God’s creation.
• Students in care who move from the individualistic and autonomous sense of having been “called by God,” to the covenanted and holistic sense of having been given gifts for the building up of the church.
• Study groups engaging in close and faithful readings of scripture to attend to the still speaking God.
• Clergy beautifully open to retooling their ministries, trying a new thing, letting God challenge and shape them in new ways.

I too am being transformed as I do this work. I am increasingly compelled to witness to our oneness in Christ. It is my deepening confession: That our covenant is not based on gifts I bring, or our inclusive ideal, or my position as Regional Minister, or your invitation. Our common faith in Jesus Christ binds us together. Christ alone incarnates our oneness. In his body, and by his grace, comes the gift of unity.

I am reminded of the Constituting Prayer, offered by the Rev. Gerhard Grauer at that Synod 48 years ago when the United Church of Christ came into being:

“We have covenanted together, but we cannot create, we cannot unite, we cannot constitute a United Church of Christ. What we propose, do Thou perform… O Lord, humbly we ask that the inspiration of thy presence may guide us and those who through the years shall seek to continue to build a United Christ of Christ.”