Pastoral Letter September 1999

To: Pastors

From: Davida Foy Crabtree

Greetings in the name of Jesus Christ, who binds us together into one community of faith and mission!

I am enclosing with this letter a sermon by our alternate chaplain ("The Untold Story") for this year, the Rev. Jared Rardin, of South Britain. Jed agreed to prepare this sermon at my request so that it might be used by laity in our churches on the Sunday morning of Conference Annual Meeting in order to enable all pastors to participate in the Meeting.

I encourage you to talk with your Deacons about this possibility. It is a wonderful sermon!

We are receiving many calls from people who want to join us at Mystic Seaport for the blessing of the Amistad on Saturday afternoon, October 16. We will welcome everyone who wants to come, but arrangements with the Seaport and the bus company are such that we must have Annual Meeting registrations for all in attendance, and people must ride the busses from the seminar locations. In addition, it is important to know that arrival at the Amistad event will not provide open admission to the rest of the Seaport. That would not be fair to the Seaport, and they are being wonderfully cooperative with us for this special occasion. Again, we will welcome everyone -- but they must register as visitors or delegates to Annual Meeting.

While this is not a full pastoral letter, I do want to share with you a number of pastoral concerns. Please be sure retired and specialized ministry clergy in your church see this, as we are only sending this letter to pastors. We are holding in prayer:

Bob Polk, new Minister for Retired Clergy for the Western Region, on the death of his son, George;
Merrilyn Holcomb of Winsted, on the illness of her husband, Don Holcomb;
Leslie Jacobs of Milton Church in Litchfield, continuing to recover from a brain tumor;
Richard Rush, retired from First Church, Fairfield, recovering from two heart attacks and bypass surgery;
Scott and Joy Raeburn of New London, as Joy is undergoing chemotherapy;
Tom Walter as he recently was married;
Cindy Reynolds of Middlebury and Carl Reynolds of East Windsor as their mother, Gwen Reynolds, recovers from an unknown illness;
Franklin Bower, pastor emeritus of Madison-First, on the death of his wife, Mary Lou Bower.
Bob Patterson of Waterbury, on the death of his mother-in-law, Mildred Sabom;
Evans and Evelyn Sealand, on the recent death of Evelyn's mother, Janet Jackson and a brother-in-law.
Persida Mendez of Immanuel Church, Hartford, for her son who recently was involved in a very serious automobile accident, recovering from his injuries;
Janet Hooper Ritchie, of Enfield, who spent time this summer recuperating from pneumonia.
Bob Werme of Waterbury, as Cameron has had to re-enter the hospital after being released.

No matter who you are or where you are on life's journey, you are welcome here.

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Pastoral Letter September 1999