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THE REV. MARK DITERS RECOMMENDED AS OUR PASTOR
After a lengthy, thorough and prayerful search, the members of your Search Committee are unanimously and enthusiastically recommending the Reverend Mark Diters as the next settled pastor of our church.
The Rev. Mr. Diters is an ordained UCC minister with 12 years of parish experience. He is coming to us from the position of Associate Minister at South Church in Granby. He has a broad range of experience in preaching, visitation, committee work, property management and youth ministries. He chaired the Committee on Ministry of the Farmington Valley Association for three years, and has “deaned” summer conferences and statewide Confirmation Retreats at Silver Lake Conference Center many times. He is the Pastoral Care Coordinator with the Farmington Valley Visiting Nurse Hospice Program. He graduated from Bates College in 1977 ad later pursued graduate studies at Princeton Theological School, Hartford Seminary, and Yale Divinity School. He received his Masters of Divinity degree from Yale in 1998.
Mark is 53 years old and lives with his wife, Susan, in Canton Center. Susan is a nurse working at the Hospital of Central Connecticut in the Family Birth Place. Mark and Susan have three children, and became grandparents themselves in January. Their daughter Caitlin resides in Washington, D.C.; their daughter Sarah and her husband Jon live in Torrington; and their son Sam is a sophomore at Central Connecticut State University.
The candidacy weekend will be on June 7 and 8. All members and friends of the church are invited to a drop-in open house on Saturday afternoon, June 7, from 2:00 to 4:00 pm in the lounge. The Rev. Mr. Diters will conduct the Worship Service on Sunday, June 8, at 10:00 am.
Directly following worship, the Church Council has called a Congregational Meeting of members to vote on extending a Call to the Rev. Mark Diters. If called, the Rev. Mr. Diters will be available to start on August 25, 2008. He is not available sooner partly because he is leading 35 young people and adults on an Appalachian Service Project in July.
Our thanks to the hardworking Pastoral Search Committee, Chaired by Bob Klein, and including also Wayne Duckworth; Linda Finkler, Corresponding Secretary; John Schnabel; Barbara Shaw, Recording Secretary; and Sally Williams, Chaplain.
SUNDAY SCHOOL NEWS
As Memorial Day has passed you can't help but feel that summer is almost here. The excitement is overwhelming! Quieter days for the children with looser schedules. They can renew their minds and bodies. Days at the beach or at the pool, vacations and camp sound like so much fun. I am excited for all of the children at Flagg Road Church. Yet, we all need to remember to take the quiet time for reflection and renew our spirits with the love of God every day....even in the summer.
With the last four weeks of Sunday School this is our calendar of events. Each week is very important to prepare for Children's Sunday and it would be in their best interest to have them in church. I appreciate your support on this.
June 1- beginning to talk about Children's Sunday. Parts, scenery, etc. Don't get left out!
June 8- Children to sing with adult choir........"In Every Bulb There is a Flower". This should be fabulous! Also, search committee candidate Rev. Diters will preach and meet the congregation.
June 15- Happy Father's Day! Week before Children's Sunday! Lots to do!
June 22-Children's Sunday Service. Let's celebrate our fabulous children and Sunday School program. This year will be a special treat!
Thanks for a great year with your children. They are all very special.
Blessings,
Lisa Sandstrom
YOUTH IN THE NEWS
The Youth Group will have a fun event in June, please look for an email from Karen and Richard, and respond promptly so we can coordinate this with all of our busy schedules.
INTRODUCING OUR NEW MEMBERS . . .
Kurt and Debbie Moyer Kurt and Debbie arrived in West Hartford six years ago from Eastern Pennsylvania.
Kurt is a bioanalytical chemist and director of research with Pharmalytical Services in Newington. Kurt studied at Millersville (PA) State University and at Villanova for his Ph.D. He is family-oriented, enjoying everything outdoors. Kurt has trained and worked with therapy dogs. Currently he’s taken an interest in bonsai. He hopes to become involved in our congregation in one-one-one endeavors such as teaching, mentoring, visitation and youth activities. Kurt’s comment about Flagg Road Church is that he very much “wants his family to grow with our family.”
Debbie is an ordained UCC minister who attended William and Mary and Lancaster Theological Seminary. Prior to meeting Kurt she served her first pastorate in Pottstown, PA. In Connecticut, she served as an interim associate pastor at First Congregational Church in Glastonbury. Debbie is a committed to the arts as a dramatist and, currently, as a painter studying oil. She hopes that her interests and energies can be used by Flagg Road Church in the areas of spiritual growth, art and dance groups. She said about our church that “we were immediately welcoming at a time when their family needed a community.”
Kurt and Debbie have one son, Nathan, who is three years old. While not studying art professionally, Nathan is an apprentice to his mother and has several framed works on exhibit at their 239 Ballard Drive home. They will join the church on June 15.
COME CELEBRATE OUR 50TH
Plans are now underway for The Flagg Road 50th Anniversary Celebration to be held on a Sunday in early fall. The planners’ first meeting was held on Sunday, May 18, following the Financial Task Force Open Forum. After a brief summary of “potential ideas” for the event was presented by Carol Sicilian, members in attendance were encouraged to volunteer and sign up to be on one of the festival committees. Those responding so far include: Linda Finkler, Invitations; Susan Duckworth, Advertising; Don McKeever and Betty Jones, Church History; Carol Dickson, Entertainment; Marsha Lewis, Special Art Project; and Wayne Duckworth (on behalf of the Men’s Fellowship), Space planning/Set-up. Other committees looking for volunteers include: Organizing Luncheon, Planning Craft and Sporting Activities, and Decorating.
The next committee meeting for the anniversary will take place on Sunday, June 1, following morning worship. If you would like to share in the planning of this event or just want to learn more about it, please come and join the group. For further information please talk to Marsha Anderson, Kim Cardone or Carol Sicilian.
BOARD OF CHRISTIAN SERVICE
The Second Mile Offering for the month of June is Peter's Retreat. The goal of Peter's Retreat is to "help individuals living with HIV / AIDS to lead a healthier life in a safe, caring, and supportive residential environment." Peter’s Retreat is the larger of Hartford’s two AIDS residences. The need for 24 hour a day /7 day a week residences greatly exceeds the supply. Without Peter’s Retreat, 26 persons living with HIV / AIDS would be homeless. As a result of the support they receive while living at Peter’s Retreat, these individuals consume fewer emergency health and social services than they otherwise would. Our past donations have been greatly appreciated. Let's step up and give generously once again.
As we all know, the cost of food has been steadily rising over the past few months. The West Hartford Food Pantry has been reporting a record number of families in need of food assistance. The Board of Christian Service would like to encourage everyone in the congregation to pick up at least one extra non-perishable food item each time they go grocery shopping to donate to the Pantry. You can bring your donations to church any time (there is a box for them in the link). We will take the food to the Town Hall in the first week of each month. Let's see if we can't really step up our giving as we move into the summer season. Thanks.
FROM THE CHURCH COUNCIL
The Church Council voted on May 27 to call a meeting of the congregation after church on June 29 for the purpose of voting on new By-Laws. The new By-Laws include the Financial Task Force’s recommendations to reorganize the way the church does its business. The church Council has also included additional changes in the By-Laws for your consideration, to include, for example, our Open and Affirming statement and our Safe Church Policy. Two versions of the By-Laws will be available in the Lounge two weeks prior to June 29th, one with all of the changes annotated and one with the changes included but not annotated. Please take a copy and read it over carefully. If you would like an electronic copy of the By-Laws with the changes annotated, email Betty Klein at ivey@hartford.edu. The chair of the Council (Betty Klein) and the chair of the Task Force (Kim Dickson) will be happy to answer any questions you may have.
This newsletter article serves as the call for the congregational meeting on June 29. Please make an effort to attend this very important meeting.
INTERIM PASSAGES
Finding God Our Source
People think about church when they enter a hospital. When they register, they likely will include the name of their religious affiliation in their paperwork. But when the hospital stay is over, they forget that connection that they thought important enough to record at admission.
Church attendance has everything to do with the next generation. But joining a church has nothing to do with giving your children an ethical foundation and a spiritual center, if parents do not worship with them. Children learn by observation. Haphazard or non-attendance of their parents communicates: “Christianity is the belief system my parents would espouse, if they understood it or believed it. But the reality is that they don’t think it’s worth the effort.” So instead of a family engaged in a spiritual journey toward Christ, they linger around the edges of the congregation, uncertain about the timing of their next visit. The next generation, interprets the uncertainty as unimportance which further dilutes what it observes. They likely will become spiritually illiterate.
The vacuum that arises because of these demonstrations of the attitude, “Christianity is my religion of choice that I choose not to follow,” will be filled; vacuums never last. There is an internal yearning for a Creator, for ritual and for strong value systems. This desire is so strong that false gods are created when the living God is absent. Athletics, alcohol, social status, narcissism, unhealthy pursuit or righteous cause may take the place of religion in life.
Church attendance correlates with an experience of death and dying. Surveys show that adults who actively participate in church life experienced an incident regarding their mortality. So coming to the edge of one’s universe and discovering just how fragile and transient life is instills a devout humility. Conversely, persons buoyed up with a sense of their own immortality find it hard to be on their knees looking for help in any circumstance.
When Jesus Christ died, he passed on his Name and Power and Spirit to a corporate body of people. He did not encourage correspondence courses. He invested Himself in a community of individuals whom he referred to as “the Body of Christ.” If we are to draw as close as we can to Him, it will be to invest ourselves in the same community, His church, our congregation, where Jesus Christ lives and waits for us.
All blessings,
Rev. Mike
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