Pastor's Message

October 2006

It probably doesn’t matter how long it has been since you last went to school, or sent your children off on the school bus, or thought that September was synonymous with homework. I suspect that for all of us it still seems that the year begins in the fall. The civil calendar says it starts in January. The church calendar sees Advent as the beginning. Poets and farmers point to the stirrings of new life in the spring. But at some level many of us still move in the rhythm of the academic year. We slow down in the summer months, and start up again in September.

Folks we haven’t seen much of during the vacation season begin to return to worship. Promotion Sunday brings the energy of children back to our building. Program plans are made for months ahead. A feeling of energy, excitement, and enthusiasm is clearly present.

In a sense, autumn is a continuation, even a fulfillment, of summer. If the focus of our worship during the summer months has been living the life of faith, autumn is the time to deepen that message. Now is when seeds planted in the previous months reach maturity. Now is when the harvest approaches.

Worship in September and October points us toward both being faithful Christians in our own lives and planting the seed of faith in others. We return from vacations, renewed and reenergized, welcoming one another back to our work in Christ’s name.

But even as this season is a beginning, it contains the seeds of endings as well. The signs of the changing season are clear. Throughout the Northern Hemisphere, the days are already noticeably shorter. Different birds appear in our neighborhoods, passing through on their way to their winter homes. October brings a different feel in the air. Streets no longer seem softened by the summer sun. While we welcome all of these indications of the coming of autumn, we also recognize them as harbingers of winter. Harvest home celebrations rejoice in the bounty of our blessings, but they also remind us that now fields are barren and growth has ended.

Autumn is a season of great ambivalence. It fills us with enthusiasm for new beginnings even while it points us to endings. The true message of this season is of change. For our worship in this ambivalent season, the image of change acknowledges those varied sides of our lives.

One of my responsibilities as an Intentional Interim is to explore with you your tolerance and patience for change. My guess is that you, like most Christians, are more open to change than you think or will admit. In an effort to at least expose you to this theme, I have decided to use the UCC Book of Worship order of service for the month of October. For these five weeks we will “modernize” to the point of using a different and currently more familiar order of worship for whoever your next pastor might be. It must be admitted that few, if any, of the candidates for call to St. Paul are currently using the order from the Hymnal, first published in 1941. This will not be a permanent change. My role as an Intentional Interim is not to make such changes. Your next Called pastor may or may not eventually lead you to such a decision. I merely want to prepare you for the possibility of change, and test your tolerance of a temporary change to a new form of worship. In a sense I am measuring your “anxiety” with an imprecise but important test to pass on to your next pastor. I hope some of you, at least, enjoy the opportunity to experience something new, at least newer than 1941.

Pastor Cluley