Simon’s Says
At the risk of turning this space into the weekly obituaries, I will always remember Bill Moyers, who passed away this week, for his electrifying address to the Connecticut Conference Annual Meeting in the early 2000s. It was a deft yet wide-ranging survey of democracy and the imperative of the church’s voice in public discourse. His grasp of history, his understanding of the arc of public policy and his belief in the hope for the common weal were really inspiring and invigorating. I think his optimistic attitude was shaped in part by his theological education, as he was ordained as a Baptist minister, a role he soon decided was not the right fit for him. Still, in later years he became a sort of secular prophet, and his career in government, specifically in the Johnson administration, provided him with the political vision that grounds the prophet’s authority. And, in a not-so-incidental aside, the appeal and gravity of his speech to the CT Conference eclipsed that of another weekend speaker, a Senator from Illinois named Barack Obama. That tells you something!
I’m very excited to share the news with you that Dr. Roopa Ravikumar, the Director of the Lady Doak College Foundation, will be visiting and worshiping with us this summer. She will be joining us Sunday August 10 at our 9:00 am service to share some of the latest developments at the college, as well as the ways our church’s continued support has helped shape the institution that was founded by the United Church’s own Katie Wilcox. You will definitely want to be with us that morning.
I’m going to be away next week, and I’m grateful to The Rev. Joe Tobin who will be leading worship Sunday July 6. (Remember, our time of worship shifts to 9:00 am for the months of July and August.)
Links to this Sunday’s bulletin and service are here: