traditional worship
progressive theology
welcoming community
14 Laban Ainsworth Way, Jaffrey, NH 03452
Finding “Community” in New Ways
For almost a year, our weekly meditation videos bring First Church friends and members together, even while we are physically apart. Here we share some of the comments received about this new way of connecting people and nurturing spirituality.
Comments:
“My girls would usually be off at college now. But they’re home with us. We plan a specific time on a Sunday morning to sit together and watch the First Church YouTube for the week, sing along with the hymn if we know it, listen to the Scripture and David’s comments, and enjoy the special music. Afterwards we share thoughts about what we’ve just heard and what these mean to us. Thank you for giving us this opportunity to be together as a family, both the wider one and our own.”
“What a surprise and pleasure to encounter our ‘summer friends’ as readers for the beautiful Lessons and Carols video! Even though I didn’t get around to looking at this until several days after Christmas, the delay didn’t matter. The Lessons and Carols was so meaningful, and beautifully done, I shared the link with a good friend who is one of the Trustees at the church I attend in winter. Will see you all again this summer!”
“The Taizé video you created back in the fall has become part of my meditation time each day, even now. Thank you!”
“Putting an arrow on the line of the hymn so we can follow where ‘we’ are is a great idea. I’m started doing that for the Zoom broadcasts we send out from our church.”
“David’s message was ‘Just What I Needed’ once again… all the time!”
“Look at all the coverage we’ve received because of these videos: not just the local paper, but Keene and even a picture on the front page of the Concord paper, with an advisory to read the article on page 3. Wow!”
“Bible study and other meetings are taking place with Zoom. It’s not quite the
same as being together in one room, but it works.”
Our Music Production Crew At Work
IN SEARCH of a NEW PASTOR
First Church’s Ministerial Search Committee has been meeting every other week since early November via Zoom and has completed the standard UCC “Local Church Profile.” This document is in the form of questions based on three main categories:
Who is God calling us to become?
Who are we now?
Who is our neighbor?
Answers to these questions require considerable research and thought — such as visions for the future, core competencies we desire in a pastor, and how this church has handled change and conflict as well as detailed demographic and financial data and organizational structure descriptions. The Profile, now running more than 30 pages, will become available to candidates shortly.
Individuals interested in First Church should contact the NH UCC 140 Sheep Davis Road, Pembroke, NH 03275-3711 or email nhcucc@nhcucc.org who can then provide the full First Church in Jaffrey Profile. All applications are routed through the New Hampshire Conference of the UCC, and not directly to FCiJ. The Conference provides candidates with our Profile, and after review, if interested, candidates’ profiles are sent to our Search Committee.
Rev. Dr. David Felton | April 15th 2021
PREVIEWS, Apr 16, 2021
Dear Friends,
In this interlude of late winter into what the calendar labels SPRING, we list from port to starboard in rolls with seas of 2021. This weekend’s meditations continue with David Felton’s message (yes, he’s doing VERY WELL), music from the meditation team, and visions from our surroundings and from elsewhere reminding us of the message: God gives to us, Jesus offered to others, even when we do not ask, we are offered and given.
ENCOUNTER – a woman at a well
These times of pandemic bring out human vulnerabilities, in so many ways! Water (take it as real and as symbol) quenches thirsts in ways unexpected…. The old, old story of a ‘foreign’ woman’s encounter with a man also from a different region emerges poignantly with meanings now real in our times. The woman at the well described in scriptures from the Christian bible in the book of John is so ‘up to date’ and about our time, it’s rather startling. Enjoy the music, the scripture reading by Lisa Bostnar and some ideas to ponder. ENCOUNTER – a woman at a well
DRAW US IN THE SPIRIT’S TETHER
Bring us together — in spirit and in peace — lifts this desire through song and thought. The First Church in Jaffrey NH’s music ministry offers aspirations and signs of spring life in New England for your meditation these days. DRAW US IN THE SPIRIT’S TETHER
Blessings,
Carol Hess
Moderator, the First Church in Jaffrey
PREVIEWS, Apr 09, 2021
Dear Friends,
On this weekend following Easter, Rev. David Felton raises the provocative question: Are we willing “to give it a chance” when the ‘it’ seems unbelievable?
SEEING is believing
OK ! PROVE IT !!!!! How easy it is to be a skeptic. Thomas the doubter is oh so human. We find ourselves mimicking him perhaps more often than we’d like. This meditation from the First Church in Jaffrey NH transforms skeptical to accepting with interesting turns in the process. SEEING is believing
THE LAMB OF GOD
John the Baptist sees Jesus and exclaims: “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world ! ” (John 1:29) In this video the music meditation team offer an opportunity to encounter the pronouncement in song. Lamb of God
May your hearts rise up even as spring flowers lift their heads,
Carol Hess
Moderator, the First Church in Jaffrey
PREVIEWS, Apr 02, 2021
Dear Friends,
May the spirits of EASTER and of Passover Lift you up !!!
These special remembrance days declare “disaster can be followed by hope”… Share Vivaldi’s music and meditation material with friends, family and others — even as we do so in separate living spaces. Perhaps invite others to look online at the same time? A way to share…
Our gratitude to musicians who have so enriched this experience, to those who have contributed so that we have visuals and flowers in this time…and to our meditation pastor and to Lisa Bostnar for her insightful scripture readings each week.
May BLESSINGS of RENEWAL be yours, today and in the days ahead.
Carol Hess
Moderator, the First Church in Jaffrey
PREVIEWS, Mar 26, 2021
Dear Friends,
Easter-tide is upon us! Do take time to share with us collectively, even though the medium is individual experience! 😊 This weekend David Felton’s remarks carry a story we thought we understood and takes the material into dimensions that make (me) think about not just then, but about living now.
The music and messages this weekend are special gifts to each and all who choose to take the time to share in these meditations. Thanks to the Team, and our gratitude.
THE KING COMES
Do we recognize a king when we see one? And what, really, do we expect when we say: KING ? The KING comes !
INSTRUMENT OF PEACE
“Let me be an instrument of peace” — to myself, to others, to the world! This musical meditation, and the prayer it shares, are part of the music ministry offered by the First Church in Jaffrey NH for Easter-tide as a spiritual, nourishing experience. Do use it… Instrument of peace
EASTER – here’s what’s in store !
The First Church in Jaffrey’s Easter Sunday 2021 virtual service by Rev. David Felton will feature selections from Vivaldi’s Gloria, performed on the Baldwin grand piano by Monadnock Chorus accompanist Cheryl Sharrock and sung by the First Church quartet – Minister of Music Gene Faxon, Janet Grant, Betsy Feiker and Joan Epro. Faxon will also play the church’s pipe organ. David Felton’s meditation “I Have Seen the Lord” is from the reading in John 20: 1-18.
HOW TO HEAR meditations more easily
During the past pandemic year, First Church has used YouTube for its virtual services, allowing hearing-impaired persons to press the CC (Closed Caption) button on YouTube and simultaneously read the meditation (and sometimes the hymns). The video church services, which run between 10 and 20 minutes, are uploaded on Fridays and links are available through links on our website: www.FirstChurchinJaffrey.org, permitting people to “attend church” at their convenience from their homes or cell phones. There also is access to the videos through putting: firstchurchinjaffrey YouTube channel into your search engine.
Blessings to you all, we ask….
Carol Hess
Moderator, the First Church in Jaffrey
PREVIEWS, Mar 19, 2021
Dear Friends,
The meditations our Team provide this weekend have enriched all of us working on the project… I promise, they will be special gifts to you!
THAT YOU MAY HAVE LIFE!
Wisdom, humor, insight worth sharing. Each of us hopes to emerge from the ices of this spring 2021. That You may have life!
LAZARUS, I’M CALLING YOU
Especially in this year of confinement and ‘social distancing’ we may well feel akin to this wonderful folk song calling Lazarus… (that’s “you and me” and “those you love”)… out of “THAT GRAVE” into life, and spring. Lazarus I’m calling you
Blessings to you all,
Carol Hess
Moderator, the First Church in Jaffrey
PREVIEWS, Mar 12, 2021
Dear Friends,
The meditation this weekend holds up One Great Hour of Sharing, a program of the United Church of Christ. This Lenten Offering supports the disaster, refugee, and development ministries of the United Church of Christ within Wider Church Ministries. To learn more about One Great Hour of Sharing’s activities, check out the program on line: One Great Hour of Sharing’s activities.
As we have tended to offer, the first listing below is an extended meditation beginning with a hymn (you can sing along as words and score are provided), followed by scripture read by Lisa Bosnar, a message from David Felton and an anthem. (The anthem is also made available in the second link below.) The music is Eliza Gilkyson’s Requiem. If it is new to you, I expect you will want to hear it more than once, which is one of the reasons to provide it on an individual link.
You were THERE
Consider what it takes to be uplifted when faced with overwhelming loss? When one person, and another, and another clasp hands, the ground shifts. Through compassion and its sister, action, despair can move to recovery. You were there — and are now
Musical gift to our souls today
If you’re willing to see things in new ways, the current circumstances are a great deal like many overwhelming, sweeping events, life-changing, life-threatening and life-taking. For your sake, and for care for others, spend a few minutes exploring renewal…. Musical gift ro our souls today
Be well, be heartened, be generous! If you send a check to FCiJ, please indicate in the memo line that it is for OGHS. It is also possible to make contributions to One Great Hour of Sharing through our First Church in Jaffrey website First Church in Jaffrey website
Carol Hess
Moderator, the First Church in Jaffrey
PREVIEWS, Mar 5, 2021
Dear Friends,
… as we move further into Lent, with hope that the stormy gales outside our doors and inside our beings find calm… may the music and meditations offered here by our team at First Church in Jaffrey this week enrichen us. Do set aside time and experience these.
The videos enable us to be together, even in times where intimacy seems almost impossible. YES, feel and know you are loved. Share these words and songs. Feel loved, as you are.
Love’s gifts
Enjoy. In your space…share with loved ones or, perhaps, in these days, there is a need to meet your self…. enjoying these thoughts, songs and hearts together. Be nurtured. Do this in your way — by voice, by message, by sight… feel LOvE. Love’s gifts
God does love the world
Even as we fear, we also hope. We experience frustration. For far too many — loss. Gift yourself with these photographs from New Hampshire and music from Stainer’s noted oratorio; sustain your inner selves and perhaps share with friends by watching together, if in different places in this new world of communication “virtual”…God does love the world
A Lenten sing-along
Here’s an opportunity to sing to your heart’s content. This hymn speaks of the 40 days and 40 nights Jesus passed in the ‘wilderness’ trying to come to terms with the choice before him: to go to Jerusalem, or not! A Lenten sing-along
Carol Hess
Moderator, the First Church in Jaffrey
PREVIEWS, Feb 26, 2021
Dear Friends,
We move into the second week of Lent, with its gifts and its challenges. Life so often is made up of mixtures, especially as we make our ways through these Covid 19 times. Here the Meditation Team presents just what this Lenten season calls for. Take time to enjoy, be renewed, be fed.
COVENANT FAMILY
Connecting with family, close friends, and casual buddies has become heart-ache-territory in these pandemic times. So, what about a story that speaks of the beginning of family-connections that are yours, and maybe not heard about or not considered in this light? FAMILY, yes, they are. Enjoy this meditation in early spring 2021; family is there, perhaps a surprise. Covenant Family
BE THOU MY VISION
In this setting by John Rutter the old Irish words “Be Thou My Vision oh Lord of our hearts” are offered by the music meditation team at the First Church in Jaffrey, NH. Truly a gift for these days and these times … Be Thou My Vision
Carol Hess
Moderator, the First Church in Jaffrey
PREVIEWS, Feb 19, 2021
Dear Friends,
This weekend the Meditation Team offers delicious sites, sounds and ideas. There are two good opportunities to engage in “sing-along”, too.
RAINBOWS of HOPE
Living on Noah’s ark — might be like us now in 2021? Are you looking for the dove? Would it help to sing and see if a sound comes back? The music ministry this week offers a Sing Along…tunes and words from Taize, other ecumenical easy-to-follow songs of the soul reflecting care, concern, calls to action and balm! In the safety of your own space and open your heart, sing out!. Be well, be safe, be healed, be hopeful.
Enjoy the rainbows. Rainbows of Hope
AFFIRMING A COVENANT
“Covenant” is a rich word, so much more nuanced than just plain old “commitment”…. Worth celebrating with many colors. The First Church in Jaffrey NH music ministry does, in this video. Affirming a Covenant
Blessings and wishes for health and peace,
Carol Hess
Moderator, the First Church in Jaffrey
NEWS
First Church in Jaffrey’s Labyrinth Is Open for Walking in Circles
JAFFREY First Church in Jaffrey’s Labyrinth Is Open for Walking in Circles The First Church in Jaffrey invites you to walk in circles in its Peace Labyrinth and meditate in a neighborhood of 18th and 19th century historic buildings and houses. The Labyrinth is at the back of the 1831 red brick church, which is next to the 1775 Jaffrey Meetinghouse on the Jaffrey Center Common. Built in 2005 with stones brought by members of the congregation and the wider community, this non-denominational spiritual site is now open to visitors looking for some mild exercise and an outdoor place for meditation during spring, summer and fall. Directions: From Route 124, drive to Laban Ainsworth...
CARE AND PRAYER
“If you love me, keep my commands. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— the Spirit of truth.” John 14:15-17
The Holy Spirit has often been described as the Spirit of God, of Love, that human beings make manifest among one another. In this spirit, the Caring Circle relies deeply on the Holy Spirit as we seek to offer support to members, friends, and those in our wider community who are in need.
THE GREAT TAPESTRY THAT IS
FIRST CHURCH IN JAFFREY
We recognize that we each are on our own spiritual journey, a journey that will not end here. As members and friends of this church we pledge to be companions as we journey for as long as we travel together in this place. We do this by respecting each other’s understanding of and relationship to Jesus of Nazareth, whom some of us call Christ, while acknowledging our commitment to the broader fellowship of the United Church of Christ and the wider Christian family. ALL questions are welcome here!
Meditation For A Difficult Time
