I love the Be the Church banner proudly displayed in our sanctuary.  As most of you know, I grew up in the United Church of Christ.  I grew up hearing about a God of love, a God who called me to go out into the world and make a difference.  The focus was not on fearing God, the focus was never on hell/eternal damnation.  As a child, I learned the Be the Church message before the message came to be in banner form!

Be the Church.  Protect the environment.  Care for the poor.  Forgive often. 
Reject racism.  Fight for the powerless.  Share earthly and spiritual resources. 
Embrace diversity.  Love God.  Enjoy this life. 

I have found our denomination’s Be the Church message to be challenged at times.  I have been serving as the Pastor of CFC for over seven years by now.  We are the only Welcoming, Open and Affirming church in town.  In these years of living and serving in Colchester, I have received hateful phone calls.  A man left me a voicemail complaining about our rainbow banner and then proceeded to say that I should not be serving as a Pastor anyway.  And how does it feel to know you are leading people to hell because women should be silent in churches?  A fellow local Pastor called to complain about our rainbow banner and how it grieved her to see that banner displayed at The Church on the Green.  

Sometimes the harassment has come in the form of items being sent to our church, often addressed to me personally.  One such item arrived this week, left at our front door.  Inside was a magazine: “The Bible Truth about HELL: Separating the FACTS from the FABLES.”  It was disturbing enough that someone felt the need to drop this off.  What was even more disturbing was to review the security footage and see that it was a child who got out of the car, ran up our steps, dropped this package off, and hurried back into the car.  Someone had a child do their dirty work to “educate” or threaten or intimidate.  We also discovered that someone has vandalized our front door.  Yes, those old green doors facing our Town Green.  We are unsure if these incidents are related.

Now why am I sharing some of these details publicly? 
Because people who do things like this want to silence their targets, to intimidate and make others afraid.  Instead, I have decided to shine a light on this hate.

Actions like this are why there are many people who want nothing to do with Church. 
They view Christians as hateful, and the truth is that some are.  

In my petty moments, I want to pull a Regina George from Mean Girls and ask these folks, “Why are you so obsessed with me?!” 
In my more charitable moments, it makes me realize how important our presence is in Colchester.  Obviously, there is work to be done to make our town a more loving place.

Colchester Federated Church is a place of love and acceptance; we are a place of welcome.  Because we do our best to Be the Church.  And we’ve been here serving the people of Colchester for 321 years, so perhaps we are doing something right!

On the practical side, our Ministry of Stewardship is ramping up building security and thank goodness we already have security cameras.  I contacted the Colchester Police Department to report this latest incident.  And I’m sharing publicly because it’s important for our congregation and people of goodwill in the wider community to know about incidents like this and to help keep an eye on our church.  

When hate is shared, we must share God’s love all the louder. 
See you in church.

Love,
Pastor Lauren

(The Photo shared above is the United Church of Christ’s Be the Church Banner).

Thursday Thoughts 7/11/24