• Home
  • rainbow flagA Welcoming Congregation
  • Safe Congregation SealKeeping Safe
  • Capital Campaign
  • DONATE/REALM
  • TUCWomen
    • About TUCWomen
    • Join Us
    • Events
    • Contact
  • Contact
  • Instagram
  • Twitter

The Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Westport

10 Lyons Plains Rd., Westport, CT 06880 - Ph: (203)227-7205 Sunday Services: 10:00 AM

Unitarian Universalist Association
  • Calendar
    • Calendar
    • SOUNDINGS
    • Communications Guidelines
    • ZOOM Instructions
    • Tips For Making Videos
    • Event & Space Reservations
    • TUUCWSocial Email List Ground Rules
  • Welcome Visitors
    • UU Orientation
    • Directions & Services
    • Special Ceremonies & Dedications
    • Our Congregational History
    • Our Faith
    • What is a Unitarian Universalist?
    • We are Unitarian Universalists
    • How did you become a Unitarian Universalist?
    • History of the Flaming Chalice
    • UU History in 8 Minutes
  • About Us
    • Our Mission Statement
    • Our Vision Statement
    • About Our Ministers
    • Committee on Ministry
    • Our Staff
    • Getting Involved
    • Board of Trustees
    • Governance
    • Healing and Resilience Task Force
    • Congregant Celebration
    • Pastoral Care Chaplains
    • The Caring Support Network
    • Our Welcoming Congregation
    • Photo & Video Galleries
    • Links – Beyond Our Walls
    • SOUNDINGS
    • Communications Guidelines
    • Events & Space Reservations
    • Pledging
  • Faith Formation
    • Welcome to Faith Formation at TUUCW
    • Faith Formation for Children and Youth 2023-24
    • This Week in Family Faith Formation
    • Faith Formation Programs 2023-24
    • Faith Formation Registration
    • Adult Faith Formation
    • Soul Matters
    • Keeping Safe
  • Social Justice
    • Welcome to Social Justice
    • Advocates for Prevention of Gun Violence
    • Beardsley School Committee
    • Immigration and Refugee Committee
    • KIVA Microfinance Committee
    • Racial Justice Committee
    • Westbridge Coalition
  • Music Program
    • Our Minister of Music
    • The Music Committee
    • The Bell Choir
    • The Choir (Women and Men)
    • Special Projects Choir
    • Once & Again Singers
    • Children’s Choir
    • Teen Choir
    • Sight-singing Classes
    • Cabaret
    • Voice Classes
    • Love Is the Spirit
    • Tune My Heart To Sing
    • Support Our Music Program
  • Sermons & Poetry
    • Minister’s Messages
    • Sermons – Audio
    • Sermons – Video
    • Rev. John T. Morehouse’s sermons
    • From Your Senior Minister: Facing Grace
    • Facing Grace – Rev. John’s blog
    • Rev. Frank Hall, Minister Emeritus – sermons
    • Rev. Frank Hall, Minister Emeritus – Dear Friends
    • Intern Minister’s sermons
    • Guest Minister’s sermons
    • Poetry & Readings
    • Communications from Your Ministers
  • Live Stream

Dear Friends – April 2, 2001

April 19, 2011 by Rev. Frank Hall - Minister Emeritus

Dear Friends,

Easter was celebrated with an Easter basket for each of us, hidden in an easy-to-find place, and filled with candy in the shape of eggs, bunnies and chickens.

My favorites were those little yellow marshmallow chicks which you had to eat soon after taking them from the wrapper or they would get hard.

Once I ate one of those huge chocolate-covered eggs that are filled with a heavy, very sweet candy in one sitting and I got sick. I never did that again. For years afterward I wouldn’t even take a bite of one. That’s what happens when you have too much of a good thing, especially early in the morning.

One of my favorite childhood photographs was taken the Easter of 1947 when five of us posed for the camera with our new Easter outfits. Chet, Bill, Art and I wore soft hats–most men wore the fedora then. My brother Al was too little for that hat, and the stork hadn’t yet brought brother John and sisters Dot and Gwen.

The five of us were baptized that morning in the Congregational Church in West Medford. The photo I like was taken outside the church. There’s another one inside.

I was the only one that stayed with the church. By the seventh grade I went alone. I loved the Easter hymns-they were exhilarating, like Spring. I’m glad I didn’t think too much about the words and what they meant. I’m glad I was free to feel the meaning.

It would be years before I learned the theology of Easter, and the roots that Easter shares with Passover…and the Crusades, Inquisitions, and the tragic history of Christianity.

The ancient legend says that God sent the angel of death to slay the first born of the Egyptians who held the Israelites in bondage, but passed over the homes of the people of Israel. I do not recall any mention of this in the Congregational churches I attended; no mention of the relationship between Passover and Easter.

We raised our children with Easter baskets, though we weren’t big on getting new clothes for Easter. Carlyn enjoys the Easter basket tradition and the egg hunt. Like Susan and Jonathan, she doesn’t connect those traditions to religion any more than any of us connected Santa Claus with a theology of Christmas.

I had to leave the Congregational Church once I started thinking about the theology behind Easter. It’s not that I don’t appreciate a good story–the myths and legends handed down from our ancient forebears. It’s just that I saw people, including my own minister, who took them as literal truth, or so he said.

I have no idea how or whether you celebrate Passover and Easter, but I do hope you will celebrate the Spring, renew your Spirit, and read this letter like the poem it’s meant to be.

Yours,
Frank

Filed Under: Dear Friends

SEARCH

Categories

  • Events
    • Announcements
  • Interdependent Web
  • Minister's Message
  • Order of Service
  • Readings
  • Sermons
    • From Your Senior Minister: Facing Grace
    • Guest Minister's sermons
    • In The Interim
    • Intern Minister's Sermons
    • Minister's Message
    • Rev. Frank Hall, Minister Emeritus
      • chautauqua
      • Dear Friends
      • Rev. Frank Hall's sermons
    • Rev. John T. Morehouse's sermons
    • Rev. Shelly Thompson, Assistant Minister for Faith Formation
  • This Week at Church
  • TUCWomen Blog
  • Uncategorized
    • Uncategorised
  • Upcoming Sermons
  • Minister’s Messages
  • Sermons – Audio
  • Sermons – Video
  • Rev. John T. Morehouse’s sermons
  • From Your Senior Minister: Facing Grace
  • Facing Grace – Rev. John’s blog
  • Rev. Frank Hall, Minister Emeritus – sermons
  • Rev. Frank Hall, Minister Emeritus – Dear Friends
  • Intern Minister’s sermons
  • Guest Minister’s sermons
  • Readings & Poetry
  • Communications from Your Ministers

     The Unitarian Universalist
     Congregation in Westport
     is a member congregation of the
     Unitarian Universalist Association

      CLICK HERE if you have any questions      about The Unitarian Universalist
    Congregation in Westport

Congregational Hours: Tuesday - Friday
9:30 AM to 4:00 PM

Summer Hours:
July & August until after Labor Day:
Tuesday - Friday 9:30 AM to 4:00 PM

CLICK HERE to contact the web master

CLICK HERE to opt in to receive
the Weekly Congregational Email Blast

Membership Directory June 2023

Copyright © 2023 · Visit us at The Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Westport - 10 Lyons Plains Rd., Westport, CT 06880 - All rights reserved.