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

The Unitarian Church in Westport

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

uua-logo-2
  • Calendar
    • Calendar
    • SOUNDINGS
    • Communications Guidelines
    • ZOOM Instructions
    • Tips For Making Videos
    • Event & Space Reservations
    • TUCWSocial 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
    • Our Staff
    • Getting Involved
    • Board of Trustees
    • Governance
    • The Naming Committee
    • Healing and Resilience Task Force
    • Congregant Celebration
    • Pastoral Care Chaplains
    • Our Welcoming Congregation
    • Photo & Video Galleries
    • Links – Beyond Our Walls
    • SOUNDINGS
    • Communications Guidelines
    • Events & Space Reservations
    • Pledging
  • FAITH FORMATION
    • Faith Formation for Children and Youth 2022-23
    • Welcome to Family Faith Formation
    • This Week in Family Faith Formation
    • Faith Formation Age Groupings 2022-23
    • What to Expect on Sunday Mornings
    • OWL Information at a Glance
    • Youth Ministry
    • Adult Faith Formation
    • Soul Matters
    • Keeping Safe
    • Faith Formation Registration
  • 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
    • Music Choir Schedules
    • Evensong
    • 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
    • The Chamber 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 – November 6, 2006

April 22, 2011 by Rev. Frank Hall - Minister Emeritus

Dear Friends,

Margie’s installation was one of those high points for our congregation. She and her committee and team of helpers put together a moving service, a great reception and the dance that moved her from metaphor to dancing floor. Whew!

Westport was also very present at Barbara Fast’s installation last night in E. Greenwich, RI. Debra Haffner offered a warm invocation, John Mason did a masterful job of bringing greetings from Westport, reviewing the birth of Barbara’s ministry, moving from pew to pulpit. I was privileged to deliver a heart-felt sermon, looking down from Barbara’s pulpit into her glistening eyes, as she sat in the pew, again — first seat in the front row. Whew!

Jamie and Ed put together two very moving services to celebrate this year’s Coming of Age class of twenty-three of our young people who are making the million-mile journey from childhood into young adulthood.  On Saturday night we watched each of them light a candle and listen to their parents tell them what it was that they loved most about them – and then each of them took the microphone and told their parents what they loved and most appreciated about them.

All of us who watched know the long, sometimes difficult journey across that million-mile trek, and we were moved to the depths, ‘where the spirit meets the bone,’ as we witnessed these heart-felt expressions of love, appreciation, admiration and affection. Whew!

Then, again, at the eleven o’clock service on Sunday morning, we came together to celebrate this year’s Coming of Age class, being reminded that it’s not only about those twenty three young people and their parents and grandparents – it’s about that which is at the heart of this faith community, where we were reminded that ‘we are all coming of age throughout our whole lives.’

I felt a deep sense of connection to this coming-of-age process, not only as one of the ministers but as a parent, grandparent and step-parent.  I learned a long time ago that we have two hands so that we can hold on with one hand while letting go with the other.

One of the parents talked about the thread that connects her to her son and always will, and that reminded me of a poem by E. B. White which I was able to recite impromptu as my prayer at the end of that special service.  He called his poem Natural History:

“The spider, dropping down from twig/ Unwinds a thread of her devising,/a thin premeditated rig/To use in rising./ And all that journey down through space/In cool descent, and loyal-hearted/She builds a ladder to the place/From which she started./ Thus I, gone forth, as spiders do,/In spider’s web a truth discerning,/Attach one silken strand to you,/For my returning.”

We’re like that spider, always on a journey ‘down through space’ and time, always building a ladder to climb back to ‘the place from which we started.’  We did that at Margie’s installation; and letting go with affection, which we did at Barbara’s installation.  I appreciate the sense of connection we’re creating as a community, just as I appreciate the sense of connection I have with family and friends.  I wish you a Thanksgiving that brings you to the place from which you started, to touch the gratitude that makes the holiday sacred.

Yours,

Frank

Filed Under: Dear Friends

  • 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 Church in Westport
     is a member congregation of the
     Unitarian Universalist Association

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

Church 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

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