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God’s Acre 4.0

A Weekend of Discernment with Allen Hilton

Saturday, April 23 – Sunday, April 24

On the weekend of April 23-24, we hope you will join Dr. Allen Hilton, former pastor, and friend of this church, for a weekend of discernment. We will gather as a congregation to imagine together what shapes our devoted commitment to God and one another, as outlined in our church covenant, as we move forward post-Covid. We will begin to envision a new season as a church on God’s Acre. On Saturday, we come together for a workshop and brunch from 8:30am to 12:30pm. On Sunday, during worship, Allen will weave the theme of our weekend into the fabric of the Emmaus resurrection story in the Gospel of Luke.

Weekend Schedule of Events
Saturday, April 23 – Workshop & Brunch, 8:30am-12:30pm, Smith Hall
Sunday, April 24 – Sermon by Rev. Dr. Allen Hilton, 8:00 & 10:00am
 
Sunday, April 24 – Fellowship, Conversation, and Recap, 11:30am-12:30pm, Chapel & Zoom
Join Virtually – Zoom Meeting Link
 
Meeting ID: 884 1549 2207
Passcode: 756878
 
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Our Covenant Background

In 1629, the fledgling congregation of The Congregational Church of Salem, Massachusetts, decided to formalize their commitment to one another in a covenant. These faithful folk of Salem could not have known that their words would become a way station to the American experiment that would take shape in the Declaration of Independence and ultimately in the U.S. Constitution. They only knew that true and generative Christian community needs a purposeful commitment to one another and to the God who calls us. Their words were simple.

“We Covenant with the Lord and one with another; and do bind our selves in the presence of God, to walk together in all his waies, according as he is pleased to reveale himselfe unto us in his Blessed word of truth.”

We still speak these words to this day. In our divided 21st century American days, with social fault lines abounding, a group of people who “bind our selves…to walk together,” come what may, is a strange and superb thing. And yet The Congregational Church of New Canaan founded a century after Salem’s covenant is committed to just such an audacious hope.