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January 17, 2006

Dear Friends,

Several mild January days set us up to be hit on the chin by the reality of winter, again.  Driving through the icy, wet snow last Sunday morning I wondered if anyone else would be there.

When I pulled into the church parking lot at 7:30 I saw Ed’s car and smiled.  My smile was an indication of the respect and appreciation I have for Ed.  He’s so faithful, so dependable.  He’s always first one to arrive on Sunday morning -- and most weekday mornings.  He’s been a great partner for twenty two years; there was a lot behind my smile at the sight of Ed’s car last Sunday.

The cold January wind was whipping around outside his office when I went in and said, “Well, it’s you and me!”  

He told me that he’d already had calls from members of the women’s choir. I was surprised that anyone would think of coming in.  But they did.

There were enough hardy souls at the 9 a.m. service to allow me to feel comfortable getting into the pulpit to deliver the sermon I had planned.  The 11 o’clock service was very well attended.  To wax poetic about the abrupt change in the January weather I read from Robert Frost’s poem Two Tramps in Mudtime – the passage where the narrator, who is enjoying chopping wood on an unusually warm spring day, says;

“You know how it is on an April day, when the sun is out and the wind is still you’re one month on in the middle of May.  But if you so much as dare to speak, a cloud comes over the sunlit arch, a wind comes off the frozen peak, and you’re two months back in the middle of March.”  

By late morning the weather had cleared so there was no need to think about canceling the wonderful Interfaith Council service at Saugatuck Church.  Dorothy Bryce created an exceptionally moving service in tribute to Martin Luther King, Jr.  Talented tenth-grader Amrita Sankar represented our congregation, reciting lines from King’s I Have a Dream speech, while my darling step-daughter, Carlyn Kessler, played a Bach Prelude for cello.  They were an effective and affecting team.

The tribute to Dr. King included representatives from most of the Westport  congregations as well as Weston’s Emmanuel Episcopal Church.  The service was recorded on video and will be available – let me know if you’d like to see it.

Speaking of recordings, our website folks are now posting audio recordings of Sunday sermons to supplement the 140 manuscripts. Folks have told me that they’ve been listening, as well as reading.  Cheers to the website team!  It will soon include the audio recording of last Sunday’s sermon on Writing an Ethical Will – leaving loved ones a legacy of love. Let us know you’re listening; tell us what’s working for you, and don’t hesitate to make suggestions for improvements.  It’s there for you.

I hope you are well, and look forward to seeing you again soon.

Frank

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