Pastor Caroline's Weekly Update

October 31, 2008

Dear Friends,

One sunny afternoon recently, I strolled across the New Haven Green, walked into City Hall, consulted the directory of offices, and - after a couple of wrong turns - found my way over to the Registrar of Voters, where I joined a small clump of people registering to vote in the upcoming election. A surprisingly helpful clerk took down my information, told me which polling place to go to on November 4, and assured me that I would soon receive a letter in the mail confirming my status as a registered voter.

For months I had been trying to figure out where to vote in this election: in Massachusetts, where I was most recently registered, or in Connecticut, where I've been living for most of 2008. I knew it wasn't the most pressing question in the world, neither place being what you would call a battleground state. Some might even argue that, if you live in Connecticut or Massachusetts, it doesn't really matter whether or not you vote at all. But the idea of not voting somewhere is inconceivable to me - bordering on abhorrent. It's partly a point of pride; I've never missed voting in a national election, even when that has meant voting by absentee ballot from overseas, and I'm not about to start skipping out now, certainly not in a year as critical as this one.

But as I stood in line at the Registrar of Voters the other day, as part of that little clump of people - black and white, young and old, professional and nonprofessional, all of us U.S. citizens - I was reminded of a larger reason why I take voting so seriously. Casting a ballot is both a very concrete and a deeply symbolic action. It affirms that we belong together in a civil society, that we all share a set of basic rights and responsibilities, that we have a fundamental obligation to consider the great issues facing our world and to participate in the process of shaping the future course we take. In and of themselves, registering to vote and pulling the lever on Election Day are very simple actions. What they represent, though, is anything but simple.

What pertains to society at large also pertains to the community of the church. The next phase of your journey of pastoral transition will provide you all with some special opportunities to consider together the future course of the First Church of Christ in Bethany. With the support and guidance of your new interim pastor, the Rev. Mary Lou Howson, the search committee will soon begin compiling a church profile to send out to potential candidates for the position of settled pastor. The committee will need your active, prayerfully considered input, so that the profile can reflect the sense of the congregation as a whole. Everyone here has a role to play in helping to shape the future of this church - both during this next stage of the interim process and beyond.

As you head into that next stage, let me reiterate what I expressed in worship last Sunday: I am convinced that the Spirit is alive and well here at First Church! The qualities of mutual caring, resilience, and spiritual openness that I have observed over this past month will surely stand you in good stead as you move into the future. And, through every time of change, you will have the guidance and companionship of Jesus Christ who is "the same yesterday and today and forever" (Hebrews 13:8).

In the meantime, please know that our time together has been a blessing to me, and I pray that each and all of you may be surrounded with blessings and peace -

Caroline Murphy

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