by Stacey Hilliard | Aug 18, 2024 | Sermons
Since Christianity separated itself from Judaism around the particular question of Jesus’ resurrection, the debates about the importance of body vs spirit were present in Christianity from the get-go and have never really gone away. Why do we have so much trouble with this? At the start of the pandemic, the fur was flying around whether we were really celebrating Communion if we were together in a Zoom room but not in the same physical space. On Sunday we’ll look at the many ways that Christians have tried to sort this out and how one belief or another affects our ability to engage the problems we face.
– Pastor Anne
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by Stacey Hilliard | Aug 11, 2024 | Sermons
In seminary, it seemed every time I read ideas that resonated with me, the person was burned at the stake for heresy. Did you know that the root of the English word “heresy” is the Greek word meaning “to choose?” What’s the difference between a heretic, a reformer, and a dissenter? Over the next month we’ll look at those across Christian history who chose to challenge the orthodoxy of their day. Some of those ideas became mainstream, others still divide us. What do you believe? Who decides what heresy is? Is having different beliefs in the same religion a help or a hindrance?
– Pastor Anne
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by Stacey Hilliard | Aug 4, 2024 | Sermons
“You can’t put God in a box.” We hear that so often that’s it’s almost cliché. But is that really true? What is Jesus, if not God in a human box? One of God’s earliest forms of presence with Israel was in a literal box called the Ark of the Covenant. And yet, we’ve all seen how trying to both contain and locate the presence of God in a single place can lead to serious problems. How do we sort that out?
– Pastor Anne
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by Stacey Hilliard | Jul 22, 2024 | News
On July 22, the Council of Bishops announced that as a result of the General Conference’s decision to reduce the number of active bishops from 39 to 32 in the United States, effective September 1, most US bishops will serve multiple annual conferences. (See the Council’s announcement here.)
The New England and New York conferences will remain separate conferences, but will be combined into a single episcopal area, led by Bishop Thomas J. Bickerton. Bishop Bickerton met with delegates from both conferences at the 2024 Northeastern Jurisdictional Conference which concluded on July 12. You can read a summary of that meeting here.
We welcome Bishop Bickerton and look forward to working with him in the years ahead.
by Stacey Hilliard | Jul 22, 2024 | News
“Recovery from the floods that hit in July 2023 was still underway when rainfall from Hurricane Beryl on July 10-11, 2024 — exactly a year later — brought additional devastation. Many Vermonters were impacted for a second time. The New England Conference was awarded a $399,450 grant from the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) to support recovery work and provide direct assistance to survivors in the Northeast Kingdom.” Read more, here.
