Sunday's church service

Sunday (July 31st) I led the service in Guilford and preached. I received very positive feedback on the service. I had put a great deal of time into planning the service. Everything was written out in full - the sermon, the children's story, all the prayers and readings. Ellen read the readings: the poem, To Be of Use, by Marge Piercy, Psalm 90, and Matthew 25:14-30. I managed to stand througout the sermon, but I did sit down during the children's story and had a chance to sit during other parts of the service. So I made it through OK and felt very good about it afterward. Some friends watched the service later on YouTube and sent very nice notes about it. The key rext was The Parable of the Talents, Matthew 25:14-30. This is a notoriously difficult parable for many reasons, and it was impossible to go into all that during the sermon because it would have made the sermon too long. So I did something I had never done before - I wrote out four pages of notes on the biblical text and put those notes as an insert into the bulletin. The choir sang a spiritual, Well Done, Servant! I had learned over 25 years ago from Rosita Matthews, who led a gospel choir at Smith College and came to Guilford to lead a gospel sing at a state-wide youth rally we hosted. We learned it orally - no score was handed out - so I had arranged it for 4-part choir back then - and I found that arrangement in the choir archive. That choir piece proved to be very popular with everyone. In the children's story, I brought back two very favorite dolls from the 1990's - Raggedy Ann and Backpack Patty - who were featured in many stories back in that era 25-30 years ago! And it was a special Sunday for me because my first Sunday preaching at the Guilford Church was exactly 60 years ago, the last Sunday in July, 1962! That was not planned - it was an amazing coincidence. So the whole service had sort of a "Wow!" feeling to it.

Giving the children'story

Ellen reading

The choir singing Well Done, Servant!

Delivering the sermon****************************************** Rosita Matthews has a presence online: "Who is Rosita Matthews? National Public Radio called Rosita a "classically trained pianist with a mean gospel rhythm." Rosita has been playing piano since she was five. She directed her first choir at the age of 15. She has performed her infectious music throughout New England, the East Coast and the South. Rosita is a graduate of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kentucky. She did postgraduate doctoral work at Princeton Theological Seminary in New Jersey. She studied acting in Washington DC and New York City. She appeared in "Malice with Nicole Kidman" and Mario Van Peebles in "The Street Lawyer," a Disney television pilot." When I knew her, she was also a chaplain at the Veteran's Hospital in Holyoke, MA.

Rosita Matthews