Message from the Pastor, October 2025
Dear Members and Friends,
One of the gifts of being in the Berkshires is the magnificent colors of Autumn, and it is what led me up here to our neighboring towns long ago before I ever moved up to Massachusetts! However we can sit out in the cooler afternoons or enjoy the brisk mornings for a walk/hike amidst all the reds, oranges and yellows . . . I wish an invigorating fall season for all of us. I have always been a fan of this season, and once wrote these words to it (written on a visit to the Berkshires in 1985):
An Autumn
Orange, red, yellow, brown, the dying leaves fall one by one.
How softly they let go of life, how sadly mourn the fading sun.
Cold, crisp, icy touch, the westering wind whistles past.
How sharp it chills the shedding trees! How ruthless withers browning grass.
White, round, floating free, the harvest moon ascends the sky.
How bright it grows o’er waning fields; how proudly passes summer by.
Watching, waiting, listening still, I sit beneath an aging pine.
How glorious is Autumn’s day! How deep it moves this heart of mine.
(Marisa Brown Ludwig)
As the fall deepens, we come in to the church’s Stewardship Season — a time to reflect on all the ways we give back to the world out of our faith, and consider specifically our giving to the church to reinforce it’s ongoing work of mission and ministry. I invite you to consider with me why it matters that we give to a faith community and specifically to this one: First Congregational Church of Lee! Elsewhere in this newsletter you will see a bold testimony from dear friend Marcia Eveland who cherishes her ongoing relationship with us across the world from Australia — she who benefits from the technology that allows us to zoom adult studies and livestream worship services so anyone anywhere can hear our message! I hope you will be sure to read it. In the coming weeks, we’ll be inviting members and friends to also share with us in church what it means to them to be a part of this church and give to support it — let me know if you have a story to tell!
Consider this: what feeds you the most and draws you back here? Is it hearing the gospel read and preached in new ways? Is it singing praise to God in our hymns and songs with our faithful choir? Is it being part of teams that put on Meetinghouse Dinners or gather for Game Nights? Is it accompanying each other through threshold moments with blessing like memorial services, weddings, baptisms, new memberships? Is it being a part of a community that becomes a family to us in times of need, people who notice when you are missing, who care if you are going through a hard time, who rejoice with you over good news? Maybe it is our commitment to become ever more welcoming of diversity as we proclaim in our Call to Welcome? In a time when so many messages of society are to divide us and foment hate, maybe it matters to you to come to a place that makes its first priority to learn together how to love?
Whatever draws you here with us, I am so very glad you are here…and I hope you will consider pledging regular financial support, as well as your volunteer time and your talents, to help Lee Congregational Church be a sign of special hope in this town of Lee! If you can, give as much as you are able…what keeps you in healthy balance for your family and your life, but also what may be a stretch forward to really help us moving forward? I am not exaggerating when I say that we cannot keep these doors open without you. Please pray for the best ways you can give as part of our community… I pray with you!
May God bless us all,
Pastor Marisa