Danville Congregational Church UCC

06/04/2026

This Sunday, we celebrate communion and continue our series Be the church in the chaos with part 4: Speak up for the silenced.

Silencing is insidious; the dampening of voices happens in subtle and overt ways across our lived reality. It is ecological, experienced in the permanent silencing of species driven to extinction. It is systemic, devaluing the voices of women and deepening the erasure of people of color and the LGBTQ+ community. And it happens internally, rooted in past experiences that have told us our own voices simply do not matter.

Before we gather, I invite you to sit with these reflections:

When have you experienced being silenced, or had someone bravely step in to speak up for you?
When have you spoken up for someone else—or held back, wishing later that you had?
When might your own words or actions have inadvertently or intentionally silenced another?

Join us at 10:00 am on Sunday June 7 as we learn to break the silence together.

06/03/2026

05/29/2026

This Sunday, May 29, 2026: Finding Rest in the Chaos 🌿

When we face the weight of the environmental crisis, it is easy to feel completely paralyzed. The grief of watching God's creation suffer can cause us to either freeze up or look away just to cope.

This Sunday, as we continue our series Being the Church in the Chaos, we will explore how God’s answer to chaos isn’t endless striving—it is sacred rest.
The Genesis story begins in chaos and ends in rest. In a dominant social order that measures our worth entirely by our productivity, choosing to stop is a deeply subversive act. When we push creation and ourselves past our limits, we trigger a collapse—much like the catastrophic dust storms of the Dust Bowl, which forced a desperate, reactive "crisis rest" upon the land. But crisis rest is not God's plan for us.

True, proactive rest connects us to the holy value of all who are deemed "nonproductive" by the world around us—from our elders and caretakers, to fields lying fallow, to the wild ecosystems of the earth.

We will begin our worship this week with a lovingkindness meditation for creation. This practice isn't about ignoring the pain of the world; it is about opening our hearts to our Creator's grief for our planet. Allowing ourselves to grieve is a form of generative, sacred rest—one that unlocks a deep, empowering joy in communal worship. This joy is the fuel that heals our paralysis, refreshing our spirits so we can move forward in love.

As you prepare for Sunday, I invite you to ponder these questions: What is the connection in your own life between rest and caring for God's creation? Where might God be inviting you to step away from the pressure of productivity this week, so that you can discover your own small, intentional steps of care?

Peace,
Nicole

05/19/2026

Special Sunday Service
Please join us at 10:00 am this coming Sunday, May 24! We will be holding a special Sunday service to celebrate Pentecost, Memorial Day and summer on the horizon.

Immediately following, we will join together for a potluck brunch.

We look forward to music, fellowship, and feasting together!

05/15/2026

Faith Communities Gather in St. Albans for "ICE Out" Witness

ST. ALBANS, VT – Last Friday, May 8, seventy-five clergy members and representatives from faith communities across Vermont stood at the heart of the ICE Out event. Their presence served as a powerful bookend to a day of mourning and mobilization.
A Ritual of Remembrance

The event opened with a solemn invocation by Rev. Jessica Moore (St. Albans), who reminded those gathered of the "compassion and universality" required in our care for refugees. As she spoke, the bells of churches surrounding the green rang out simultaneously, calling the hundreds in attendance into a deep silence.

Participants held cardboard tombstones inscribed with the names of people from the U.S. and around the world who died this past year during exchanges with ICE. Following the silence, the assembly processed as one, singing the protest chant, "Hold on, my dear one, here comes the dawn." . The morning’s energy shifted as Bread and Puppet Theater, alongside choral leaders from across the state, led the crowd in raucous chants. The program concluded with a stirring call to courage and connection from Reverend Co'Relous Bryant (United Church of Lincoln), delivered just before the names of the deceased were read one by one in total silence.

Public Witness at the Federal Building and ICE Facility

Following the ceremony, the movement took to the streets:

The Declaration: A large portion of the crowd marched to the (then closed) Federal Building to hang the Declaration of Human Rights upon its doors.

The Blessing: Faith leaders moved together to the ICE facility on Gricebrook Road. In a ceremony featuring incense, holy water, and song, leaders called for a communal confession of complicity in current ICE policies and prayed for wisdom in the months of advocacy ahead.

Thanks to everyone who participated and for your prayers as we continue this vital work of witness!

Rev. Dr. Lise Sparrow

Justice and Witness Ministries
Vermont Conference, UCC

04/30/2026

Join us on Sunday, May 3rd at 10 am; Pastor Nicole will lead the Danville Congregational Church in worship and preach on the theme "In the Habit," in response to John 14:1-14.

We will welcome Stewart and Katherine Gates as members of our church and celebrate communion together.

Come in person or join us online:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88280173325?pwd=SGRaWEVWZkNVYkZiYVZQcnp5RXgwZz09

“Our lives are a battlefield on which is fought a continuous war between the forces that are pledged to confirm our humanity and those determined to dismantle it; those who strive to build a protective wall around it, and those who wish to pull it down; those who seek to mold it, and those committed to breaking it up; those whose aim is to open our eyes, to make us see the light and look to tomorrow […] and those who wish to lull us into closing our eyes.”
– Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, Devil on the Cross, 1980

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04/21/2026

The Rev. Steven Winkler will be our preacher on Sunday, April 26 at 10:00am. Steve is an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ who has served churches in South Royalton, VT; Lima, OH; St. Johnsbury, VT; and Medford Lakes, NJ. After retiring in 2016, Steve and wife Heather have lived in Woodbury, and he has continued to preach in area churches, including a shared bridge ministry with friend and colleague Jay Sprout at the United Community Church in St. Johnsbury. Steve and Heather returned last weekend from his most recent stint as Minister-in-Residence at the Community Church of San Miguel de Allende, MX. The Winklers’ three children (Jeremiah, Gabriel and Zoe) graduated from SJA and are now the parents of Steve and Heather’s four grandchildren.

03/24/2026

Join us on Palm Sunday, March 29 at 10 am; The Rev. Jay Sprout will lead the Danville Congregational Church in worship.

Jay is the retired minister of the former North Congregational Church, now United Community Church, in St. Johnsbury, where he served for 31 years. He lives with his wife Nancy in Barnet.

03/22/2026

DANVILLE CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH IS CLOSED TODAY
Sunday, March 22, 2026.

Please stay home and stay safe.