United Congregational Church of Little Compton

06/14/2026

Collections for our White Elephant Sale and Book Sale started this morning and our vestry is ready for your donations!!

Our back door will be open Sundays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays & Thursdays from 9am-12pm to receive donations! Our last day for donations is Tuesday, July 7th - don't wait! That day will be here before you know it!

Please read through the items we are not accepting! It helps our volunteer sort and price items easily. Please don't leave anything outside!

Thank you in advance for your generosity!
- Shirley Hardison WE Chair, Sue Chase & Lily Clark, Book Sale Co-Chairs!

06/12/2026

“If you have come here to help me you are wasting your time, but if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.” — Lilla Watson

Juneteenth (June 19) is one of the oldest known commemorations related to the abolition of slavery in the United States. Juneteenth National Independence Day was signed into law as a national holiday on June 17, 2021. Juneteenth celebrates the date of June 19, 1865, when enslaved people of African descent located in Galveston, Texas, finally learned of their freedom from the slavery system in the United States.

Freedom was granted through the Emancipation Proclamation signed on January 1, 1863, by President Abraham Lincoln. Texas was the farthest of the Confederate states, and slaveholders there made no attempt to free the enslaved African Americans they held in bo***ge. This meant that President Lincoln’s proclamation was unenforceable without military intervention, which eventually came nearly 2.5 years later.
- From the National Park Service website

Enslavers in Texas kept the news of emancipation a secret from those they enslaved. On Sunday, I will reflect upon the ways that the secrets we keep can hurt us and others, and learning to live more openly leads to our shared liberation.

We hope to see you there!
Pastor George

06/05/2026

Our daughter Abby came out to me and Lourdes as bis*xual when we picked her up from her confirmation retreat where she had come out to the other confirmands. Lourdes and I simply responded that we loved her and were proud of her. I was also proud of my church. With the leadership of the Associate Youth Minister, and work with the UCC’s Our Whole Lives curriculum, that church had created a safe place for my daughter and other youth to feel comfortable sharing, this is who I am and I am a beloved child of God. This is only one reason why it is important to celebrate Pride Month here at UCC Little Compton. I will offer some further reflections from the perspective of our faith on Sunday.
I hope to see you there!

Pastor George

06/02/2026

Reflections for the Beginning of Pride Month

Over almost 20 years, I have been blessed to lead three Open and Affirming churches. While each church seeks to be inclusive and affirming of LGBTQ people, a member would sometimes approach me and say, “I don’t have any problem with gay people but why is that something to be proud of?” So here, on the first day of Pride Month, let me offer an answer to that question.

I suggest that Pride Month is about more than being proud to be gay, le***an, bis*xual, or transgender.

After experiencing years of bullying, condemnation and abuse, some LGBTQ people are proud to simply be alive. After attempting to conform to other’s beliefs about who they “should” be, I hear pride from those who have overcome shame to be comfortable in their own skin. I hear pride from those who have found the courage to come out and live openly just as they are. In a world that has too often been unsafe for LGBTQ people, I hear pride from those who have successfully assembled a community of support that sees, loves and defends them as God created them to be. Despite every challenge, many are deservedly proud to be leading happy and successful lives while giving back to the LGBTQ community. And I hear pride from those who live as role models, especially for young people, who have yet to find such safety, affirmation, and love.

For these reasons and many more, United Congregational Church of Little Compton joins in celebrating Pride Month with the LGBTQ community, affirming God's love for All!

05/29/2026

Who me? Created in the image of God? You mean that God looks like this?

Come hear my dear friend Rev. Pam Vessels invite you to see yourself as God sees you. Yes, you!

We hope to see you Sunday!

Pastor George

05/25/2026

Blessed to share a Memorial Prayer at today’s Little Compton Memorial Day observance, pictured with Rev Virginia Army and our own Town Councilor Victoria Talbot.

05/22/2026

This Sunday is Pentecost, my favorite Sunday of the church year! A great wind blows, tongues of fire descend, the streets of Jerusalem are packed with people from every nation, and the story of Jesus is shared and understood in every language! What’s not to like?

The idea of singing the camp song Kumbaya together has become shorthand for living together in perfect harmony, but coming together across our differences can feel more like Pentecost, wild and cacophonous!

On Sunday we will visit those Jerusalem streets together and hear what the Holy Spirit is saying to us today. Wear red!

We hope to see you there!
Pastor George

05/17/2026

Hi everyone,

We lost internet at the tail end of the service today, we’re sorry for the inconvenience. A full version of the service will be uploaded to our YouTube channel within 24 hours. Our apologies. We hope you enjoyed Children’s Sunday!

Our quarterly meeting will be streamed starting in a little bit: ucclc.tiny.us/quarterly

Thanks!

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

05/15/2026

A few months ago, my dear friend and mentor from Hawaii, Rev. Pam Vessels said that she had a sermon that she would like to preach for me and my church. I asked no questions and said yes! There is some risk in this because if you know Pam there is no telling what she might say. Not long ago we settled on a date, May 31st, and this week I asked if she had a short bio that I could use to introduce her to you. I expected she had one in a file that she could pull up and send. Instead, Pam responded with this text:

"So, I’ll do a few points. Born and raised in West Texas. Raised in the Church of Christ (the one with no instrumental music and actual tests in Sunday School and VBS), it was soooo scary. Graduate of Odessa College School of Nursing. Graduate of Wayland Baptist University and Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary. Ordained Southern Baptist clergy (one of the very few women). Chaplain at Marin General Hospital. Wrote the grant and created the first HIV/STD outreach program to work with s*x workers/injection drug users in the USA funded by the CDC. Worked on the streets of Waikiki and Honolulu for 10 years. I tell people that I learned more about grace and redemption on the street than I did in seminary. Associate Pastor at First Christian Church in Honolulu. Executive Director of Hale Ho’omaka Na Wahine, home for the rebirth of women. Pastor (Mamma Kahu) of the Protestant church at Kalaupapa, the colony on the island of Molokai founded in 1866 for Hansen’s Disease (leprosy) patients, a UCC congregation. I have an amazing son James who lives in West Texas and is a leader in his Assembly of God congregation, He doesn’t dance, drink, or cuss and is the best son ever. Personally, I think he needs to loosen up and when as a single dad raising 3 kids I told him I thought he needed a friend with benefits he replied “mom, that’s not how I roll.” I was married to my son’s dad for 12 years and was with the love of my life Kathy Payne for 28 years, legally married for 10. I was her care giver for the last 15 yrs of her life as together we navigated dementia. Honestly, I’ve had a wonderful life full of grand adventures because once I broke out of the box of others’ expectations of what following Christ means, a new world of possibility opened up, new paths emerged. Like the old hymn Love Lifted Me, I found that grace existed in the most unexpected places. I know for a fact that love exits on the dark side of the moon!”

Grace and Peace,
Pastor George