First Church Middletown, UCC

09/04/2026

The Green envelopes for the month of September will go to Neighbors in Need Special Mission Offering. The Neighbors in Need offering supports ministries of justice and compassion, with one-third of the offering given to the Council for American Indian Ministries and the remaining two-thirds supporting UCC justice ministries. In 2025 the Neighbors in Need Offering supported 26 grant recipients across the UCC who were engaged in projects of direct service and advocacy. Thank you for your support and generosity!

Neighbors in Need (NIN) is a Special Mission Offering of the United Church of Christ that supports ministries of justice and compassion in the United

09/03/2026

Outreach members Barb Monahan and Betsy Clifford are pictured with MacDonough School contact Jamie DeShong. Jamie is the school secretary and works closely with the teachers on their wish lists and ordering school supplies. The outreach committee delivered over 30 backpacks filled with essential supplies plus an additional large box of school supplies to MacDonough School for the benefit of their students prior to the start of the school year. Many thanks to South Church, Church of the Holy Trinity, and Congregation Adath Israel for their assistance in this project.

09/02/2026

Greetings First Church,

September is a month of returning. Our kids and teachers return to the classroom. The intensity of summer begins to fade and more comfortable weather returns. Every weekend there’s one fair or another celebrating the harvest, the returns of hard work, ferriswheels, and fried food. At church we return to the rhythm of the program year and all that we share with one another and with God.

As I write to you this morning, I’m reminded of a chant by Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach. The words are:

Return again, return again,

Return to the home of your soul.

Return to who you are.

Return to what you are.

Return to where you are,

Born and reborn again.

I hope this month can be for each of us, more than simply returning to familiar routines and going back to old paths. I hope this can be a season of coming home - coming home to physical places that ground and support you. Coming home to communities and relationships that both need and strengthen you. Coming home to rituals, practices, and prayers that console and inspire you.

Homecoming Sunday will be celebrated on September 13th, with intergenerational worship, and coffee hour afterwards.

Please bring a photo, souvenir, or memento from your summer to add to the communion table, and to talk about with one another at coffee hour. Where did you go? What did you learn? How did you encounter the Holy? What are you bringing home with you from the summer?

Welcome home, Beloved. It’s going to be an amazing year!

Peace & Blessings,
Pastor Will

09/01/2026

This Sunday, September 6th, service will be on the Holy Trinity Green at 9:30am

Mass on the Grass
Join us to celebrate the end of sumer!
Worship with Praise Band
Food & Fun

Church of the Holy Trinity
September 6, 2026
9:30 a.m.
381 Main St., Middletown CT

09/01/2026

Outreach members Barb Monahan and Betsy Clifford are pictured with MacDonough School contact Jamie DeShong. Jamie is the school secretary and works closely with the teachers on their wish lists and ordering school supplies. The outreach committee delivered over 30 backpacks filled with essential supplies plus an additional large box of school supplies to MacDonough School for the benefit of their students prior to the start of the school year. Many thanks to South Church, Church of the Holy Trinity, and Congregation Adath Israel for their assistance in this project.

08/31/2026

Annie tickets -

Fellowship has planned a trip to see the 50th Anniversary of the Broadway show “Annie” produced at Goodspeed Opera House.  The date is Thursday, November 5th at 7:30pm.  The price of the tickets are $81.00 (which is close to half price) for orchesta seating.  There are only 7 tickets left so ...

08/27/2026

You are invited to be a part of the First Church music program for our new season!

All are welcome to join our “Pick Up Choir” on Sunday, September 13 which is our Homecoming Sunday. We will meet at 9:30 a.m. by the piano and learn a piece to sing during worship.

First Church Choir and Treble Choir will begin rehearsals on Wednesday, September 9. The First Church Choir is an SATB group which meets from 7:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. Our Treble Choir is for soprano and alto voices and meets from 8:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.

Bell rehearsals will begin on Monday, September 14. Faith Ringers at 6:15 p.m. and Heart in Hand Bells at 7:30 p.m. Faith Ringers is our beginning group. You do not need previous experience. We will teach you. Heart in Hand Bells is an advanced group. Some knowledge of reading music is helpful. We can teach you how to play the bells if you haven’t played them before.

Except for Gathering Sunday September 13 and during holidays, our schedule is:

First Sunday of the Month - First Church Choir

Second Sunday of the Month - Heart in Hand Bells

Third Sunday of the Month - First Church Choir

Fourth Sunday of the Month - Faith Ringers

Please contact me if you have any questions or know you would like to join a group. My church email is [email protected].

Shari Lucas
Minister of Music

08/26/2026

Brunch Church This Sunday!
Aug. 30 at First Church Middletown, 10:00 a.m.

When we gather for worship this week to reflect on the ways that God sustains our bodies, we will gather around brunch tables and share a meal. When we tell the story of Jesus breaking bread with 5,000, and breaking bread with his dearest 12, we will break muffins and sip coffee with one another.

It's a breakfast feast! It's a love feast! It's a feast at God's table, set for you!

We will have muffins, fruit salad, and coffee. If you are able, please bring a breakfast item to share with your table.

Peace,
Will

08/21/2026

Join First Church for a special Taizé Prayer worship, August 23, 2026 at 10:00 a.m.

Words of Welcome and Announcements
Welcome to Taizé Prayer at First Church Middletown. We’re glad you have joined us! Since this is intended to be a service of contemplative prayer, only a brief spoken welcome will be made, and no instructions will be given during the service. Each numbered piece of the service will follow immediately upon the one before. The service includes two periods of silence, one brief and one extended. The extended silence will last for about 7 minutes. You are welcome to use this silence as you see fit, whether in thought, prayer, meditation, or nothing at all.

About Taizé Prayer
Adapted from ELCA . Org by
Grace Lutheran Church, Champaign, IL

In the south of Burgundy, France is a small village called Taizé. This village is home to a monastic community devoted to prayer and reconciliation, founded in the 1940s by a Swiss man known as Brother Roger. The community is made up of brothers from all the continents and major denominations who gather together three times a day, seven days a week, throughout the year to pray (whether there are 7000 young people present or only twenty brothers). The community emphasizes service and ecumenicalism, particularly reconciliation between divided peoples and divided Christians.
Many people make pilgrimages to Taizé to experience the community and prayer life. While Taizé worship as practiced in the monastic community cannot be simply imitated, it can and has been adapted by many Christian communities around the world.

Repetitive Sung Prayer
The characteristic of Taizé worship that is most familiar uses a kind of repetitive prayer set to simple musical lines. Repetition is not a new phenomenon nor unique to Taizé. The use of repetitive prayers is a long attested reality in the history of Christian spirituality and liturgy (for example, in the Jesus Prayer and the Rosary). What is unique to the prayer of Taizé is the adaptation of the repetitive form to simple musical lines and core biblical texts that can be sung by a whole assembly of various nationalities, languages, and denominations. A diverse assembly is able to immerse itself in the simple but profound harmonies and let itself be carried by this sung prayer.

Silence
Another characteristic of Taizé worship that has been a welcome gift to worshipers around the world is its generous use of silence. Like repetition, the use of silence in worship has a rich history that many modern Christians no longer experience. It is not necessary to fill every moment with words or music, and it can be meaningful to have time to pray silently in the presence of others, or simply to sit (or kneel) in the presence of God.

07/27/2026