Norwich Congregational Church, UCC

05/22/2026

Hot off the presses! A newsletter sharing highlights from last month's Dominican Republic Projects trip.

05/16/2026

This evening at 7:00 in the sanctuary, a concert to benefit Tysea Children's Home in Jacmel, Haiti. Suggested donation $25.

05/13/2026

Check out the spiffy new bulletin board for the Outreach Ministry, courtesy of Pam and Ed Piper! This month's outreach appeal supports The Family Place. Since 1988, The Family Place has served as the regional hub of services and support for families with young children throughout the Upper Valley, in Vermont and across the river in neighboring towns in New Hampshire. We're very excited to have Executive Director Stephanie Slayton joining us this Sunday, May 17, to tell us about the work that they do to support children and families throughout our area.

05/05/2026

Last night was the grand opening of the Cardboard Coral Reef Community Art Project at the Enfield Public Library, created under the direction of our own Kate Minshall. More than 40 feet of coral reef made of trash and recycling, created with the help of more than 400 community members of all ages. Another NCC connection: Joan Schaafsma loaned one of her recent quilting projects, teeming with all kinds of fish, to the reef!

04/05/2026

Happy Easter! Christ is risen! Love has come to give us newness of life!

04/04/2026

How to move from Friday to Sunday, from despair to hope, from sorrow to joy? How to move from the terrible feelings of futility and frustration to the liberating sense that suddenly anything is possible, that the future is suddenly bright with promise? How can we begin to make this move when we may feel as though our own spirits have been shut in the darkness of the tomb, a heavy stone blocking the light?

Easter invites us to imagine God making this movement for us, around us, within us. Easter invites us to enter a realm of wonder and impossibility, where the foundations of the earth tremble as the stone is rolled away and the good news of Easter comes to us like lightning, charging us with a love that the violent powers of empire could not silence, could not kill, could not overcome. On Easter, love comes to us when we cannot find the way, and like a song sparrow in the early dawn it sings to us, reminding us that spring has come at last. Love has risen green.

Live Stream Link for the 10:00am Easter Service:

Alleluia! Christ is risen!

04/01/2026

03/30/2026

Yesterday's performance of Franz Joseph Haydn's Seven Last Words was a gift for the soul. We thank the Octet members for their passionate and loving work: Martha Peck (soprano), Cara Hill (alto), Brian Clancy (tenor), Jose Schmidt (bass), Susan Janes (violin), Anne Kowalski (violin), Bill Pierson (viola), and Melissa Perley (cello). We also thank the audience members for their generous donations to Dismas of Vermont (dismasofvt.org), the recipient of our freewill offering.

03/29/2026

Warming up for today's 4:00 performance of Haydn's Seven Last Words . . .

03/24/2026

We invite you to join us this weekend for a special concert:

Franz Joseph Haydn's Seven Last Words of Christ
A concert arranged for four singers and string quartet
Sunday, March 29, at 4:00 p.m.

Norwich Congregational Church
15 Church, Norwich, VT 05055

Moments of great anguish, beauty, grief, and love emerge through seven slow movements, framed by an introduction and a final movement titled “The Earthquake.”

The concert will be sung in German with an English translation provided.

Since 1991, a small group of Vermont musicians have carried on a tradition of offering this piece, which commemorates Jesus’ final hours. Franz Joseph Haydn’s hour-long work sets each of the traditional last sayings of Jesus to music.

Octet Singers: Martha Peck, Cara Hill, Brian Clancy, and Jose Schmidt

String Quartet: Susan Janes, Anne Kowalski, Bill Pierson, and Melissa Perley