The Conference Worshipped

Worship for the Conference was organized and led by the Worship Committee, guided by Chaplain the Rev. Katherine Latimer and Alternate Chaplain the Rev. Jared Rardin. They used many resource offered by the setting and by the gifts of those attending to create worship opportunities of considerable richness and excitement.

Opening Worship -- Friday Evening

The Conference's opening worship on Friday evening provided a time for reflection on the theme "For Such a Time as This." Chaplain the Rev. Katherine Latimer led the delegates in prayer, and Valerie Tutson began her recounting of the Esther story by becoming Mordechai, the brave man whose refusal to abase himself before the vizier Haman had provoked a terrible pogrom against all his people, the Jews. Valerie's portrayal of this first actor in the story of Esther, with his self-deprecation, love for his niece, and shouted, "I must speak!" captured the entire gathering, and led to great anticipation of her other appearances through the meeting when the story would be continued.

Saturday Morning Worship

Saturday morning dawned clear and bright; the few clouds in the sky served only to emphasize its deep blue color. The fine weather inspired many of the delegates to attend the day's opening worship held outside the building on the boardwalk above the beach.

Alternate Preacher the Rev. Jared Rardin formed the congregation into a great circle around a central worship space. Pete Allen and Eric Anderson then led the assembly in a rousing rendition of "Kum Ba Ya," using a different tune with far more driving energy than the better-known version. (I plan to post a scan of this version -- the Webmaster)

Jared Rardin then invited the group into prayer, a prayer of movement as well as words. He asked everyone to consider the day, their souls, and God, and then to take a small symbolic step into the center of the circle. Slowly the circle contracted as each person moved further into the journey of faith.

Blessing the Amistad

On Saturday afternoon, the delegates boarded buses that delivered them to Mystic Seaport, where skilled shipwrights are fabricating a replica of the schooner Amistad. Before the service began, they had the opportunity to view the completed hull in its natural wood before painting, and even to touch the vessel's sternpost.

The original vessel became famous in 1839 while carrying a group of recently seized Africans as slaves from the market in Havana, Cuba, to its owner's estates in Puerto Principe. During the voyage, the captives freed themselves and took command of the schooner, ordering its crew to sail it east, toward the rising sun. At night, however, the crew turned to the north, and they spent two months zigzagging off the coast of the United States. The vessel's strange course aroused curiosity and concern, and it was finally intercepted by the U.S. Revenue Brig Washington, which brought the schooner and its occupants to New London, Connecticut.

There the Africans were tried for mutiny and piracy, but unexpectedly they found allies in this strange land. Church people, New England Congregationalists, took up their cause, organizing the Amistad Committee within a week of the vessel's capture, raising money and seeking counsel for their defence. The legal saga had many turns, and the case went to the United States Supreme Court where former President John Quincy Adams successfully argued that the Africans could not be held as slaves. Thirty-five survivors returned home, thanks to the Amistad Committee, which then helped create the American Missionary Association, the first anti-slavery mission society on American soil.

The worship began with the music of "Voices of Joy," a praise choir whose members are inmates at the York Correctional Institution, a women's facility. Their strong voices and energy stimulated the gathering to sing, clap, and sway along with the singers.

Blessing the Amistad Standing on a balcony high above the ground below, Davida Foy Crabtree and John Thomas presented several quilt squares to a representative of Amistad America (the organization which has commissioned and which will sail the vessel); these squares had been fabricated by church groups across the state, and will be assembled into quilts for the schooner's crew. John Thomas pronounced a special blessing on these lovingly crafted squares of fabric on behalf of the gathering.

Valerie Tutson then stood forward, and spoke in the character of Margru, a young girl who was among the original Amistad captives. She spoke as if writing home to her mother, or in the manner she wanted to speak to her mother ("I don't know where you are, Mama," she said), describing the events of her capture, voyage to Cuba on a slave ship, the slave market ("Mama, they were selling us"), and the uprising which Sengbe led aboard La Amistad. She told of the recapture by the Washington, and renewed imprisonment in New London. Then she said that this place was different, that there were people here who said they would help, even though they were the same color as those who had enslaved her.

"They say the ship we were just on is called friendship, Mama," she said, "I hope that means that we have found real friends here."

As she finished, many eyes in the plaza below were brimming with tears.

Conference Minister Davida Foy Crabtree then led the group in blessing the Amistad, invoking the names of those who had been aboard her original namesake, who had led the Amistad Committee, and who had taken up its torch again with the American Missionary Association.

John Thomas and Davida Crabtree at the Amistad "Bless all who will encounter this great ship in all its ports of call," she said. "May they hear your call and your promise of freedom and justice. May they commit themselves to give their lives to end racism and to build partnerships of people of all races in this nation and around the world. May Amistad lead us all to a new millennium of peace and understanding, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen." [Complete Text]

The Voices of Joy closed the service with their exultant sound.

Festival Conference Worship -- Sunday Afternoon

In a departure from prior practice, the Annual Meeting closed with worship in the afternoon, to permit members of nearby churches to gather with their own congregations in the morning and again with the Conference delegates in the afternoon. The worship space was indeed filled with people, seated in a circle about the Communion table and a wooden boat filled with symbols which local churches had prepared before the meeting. The symbols included photographs, ordinary objects, and works of art, each one expressive of a need, achievement, or spirit in a Connecticut local church.

The service opened with a lovely liturgical dance by five youth, whose grace and poise drew the worshipers into the holy time and place.

Music for the service came from a small instrumental group, the choir from Dixwell Avenue United Church of Christ in New Haven, and the Rev. Susan Scott. The congregation gave a great deal of energy to the singing of "Masithi," a praise refrain in Zulu and English from South Africa found in the New Century Hymnal.

Valerie Tutson returned to conclude the story of Esther from Esther's own perspective, speaking of her joy and relief at the survival of her people despite Haman's attempt to destroy them, and her pride at their successful resistance to oppression and violence.

Conference Chaplain the Rev. Katherine Latimer took the Esther story as the primary base for her sermon, leading the worshipers through some of its subtleties and showing that both the loud, insistent Mordechais and the patient, quiet Esthers are necessary in doing the work of God. [Complete Text]

"It is always "Time" -- always time to witness and risk for love. And God needs all of us, all kinds of us, to meet the tests and injustices of our own day."

The great table's gifts of bread and wine became physical and spiritual food for the gathered worshipers as Davida Foy Crabtree presided at the celebration of Holy Communion. Many hands assisted in bringing the elements to the circle of the faithful, who sang as they waited to partake and after they had received. The service closed with the worshipers forming an enormous circle around the room to receive Rev. Crabtree's benediction.

Fed and renewed, the congregation took their leave of Ocean Beach Park and returned to the daily work of their own ministry in all its settings.