March 8 is the Second Sunday In Lent and the Guilford Communty Church, United Church of Christ, will open the service with an introit written by Mary Alice Amidon entitled “Deep Called to Deep” based on Psalm 42.
Throughout Lent the congregation will be focussed on the sacrifices necessary to slow climate change as lenten discipline and on praising creation in its many forms. Andy Davis lead the choir in two anthems. The first is an arrangement he wrote of “Captain Kidd” which honors the hills of Vermont and the second was taught to members of the church in Kenya entitled “There Is a Journey”. Rev Lise Sparrow and sixteen others are, in fact, setting out on a journey tomorrow to Kenya. The group will build a nursery school, plant trees, and teach children about environmental justice in memory of Wangair Maathai who would have been 80 on April 3. Maathai was a friend to Brattleboro and an activist in Kenya, having founded the Green Belt Movement which has planted over 5000 trees. This is part of a lenten focus on creation justice and Rev Sparrow will offer a sermon on ways climate change has affected the village the church has been working with for the past 14 years in Kenya. The Sunday School is preparing letters for children in the primary school there and the congregation will gather after the service send the group on their way.
Guilford Community Church, an Open and Affirming/Just Peace Congregation of the United Church of Christ, is fully handicapped accessible and committed to providing hearing assistance and ASL interpretation, if given notice ahead. The church is located one mile south of exit 1 on Route 5 just in back of the Guilford Country Store. For more information call 257-2776, check the website at www.guilfordc.sg-host.com or friend us on Facebook at “Guilford Community Church”. Services are also filmed and can be found on BCTV Wednesday morning at 7am and Sunday mornings at 8am or anytime online at www.brattleborotv.or