"A Day in the Life"

“It was the third of June, another sleepy, dusty, delta day. I was out choppin’ cotton and my brother was bailin’ hay…”

This reference to the day Billy Joe MacAllister jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge has nothing to do with anything, really. I just have always wanted to use this somehow.

Actually, I’ve become aware of other connections to June 3rd. Happy anniversary to friends, Barb and Pete! Happy birthday to the Ulrich triplets! If he were still alive I’d wish a happy birthday to Harold Bell a former parishioner of my last pastorate in Homer who was born in the village in this date in 1920. The other noteworthy event on this day in that year was that Harold was born in a snowstorm!

This 3rd of June has been a good day, too. I preached at a nearby independent community church that may be interested in becoming UCC. As the worship hour approached I was standing in the back next to Rachel, the acolyte, who is in first grade, and Anthony, the crucifer, who might be 10 or 11. Just before the processional Anthony looked over at me and confided, “You’ll do fine.” What a gift! Indeed, things seemed to go fine enough, but Anthony’s vote of confidence was and is precious to me.

It’s been a good week in Upstate New York. Clare Price and Larry Driscoll have been working hard renovating the new Conference Office. They’ve been working at least one day a week for several weeks running. Several other volunteers have appeared for workdays. Hopefully the last of these workdays will be this Wednesday, June 6. They’ll finish up the painting and begin to do some cleaning. When I looked in this past Wednesday, the carpet guy was measuring for the installation of the new carpet throughout.

Larry Paul and his committee of capital initiative fundraisers have been hard at work in the first phase of securing pledges to pay off the new building. I went along with him on two of these visits to some former parishioners of mine in Homer. Gosh, that felt a little weird. Still, there’s much progress throughout the conference on this campaign. So far well over half of the goal of $600,000 has been pledged.

15 pastors and other authorized ministers from Susquehanna had a great picnic this past Wednesday at the Maine Federated Church. It was a perfect Central New York day and we had a nice time together. Attendance has been very good at our meetings. We go to various churches on the last Wednesday of each month for fellowship and a program on some topic of ministry. Places and programs have already been planned for next year.

Marian Shearer and I have been teaching a class in UCC History & Polity this spring. Over four Saturdays scheduled between March 31 and June 2, we have met with a great group of 13 folks from Corning, Ithaca, Syracuse, Massena, Saratoga Springs, Albany, Saugerties, and New York City. The class consisted of some Presbyterians who are serving in UCC pastoral positions, a Unitarian who’s interested in the UCC, a member of the New York School of Ministry, and several who are In Care of their Associations and are looking forward to ordination.

Well, I guess that’s all for now. I sign off with the knowledge that with God I’ll do fine and with the certainty that you will too. (Thanks Anthony.)

Blessings,

Rick Cowles