Join Reverend Anne Mason in our first worship together at the Ingathering Service this Sunday which will be a time of joyful connection! As we share the waters we bring from our summer — whether it be from a pond, an ocean, or your own kitchen faucet — we will share the dreams we each bring to our beloved community. All are welcome to join us for this multi-generational worship through story, song, and sermon as we come together to celebrate the beginning of our church year.

This Sunday is an All Ages service. All children are welcome to stay in the Sanctuary. The nursery will be open for babies and toddlers.

The Sanctuary Choir will resume singing for worship services. We welcome them back!. For the introit, they will sing the beautiful folk anthem “Down to the River to Pray” (made famous by Alison Krauss in “O Brother, Where Art Thou”). Elizabeth Walsh will sing the soprano solo in Richard Farina’s “Where Gentle Tides Go Rolling By” during the offertory. Our director of music Rip Jackson will play Paul Greg Howlett’s Jazz piano arrangement of “Shall We Gather by the River” and Bach’s joyful Prelude and Fugue in Bb for organ during the centering music and postlude.

The anthem for Sunday will be Vermont composer Gwyneth Walker’s “Peace I Ask of Thee, O River.” Her ethereal setting of this famous girl scout song comes from the New Millennium Suite, which is a set of three songs for chorus and orchestra. These are traditional American songs that have been updated with additional lyrics. “Peace, I Ask of Thee, O River,” the second song in the set, features an accompaniment that evokes the flowing river with undulating arpeggios in the piano.