It’s finally here—our 300th Anniversary.  We will celebrate with several special events during May, including our worship service this Sunday.  There will be special music, and greetings, and guests.  It will be a wonderful day!  I hope you will be here in the meetinghouse for this great celebration.

As we celebrate, we will remember what counts.  According to Paul, the great apostle who started the church in Thessalonica to which he wrote the letter I quoted above, what count are your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.

Yale University history professor Jaroslav Pelikan once said, “Tradition is the living faith of the dead.  Traditionalism is the dead faith of the living.”  On Sunday we will celebrate the living our 300-year history, but we will not worship it—it is not an “ism.”  Rather we will celebrate how our tradition points us fully in to a future where God is still speaking and dream about how we, the First Congregational Church in Southington, will continue to evolve into an inclusive community of faith that will be a beacon of light in Southington and beyond for the next 300 years!