Pastor’s Ponderings
by Pastor Kimberly Chastain
At the picnic five years ago, I preached for United as its installed pastor for the first time. We had the picnic on the front lawn at 42 Chenango Street, and it was a windy day…
We have come a long way together in these five years. We have grown and changed, built some new things and let some old ones disappear, greeted some new friends and said goodbye to some others. It’s hard to remember, sometimes, how fragile and new and precious the young congregation seemed in those early days. The vision was cast, the seeds were planted… what would the harvest be?
This year, we have tasted and seen some of the “first fruits” of the planting and dreaming and plain old hard work that has become part of our community DNA. Our worship is growing and expanding as we challenge each other to explore what gifts we can offer to the glory of God, inviting people of all ages to take an active role in planning or decorating or providing music. Our mission teams have become semi-autonomous; our spiritual formation team is active and enthusiastic in bringing lifelong Christian formation to all. We are fully staffed for the first time since May 2016, and our Property team has taken on some design and rebuilding projects that will make our building even more of a welcoming space in years to come.
“Remember when?” Pastor Kimberly leading worship at the June 2013 church picnic, her first service as installed pastor of UPC.
The mass meeting of the Poor People’s Campaign kickoff in October 2017 with keynote speaker Rev. Dr. William Barber was an unforgettable standing-room-only event.
There are some special moments that have shaped my memory of this year particularly: staff and congregation came together in October to host the New York State kickoff of the Poor People’s Campaign and the Labor-Religion Coalition. Our building was full for three days with activists and energy as we listened to Rev. Dr. William J Barber II challenge us to build a better world. The bell choir has found new life and new purpose under the leadership of Philip Hazen Westcott, not only playing traditional-style pieces but experimenting with accompaniment to hymns and bold new arrangements. The 2018 Women’s March came here in January to hear speeches, teach and learn from each other, and drive away the cold. We watched movies and began to confront the issues of colonialism and white supremacy during the winter months. Our Palm Sunday parade and retelling of Christ’s passion was a powerful and important preparation for Easter morning, when the worship was glorious and I was able, for the first and probably the only time in my career, to preach Resurrection on April Fool’s Day.
The baptisms of Gabriel Hickey, Clyde Jones, and Jackson Seman on May 20 were a highlight of this year’s Pentecost service.
The “Time for the Young at Heart” brings together the growing number of children in the congregation and offers them some insight into the sermon and liturgy of the day.
The year has been full of “favorites,” but one of those has to be Pentecost Sunday, when we baptized three of the new babies that have come into the life of our congregation this year, with more to come!
We took some risks this year, offering micro-loans to community projects and agencies that we believe in, receiving special offerings for new initiatives, and inviting new groups into partnership with us, because we believe that our future will continue to be shaped by our growth in and for the community in downtown Binghamton, even as our membership remains small and mostly “commuters.”
We have been learning about the challenges of being a “cottage congregation in a cathedral building,” and one of the challenges we are looking forward to in the year ahead is purely administrative — trying to make our committee and team structure match the work we do. With so many opportunities before us, we want to be sure that the members are cared for, the leadership feels supported, the dreams have a framework that allows them to succeed, and the Holy Spirit is firmly in charge!
I can’t wait to see what the next five years will bring!
Blessings, Pastor Kimberly