Worship Services
Worship begins at 9:30 am every Sunday, in person and on Zoom in July and August. Vaccines are highly recommended for everyone with access. Masks are supported but no longer required indoors.
Join us in person, or grab the bulletin and join in via Zoom. Email us at welcome@pilgrimcongregational.org for the link. Videos of our previous services are also available.
Responding to Gun Violence
Dear Pilgrims,
I write to share with you the text of a letter sent via the Lexington Interfaith community, as well as my sermon responding to gun violence this past Sunday. (Thank you to Duncan Todd for creating a sermon-only video, which may be easier to share.)
As we respond to yet more horrible gun violence in the US in recent weeks, many of us have asked: what can we do? I offer these suggestions.
Pray. Thoughts and prayers are not enough – but prayers align us with God’s will for a peaceful and just world. Prayers make us calmer and more thoughtful. Indeed, whatever makes you calmer and more thoughtful, do: rest, take time in nature, take care. This prepares us to live into our commitments.
Offer compassion. Call your friends in New York, Texas, California. Send a note of kindness to a teacher, a parent, a first responder.
Learn. Each of the recent mass shootings had different causes – which means there’s a lot to learn. Get educated about racism, white nationalism and white supremacy, gun violence and the parts of our system that are complicit in allowing easy access to guns. In Lexington through LICA, there’s work happening on a program responding to white nationalism as seen in Buffalo. On racism in general I cannot commend highly enough the locally based program Dismantling Racism in our Town and will provide links to the next session as soon as it is published. There are many, many resources on racism and we’ll be working on programming specifically for Pilgrim. While I want to be careful not to stigmatize folks experiencing mental illness, who are more likely to be the victim of a violent crime than to commit one, it is also important to understand more about mental health resources. One area I’d love to explore with a committed group of Pilgrims is becoming a W.I.S.E. congregation (https://www.mhn-ucc.org/wise-congregation-toolkit/ )
Advocate. There are local and national things to advocate for around gun violence, racism, and mental health resources. I commend to you this document put together by our conference: https://sneucc-email.brtapp.com/files/justice/gun+control+advocacy+may+2022.pdf You will note that the MA list includes a variety of mental health first aid bills in addition to gun safety bills. MA has strong gun safety measures in place but they can be strengthened. As a result of existing measures we have the second lowest number of gun deaths per capita in the US, which is good news. Nonetheless there is more to do here, and so much more nationally. Visit https://www.everytown.org/ for the national picture.
Show Up on June 11. https://marchforourlives.com/march22/
With hope and commitment,
Pastor Reebee
