Articles

Conference Ministers’ Corner By: Associate Conference Minister, Rev. Linda Hirst 6.3.26 I got to spend Pentecost in Charleston, SC, at the Circular Congregational Church. I arrived early and spent time looking at all the Pentecost decorations in the sanctuary. I am in awe of people who can decorate and make the sanctuary space inviting, sacred, thematic, and just plain special.Over the choir loft in the front of the church, the decorating folks had created a “Holy Spirit” out

Conference Ministers’ Corner By: Conference Minister, Rev. Gordon Rankin 5.27.26 The Spirit Symphony A few years ago, I was at a gathering where we were talking about mediating church conflict. At one point, our facilitator stopped us and made us engage in a more intentional spiritual task. We were given ten minutes and the writing prompt to tell the story of what we’ve learned. What I wrote that day has become my Pentecost “prayer” for the church ever since: “Once upon a t

Conference Ministers’ Corner By: Transitional Associate Conference Minister, Linda Hirst 5.20.26 We are in the season of graduations! College kids, high school youth, preschoolers, kindergarteners, and middle schoolers are all graduating and moving on to the next step: another grade, college, life, or work. Chances are someone in your life is graduating, and if you’re at the college level, someone is giving a commencement address. I graduated from the University of Rhode Isla

Conference Ministers’ Corner By: Transitional Associate Conference Minister, Linda Hirst 5.14.26 Ezekiel 37:5 “Thus says the Lord God to these bones: I will cause breath [a] to enter you, and you shall live.” One day, while living in Richmond, VA, my husband Brad brought home a tree he had bought at Krogers (the local grocery store). It was a sad, sickly twig of a tree, and as he walked past me to dig a hole for it, I said to him, "That tree is dead. You know that, right? Y

Conference Ministers’ Corner By: Transitional Associate Conference Minister, Linda Hirst 5.6.26 While sitting outside last week, my friend and I noticed that a couple of bluebirds had claimed residence in her newly constructed bluebird house. So exciting! We sat outside in lawn chairs (it was a rare warm day) and watched as the female bluebird zipped from the birdhouse, across the yard to a tree where she'd gather a few pine needles, then zip back to her "home." Once there sh

An Anniversary Appeal Conference Ministers’ Corner In 2026, the New Hampshire Conference celebrates its 225th anniversary. Formed in June 1801 in Hopkinton as the “Missionary Society”, we came together to “fill empty pulpits, organize churches where needed, and in other ways minister to places destitute of religion”. Through the years there were many name changes, with the vote to officially become the New Hampshire Conference of the United Church of Christ occurring in 1961