INTRODUCING OUR PASTOR

The First Congregational Church of Walpole, UCC has called Richard Malmberg to be our new settled pastor. He has served congregations in New England and the Midwest since his ordination in 1993. The call brings him back to New Hampshire, where he has previously worked at the Concord Monitor and served as associate pastor of South Congregational Church.

Pastor Richard enjoys parish ministry for its variety of challenges and depth of relationships. He finds the pastoral office calls clergy to stand on sacred ground at some of the most important moments in people's lives. Whether a wedding, baptism, funeral, emotional crisis or a hospital bedside, when someone invites a minister into a sacred moment in their life, the only answer is the biblical one: "Here I am."

An enthusiastic cook, Richard is convinced that church potluck suppers are generally the best meal in town whenever and wherever they are. He also feels that the potluck supper is an excellent metaphor for a healthy congregation. He looks forward to the chicken barbeque and pie baking First Congregational Church is known for.

Richard lives in the parsonage with wife, Jane, a librarian by profession. Their two grown sons, Max and Oscar, live and work in Boston. Richard collects toys, enjoys fishing, reading, films, and taking long walks around Walpole.

April Message From The Pastor's Desk:

Friends,

In the bursting new life of Spring, we see visions of Easter resurrection everywhere. Blossoms and budding trees, softening fragrant earth, lengthening days and shorter nights speak of life. But let’s not surrender to sentimentality. Let’s draw strength and reassurance from the stubborn renewal of the earth that we so long for in the cold dark of winter. Because we need to be strong, and we live renewed lives and set about the work of renewal.

Remember. The Easter story begins in a grave. Stunned by the forces of death and oppression, Christ’s disciples went to the tomb and found they were looking in the wrong place. They found that the Good News that had so enthralled and inspired them could not be contained by the forces of death.

These days it is all too easy to dwell in the shadows and be intimidated by the forces of death. They are real and we witness their power in the news every day. Famine, war, plague and global environmental devastation are real, and it is hard to pay attention without falling into a stupor. I am sure that Sunday morning in Jerusalem, the disciples tried to believe what happened on Friday was not true. But denial of death only obscures the power of resurrection. The disciples discovered the power of resurrection and death no longer had power over them.

More than ever, we are needed to be a people whose lives are ordered around resurrection. We live in a wounded world of broken covenants on a battered planet. "And yet we can be repairers of the breach, restorers of streets to live in." (Isaiah 58:12) We can heal a wounded sky. "O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” (1 Corinthians 15:55)

With faith, we can move mountains, even if we have to do it a pebble at a time. We just have to stoke our spirits with what William Sloane Coffin called “A passion for the possible.”

May God’s peace be with you.

The United Church of Christ (UCC) is a distinct and diverse community of Christians that come together as one church to join faith and action. With over 5,000 churches and nearly one million members across the U.S., the UCC serves God in the co-creation of a just and sustainable world. The UCC is a church of firsts, a church of extravagant welcome, and a church where "…they may all be one" (John 17:21).

The Church of Firsts

Since 1957, the United Church of Christ has been the church of firsts, weaving God’s message of hope and extravagant welcome with action for justice and peace. Together, we live out our faith in ways that effect change in our communities. The UCC's many "firsts" mean that we have inherited a tradition of acting upon the demands of our faith. When we read in Galatians: "There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus" — a demand is made upon us. And so we were the first historically white denomination to ordain an African-American, the first to ordain a woman, the first to ordain an openly gay man, and the first Christian church to affirm the right of same-gender couples to marry. We were in the forefront of the anti-slavery movement and the Civil Rights movement. Our response to the demands of our faith is woven into the history of our country.

A Church of Extravagant Welcome

Today, we continue to change lives throughout the world. We work alongside more than 200 mission partners. We labor ceaselessly to fight injustice in the United States and abroad. We instill our vision into our youth and young adults, forging leaders who will imagine new dreams. And we sustain and develop church leaders, pastors, and our local churches to live their faith in exciting new ways. We believe in a God that is still speaking, a God that is all-loving and inclusive. We are a church that welcomes and accepts everyone as they are, where your mind is nourished as much as your soul.

We are a church where Jesus the healer meets Jesus the revolutionary, and where together, we grow a just and peaceful world.

FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH

OF WALPOLE, UCC

Our Congregational Covenant

We seek to create and nurture a caring, safe, and supportive atmosphere that facilitates the growth of a strong Christian community. These covenants are promises to each other, not rules, but descriptions of expected behavior, not changes of personality.

Covenants are ways of being in community at church, but also a model we can take home with us and out into the world. These promises guide us in sharing information with each other, setting priorities, making decisions, addressing complaints and resolving conflicts.

With this our Covenant, we commit ourselves to:

Support and love one another, as Jesus commanded. “Just as I have loved you, you should love one another.” (John 13: 34)
Forgive one another again and again. (Matthew 18: 21-22)
Seek resolution to conflict by first addressing the person directly with whom there is a problem, then if necessary involving witnesses, and third going to the congregation’s leaders. (Matthew 18: 15-17)
Interrupt gossip, neither accepting nor sharing rumors, even when such is masked as a concern.
Always assume in others the best possible intentions and motivations, not the worst.
Treat others as you wish to be treated.
Seek what is best for the whole congregation, not only our immediate circle.
Agree to disagree with love and respect.

Covenant: a contract or agreement. In the Bible, an agreement between God and his people, in which God makes promises to his people and, usually, requires certain conduct from them. In the Old Testament, God made agreements with Noah, Abraham, and Moses.