March 2024 After flying into Providence, Rhode Island, the evening before, I made my way to Taunton, Massachusetts, to visit West Congregational Church (#57). I appreciated the lively conversation with several members of this congregation, which joined [...]
February 2024 After a hiatus in January, I resumed the Listening Tour, heading northwest by car on February 7. My first stop in 2024 was Trinity Congregational Church in Adams, Wisconsin (#55), in the middle of the [...]
December 2023 On the first Sunday of Advent, December 3, the First Congregational Church of Mansfield, Ohio (#50) welcomed me. The evening before, I had fun catching up with Ellen Stiffler, daughter of Joe Polhemus, longtime editor of The Congregationalist, and [...]
November 2023 I spent the first weekend of November in La Mesa, California, just outside San Diego. On Saturday, November 4, the Cal West Association host minister and moderator, Rev. Scott Archer, completed his term with a day made extra [...]
October 2023 Saturday, October 14, brought a leisurely visit to the Second Congregational Church of Biddeford, Maine (#40). The members, led by Rev. Cat Anglea, minister to the community by opening their space to addiction recovery groups and Bon [...]
September 2023 Saturday, September 23, 2023 A flight to San Jose carried me to my first two stops in California. I enjoyed a pleasant midday conversation at the home of Pastor Ella Ray Toscano, whose congregation, New [...]
As of July 1, 2022, the NACCC comprises 312 congregations and 28,715 church members. Our former Executive Director, Ashley Cleere, kicked off an Executive Director Listening Tour with the charge to visit as many NACCC churches possible in the [...]
April 2023 Saturday, April 22, 2023 On Saturday, April 22, First Congregational Church of Detroit (#36) invited me to journey on a flight to freedom in their Underground Railroad Living Museum. The project, launched with a grant in conjunction [...]
January 2023 January 22, 2023 On January 22, my first stop in 2023, #29, was Congregational Church in the Valley in Chandler, Arizona. During an omelet buffet breakfast before worship, I met several community leaders, many of [...]
November & December 2022 Sunday, November 6 I was honored to worship and receive communion with members of Mendota Heights United Church of Christ (#23), a Minnesota congregation new to the NACCC that recently voted for dissolution [...]