Call to Special Congregational Meeting

Sunday, October 12, 2025

The Council of Immanuel Congregational Church, UCC, 10 Woodland Street, Hartford, Connecticut, calls a meeting of the congregation on Sunday, October 12 to approve the use of $354,000 (or 51%) of the proceeds from the sale of the buildings at 350 and 360 Farmington Avenue to support the proposed Immanuel Revitalization Justice Initiative, including a 3-year position of Director of Outreach and Justice as recommended by the Council on September 22, 2025.

Please contact the church office for the meeting agenda, the proposal for this initiative, for answers to questions you may have, and for the job description for this position.

The Bible Study will resume on Sunday, October 12, at 8:30 am. Ellie Eisenberg will be teaching "Pericopes and Parables: Exploring Parallels and Personalities in The Testaments". (The term "pericope" simply means a selection from a book, like a cut-out. "Parable" is a short story – fictional, that is illustrative of a moral attitude or religious principle.)

Please bring your Bible (any version other than "The Good News" or "The Message"). If you don't have one, Bibles will be available. Please prepare by reading Genesis 24:1-67 (this is the longest narrative in the entire Torah) which is often referred to as "A Bride for Isaac". We will point out some neat and helpful literary devices in this narrative and discuss the theological messages it holds. If it is read ahead, we can move through it more readily. We will also be discussing topics and themes for the coming year. Everyone is welcome, even if you’ve never read or studied Scripture before.

Immanuel’s Environmental Action Team has taken a leaf out of the book we studied during Lent, “Church of the Wild” by Victoria Loorz. And we are sponsoring an Outdoor Worship Service to encourage people to find the Sacred in Nature. This service will be held, rain or shine, on Saturday, October 4th, 2025, at 10AM, at Elizabeth Park’s Lawn and Stage area. Members of other churches, including Asylum Hill Congregational, First Church of West Hartford and Faith Congregational Church will be invited.

This Tuesday's Event has been cancelled.

But there are two other immigrants' rights events scheduled in October. Please click here for dates and locations, and to register.

Questions? Contact Cori Mackey, Immanuel GHIAA Core Team Chair.

The Council of Immanuel Congregational Church, UCC, 10 Woodland Street, Hartford, Connecticut, calls a meeting of the congregation on Sunday, September 28, 2025, to begin immediately following the 10am worship service, to adopt the revised bylaws recommended by the church Council at the September Council meeting. The meeting will be in person only.

Please click here for the meeting agenda, the Bylaws and a Summary of the proposed changes

Please join us this Saturday for a very special group meeting!

We’ll have with us members of Senator Chris Murphy’s staff who will be joining us at 10am. We will have some sharing time at the beginning and will then be sharing extended time with representatives of some non-profits and others who will be attending to share their stories of how cuts in federal funding are impacting the people they werve.

We hope everyone will join in this sharing.

Also, if you want to invite a nonprofit representative, please feel free to reach out and let Jim Boucher know. We are also eager to hear from Sen. Murphy’s staff their perspective on the upcoming federal budget battle.

Immediately prior to our Saturday Support & Action Group  at 10am there will be a group of people joining in community to proclaim that we are Standing up for Human Rights and Needs! We are stronger together!

Please consider joining us Saturday, 9/27 from 8:30 am-9:30 am at the corner of Farmington and Woodland. 

Then, come in for coffee/tea and and conversation during out Saturday Gathering. This Saturday we will have Sen. Chris Murphy’s staff members with us for an extended time. (10-12.)

We look forward to seeing you!

Franciscan Center for Urban Ministry is hosting an evening with Carl Siciliano, author of Making Room, Thursday, September 25, from 6:30 to 8:00pm. The Center is located at 285 Church St., Hartford.

Making Room chronicles Siciliano’s three decades of work founding and nurturing the Ali Forney Center, the nation’s largest housing program for LGBT youth experiencing homelessness.

Advance registration is requested - use this link.

Contact the Center at timothy.curran@trincoll.edu or 760-4034 for more information.

FREE WILL DONATIONS

Based in Hartford, CT, the Yevshan Ukrainian Vocal Ensemble performed its first full-length concert in 1999. Since then, the choir has performed in concerts and liturgical services in Hartford, Boston, New Haven, New York, Rochester, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C., and in joint benefit concerts with Connecticut’s Polish, Jewish, and Baltic communities.

The choir is comprised of singers from different faith backgrounds, but most of its members are active in Ukrainian Catholic and Orthodox parishes across Connecticut.  Yevshan has worked in collaboration with Chorale Connecticut, the Yale Slavic Chorus, the Wesleyan and Fordham Concert choirs, the Zoloty Promin’ Ukrainian Dance Ensemble, and other regional performing arts ensembles. 

Since the full scale invasion of Ukraine by Russian forces in 2022, the Ensemble has been heavily involved in providing financial aid for worthy causes serving Ukraine’s  embattled communities. 

Please stay after the performance for refreshments and to meet the members of this ensemble!

Have you heard the buzz? – Revitalization and Growing our Church? Our vulnerable neighbors? 350/360 sale proceeds? Vitality? 

What’s it all about?

Church Council encourages all of us to join the conversation about an exciting initiative to increase our own vitality, provide more ministerial support for our church, and address the needs of our neighbors. Council discussions have been supportive of the creation of a new staff position, Director of Outreach and Justice, which would focus on our commitment to social justice and the increasing challenges of so many of our vulnerable neighbors. The Director would engage our members in Jesus' call to love and work for justice and enable us to make a larger impact in the city. The Director would also provide ongoing support to congregation members, the senior minister, and the staff. 

We think this ministry will attract new people to Immanuel, while helping us better care for and serve current members.

We have had several discussions about how we might leverage the proceeds the church made from the sale of the two Farmington Avenue properties.  Many people have advocated that a significant percentage of that money be used to support our justice advocacy.  So – lots of things to discuss!

Eager to learn more about this initiative?  

• Read the proposal for Immanuel Revitalization Justice Initiative, funded in part by the proceeds from the sale of 350/360.

• Read the proposed job description for the Director of Outreach and Justice.

Please read and reflect on this initiative and come to one of the in-person second hours or the zoom meeting to share your thoughts. 

Sunday, September 7 - Second Hour after worship

Monday, September 8 - Zoom Session at noon

Sunday, September 21 - Second Hour after worship

Join us to learn more, discuss the initiative, and share your ideas in true congregational fashion!

There will be a memorial service for a beloved, long-time member of Immanuel, Brooks Joslin, on September 20, 2025 at 11am.

https://www.courant.com/obituaries/brooks-r-joslin/

[Registration for this event is now closed]

With great excitement, the Stowe Center announces Percival Everett as our 2025 Stowe Prize for Literary Activism winner, author of the Pulitzer Prize winning book James: A Novel (Doubleday, 2024), which offers a more truthful representation of an enslaved person, one free of many of the stereotypes cast upon Black people throughout the American literary canon.

Event Schedule

5:00-6:00pm | Sponsor Reception with Professor Percival Everett | The Mark Twain House & Museum

5:30-6:30pm | Free Social Justice Fair | Fellowship Hall, Immanuel Congregational Church

6:30-8:00pm | Public Program | The Sanctuary, Immanuel Congregational Church

Before the 2025 Stowe Prize for Literary Activism Public Program at Immanuel Congregational Church, stop by the Social Justice Fair from 5:30–6:30 PM in the church’s Fellowship Hall.

At the Social Justice Fair, you will find representatives from a variety of local organizations, learn about the important work they are doing, and find out how you can get involved.

We can’t wait for you to connect with:

@iccucc_hartford

@our_piece_of_the_pie

@intervalhousect

Asylum Hill Neighborhood Association

@ctfairhousing

@faithactsedu

@kamoras.cultural.corner

@acluct

@maketheroadct

…among others!

#LiteraryActivism #StowePrize2025 #StoweCenterforLiteraryActivism #PercivalEverett #JamesANovel #DoubledayBooks #BlackLiterature #HistoricalFiction #PercivalEverettBooks #BookEvent #AuthorEvent

Immediately prior to our Saturday Support & Action Group  at 10am there will be a small group of people joining in community to proclaim that we are Standing up for Human Rights and Needs! We are stronger together!

Please consider joining us Saturday, 9/13 from 8:30 am-9:30 am at the corner of Farmington and Woodland. 

Then, come in for coffee/tea and and conversation during out Saturday Gathering.

We look forward to seeing you!

Have you heard the buzz? – Revitalization and Growing our Church? Our vulnerable neighbors? 350/360 sale proceeds? Vitality? 

What’s it all about?

Church Council encourages all of us to join the conversation about an exciting initiative to increase our own vitality, provide more ministerial support for our church, and address the needs of our neighbors. Council discussions have been supportive of the creation of a new staff position, Director of Outreach and Justice, which would focus on our commitment to social justice and the increasing challenges of so many of our vulnerable neighbors. The Director would engage our members in Jesus' call to love and work for justice and enable us to make a larger impact in the city. The Director would also provide ongoing support to congregation members, the senior minister, and the staff. 

We think this ministry will attract new people to Immanuel, while helping us better care for and serve current members.

We have had several discussions about how we might leverage the proceeds the church made from the sale of the two Farmington Avenue properties.  Many people have advocated that a significant percentage of that money be used to support our justice advocacy.  So – lots of things to discuss!

Eager to learn more about this initiative?  

• Read the proposal for Immanuel Revitalization Justice Initiative, funded in part by the proceeds from the sale of 350/360.

• Read the proposed job description for the Director of Outreach and Justice.

Please read and reflect on this initiative and come to one of the in-person second hours or the zoom meeting to share your thoughts. 

Sunday, September 7 - Second Hour after worship

Monday, September 8 - Zoom Session at noon

Sunday, September 21 - Second Hour after worship

Join us to learn more, discuss the initiative, and share your ideas in true congregational fashion!

Have you heard the buzz? – Revitalization and Growing our Church? Our vulnerable neighbors? 350/360 sale proceeds? Vitality? 

What’s it all about?

Church Council encourages all of us to join the conversation about an exciting initiative to increase our own vitality, provide more ministerial support for our church, and address the needs of our neighbors. Council discussions have been supportive of the creation of a new staff position, Director of Outreach and Justice, which would focus on our commitment to social justice and the increasing challenges of so many of our vulnerable neighbors. The Director would engage our members in Jesus' call to love and work for justice and enable us to make a larger impact in the city. The Director would also provide ongoing support to congregation members, the senior minister, and the staff. 

We think this ministry will attract new people to Immanuel, while helping us better care for and serve current members.

We have had several discussions about how we might leverage the proceeds the church made from the sale of the two Farmington Avenue properties.  Many people have advocated that a significant percentage of that money be used to support our justice advocacy.  So – lots of things to discuss!

Eager to learn more about this initiative?  

• Read the proposal for Immanuel Revitalization Justice Initiative, funded in part by the proceeds from the sale of 350/360.

• Read the proposed job description for the Director of Outreach and Justice.

Please read and reflect on this initiative and come to one of the in-person second hours or the zoom meeting to share your thoughts. 

Sunday, September 7 - Second Hour after worship

Monday, September 8 - Zoom Session at noon

Sunday, September 21 - Second Hour after worship

Join us to learn more, discuss the initiative, and share your ideas in true congregational fashion!

We need 10 volunteers to help with setting up, serving, and clean up. Sign up on Social Action & Mission bulletin board in Fellowship Hall.

Rev. Kendrix will lead the Second Hour this Sunday, where the congregation gets the chance to ask questions, and/or make comments about the sermon, “Invite the Poor”.

Poverty has been an enduring problem that has been out-of-sight or actively ignored for too many years despite the fact that we know that we can solve this problem. And now, help for the poor among us is under real attack. What would Jesus do?

Rev. Kendrix has shared a reading list with us for learning more about poverty in America.

Rev. Marilyn B. Kendrix,
Retired Bridge Conference Minister of the Southern New England Conference UCC

“Over the last 13 years, I have been guest preaching first in Connecticut and since the creation of the Southern New England Conference, in Massachusetts and Rhode Island as well, raising awareness about mass incarceration and systemic racism.  My new 2025 sermon series will focus on the thread that flows from the history of racism in America to the situation making the USA the nation with the highest rates of poverty among developed nations. Poverty has been an enduring problem that has been out-of-sight or actively ignored for too many years despite the fact that we know that we can solve this problem. And now, help for the poor among us is under real attack. What would Jesus do? “

Prior to ordination, Marilyn worked for over 15 years as an Organizational Development Consultant principally at AT&T and in other profit and not-for-profit settings. She served on the Board of Directors of the Connecticut Conference and participated with the Southern New England Conference Planning Team.  She also served as the last Conference Minister of the Rhode Island Conference UCC and one of the first Bridge Conference Ministers of the new Southern New England Conference of UCC.

Marilyn earned her Bachelor’s degree from Spelman College, an HBCU school in Atlanta, Georgia, her Executive MBA and an MA in Industrial and Organizational Psychology, both from the University of New Haven. She received her Master of Divinity degree from Yale Divinity School and a certificate from the Yale Institute of Sacred Music.  Since 2012, her personal ministry has included preaching at over 200 churches to raise awareness about mass incarceration and systemic racism in America.  In her ministry to seek criminal justice reform, Marilyn co-wrote The Justice Imperative: How Hyper-Incarceration Has Hijacked the American Dream (Significance Press, 2014). Her 2025 sermon series addresses poverty in America and its link to anti-Black racism.

 Marilyn retired from the Southern New England Conference in January, 2021 and is married to her best friend, Alan.  Together they have 3 children, 6 grandchildren, one great grandchild and one new puppy, Dash.

Rev. Kendrix has shared a reading list with us for learning more about poverty in America.

Volunteers are needed to help at the Immanuel table and other tasks. Sign up on the Social Action and Mission bulletin board in the Fellowship Hall.

If you are interested in attending, there are tickets available for purchase in the Immanuel Church office. Call (860)527-8121 or email the office at immanuel06105@gmail.com. Let's enjoy each other's company at this sure to be fun event with delicious food.