Ledyard UMC - Memorial Window Dedication Ceremony

Today I'd like to share my remarks from our 175th Anniversary Celebration this past Sunday. These remarks are specifically addressing our new Memorial Windows that were dedicated and are based on Matthew 5:14-16. Your thoughts and comments are encouraged!

"Friends,

As we gather here in this beautiful setting today to dedicate these Memorial Windows, we are indeed letting our light shine before others…as the generations who came before us have done on this holy ground for the past 175 years.

As we gather here today, not just as the Ledyard United Methodist church – but as Christ’s church universal…as a community of believers (and perhaps seekers)…we are indeed a city on a hill that can not be hidden.

As we gather here today, we share the light from our lamp stand with an extended community who celebrate with us and who remember with us.

We remember the saints in whose memories we dedicate these windows. Those who lived long and fruitful lives, as well as those who were called home not in our time, but in God’s chosen time…and while we miss them all, we acknowledge they belonged to God before they belonged to us…and to God they returned.

In these windows, we see beautiful renditions of some of God’s awesome creation…and in these images we remember…memories of laughter, memories of love, memories of hugs and of tears…memories that will live on thru the generations to come as we pass them along to our children and their children, just as the ancient Hebrew tribes did for generations…

These past Friday evening, July 4th, I had the opportunity to attend a worship and remembrance service at the Washington DC Hebrew Temple…a service of a mixture of the melodic Hebrew chants and choruses, blended with patriotic hymns….at was uplifting….I felt like I had both stepped back into the past, while celebrating the present and looking to the future.

But the moment of the service that brought tears to my eyes was the moment when they shared the names of those no longer in their midst who had left this world for the next within the past year….and after each name was spoken the congregation responded “Shabbat Shalom”…Hebrew for “Sabbath Peace”…while they missed their friends and family, they entrusted them into God’s hands and wished them an eternal Sabbath peace…

Today, in a similar way, we do the same. Before we dedicate these windows to the glory of God, we can gaze on them and remember our family and friends…and entrust them to God rest in an eternal Sabbath peace…

I would invite you now to raise aloud any names of friends and family who have gone home to the Lord, recently or in your past, that you wish to remember today….and after all names have been raised that you wish to raise, I will pronounce the words “Shabbat Shalom” and I invite you to respond with the same words.....persons lift up the names of those they wish to remember…

“Shabbat Shalom”

Amen.