Goodbye Northampton

Last Sunday, I had to come back to my church (Haydenville Congregation) for the first sermon of our new minister -- Pastor Don Morgan.  Having served on the Search Committee, I wouldn't have missed this service for the world.  The service was a big Welcome Home for Pastor Don, and a chance for us all to say Thank You to everyone who has kept the church going for nearly 2 years while we have been without a settled pastor, and to the spirit which has been with us all the way.  Sitting in the pews, I often think of the "cloud of witnesses" in this place -- all the generations of people who have loved this church and served to keep it going.  May the spirit be with them and with us, now and always.

Truly we are the church, all of us, and now we have Pastor Don to be a heartfelt presence at the center of our worship and community.

And so good-bye to Western Mass, probably until next spring or summer.  I'm heading south.

Fall colors and sky in New England.  Won't be like this elsewhere in my travels.