St. Michael's Church, Litchfield, CT

This church was built ninety years ago. This church was built with love. The love of God, the love of community, the love of Henry Towne for his wife Cora. If you don’t know who Henry and Cora are, I would invite you to read the lovely inscription on the plaque behind the baptismal font.

This church was built with love – it was also built with a preemiment architect, builder, mason, and woodcarver. Those members of St. Michael’s just prior to the 1920s wanted to create a place of soaring splendor for their spiritual reflection. That was their gift to us. I remember Jenni’s reply to a visitor who remarked on the beauty of St. Michael’s: she said, “Our church is beautiful because God is beautiful.”

Those early church members also generously supported and endowed St. Michael’s. That is also their gift to us, and we are all stewards to care for this space and to honor their legacy as well as their memory. We have the Book of Remembrance to keep in mind our own loved ones, but we’re all tied in spirit to every member of St. Michael’s who passed before us – who were baptized, confirmed, married and buried here; who sang, preached and prayed in these pews and donated the lovely stained glass windows.

This sanctuary has surrounded me, uplifted me, and inspired me towards living the acts of Jesus’ ministry in the world. And my little dog is welcome here. All are welcome here. We say that, but I feel we truly mean that – I know I truly feel that.
The true meaning of the word “sanctuary” was never more clearly felt than when I knelt in the chapel at Easter time, waiting alone, keeping my own vigil in solitude, darkness and cold giving way to the presence of St. Michael, his glorious red robe shining in the morning sun.

My sister and I also attended a memorial and healing service in the chapel after our brother died. We were comforted not only by Jenni and the others in our small group, but by the stained glass presence and very real spirit of Jesus and St. Michael, indeed all the saints seemed to surround us and hold us in their arms.

I held my church wedding here. Although I’d had a civil ceremony decades before in Florida, when I walked down these stones and stood at the high altar, I felt I was finally, truly married. And my elderly father finally got to walk his baby boomer daughter properly down the aisle.

I’ve attended funerals here for those I knew from the church community, and those especially poignant were the memorials for Henri and Andy, who both served with me on the St. Barnabas Guild and are very much missed. And for Bill, whose support and encouragement was sincere and heartfelt.

My relatives have been on the prayer list – my nephew while he served in Iraq, my granddaughters when they were born prematurely, myself when a back injury kept me away for several months. I pray every day; it’s like breathing in and breathing out. I’m grateful. . .I live in grace. I’m happy for the opportunity to pray for others – that sharing is a very important part of being a member of the St. Michael’s community.

I’ve been blessed to find my own mission here: to get the “good word” out about St. Michael’s – to be part of the event-planning that allows us to open our doors to the world and welcome folks to the Fete & Faire, concerts, tag sales and book sales, lectures and workshops, tea parties, brunches and Irish dinners, pet adoptions and pet fashion shows and church tours where we share the beauty and history of our church.

I believe there is no small kindness that goes unnoticed, and that causes ripples that circle the globe. St. Michael’s has a positive reputation in the larger community and that is created by welcoming visitors to free concerts and free puppet shows, especially our own Amazing Unique Colossal Puppets, and by offering our spaces for nonprofit organizations to meet, heal, and make music, by sharing the history of our church, by sharing our book sale and tag sale remainders with the New Milford Methodist Church, the New Hartford Library and the Shrine at Lourdes. Benevolence shared is doubled, and tripled beyond measure.

And always, at the beginning and at the end, there is love. This church was built with love, we lovingly give praise for always, at the beginning and at the end, here is the presence of God.