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Conversation

First Congregational Church, Boulder

Welcome to Conversation

SENIOR MINISTER

REV. CHRIS BRAUDAWAY-BAUMAN

Dear Friends,

Summer arrives with space for reflection and celebration, drawing our attention to what is growing, what is being discerned, and what is emerging in the life we share together.

On May 24, our Chancel Choir offers Five Mystical Songs by Ralph Vaughan Williams, luminous settings of devotional poetry by George Herbert. These songs trace the soul’s movement through love, surrender, and joy. They become a final gift before the Choir enters its summer rest.

As summer begins, we also invite you into a quieter rhythm of prayer and attention through our Summer Devotional — Summer Day: A Companion to Mary Oliver’s “Devotions” Poetry. At each of the four movements — Rest, Trust, Play, and Sing — you’ll find a gentle pattern to guide you: the lighting of a candle, a passage of Scripture paired with poems from “Devotions” by Mary Oliver, a brief prayer, and a song or two. Each section also offers a bouquet of daily practices and invitations designed to deepen your experience of the poems, the biblical texts, and the wider world they call us to love. We invite you to pick up a copy of Summer Day in the narthex, along with the Poetry Companion, and make your way into the heart of summer, the heart of sabbath, and the heart of being human: joyful, rested, and free.

June gathers us into both celebration and discernment. On June 7, the ARTS Camp Musical presented by our children and youth fills our sanctuary with song and joy, followed by our annual Spring Church Picnic at Foothills Community Park. On June 13 and 14, we join Boulder Pridefest and celebrate Pride Sunday with gratitude for the wideness of God’s welcome.

As we come to the conclusion of our Capital Campaign Feasibility Study process, we will gather on June 21 for a Congregational Meeting to vote on whether to move forward with a Capital Campaign. At that meeting we will also name a Selection Committee as we prepare for the retirement of Rev. Linda Kowatch and the search for a new Associate Minister. These are not merely decisions; they are acts of shared imagination for the church’s future.

On July 5, we will observe a Sunday of Prayerful Patriotism, holding our nation’s complicated story with gratitude, concern, and courage. We are grateful that our preacher will be David Skaggs — longtime member of First Congregational Church and former Colorado legislator — whose life bears witness to service and public calling.

July and August then draw us into Sundays shaped by covenant, renewing our commitments to accessibility for all and to mental health and wholeness. The summer ends with the return of our church camping trip at Glacier Basin Campground in Rocky Mountain National Park.

May this summer season find you rested, rooted, and drawn ever more deeply into the life we are building together.

With gratitude,

Chris Braudaway-Bauman

Welcome Our New Communications Intern Lillie Thomasset

We’re excited to welcome Lillie Thomasset to our FCC Communications team. An incoming junior at CU Boulder majoring in Creative Technology & Design, with minors in Music and Japanese, Lillie brings a thoughtful blend of creativity and technical skill to our work. Through their role as a Lab Assistant at the ATLAS Institute, they have experience teaching digital media production. Many of us already know Lillie as a violinist in the Congregational Strings Ensemble and a familiar, caring presence in the church nursery. Beginning May 11, they will support our communications efforts by reviewing and updating our website content, helping keep it current as the site grows into its second year.

Ralph Vaughan Williams: Five Mystical Songs

Music, Poetry, and the

Search for the Divine

Sunday, May 24, 10:00 a.m.

Sanctuary and Online

On May 24, the Chancel Choir celebrates Pentecost by singing Five Mystical Songs. Widely regarded as one of the most moving and approachable sacred works of the twentieth century, the piece was composed between 1906 and 1911 by Ralph Vaughan Williams and sets five poems by the seventeenth-century English poet George Herbert. Though the work is frequently performed in churches, Vaughan Williams was not setting out to write conventional church music. Rather, he crafted a deeply human meditation on faith, love, doubt, joy, and humility – themes that continue to resonate with extraordinary power.

Heard on the day we celebrate Pentecost, the work’s themes of breath, calling, awakening, and shared praise take on added resonance.

Scored for baritone soloist, chorus, and orchestra, the work balances the personal and the communal: the solo voice speaks for the individual soul, while the chorus gives voice to a broader human and spiritual community. Across the five songs, Vaughan Williams traces a spiritual arc – moving from celebration, through uncertainty and self-examination, toward a final outpouring of joyful praise.

What makes Five Mystical Songs so enduring is the way Herbert’s imagery and meaning are reflected in the music. Vaughan Williams allows the poems’ ideas to shape the emotional world of each movement from within. What follows is a brief guide to each movement, and to the way words and music together elevate the symbolic meaning of the whole.

1. “Easter” – The Joy of Spiritual Awakening

The opening song, Easter, bursts with energy and confidence. George Herbert celebrates Easter not only as a Christian feast, but as a moment of inner rebirth. Images of rising, singing, and awakening fill the text, and the world itself seems to join the praise. Symbolically, Easter represents the soul awakening from darkness into light. Ralph Vaughan Williams mirrors this with bold rhythms and bright harmonies that invite listeners into a faith both joyful and expansive.

2. “I Got Me Flowers”

Human Effort and Its Limits

The mood changes sharply in “I Got Me Flowers”. Herbert reflects on the human desire to offer our best to God, bringing flowers, songs, and devotion, only to discover how fragile they are. The flowers symbolize human effort: beautiful, sincere, yet temporary. The poem acknowledges humility rather than failure. Vaughan Williams sets the text with restrained, reflective music, emphasizing that human striving has value, but cannot stand alone.

3. “Love Bade Me Welcome” Grace and Unconditional Love

At the center of the work is “Love Bade Me Welcome”, perhaps Herbert’s most beloved poem. The soul feels unworthy to enter Love’s house, but Love gently insists otherwise. The house symbolizes communion with the divine, and the meal symbolizes grace and acceptance. Love does not wait for perfection; it invites first and heals later. Vaughan Williams responds with warm, intimate music. Near the end, the chorus sings the Gregorian chant O Sacrum Convivium (“O sacred banquet”), reinforcing the theme that grace is given, not earned.

4. “The Call” – Listening and Surrender

“The Call” is brief but deeply symbolic. Herbert describes God’s voice summoning the soul through every circumstance. The “call” symbolizes vocation and faithful response. Vaughan Williams sets the text simply for solo baritone, without chorus, emphasizing sincerity and clarity rather than grandeur.

5. “Antiphon” – Communal Praise and Unity

The final song, Antiphon, returns to celebration, now shared by all creation. Herbert calls on heaven and earth to unite in praise. Symbolically, the piece represents spiritual wholeness and unity. The isolated soul has found its place within a larger community. Vaughan Williams closes with a joyful choral finale in which collective praise rises beyond doubt and struggle.

Why Five Mystical Songs Still Matters

Though rooted in sacred texts, Five Mystical Songs continues to speak to listeners of every background. Ralph Vaughan Williams approached faith with openness rather than certainty. That spirit breathes through the music itself.

Sources, London Concert Choir, ”Vaughn Williams –Five Mystical Songs”, www.londondconcertchoir.org March 11, 2018, Vaughan Williams: Five Mystical Songs London Concert Choir Wikipedia, “Five Mystical Songs”, Wikipedia, December 17, 2025, Five Mystical Songs

In the end, Five Mystical Songs does not seek to persuade so much as to invite reflection. It leaves room for wonder, doubt, gratitude, and hope. That quiet generosity, carried in both poetry and music, helps explain why the work still moves audiences more than a century after it was written.

June Events Pride. Picnic.

ARTS Camp Musical

June 7, 10:00 a.m. Worship

Hear ye, hear ye; Jonah has returned and he has a whale of a tale to share! On June 7th at our 10:00 a.m. Worship service, our ARTS Camp campers return to present The Big Fish, a film noir telling of the story of Jonah set to some jazzy showtunes. Come to worship to see our annual ARTS Camp musical and learn what Jonah was really doing on his trip. We welcome our new children and youth choirs director, Julieta Garcia Reyes, and our counselors and volunteers Maeve Brown, Nora Hess, Bob Matthias, Louisa Matthias, Laura McCutchen, Roy McCutchen, Amelia Steed, and Violet Tatterson.

Spring Picnic for All

(After the ARTS Camp Musical) Sunday, June 7, 11:30 a.m. | Foothills Community Park

Everyone is invited to join us for our annual Spring Picnic immediately following the ARTS Camp Musical at our 10:00 a.m. Worship service on Sunday, June 7. BBQ sandwiches (pork, chicken, and a vegan option), pasta and green salad, baked beans, dessert and beverages – all provided for you by our Board of Community Life. Please feel free to bring a lawn chair as sometimes we fill up all the seating. All are welcome and warmly encouraged to join us for food, fellowship, games, and a playground for the kids. Hope to see you there under the picnic shelters!

Pridefest Saturday, June 13, 11:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m. Downtown Boulder Library Parking Lot

Join First Congregational Church as we celebrate at Boulder Pridefest. We host a booth to greet festival goers and provide freezer pops and other giveaways. It is a wonderful opportunity to show our LGBTQ+ siblings that God loves them just as they are, that First Congregational Church is a place of worship where they are welcome, and to invite them to join us for our PRIDE Sunday Worship the next day, June 14.

Please watch the Weekly email and bulletin for opportunities to donate freezer pops and volunteer to host at the booth.

Boulder

June Events Sing. Serve.

Pride Sunday Worship Sunday, June 14, 10:00 a.m. | Sanctuary and Online

Each year during Pride Month, First Congregational Church celebrates with a Pride Sunday Worship service. You will hear testimonies from LGBTQ+ members and allies on the importance of belonging to a faith community where everyone is welcomed and affirmed.

Wear your rainbow bandanas and other rainbow clothing to show love and support for our LGBTQ+ siblings.

Backpack School Supply Drive for Family Learning Center

June 21-July 19

In the weeks ahead, we will once again join together to support students and families connected with Boulder’s Family Learning Center as they prepare for a new school year. Financial donations collected during our Backpack School Supply Drive will help provide backpacks and school supplies for children of all ages. Please watch for more details in the Friday Weekly email and Sunday morning bulletin, including ways to give and opportunities to participate in this shared effort of care and encouragement for local students and families.

A LEGACY OF LOVE. A FUTURE OF HOPE.

Since 1864, First Congregational Church of Boulder has been a place where love knits us together, hope rises in our midst, and faith is put into action. As the first church built in Boulder, we have grown into a vibrant, multi-generational community rooted in worship, compassion, and justice.

We are a progressive congregation of the United Church of Christ, where the welcome is wide and we listen to a still speaking God. Our life together is joyful and active, filled with meaningful worship, strong relationships, and a shared desire to live Christ’s love in our city and beyond.

Campaign Planning Study

A TIME TO STRENGTHEN OUR FOUNDATION

As we look ahead, we recognize a growing gap between our ministry and the resources needed to sustain it. Rising costs, shrinking rental income, and increasing demands on our ministries place pressure on our operating budget.

At the same time, we are called to do even more – care for our historic facilities, expand our impact, and ensure this church remains a place of welcome and hope for generations to come. This moment invites us to strengthen our foundation so our ministry will continue to thrive.

BUILDING A LEGACY for Generations to Come

In response, we are exploring a set of meaningful priorities that will strengthen our church today while preparing us for tomorrow. Together, these priorities reflect both who we have been and who we are called to become – a church rooted deeply in faith and reaching boldly into the future.

Establish an Unrestricted Endowment

$4 million (long-term goal)

Our proposal is to create a new, flexible endowment to support the ongoing life and ministry of our church. Unlike our existing endowment funds, which are designated for specific purposes, this new one would provide reliable annual support for our operating budget sustaining worship, pastoral care, faith formation, and outreach. This fund would strengthen our long-term financial picture, enabling us to maintain our current expectations for annual stewardship, and create a lasting legacy.

Expand Geothermal System to

Sanctuary

$300,000

We have the opportunity to expand our existing, but limited, geothermal heating and cooling system to serve our historic sanctuary, building on a forwardthinking investment we made years ago. We remain committed to providing comfort and accessibility for all who gather in this sacred space.

This project would reduce our carbon footprint and reflect our commitment to Creation Justice, while also improving energy efficiency and lowering the ongoing cost of utilities. We estimate that it would take approximately 14 years to recoup the cost of this investment through lower energy bills.

Mission & Justice Initiative

5% of funds raised

We propose to dedicate a portion of funds raised in a campaign to a shared mission project, extending our faith into action beyond our walls. Through a thoughtful, congregation-wide discernment process, we would determine how best to respond to God’s call for a more just world. This initiative would unite us around a shared purpose, deepen our engagement, and expand our impact.

YOUR VOICE MATTERS

We want to hear from you as a valued member of our church. We respectfully ask you to share your time and perspective as part of this campaign feasibility study, which will help shape our path forward. Your insight, your hopes, and your prayers are essential as we discern how God is calling us forward. Together, we can honor the legacy we have received and help build a future filled with faith, hope, and love.

Feasibility Study Results Follow Up

Dates

Fellowship Development, our Capital Campaign consultants, will complete their Feasibility Study in early June. If they recommend that we proceed with a Capital Campaign, the Planning Team chaired by Libby Black will host several gatherings to share the study results with the congregation.

Sunday, June 14

8:45 a.m. and 11: 15 a.m.

Standish Room

Monday, June 15

Board of Management Discussion and Vote

Wednesday, June Church Council Discussion and Vote

Friday, June 19

Information session on Zoom (Watch the Weekly to find the Zoom link) 7:30-8:30 p.m.

Sunday, June 21

8:45 a.m.

Standish Room

Sunday, June 21

Congregational Meeting

Immediately following Worship, 11:15 a.m. The purpose of the Congregational Meeting is to vote whether to proceed with launching a Capital Campaign.

A Service of Prayerful Patriotism

In a Time of Reckoning

Sunday, July 5, 10:00 a.m.

Sanctuary and Online

Followed by a Congregational Conversation, 11:00 a.m.

On the day after Independence Day, we gather for our annual Service of Prayerful Patriotism, a time of gratitude for our country and its professed ideals, tempered with honest reflection, deep hope, and a renewed call to justice, humility, and love. In these days when the American democracy faces unprecedented challenges, this service invites us to address the ways we have fallen short of our ideals and to renew our aspirations for that “more perfect Union.”

As we mark the 250th anniversary of our nation’s founding, we gather with gratitude for the vision and courage that began this experiment, and with a clear-eyed commitment to the work still before us. We come with a deeper awareness of the long, unfinished and complicated story we inherit, giving thanks for its beginnings, and listening again for how we might be better citizens.

We are grateful that our preacher is David Skaggs, a longtime member of First Congregational

Church. A Marine veteran and “recovering politician,” David served three terms in the Colorado House of Representatives before representing Colorado’s Second District for six terms in the U.S. House of Representatives. Known for his commitment to civility in public life and a strong environmental record, his public service has continued on the boards of the Office of Congressional Ethics, the National Endowment for Democracy, the American University of Iraq, and now as board chair of Keep Our Republic, devoted to the integrity of upcoming elections. At First Congregational, he has been a baritone in our Chancel Choir for decades, and we are glad to call him, simply, one of our own.

We are grateful for the Brass Quintet, which joins us each year, offering music that holds celebration and solemnity in equal measure.

Following worship, David will lead a Congregational Conversation, an opportunity to continue together the examination this service begins.

July Events Gather. Grow.

High School Mission Trip Trip: July 12-17

This summer, four of our high schoolers travel with Matt Hess and Lianna Campos to Kansas City for a service-learning trip. In the context of urban KC, we will explore “Justice 101,” looking at the intersection of economic and racial justice. The congregation has generously supported this trip with prayers and gifts, truly making this trip possible. In the fall, our mission trippers will share in worship about their experiences. Be sure to keep an eye open for that announcement; you definitely don’t want to miss out on what will certainly be good stories of service, friendship, and future endeavors.

Contemplative Camp at La Foret July 12-18 | La Foret Conference & Retreat Center

Contemplative Camp has been an annual event for more than 40 years. Experience a week of learning about and practicing contemplative prayer (also known as centering prayer or meditation) in the beautiful natural setting of La Foret Conference & Retreat Center near Colorado Springs. There are also opportunities for reading and discussions, walking the labyrinth, and hiking. Comfortable accommodations are available in the new Lapp Lodge. Visit the La Foret website at or talk to Bob von Trebra for more information (trebra@comcast.net).

Access Sunday Sunday, July 12 at 10:00 a.m. | Sanctuary

Join our A2A (Accessible to All) Ministry as they lead Access Sunday Worship. Each year Access Sunday Worship is planned to renew and live into our covenant that we made in 2008 to be an A2A Congregation. The A2A Covenant inspires us to recognize the challenges and celebrate the gifts of people of differing abilities and disabilities.

This year at Access Sunday, July 12, at the 10:00 a.m. worship service in the Sanctuary, you will hear testimonies from advocates on how they are impacted by volunteering and being in relationship with those living with disabilities.

August Events Heal. Hope.

Mental Health Sunday Sunday, August 9 at 10:00 a.m. | Sanctuary

In 2014 First Congregational Church voted to become a WISE Congregation, committing to be Welcoming, Inclusive, Supportive, and Engaged in mental health matters. Each year we dedicate a worship service to our WISE Covenant, reminding ourselves to better live into that covenant. This year on Mental Health Sunday, August 9, we will examine our covenant and encourage us all to commit to being an active part of a WISE Congregation. We also will hear testimony from one of our members as they share what it means to live with a mental health diagnosis and how this congregation supports them.

RISE Against Suicide

Christmas in August

August 1-30

Each year the LGBTQ+ and Allies Ministry partners with the Mental Health Ministry to do a “Christmas in August” fundraiser for RISE Against Suicide, our community partner that helps youth at risk of suicide by removing the financial and social barriers to treatment, enabling them to find hope and healing. This event provides opportunities for the congregation to support RISE through financial support for direct services to students as they return to school at a stressful time. In 2025, our church provided over $3,800 in donations to RISE Against Suicide. Please watch for the Christmas Tree in the Link during the month of August and for information in your Weekly email and the bulletins to support the mental health of students in Boulder County.

August Camping Trip

Rocky Mountain National Park

August 21, 6:00 p.m.-August 23, 11:00 a.m.

Returning this summer is our Intergenerational Camping Trip! As summer draws to a close, people of all ages are invited to bring a tent and gather at Rocky Mountain National Park for a weekend of restful joy. This year’s theme, What Every Living Thing Needs, invites us to slow down, breathe deeply, and share life together through nature, conversation, song, and community as we explore the interconnectedness of the whole earth.

We’ll hike winding trails, sleep beneath the stars, and gather around picnic tables for simple meals filled with laughter and good conversation.

As evening settles in, we’ll come together for vespers, singing by lantern light, and s’mores and stories beneath the night sky.

Bring your walking shoes, a warm layer for the evening air, and a spirit ready for wonder, rest, and connection. Open to all ages.

Adult: $50

Children and youth (Ages 5-18): $20

Contact Person: Lianna Campos lianna@firstcong.net

Summer Schedule

Children, Youth and Nursery

Summer Children’s Sunday School: Who Is Jesus?

June 14-August 30

Pre-K through 5th grade

This summer, our children are invited to Sunday School with Lianna during worship. All children, grades PreK-5th, will meet in worship and then be blessed to go to their classroom. We will learn about Jesus’ life and ministry and spend our summer making a scrapbook of Jesus’ life.

Summer Youth Sunday School: Sermon Talkbacks

June 14-August 30

6th-12th Grade

This summer, our youth are invited to engage deeper in worship with sermon talkbacks. All youth grades 6-12 will meet in worship and stay through the sermon. After the sermon, youth may go with their leader to the Grace Gallery, where they will have donuts and chat about the Scripture and message of the day.

Summer Nursery

May 24-August 30 9:30-11:30 a.m.

Children ages 0-5 are welcome to be in the nursery during worship. Our nursery workers, Nikki, Reid, Vivian, Lillie, and Andie, are ready to play, snack, and read with your little ones this summer!