Church Women United Plan November 2 World Community Day Celebration

The Rev M Sargent Desmond of Brookfield will be guest speaker at the Newtown Church Women United (CWU) World Community Day Celebration, November 2, at the United Methodist Church in Danbury on Clapboard Ridge Road.

The public is invited to the 10:30 am worship service and the sharing of lunch and discussion immediately following. Dessert and beverages will be served; guests are asked to bring a sandwich.

The day will rekindle memories for Rev Desmond of his first introduction to CWU by the late Margaret Winchester of Newtown. Ms Winchester, CWU founder, worked for the United Church of Christ (UCC) Conference and coached the young Rev Desmond on how to work with youngsters when he was an associate pastor at First Church Danbury.

“Sound the Shofar: Jubilee!” is the theme for this annual celebration with “Forgive All Debts, Set People Free,” as the subtheme of the event being coordinated by Jeanette Mayer of the Greater Danbury CWU unit in cooperation with the Bethel/Newtown unit.

Rev Desmond, who retired in 1997 after 21 years as pastor in the Congregational Church of Brookfield, UCC, will speak of forgiveness in three categories – ecological, personal, and global – using and expanding on the Scriptures (Leviticus 25: 8-10 and 35-38 and Luke 4: 14-21) used in the ceremony.

Newtown members participating will be Jeane Roberts, unit president, and Betty Williams of Newtown Congregational Church; Barbara Gates and Sue Klein, unit secretary and accompanist, both of Newtown United Methodist; Shirley Roman and Carol Mattegat of Christ the King Lutheran; Norma Gray of Trinity Episcopal Church; Doris Schoonmaker of St John’s Episcopal Church; and Jean Conover of St Rose Catholic Church.

The worship service was written for CWU throughout the world by Patricia Rumer, former CWU general secretary, and Andrea Vargas, former communication officer for the World Council of Churches and coordinator of Jubilee Oregon for Ecumenical Ministries (EMO) of Oregon.

The focus of the service is on debt cancellation for impoverished countries, but will be expanded to include many forms of forgiveness; CWU works in solidarity with people advocating for economic justice.

The mission of the CWU is a racially, culturally, and theologically inclusive ecumenical Christian women’s movement, celebrating unity in diversity and working for a world of peace and justice.

Goals of CWU are to “grow in faith and to extend its vision of what it means to be a Christian woman of faith in society today, to strengthen a visible ecumenical community, to work for a just, peaceful, and caring society, and to use responsibly and creatively the resources God has entrusted to us – our intelligence, time, energy, money – as we carry out Christ’s mission throughout CWU.”

Rev Desmond, who will celebrate 45 years as an ordained minister in November, called CWU “a vital group. It is the oldest and only inclusive movement for women of all races and cultures in the Greater Danbury area.”

“Rev Des” as he was called when he attended Bangor Theological Seminary and worked with the 22 members of the Newington Congregational Church in New Hampshire, came from Manchester, N.H. He graduated from Harvard Divinity School and went on to pastor in churches in Plymouth, Mass., Verona, N.J.; and four years (1956-60) in Danbury before coming to Brookfield.

It was in Danbury that he and his wife Nancy met. She was a teacher in Danbury and part of the church choir. Rev Desmond baptized her. She went off to teach in Tacoma, Wash., and he stayed in the east.

After six months he proposed and they were married in her hometown of Orange, Mass. They have two daughters, Martha in Cranford, N.J., and Rachel in Woodbury, and four grandchildren.

For more information call a church’s key woman: Betty Williams, 270-9931 at Newtown Congregational Church; Pat Stroud, 426-5270, at St. Rose’s; Shirley Roman, 426-0638 at Christ the King; Barbara Gates, 426-3446 at United Methodist; Doris Schoonmaker, 270-0311 at St John’s; and Barbara Gorham, 426-0638 at Walnut Hill Community Church in Bethel.