Dear Church Family,
               I’ve continued to read Jonathan Sack’s Morality, the book I mentioned last week.  He is deeply concerned about the problem of loneliness.  Although he points out the number of single person households in the US has doubled in the last generation, it is not living alone, but feeling alone that is the problem   Nearly half the population always or sometimes feels lonely and fifty four percent feel no one knows them well or really understands them.   That is even higher among the 18–22-year-old population.   Social media, intended to “connect” us, seems to have the opposite effect with people feeling they fall short of images put forth by their neighbors.  Covid exacerbated feelings of isolation for many. 
                The situation got serious enough that Great Britain appointed what the press dubbed the “Minister of Loneliness.”  There is no real data on whether that is helping, but I can’t help think that the decline in religious commitment has contributed to loneliness.   “It is not good for man (Adam) to be alone” we read in Genesis.  One of the most important functions of church is to provide community, to connect people in care for one another. 
               I thank God for the close connections of the Falls Village Congregational Church.  We have to keep working at it, of course, but it is a place where many of us feel we have a home, where people care about us. 
               The season of Easter continues this week.  We’ll be singing an Easter hymn, “That Easter Day with Joy was Bright.”  You’ll recognize the tune.   The sermon is “Confessing What We Live” and the texts are Acts 2:22-24, 36-41 and I Peter 3:8-16.
               See you in church,
Rich