Conversation
First Congregational Church, Boulder
Welcome to Conversation
SENIOR MINISTER
REV. CHRIS BRAUDAWAY-BAUMAN
Beloved Community,
Step in. Slow down. Listen. Lent is here, calling us to walk with Jesus toward the cross, to notice the world’s ache, and to open our hearts to God’s boundless grace and good news. These pages point us to that journey – to quiet reflection, stories that matter, beautiful music, acts of service and justice, and gatherings around tables, in meeting rooms, at mountain retreats, and in our Sanctuary for worship.
Along the way, we watch for signs of new life: the stone rolled away, Easter’s light breaking in, and love made visible among us. Whether you are deeply rooted here or just finding your way, may these offerings remind you that you belong, that your questions are welcome, and that hope is being practiced – week by week, neighbor by neighbor.
There is a place for you in this story of life, love, the journey of Lent, and resurrection hope rising among us.
With gratitude for our life together,
Chris Braudaway-Bauman
Step in. Slow down. Listen. Lent is here...
February and March Events
Ash Wednesday Dinner Church Wednesday, 2/18, 6:00 p.m. | Plymouth Hall
Ash Wednesday opens the door to Lent, a season of contemplation, deepening, and care. We journey with Jesus toward the cross, pausing to remember our mortality and to receive anew the boundless grace of God.
Join us for Dinner Church: a simple supper shared with worship, prayer, and song. Our service will include the Sacrament of Holy Communion and the ancient, grounding ritual of anointing with ashes – reminders that our lives are held tenderly in God’s hands.
All are welcome. Bring your family, a friend, or simply yourself. No reservations are needed. Come as you are so that we can begin this sacred season together.
CAT Forum: Help Save NCAR! Sunday, 2/22, 9:00 a.m. | Standish Room
Join the Climate Action Team for a forum on All Things NCAR (National Center for Atmospheric Research). In this important forum members of our Climate Action Team (CAT) will present the purpose of NCAR, how NCAR affects our daily lives, and the consequences if the Federal Government defunds it or destroys it. CAT Members will also provide ways that each of us can do to fight for NCAR staying intact.
Annual Meeting of the Congregation Sunday, 3/1, 11:45 a.m. | Plymouth Hall and Zoom
You are warmly invited to join us for our Annual Church Meeting on Sunday, March 1. We will gather in Plymouth Hall for lunch, followed by our time together as a congregation. This meeting is an opportunity to listen, to discern, and to participate in shaping the life we share, including votes on the 2026 operating budget, a capital campaign feasibility study, an updated financial policy, and the election of new officers, board members, and committee members. Watch your Weekly email to join the meeting by Zoom.
Men’s Retreat “Love My Neighbors”
3/6-8, 2026, at Highlands Presbyterian Retreat Center ~ Allenspark, CO
With divisions among people in our country and the world continuing to grow at an alarming rate, we remember that Jesus taught, “Love God and Love Your Neighbor.” This year’s retreat theme is Love My Neighbors. We will explore together the questions: Who is my neighbor? What does it mean to love my neighbor? What keeps me from loving my neighbor? and How can we live out a courageous faith of love through actions?
Join us for large group and small group discussions. Meet new people, reconnect and strengthen old friendships, and learn to how to better love our neighbors as Jesus taught us. The retreat cost is $200.00 with partial and full scholarships available. There are a few slots still available so contact linda@firstcong.net now! JOIN US! We want to get to know you better!
Tell Me Something Good Our Lenten Journey
In a world saturated with difficult news, where each day seems to bring fresh reasons for concern, we find ourselves asking an ancient question with new urgency: Is the gospel really good news?
This Lent, we’re not pretending everything is fine. We’re not offering easy answers. Instead, we return to the stories that first earned the name gospel – literally, good news – and ask: What made Jesus’ ministry so revolutionary that people called it the best news they’d ever heard?
Jesus didn’t offer escape. He walked straight into the world’s ache. Into hunger and fear. Into systems that crushed the vulnerable. And there, in the thick of it, he reached out with a radical welcome. He fed the crowds. He touched the untouchable. He challenged injustice. He chose nonviolence when violence pressed in from every side.
His good news wasn’t about someday, somewhere else. It was here. Now. Embodied and alive. It was water turned into wine. It was bread breaking open in hungry hands, It was water splashing in a basin as weary feet were washed. It was a stone rolled away from a tomb.
And then, the best news of all: This good news, is still alive. Still moving. Still waking up the world and waking us up too.
This Lent, our journey will be accompanied by a daily devotional from A Sanctified Art, along with reflection cards you can take home – small, grounding practices for days when the headlines feel too heavy to hold.
So come, and ask with us: Where is the good news when we need it most?
Let’s discover together that it is closer than we think, in the life of a carpenter from Nazareth who showed us the meaning of abundance, so that we might live abundantly too.
Let us tell each other the stories that bring us back to what matters: loving God, our neighbors and ourselves, welcoming the outsider, caring for the vulnerable, seeking justice, extending mercy, resting in God’s unending grace.
Tell me something good. This Lent, we will listen together.
A Quiet Mercy Thursday Evenings of Music and Prayer
During the season of Lent, as our hearts carry more than we can name, we invite you into a quieter space – a weekly gathering of music, beauty, and prayer.
Each Thursday evening, beginning February 26, the Sanctuary will open for 30-40 unhurried minutes of sound and stillness. Piano, strings, bells – something different each week. Music offered by members of our own congregation, with Scripture, poetry, and prayer gently woven through, like light through bare branches.
This is not a concert, but a threshold: a chance to listen – to God, to one another, to what stirs beneath the surface when words fall short.
Schedule of Thursday Musicians
2/26 Jessica Kressin, piano
3/5 Kajsa Teitelbaum, and Anne Martinez “Singing Resistance” Songs from Minneapolis
3/12 Congregational Bells
3/19 Rebecca Flintoft, cello and voice
3/26 Charlie Bistodeau, Kristen Barrett, and Lillie Thomasset, violins
Join us Thursdays from 6:00 to about 6:40 p.m. in the Sanctuary. Come as you are. Let the music carry what words cannot.
Stay afterward, if you wish, for a simple soup and salad supper, because nourishment matters in every sense.
Jessica Kressin
Anne Martinez
Rebecca Flintoft
Kajsa Teitelbaum
Fifth Memorial of the King Soopers Tragedy
Sunday, 3/22
Five years ago, on March 22, 2021, our Boulder community was shocked and devastated, shattered by a violent attack at the King Soopers grocery store on Table Mesa – an act of gun violence that took the lives of ten beloved people. Their absence still echoes among us; their names, stories, and humanity remain held in our hearts.
During worship on March 22, we will pause to remember and give thanks for these ten lives, honoring the love, courage, and ordinary goodness they embodied. We will pray for continued healing for their families, for all who were wounded, and for a community still carrying grief.
We will also recommit ourselves to the sacred work of ending gun violence. Remembering is not passive. It calls us to choose life, to seek justice, and to labor together for a world where such loss is no longer tolerated.
Endowments A Lasting Legacy
Our Endowments are a blessing to our church as well as our service to the world. Thanks to your donations, our combined Endowments have grown in value over the past five years by almost one million dollars through of your gracious gifts and the increase through our investments.
Here is how The Endowment Funds play an important role in the life of our church. Every year they provide funding for many of our programs that would otherwise not exist.
The Benevolence Endowment Fund allows us to provide grants to our mission partners and financially supports the work of our social justice ministries. Did you know that The Capital Needs Fund supplements our budget and keeps our building and facilities maintained? The MacKenzie Lectureship Fund opens our doors to a thoughtful voice, one attuned to a shared human concern or theological inquiry, inviting church and community alike to engage a pressing question through lecture and workshop, deepening understanding and widening our common life. The Sawyer Organ Endowment Fund is used to clean and maintain our magnificent organ and to bring a renowned organist to play a concert at our church. The McMane Arts Fund provides art exhibits and programs relating to the arts, such as the recent Advent art brunch series exploring the Nativity. The Music Endowment Fund helps bring in special soloists and instrumentalists to supplement worship experiences, such as the brass quintet on Christmas Eve. The Voss Camp Fund provides scholarships to church youth to attend our summer Arts Camp, retreats at La Foret, and special events for children through middle school.
To learn more about the Endowment Funds please see details at the church web-site: firstcong.net/endowment
The members of First Congregational now and for the last 100 years have been ensuring the continued ministry of our historical church through generous gifts to our Endowments. We encourage you to join us in securing a healthy present and future for our beloved church by leaving a legacy from your estate or a gift now that will endure.
First Congregational Church Endowment Committee:
Dean R. Fowler, Ph.D., Chair
Rev. Christina Braudaway-Bauman
Libby Black
Jon Hinebauch
Tom Lounsbury
Jay Rourke
Louisa Young
How Do Our Endowments Work?
Your Questions Answered
In the last month, a number of questions have come up asking how our Endowment Funds work. The illustrations below and on the following page describe our allocation process.
The Capital Needs Endowment operates a bit differently. The agreement for the fund states that the monies are to support the “ongoing maintenance and capital needs of the physical plant.” Ongoing maintenance includes items in our facilities operating budget such as routine repairs and grounds upkeep. A few examples of Capital Needs expenditures include HVAC repairs and replacement, new floors, and major live streaming equipment.
In the past several years there have been three options for using the funds allocated annually from the Capital Needs Endowment, as illustrated.
The New Initiatives Fund is not an endowment, but it rides on the coattails of our FCC Endowment because the Endowment Committee also solicits funds for New Initiatives.
Holy Week Worship
Palm Sunday | Maundy Thursday | Good Friday
PALM SUNDAY, 3/29
8:15 a.m. | Chapel
A quieter beginning – prayer, Scripture, sermon, and song to open the holy road.
9:30 a.m. | Palm Sunday Outdoor Procession
This year, the churches along Pine Street will gather as one body for an outdoor Palm Sunday procession – joyful, noisy, and hope-filled. We will begin in front of St. John’s Episcopal Church, move to 15th Street, turn onto Pearl Street, and walk west along Broadway, returning to our corner at Broadway and Pine.
Along the way: waving palms and banners, kites lifting hope into the air, a costumed donkey, a rhythm band, and a combined ecumenical choir singing Hosanna. Together we will remember Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem and step into the mystery of Holy Week – feet on pavement, hearts tuned to praise.
10:30 a.m. | Sanctuary and Online
The procession leads us into worship as we continue the story – gathered, grounded, and ready to walk the days ahead.
MAUNDY THURSDAY, 4/2
7:00 p.m. | Sanctuary and Online
On this holy night, we gather in shadow and tenderness. We remember Jesus kneeling to wash the feet of his friends and how his love poured out in humble, startling ways. We follow him to the table, where bread is broken and the cup is shared. We linger with him in the garden, where prayer turns anguished and the night presses close. We name the betrayals and denials, the fear and the silence, the slow unraveling of hope.
This is a Service of Shadows, with Holy Communion. As Scripture is read and song is sung, the light will gradually fade, drawing us into the deepening darkness of the story, toward arrest, abandonment, and the cross.
Come to remember. Come to watch and pray.
GOOD FRIDAY — 4/3
6:00 p.m. | Chapel
The evening of Good Friday is met with our deepest prayers and laments. We gather still waiting for healing – for bodies and relationships, for communities and a wounded world.
Knowing that words alone cannot carry the weight of this day, we allow the story of Jesus’ passion to be told through Scripture, silence, and song.
We listen as love is betrayed, as fear finds its voice, as violence comes to the cross. We do not rush toward resolution or relief. Instead, we keep vigil with love that still bears wounds.
This is a night to stay, to listen, and to trust that God is present even here.
Easter Sunday April 5, 2026
EASTER SUNDAY, 4/5
9:00 a.m. and 11:00 a.m.
Sanctuary and Online (at 11:00 a.m.)
Extended Musical Preludes at 8:45 and 10:45 a.m.
On this morning, we gather in light and song to celebrate the Good News: Christ is risen! Our hearts are lifted in jubilation as music of brass, bells, and voices rings through the Sanctuary. We will hear the story of the empty tomb proclaimed, reminding us that love does not end and hope can never die.
A festive fellowship hour follows between the services, inviting all ages to share in the joy of new life together. Childcare for infants, toddlers, and preschoolers is available during worship.
Come to witness, sing, and rejoice: the tomb is empty, the stone rolled away, and the light of resurrection shines for all the world.
April Events Lunch, Forums, and Guests
LGBTQ+ and Allies Ministry
Third Sundays of Each Month following 10:30 a.m. Worship
The LGBTQ+ and Allies Ministry meets each month as community to support and love one another and to advocate for LGBTQ+ issues in the world. We meet the third Sunday of each month after worship and eat lunch together. Each person brings their own lunch and maybe something to share with the group. If you are interested in joining this group, please contact Linda Kowatch (linda@firstcong.net).
MLT Forum: End of Life Options Sunday, 4/12, 9:00 a.m. | Standish Room
The Ministry of Last Things (MLT) of First Cong aims to provide learning opportunities for us to care for our families and make our wishes known through planning for the end of life. In this forum guest speaker Sue Mackey, Certified Thanatologist, will address organ and whole-body donation, burial and cremation, and environmentally friendly options such as green burial, water cremation, and body composting. Join us so you know your options and are able to make a better-informed decision today. Plan now so you can live and play freely.
Guest Preacher: Dr. Reiland Rabaka Sunday, 4/12, 10:30 a.m. Worship Sanctuary and Online
On this Sunday, we are honored to welcome Dr. Reiland Rabaka as our preacher for 10:30 a.m. Worship. Dr. Rabaka is the Founder and Director of the Center for African and African American Studies, at CU also known as the CAUSE. The author of 19 books and more than 100 scholarly essays, Dr. Rabaka lectures extensively both nationally and internationally. His cultural criticism, social commentary, and political analysis has been featured in print, radio, television, and online media venues, including NPR, PBS, The New York Times, The Associated Press, and The Guardian. Dr. Rabaka is also a poet and musician, and a wing of his work includes significant contributions to African American musicology, including the music of the Civil Rights, Funk, and Hip Hop Movements.
April Events Save the Date
Board of Missions and Justice in Action (MJA) Fair Sunday, 4/12, 11:45 a.m. | Plymouth Hall
Each year the Board of Missions and Justice in Action (MJA) has a fair to highlight all the ways the church serves and to keep us connected to our Community Partners. Learn more about our Missions and Justice in Action Board (MJA) as they present First Cong’s five Social Justice Ministries: Racial Justice, Climate Action, LGBTQ+, Mental Health / A2A, and Gun Violence Prevention. Also meet representatives from some of the many Community Partners whose good work our congregation supports through benevolence grants, membership dues, and volunteer energy. First Congregational Church has over twenty Community Partners whom we support financially and/or through service. Don’t miss this fun event.
Creation Justice Sunday Sunday, 4/19, 10:30 a.m. | Sanctuary and Online
Join us as members of our Climate Action Team (CAT) lead our 10:30 a.m. worship service. Together, we will be reminded that God calls humanity to be faithful stewards of the earth and that science –and the work of scientists – is an essential partner in this sacred responsibility. Through worship, prayer, and reflection, we will explore our deep interconnectedness with all of creation and listen again for God’s vision of wholeness for the world. This vision is what grounds our hope and strengthens our commitment to justice.
The McMane Arts Ministry Presents Arcana and The Sacred
MIXED MEDIA ASSEMBLAGES BY MICHAEL CHARRON
Opening Reception
Thursday, 2/26, 5:00-8:00 p.m.
Conversation with The Artist Sunday, 3/8, Noon
“Bizarre.” “Fascinating.” “Provocative.” “Unlike anything else.” Artist Michael Charron has heard and seen the whole gamut of emotional responses to his latest artistic work. There is nothing on the art market quite like them. Instead of the Edenic mountain landscapes for which he is well known, viewers see vibrantly colored serpents floating across mesmeric color fields, graphic depictions of martyred saints, and dazzlingly bejeweled skulls.
Charron calls these new images Catacomb Saints. They represent the complex spiritual journey of an artist, from lapsed Catholic, to New Thought idealist, to Mystic, and now to spiritual alchemist who has transformed symbols of his Catholic tradition into artistic gold.
Charron’s latest work is reminiscent of symbolist and surrealist artists like Marc Chagall, Odilon Redon, and James Ensor. Such simple stylization authentically expresses the mysterious inner place such artists go when exploring the potent themes, experiences, and images of the unconscious.
Charron unapologetically bares his soul in these depictions of Saints, as if his salvation depends on what these images might reveal. With the skill of a seasoned archaeologist, he excavates the ruins of his inner shadow for hidden artifacts. What he finds startle some, and fascinate others.
Pablo Picasso said of fellow artist and sometimes rival Marc Chagall, “I don’t know where he gets those images. He must have an angel in his head.” Looking at Charron’s serpents and saints we are left to ask, “what sort of angel is in his head?” Is it an angel of the shadows or an angel of light? Perhaps both.
Waverly Matthews
Save the Date Upcoming Events
Questformation Sunday
Sunday, 5/3, 10:30 a.m. | Sanctuary
Celebrate with our 8th and 9th grade Questers as they lead worship and share their Statements of Faith. Together, Questers and congregation will participate in the Rite of Confirmation. Experience the inspiration, joy, and hope that emerge from a year of exploring questions of faith.
Celebrating Our High School Seniors
Sunday, 5/10, 10:30 a.m. | Sanctuary
Join us as we honor our graduates during the 10:30 a.m. service. We will bless them with blankets and prayer shawls lovingly made by our Knitting Ministry and lift them in prayer, celebrating this meaningful milestone in their journey.
Arts Camp Worship
Sunday, 6/7 10:30 a.m.
Sanctuary and YouTube Our Arts Campers will lead us in worship through the musical they have prepared during their week in the mountains. After days of song, story, laughter, and prayer at Highlands Retreat Center, their creativity will spill into our Sanctuary.
Church Picnic
Sunday, 6/7, 11:30 a.m. | Foothills Community Park
When worship ends, the celebration continues! Join your First Cong family at Foothills Community Park for a joyful afternoon beneath the picnic shelters. There will be good food, lawn games, a playground for the kids, plus face painting and balloon animals. Bring your appetite and a friend. All are welcome. Come savor the sunshine and the sweet gift of being together.
Boulder PRIDEFEST
Saturday, 6/13 11:00a.m.-4:00p.m. | Foothills Community Park
Boulder PRIDEST has a new day and location! This year Boulder PRIDEFEST is on Saturday, June 13 at Foothills Community Park (800 Cherry Ave, Boulder). Join us for a fun day of food and activities as we live into our Open and Affirming Covenant and celebrate with our LGBTQ+ siblings. Watch for opportunities to volunteer and join the fun!
PRIDE Sunday Worship
Sunday, 6/14 at 10:00a.m. | Sanctuary
Join us for our PRIDE Sunday Worship Service at 10:00 a.m. on June 14, 2026. In worship we will continue to celebrate PRIDE by lifting the voices, gifts and faithful witness of LGBTQ+ people and allies. Through song and sacred testimony, we’ll affirm the beauty of every beloved child of God. Wear your rainbow bandanas and t-shirts.
Arts Camp 2026 A Week of Creativity, Community, and Faith
FOR CURRENT 2ND–8TH GRADERS
Sunday, 5/31 (4:00 p.m.) – Saturday, June 6, (11:00 a.m.), 2026
Highlands Camp and Retreat Center in Allenspark
A week in the mountains where faith finds its voice and creativity runs free. At Arts Camp, kids come together to produce a musical to share with congregation on Sunday, June 7 in Worship. But that’s only part of the magic!
What Camp Looks Like
• Musical production (onstage and behind the scenes)
• Set & prop building, art, and creative projects
• Canoeing, hiking, tree climbing, games
• Vespers, laughter, shared meals, and unforgettable counselors
• Cozy modern cabins and a vibrant, welcoming faith community
Our camp hums with friendship and joy. Faith here is lived, discovered in gifts shared, voices heard, and each child known as beloved.
Not into acting? No problem. Campers can help with sets, props, music, art, or other creative roles. Every child has a place.
Who Can Come
• Campers: current 2nd–8th graders (2025-26 school year)
• Counselors: age 16+ (completed sophomore year), ready to lead and love kids
Children of all faith backgrounds (or none) are welcome.
Cost & Equitable Pricing
We believe no child should miss camp because of cost. Choose the level that fits your family:
• Equitable: $550 lodging, meals, activities
• Sustainable: $675 pays for materials & counselor support
• Neighbor: $800 supports full camp costs and the musical
Camperships are available, including support from the Voss Camp Scholarship Fund. All campers receive the same experience.
Learn More and Register Here https://tinyurl.com/artscamp2026
Questions or camperships? Contact Lianna Campos (lianna@firstcong.net)
Come make music. Build something beautiful. Made for wonder. Changed by love.
2025 Arts Camp
High School Mission Trip 2026 – Justice 101
Kansas City, Missouri – July 12-17, 2026
This summer, our high school youth are invited into a journey of faith, service, and justice. We will travel to Kansas City – a mosaic of neighborhoods, histories, and voices – to learn how economic, racial, housing, food, and education injustices intersect, and what it means to respond with compassion and courage.
Partnering with Be the Neighbor (a joint ministry of the United Church of Christ and the Christian Church, Disciples of Christ), students will serve in Kansas City’s Historic Northeast, learn alongside refugee and immigrant communities, and engage leaders working for racial and economic justice.
Throughout the week, participants will reflect not only on the city we visit, but on our own community – its stories, its lines of division, and its possibilities for healing. This is a learning and launching trip, equipping students to return home ready to live lives of love, service, and dignityaffirming justice.
Open to all current high school students (grades 9-12).
Cost: $400
This includes all participant activities, flights, transportation, and food. We have multiple fundraising opportunities over the next few months to keep the cost affordable Scholarships are available.
Learn more about betheneighbor.org/kansascity
Register to Participate: https://tinyurl.com/KCmissiontrip2026
Questions? Contact Lianna Campos (lianna@firstcong.net)
Come. Learn. Serve. Return ready to help shape a more just community.
Help Send Our Youth on the Journey
Kansas City, Missouri
Sunday, 4/19, 11:45 a.m. | Plymouth Hall
As our high school youth prepare for their Justice 101 Mission Trip to Kansas City, we invite the wider church to help carry them there.
Join us for a special Coffee Hour featuring Pick-a-Party sign-ups and the closing of our High School Mission Trip Silent Auction. Your participation helps offset the cost of the trip for our students and adult chaperones, making this life-shaping experience accessible to all.
Pick-a-Party events turn generosity into shared joy. Past offerings have included paella and Indian dinners in members’ homes, a game night with pizza, a wildflower hike with a picnic, a parents’ night out, and a scavenger hunt – each one a small feast of community and fun.
Our Silent Auction (online, 4/10-4/18) features donated goods and services to bid on. Last year’s offerings included handmade knit items, homemade pies, artwork, vacation getaways, and hours of handyman help – gifts woven from the talents and care of this congregation.
If you have an item, service, or experience you’d like to donate, contact Bob Brown (rwbrown@umich.edu), and we’ll gladly add it to the auction.
Help send our youth out. And then, welcome them home, changed and ready to help shape a more just community.
