Join a MInistry Team

Children are not just the future of the church. They are the church right now. We want children to feel fully included in our community, so we invite them to participate in the entire worship service.  We have created a “PrayGround” area at the front of the sanctuary, a space with child-friendly seating and materials for quiet activities, which gives children more squirming room while also placing them close to the center of the worship “action.”  Parents have the option of keeping their children with them in the pews or accompanying them to the PrayGround.  Kids’ pew activity bags are available at the back of the sanctuary for use during worship (please return them there after the service has ended), and there are rocking chairs available at the back for parents of infants. Don’t worry about noise; we welcome the sounds of children. 

Faith Formation for Adolescents

United Church has joined with several other protestant churches in the New Haven area to create a collaborative youth group named Oasis.  Oasis—through weekly meetings, camping trips, summer programs, and more—offers acceptance, friendships, fun, and occasions to think about life. 

Faith Formation for Adults

At United the most popular form of adult faith formation has been book groups.  People are eager to discuss questions of faith stimulated by religiously oriented works by contemporary authors such as Marcus Borg and Karen Armstrong.  Recent titles have included So You Want to Talk about Race by Ijeoma Oluo and Searching for Sunday by Rachel Held Evans.  We also have a weekly online Bible study group that discusses with the Senior Pastor the Bible selection(s) for the coming Sunday.  

Join Congregational Care & Connection to stay connected with your church family via handwriting cards, bringing snacks for weekly coffee hour after service. or joining the weekly crafting group. This group believes in the power or simple words and acts of kindness to bring folks together. 

Service and Justice works closely with CONECT (Congregations Organized for New Connecticut) to identify areas of need in the community. The four areas they focus on are: climate change/environmental justice, education, eldercare, and housing. The team also focuses their outreach efforts on raising money for communities in need throughout the globe, including most recently for Ukraine. They also work with our building partners, IRIS (Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services), to help provide for their needs. 

Join Worship and Music to be more closely involved with the planning of weekly services. This team coordinates scripture readers, ushers, and communion for each service, as well as monitors the YouTube livestream each week. They support the pastor in whatever capacity is needed.