Via Community News Service, a University of Vermont journalism internship, on assignment for the Hardwick Gazette
The Rev. Ed Sunday-Winters, minister of Greensboro United Church of Christ, had to act fast when the pandemic hit Vermont in 2020. Within 48 hours of the first lockdowns, he took the church fully remote.
Originally, he said, it was just him, his iPad and an organist streaming sermons over Facebook. After some time, a parishioner who had worked in the film industry brought the pastor more equipment, and the church’s YouTube channel was born just before Easter that year.
To this day, the church broadcasts services live every week.
What he saw of his parish during those pandemic days showed how Greensboro United Church of Christ “helps the community be a community,” said Sunday-Winters, a quality that made it a perfect fit for him.
Sunday-Winters has been a minister there for eight years now. The church belongs to the United Church of Christ, a Protestant denomination.
Before moving to Vermont, he had served as senior pastor at Ball Camp Baptist Church in Knoxville, Tennessee.
He spoke of a continual spiritual journey he experienced while ministering in Tennessee. Most parishioners there were welcoming of LGBTQ+ members, he said, but older churchgoers opposed embracing them in the congregation. For a year he tried to navigate the schism, he said, but it grew too tumultuous and he decided to break away and take a year off from ministry work. During that year he became a member of the Church of the Savior in Knoxville, his first experience with the United Church of Christ.
A friend of his worked in financial planning, he said, and helped him get a job as an advisor at Edward Jones. He spent about a year in the role but remained steadfast in his faith and eventually looked to go back to preaching. That led him to Greensboro United Church of Christ.
Growing up an hour outside of Knoxville, Sunday-Winters said he found a sense of community and stability in church. His home life was unstable. But in a youth group during middle school, he found faith and a refuge where he felt he didn’t need to be afraid. That sense of belonging planted the seed for his desire to spread and teach the works of God, he said.
“Religion tends to be focused on the endgame,” he said. But “it’s a day-to-day thing, always answering the call.”
It’s through that call that people walk through life together and can catch glimpses of the divine, he said.
Lifting up people who are different from you, he believes, is the heart of the gospel.
The pastor saw that on display during the pandemic. The church and broader town community worked together to bring groceries and prescriptions to those in need. That Easter, Sunday-Winters said, there were acts of mercy, compassion and kindness in Greensboro.
“Jesus was alive,” he said, “and everywhere.”
The church also owns the attached Fellowship Hall. More than just a resource for parishioners, it is a community space and plays a role in helping those in need. One of those roles is assisting Migrant Justice.
The church supplies supper and Fellowship Hall meeting space for the immigrant rights group. The church helps organize transportation to take workers to meetings and has supported Milk with Dignity, a Migrant Justice program that commits dairy producers to providing workers with better working conditions.
Sunday-Winters and his parish, he said, “show up where we can.”