Annual Theme

Each September during Homecoming worship, AHCC clergy reveal the theme they have carefully and prayerfully discerned will guide worship, programs and events for the program year (September – June). These themes are meant to offer people both focus and freedom; it focuses the community on a common vision while at the same time gives each person the freedom to explore what God is revealing to us as individuals.

Proclaim!

The theme for the 2026-27 program year is “Proclaim! Our Stories. God’s Story. Still Being Written.”

There are stories we inherit. There are stories we tell. There are stories we try to forget. And there are stories that change us so deeply that, once we have heard them, we cannot see the world, or ourselves, the same way again.

As we begin a new program year at Asylum Hill Congregational Church, “Proclaim!” invites us to look closer to home and ask: What is your story? Where have you encountered grace? What has shaped your faith? And what do you have to proclaim?

Scripture reminds us that faith has always unfolded through real, complicated human lives. Some were courageous; others afraid. Some got it right; others got it very wrong. Yet God continued to work through every story. And God is still working, still speaking. The story of God’s relationship with humanity is still being written – in our lives, in our community, and in the world around us.

We love the promise in this Scripture passage that the Spirit is poured out for “all people,” because God’s Spirit is not reserved just for scholars, biblical heroes, pastors, or those who have all the answers. The Spirit is poured out on all of us – and that means your story matters.

This year, we will listen, tell stories, wrestle with Scripture, learn from those who have gone before us, and discover new ways to see God’s love at work. Because to proclaim doesn’t require a pulpit. It might mean sharing what we’ve learned, serving a neighbor, asking a difficult question, choosing hope, welcoming someone to the table, or simply saying, “This is where I have seen God.” Because faith becomes most powerful when it moves from something we believe to something we live.

Think of a stained-glass window. The glass doesn’t create the light. Rather, it lets the light shine through. Perhaps that is our calling, too: not to be perfect or certain, but to make room for God’s Spirit to shine through the way we live, love, serve, forgive, question, create, and care for one another.

Our stories. God’s story. Still being written.

There is more to tell. More to discover. More light waiting to shine through.

The Spirit of God is still being poured out – over all people.

So, AHCC, let us PROCLAIM!

Some past themes have been “Dusting Off the Pages” (2025-26) where we looked at the sacred texts in a new way; “From Generation to Generation” (2024-25) as we leaned into our predecessors and our legacy; “To Know and Be Known” (2023-24) focused on the need for connection; “On Earth As It Is In Heaven” (2022-23) as we endeavored to bring about God’s vision for us into the world; “Making All Things New” (2021-22) which comes from the Book of Revelation and tells the story of John’s apocalyptic prophecy; “For Such a Time As This” (2020-21) inspired by the story of Esther, a young Jewish woman who finds favor with the king, becomes queen, and risks her life to save the Jewish people; and “Wading Into Deeper Waters” (2019-20) from the book of Isaiah and the promise that God is with us through trials and difficulties.