Each New Year's Eve, Center Church is a site for the annual
First Night Hartford celebration. Numerous performing artists and musicians
offer programs for all ages (family-oriented programs occur in the afternoon).
For more information, please visit First
Night Hartford.
Opportunities for Visiting Artists and Musicians
Center Church opens its doors to musical and artistic groups
or individuals looking for a place to give a concert or recital, display
art, or offer other forms of the performing arts. Please contact the
church office at (860) 249-5631 or e-mail info@centerchurchhartford.net.
Pride Day
As part of our commitment to the inclusion of all persons in
the full life of Center Church, we sponsor a booth at the annual Connecticut
Pride Day celebration. In recent years, these full-day events, geared
toward celebrating the diversity within the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender
communities, have taken place in Bushnell Park and along the banks of the
Connecticut River.
Kristallnacht
The night of November 9, 1937 is considered by many to
be the official start of the Holocaust. On that night, Nazi soldiers
raided and destroyed the numerous shops owned by Jews living in Germany.
"Kristallnacht" means "night of glass," referring to the glass broken and
smashed as part of this raid. Center Church joins the larger Hartford
interfaith community for an annual remembrance of the atrocities begun that
night, mindful that many other ethnic and religious groups have been the
victims of genocide and oppression. This observance is held on the Sunday
evening nearest November 9.
Lest We Forget
During World War I, it is estimated that nearly 2,000,000 Armenians
were killed by Turkish soldiers. Many Armenians escaped this genocide
via emigration to the United States. A significant number of Armenian
immigrants settled in the Greater Hartford area, and many came to join Center
Church. Center Church members Frederick (deceased) and Elizabeth Boyajian
have endowed a lecture fund, "Lest We Forget," that provides for programs
that seek to promote cross-cultural understanding and stop oppression and
victimization of peoples based on religious expression or ethnic heritage.
