This week in Sunday School, the children will be learning the story about Moses and the burning bush, and the congregation has been asked to help by gathering beautiful fall leaves for a craft project the kids will be doing. Here are some that were collected on an afternoon walk today.
Category Archives: Church News
Upcoming Service Notes, October 2, 2016, World Communion Sunday
We remind ourselves on World Communion Sunday that we are a part a greater whole, and that the worldwide church is at the same time absolutely united in Christ and yet almost infinitely diverse in the ways it looks and believes and worships and acts. It is helpful to look at both our unity and our diversity on a global scale. It helps us feel that we are not alone and that together we have far more power as a force of Christ’s love than we can sometimes feel as an individual congregation. It also can help us appreciate the differences we have within our own small, beloved community, and realize that our diversity of perspectives, personalities and gifts is a strength to be celebrated. Continue reading Upcoming Service Notes, October 2, 2016, World Communion Sunday
The Kids Bake for Good
On September 25 in Sunday School, the kids learned how Joseph’s dreams showed his people to save up food during their seven years of plenty so they would have enough during their seven years of famine. Then Julie Porter, Sunday School teacher and King Arthur Flour employee, helped the children prepare rolls to bake and donate to the food shelf. (You can learn more about King Arthur’s Bake for Good program at http://www.kingarthurflour.com/bakeforgood/kids/)
Upcoming Service Notes, September 25, 2016
President Abraham Lincoln said, “I care not for a man’s religion whose dog or cat is not the better for it.” Our religion is meant to change the way we live for the better both in the smallest of ways that would affect our dog or cat and in the biggest of ways that affect the lives of our family, our neighbors, our church, our community, our nation and our world. How we live this life matters.
How we respond to suffering especially matters, both our own suffering and the suffering of others. As Bishop Desmond Tutu and his daughter Mpho write in this Sunday’s Silent Meditation, “Transformation begins in you, wherever you are, whatever has happened, however you are suffering. Transformation is always possible…. We are not responsible for what breaks us, but we can be responsible for what puts us back together again. ”
You can read more about the service and listen to some of its deeply moving music in the rest of this brief article. Continue reading Upcoming Service Notes, September 25, 2016
Upcoming Service Notes, September 18, 2016
We will hear one of the most fascinating and puzzling passages in the gospel this Sunday (Luke 16:1-13). Jesus tells a story about a dishonest manager who cheats the rich man he works for, who then praises the manager for his shrewdness. Jesus shocks us by telling us to be as shrewd ourselves. It seems to make no sense until we delve into it and find practical wisdom that we desperately need right now in our church and world. We will hear two other passages about the kind of wisdom Christ calls us to have, one from Proverbs 8 and the other from Matthew, Chapter 10, verses 16-20.
Our music will draw from very diverse traditions this week from Gregorian plainsong to Christian folk rock. Continue reading Upcoming Service Notes, September 18, 2016
A Visit from the Jeremiah Ingalls Singers
It was a privilege to host the Jeremiah Ingalls Singers from Newbury, VT during our service on August 28, 2016. The Rev. Donald Towle led the singers and gave a very thought-provoking sermon. Below are a few photos and a video of the singers.
Photos from Welcome Sunday & Sundae Sunday
It was a very sweet Sunday on September 11, 2016. We welcomed back those who had been away for the summer with balloons, the children escorted the big Bible to its home on the lectern, and we enjoyed ice cream sundaes at coffee hour!
Upcoming Service Notes, September 11, 2016, Welcome Sunday, Sundae Sunday
We will be worshipping this week in the context of the 15th Anniversary of the terrorist attacks of 9/11/01. It might seem strange to have a service of celebration and quiet joy on such a day, but Christ leads us there with his teaching in the lectionary for this week. Luke 15:1-10 has the recurring theme (Sunday’s sermon title), “Rejoice with Me, For I Have Found What Was Lost!” We live in a world that gets lost, as we did on 9/11, and we ourselves stray from the Way of Christ over and over. We can rejoice that Christ rejoices every time we turn back, and welcomes us with his loving, forgiving, shepherding arms. The 51st Psalm is also in the lectionary with its moving, poetic affirmation of the same spiritual truth.
We will celebrate Welcome Sunday with the children helping to wheel the big lectern Bible into the sanctuary as they start up a new school year of Sunday School. The choir will have us rejoicing as it returns for its first Sunday after summer vacation. The Diaconate is hosting once again its fabulous Welcome party after worship with make-your-own sundaes in the vestry, as well as delicious non-sweet foods. Please invite friends, old and new, to join us this week! Continue reading Upcoming Service Notes, September 11, 2016, Welcome Sunday, Sundae Sunday
Sunday School on September 4
Since there was no official Sunday School this past week, the kids made their own fun! 
Upcoming Service Notes, September 4, 2016
The Apostle Paul had a slogan in his churches, “For freedom Christ has set us free!” Jesus said, “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” I have been inviting the congregation in my Epistle articles to think about the positive difference our church makes in our lives throughout the week. Clearly one difference church is meant to make is to lead us to the freedom to have life and have it abundantly. Jesus does not want anything to hold us back. This Sunday in worship we will think about what this means for our lives as individuals and as a congregation. The scripture readings helping us do that will include Psalm 1, Deuteronomy 30:15-20 and Luke 14:25-33. We will celebrate some of the ways in which we are not holding back from a life rich in meaning, love and joy.
We will be singing some of our most beloved hymns: Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee, Be Thou My Vision, and Let Us Break Bread Together. Continue reading Upcoming Service Notes, September 4, 2016