Dear friends in Christ,
I hope you’re all doing well this week. Here are some of the thing going on in the life of the church:
Memorial Service: Saturday 4/2 @ 11am
The memorial service for Julie Keggi will be this Saturday (4/2) at 11am. For those not joining in person, we will stream the service to our youtube channel (www.youtube.com/c/middleburycongregationalchurch) We will also have the service piped down to the Social Hall.
Lent Scripture Discussion: Women of Wisdom, Wednesdays 7pm in Conference Room and on Zoom
This evening we’re looking at the story of Abigail (1 Samuel 25:2-42) and how she figured out how to deal with King David at the head of a bunch of armed men arriving on her husband’s estate. The Zoom link was emailed out.
Holy Week Schedule (All Services in Sanctuary)
4/10 @ 10am: Palm Sunday Worship
4/14 @ 7pm Maundy Thursday Worship (childcare available)
4/17@ 10am Easter Sunday Worship followed by our Easter Egg Hunt
Our Easter Egg Hunt is Back!
This fun tradition will be held following the worship service on Easter Sunday, April 17th on The Green. All children are invited to join us! (Bring a basket) We are looking for donations of plastic Easter Eggs and candy (nut-free). Please bring any donations to church by April 10th. Thank you!
Lent Mission Projects
- The Ultimate Egg Off
- In order to raise money for GWIM and add some extra festivity this Easter season, the Mission Board is sponsoring an Easter Egg decorating contact! (We’re talking lawn decoration sized eggs, not egg hunt sized eggs. It’s $5 to enter, and the winners in various categories will receive gift cards to Dunkin Donuts and, of course, bragging rights. All eggs must be at the church front lawn by Palm Sunday for voting that day. I’m looking forward to seeing what everyone puts together! Contact Katie P to enter the contest!
- Easter Baskets for Middlebury Families
- Sign ups are posted on the bulletin board near the kitchen to sign up for donations for Easter baskets to help our three Middlebury families. If you can’t make it to worship in person, you can contact the church office to sign up.
Praying for Peace in Ukraine
On Sundays at noon, we’ll ring the church bell as a prayer for peace. Everyone is welcome to take a moment then to join together in praying for peace in Ukraine and throughout the world.
War in Ukraine: Ways to Donate to Help
The United Church of Christ has partnerships and relationships with many denominations in Europe, and they’ve sent out an appeal for donations to go towards assisting refugees/people who have been displaced from Ukraine due to the war. Information about the campaign and how to donate is here: https://www.ucc.org/global-h-o-p-e/ukraine-emergency-appeal/?fbclid=IwAR1x_2eJOFD2BVwG66YeliBq1K2RSc0cvP44psLweXiJ0EoznAOlcoHIaao
The First Congregational Church in Marlborough, MA has connections with the Lutheran Church in Poland, and they are collecting funds to send directly to the Polish Lutheran mission organization. They’re gathering monetary donations and sending them in batches as the money needs to be wired internationally. Their bank has agreed to waive wire fees, so they’re able to keep collecting money. If you’d like to make a donation through the Marlborough Church, you can follow this link and make sure to put “Ukraine Relief” in the donation memo line: https://www.faithstreet.com/church/first-church-in-marlborough-ucc-marlborough-ma/giving
General Comments
Winter has interrupted our spring weather, but it certainly was beautiful. I attached pictures from Sunday night and Monday morning.
This past Sunday was our first Sunday since the start of the pandemic with all the pieces of worship back. Our last service of pre pandemic life was March 8th, 2020, and during that service one of our hymns was Amazing Grace. I remembered that because I really liked the piano arrangement Dave played that day. (This is video of Amazing Grace from that service in 2020 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4N38BHnxATM) This past Sunday, Donna and Dave decided to play that same arrangement of Amazing Grace, and I felt like we’d finally come full circle. The past few days, I’ve been reflecting on how many dangers, toils, and snares we’ve navigated since March 2020. We’ve had to make some hard choices, and we’ve said some hard goodbyes as members and friends have died. None of this has been easy. But, grace has brought us safe thus far, and grace will lead us through whatever comes next and will certainly lead us home.
Peace,
Pastor Katrina