Category: Announcements

Posted on

Midweek Update: Indoor Worship Resumes 5/30

Dear friends in Christ,

I hope you’re all doing well and enjoying this lovely weather. I have some updates to share!

Indoor Worship Resumes Sunday 5/30

Cases have finally fallen in our town and area, and so Church Council has voted to resume indoor worship Sunday 5/30 at 10am! There will be one service on Sundays moving forward. Just like before the pandemic it will continue to be live-streamed on our YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/c/middleburycongregationalchurch.

I will send out more detailed information regarding procedure, expectations, nursery care, and Sunday School next week. We’re currently reviewing some things in light of the new CDC guidance.

Last Outdoor Worship Service: 5/23@11:30

This Sunday we’re celebrating Pentecost! At our outdoor service we’ll be confirming our confirmands who were originally set to be confirmed in 2020.

I know the state and CDC have changed a lot of guidelines this week. However, we are still keeping our requirements the same for this Sunday. As I mentioned earlier, we are looking at updates for future Sundays. But, for this week, wear a mask, bring a chair, and sign up. We will have Sunday school and nursery care.

Link to sign up is here: https://forms.gle/8EM3pEoEptCuyt6PA or you can contact the church office.

Standing, from left, Barbara H., Howard F., and the Rev. Katrina Manzi of Middlebury Congregational Church, and the Rev. Dr. Cynthia J. Carr, senior minister of First Congregational Church of Watertown, share our covenant with the Litchfield South Association at South Britain Congregational Church. Photo by the Rev. David F. Peters, Roxbury Congregational Church.

General Comments

Last night our church association representatives (Howard and Barbara) and I attended the spring meeting of the Litchfield South Association, and our church was officially received into our new association. I attached a picture of that happening. (Photo credit: Rev. Peters)

We were also given a welcome basket of snacks and goodies along with a lovely plant. Additionally, things were all taken care of ahead of time so my standing has now been transferred to our new association. (Standing is somewhat analogous to a professional license. It’s basically my approval to do ministry in the United Church of Christ.)

Also, I’ve attached some photos from outdoor worship and Sunday school this weekend. Counting this coming Sunday, in the past three Sundays we’ll have had a baptism and received five people into membership here at our church. One silver lining of the pandemic is that we’ve had a lot of things to celebrate now that we’re able to be physically together again. 

I’m looking forward to seeing what the future holds for us as we move into our new normal.
Peace,
Katrina

Posted on

Midweek Update: Ascension of the Lord

Dear friends in Christ,
I hope all of you are doing well.  I have a few things going in the life of the church to highlight:

Outdoor Worship

In addition to our online worship at 10am each Sunday (www.youtube.com/c/middleburycongregationalchurch), we are having outdoor worship at 11:30 with Sunday school and nursery care. Wear a mask, bring a chair, and please register ahead by contacting the church office or filling out the online form: 5/16 registration https://forms.gle/okAhsdimgzvavEnw7

We’ve updated the online form to hopefully make it quicker for everyone to fill out, and it’s now set to send you an email confirming you’ve submitted the form. We’re hoping this will alieviate some logistical snafus that have come up.

Indoor Reopening Progress

Cases have been falling each week in Middlebury for the past couple weeks, and it looks like our town should be out of the red public health department classification very soon. We are actively preparing for resuming indoor worship, and you can expect good news on this front in the very near future.

Association Transfer Update

As some of you may remember, at our January Annual Meeting we voted to transfer our church’s UCC association membership from the Naugatuck Valley Association to the Litchfield South Association. The Litchfield South Association Spring meeting is this coming Tuesday 5/18, and during that meeting, we’ll be officially welcomed into our new association.

General Comments 

For those of you who were unable to attend our outdoor service, we had a baptism then! I’ve attached a couple pictures.

For those of you who didn’t attend the online service, we had a lovely offering from our handbell quartet, and you can watch that here: 

I’ve also attached a few pictures of Magnet, our MCC snow mascot, visiting some places in our building that have gotten spruced up and renovated during the pandemic.

This week, we’re highlighting that the chairs in the sanctuary have been reupholstered, the narthex and stairwell leading down to the social hall have been repainted, and all the radiator covers in the sanctuary have been sanded down and repainted. Thank you Bill M and Bob W! 

There are still more places in the building for Magnet to visit as we prepare to return to the building. While the pandemic has be really difficult, it has enabled us to update nearly everything in the building that needed to be updated in much less time than it would have were we regularly using all parts of the building.

Stay tuned, and once we’re back indoors be sure to check out how good everything looks in person. 
Peace,
Katrina

Back to top