April 2015 Newsletter.
Congregational Connections
The First Congregational Church of Leicester
April 2015 Issue
He Lives! Easter Sunday: April 5
Come celebrate the Good News of Christ’s resurrection. The Sanctuary will be adorned with spring flowers and it will be a joyful occasion. Please join us if you can, and invite a friend or family member. It’s a great season to share the good news.
Christian Community Choir: The Journey
It is not too late to hear this ecumenical choir in their heartfelt performance inspired by the journey Jesus takes to the cross. The public is welcome to attend a free performance at The Outlook in Charlton at 2 p.m.
Stop Hunger Now
Christ Episcopal Church in Rochdale will once again be hosting a food-packing event this spring, and would love for it to continue as an ecumenical effort. The packing event is scheduled for May 17, and the fund-raising efforts have begun. There is an anonymous donor willing to match FCC donations 2:1 up to $600, and the coin collector has been set out in the back of the Sanctuary. Paper money and/or checks should be put in a separate envelope and/or marked “Stop Hunger Now.”
Hope for Housing Grocery Cards
If you would like to participate in the program, but don’t often make it to church, please contact Pastor Doreen to make arrangements. It costs you nothing extra, and 5% of all purchases goes to help the homeless. Cards are available for Big Y, Hannaford, Stop & Shop, Shaws, CVS and Panera. Checks for the purchases are made out to Hope for Housing.
Worcester Fellowship Lunch Providers: Sunday, April 26
Please look for the contribution signup sheet in Russell Hall beginning April 12 9 if you wish to donate lunch supplies. Many helping hands are needed to assemble the lunches on April 26, so please join in. All are welcome to join us for lunch and worship on the Common behind Worcester City Hall beginning at 1 p.m.
Moving Forward: Report on our work with Consultant Rev. Dr. Betsy Waters
At our second meeting on March 15, we discussed some of the responses people gathered to the question “What do you need?” We discussed the trend of people without strong religious connections who don’t see the church as a helpful resource. We talked about the resources of the church – material, financial and labor, and it was agreed that we are not in the dire straits that would demand drastic change. We made a list of all the things we do – from concession stand, to making lunches for Worcester Fellowship, to bible study and worship – and the reasons we do them. The reasons fell into at least one of five categories – Spiritual Growth, Fellowship, Visibility, Fundraising, or Service/Outreach/Mission. It was agreed that the efforts we make regarding visibility are not achieving the goal of drawing people into the church. Betsy urged us to consider the way we allocate our resources of time, energy and money; and determine our priorities. She suggested that we would not likely be able to do new things without giving up some of the things we currently do. And her recommendation was that we focus our energies on Christ’s call to love our neighbors, in a literal fashion. She encouraged on-going conversation with those near to us to find out what they need and to see what needs we can meet. She suggested small groups be formed to support, encourage, and hold each other accountable for such ministry, thereby meeting fellowship and service goals.
As I write this report, the Council has not met to discuss plans for acting on these recommendations. If you are interested in brainstorming for focusing and implementing these recommendations, please contact Doreen by phone or e-mail (pastorfccleicester@verizon.net / 978-846-6498).
Lost and Found
A pair of black leather women’s gloves were found in the Sanctuary several weeks ago. If you think they are yours, and you are not able to make it to church on a Sunday morning, please call the pastor (978-846-6498) to make arrangements to get them.
A Note from the Pastor
Happy Easter! I pray that the increasing sunlight of spring is melting the snow and ice and making room for the seeds to send up shoots of new life. As I write it is a chilly, drizzly, gray day, and I confess that it can be hard to feel excited about the coming celebration of the resurrection. In some ways Easter is seen as the happy ending to a painful story. Jesus had a difficult life trying to spread the good news of God’s love and mercy to people who resisted with every fiber of their being. Even those who were touched by him and his message – who left everything to follow him – even they did not really get it. At the end of his human incarnation he was betrayed, ridiculed, humiliated, tortured and killed. If any story needs a happy ending, it is this one. And so we are told of the empty tomb, of resurrection appearances, of Christ’s victory over death. Praise God and Glory Be!
And yet they did not live happily ever after. We do not live in a kingdom that has come, a kingdom of justice and peace and joy. The thing about resurrection is that it is not a one and done proposition. Christ rose, and changed something in the rising, but the work of resurrection is not completed. In theological terms, it is the already-but-not-yet of salvation. There is more dying to be done, more new life to be claimed and entered.
I was thinking of this as I spoke to a friend who has struggled for years with addiction, relationship problems, and legal problems. He’d had a terribly traumatic childhood, and his lifestyle perpetuated the chaos. But somehow, in the last few years, things started to get better. He met a woman who didn’t drink, and he was able to stop drinking. She had 2 young children and he stepped into a fathering role. And while he’d thought he could not have children of his own he turned out to be mistaken, and she gave birth to a beautiful baby girl who looks just like him. The Facebook pictures showed a lovely and happy family. He wrote to me that he was somehow, miraculously, living the life he never dreamed could be his. “Resurrection, God’s work,” I thought. But of course that was not the end. Raising three small children is incredibly difficult, even for those of us with fairly healthy childhoods and lots of support. There is little else that has such power to stir feelings of inadequacy, frustration, rage, worry, and guilt. He is having a hard time hanging in there, and he wonders if he was duped. I don’t think so. I just think there are more resurrections to come, which means more letting go of life as we know it.
In his book Immortal Diamond, Richard Rohr reminds us that Jesus is resurrected in bodily form, with the wounds of his crucifixion intact. “I am not a ghost!,” Jesus says. “See the nail marks on my hands, put your fingers in my side.” And yet Jesus is beyond the limits of time and space – he shows up suddenly in the closed room, he appears and disappears on the road to Emmaus. Is there a message here that we too can share in the Divine nature even in this wounded and wounding world? The resurrection, the raising up of Jesus is a symbol of “what God is still and forever doing with the universe and with humanity…. God appears to be resurrection everything all the time. It is nothing to ‘believe in’ as much as it is something to observe and be taught by.” So may we have eyes to see the resurrection, not just on Easter, but every day. And may we learn. Fr. Rohr notes twelve ways to practice resurrection now, and the final one is “Never doubt that it is all about love in the end.”
With love, Pastor Doreen
In Our Prayers
Never underestimate the power of prayer. You are invited, as you read this, to add your prayers for those listed. Take a moment to breathe in God’s Spirit, and channel your good will and hopes to each person or situation named. You might imagine them surrounded by a healing light, or held in God’s hands. May this simple practice fill you with peace and hope.
– For June Morowski who fell and broke her hip recently. She is in rehab and working hard to get back on her feet. Let us pray for strength, and for speedy healing.
– For families with drama or any internal problems.
– For protection and a safe environment for all the animals waking up from their long winter sleep.
– For all the homeless and downtrodden as well as those with addictions.
– For the Amidon family. The Latham’s grand-daughter Molly and grand-son Brent recently loss their beloved Aunt Sue Amidon Avila after a long courageous battle with cancer.
– For people suffering with depression, substance abuse, and loneliness.
– For Nancy Desautel’s sister-in-law Norma who is back in the hospital.
Share the Spirit: Engaging Worship and Faith Formation: Sundays at 5 p.m.
This alternative worship service is held on the 2nd and 4th Sundays each month. The service will be discontinued at least through the summer after the April gatherings (April 12 and 26). It was developed with busy families in mind, and all who would appreciate a briefer, less formal, and more active worship experience combined with creative expression or deeper faith discussions. Come check it out! Bring a friend! And please let Pastor Doreen know if you are interested in having this type of service continue next year in some form – perhaps less frequent and always as a meal, perhaps at a different time, perhaps the same as it has been. We appreciate the feedback.
Canned Ham Challenge
The announcement didn’t even make the newsletter last month, but that didn’t stop members and friends of FCC from clearing the shelves of local stores of their 1-pound canned hams. We were challenged to collect 150 hams to donate to the Food Pantry for Easter groceries. At the last count before publication we’d collected 116, plus enough financial contributions to cover the cost of the rest. You folks are AMAZING! Thanks so much.
