Dec Newsletter 2017
The Reason for the Season
Come worship with us throughout the Christmas Season. Each Sunday in Advent, we light candles on the Advent Wreath and talk about the promises inherent in the incarnation, the promises of hope, peace, joy and love. We celebrating anew each year the miracle that God came to us as one of us to bring reconciliation and peace. If you have friends or family members who do not have a church, Christmas is a wonderful time to invite them to experience worship at First Congregation.
In addition to our usual Sunday morning worship, there will be a 5:00 p.m. service on Christmas Eve –with lessons and Christmas carols, beautiful music, and candlelight. At our 10 a.m. service on December 24, we will have family-friendly worship including a pick-up pageant. Readers and candle lighters are needed at the 5 p.m. service, so please contact Pastor Doreen if you would like to participate.
God Moments 2017
January 1, 2017 fell on a Sunday, and at that time I invited you all to participate over the course of the year in sharing your experiences of the Divine, whether through worship or something happening at FCC, or through faith lived out in your day to day lives. I put out the “God Moments Jar,” along with pen and pad, and asked you to write down your stories and put them in the jar. On December 31, during the Word for All Ages, I will open the jar and share the stories. There is still time to add your God moments to the jar, that we may share your joy and inspiration. And please come on the 31st to hear more about how much faith matter, how God is active in our lives, and how blessed we are to part of this Holy Body.
Advent Offering
Enclosed in the newsletter is an envelope addressed to the church.
This is for those who are interested in making an offering to the church in honor of Advent and Christmas. Blessings to all.
A Note From the Pastor
I wish you glad tidings of joy this Christmas season, and may the start of the new year be a time of happy anticipation. There is a new movie out called The Man Who Invented Christmas. And guess what?! It is not about Jesus. It is about “how Charles Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol and created a tradition. This got me thinking, what would Jesus think of Christmas?
The early Christians didn’t recognize the day of Jesus’ birth – they didn’t even know when it was. It wasn’t until the third century that December 25 was officially noted as the day the Holy Babe was born in the manger. This time coincided with various pagan festivals, when light began to increase in the northern hemisphere, when livestock were often killed to avoid having to feed them through the winter. It was a time when food was abundant – a time for feasting. The religious purists disapproved of the overlap with pagan rituals, and discouraged any celebration of the holiday. The Pilgrim settlers in the new world imposed heavy fines on anyone caught celebrating Christmas.
It was in the 1800s that the various elements of our secular American Christmas observances began – the Christmas tree, the benevolent person distributing gifts to children (St. Nick, Sinter Klaas, Befana), hanging a stocking. The practice of gathering with family and friends to feast continued through the centuries, despite Puritan disapproval.
I invite you to consider your own Christmas traditions – what you do and why you do it. I think it is wise and faithful to be conscious of the forces that are so hard at work to distract us from the story of God’s incarnation in a little baby born in a stable and bedded in a cattle trough.
I don’t know for sure what Jesus would think about our Christmas observances, religious or secular. I suspect he would be glad to attend parties, and feast with friends and family. He might delight at the modest giving of gifts to children. But what would he make of the rampant commercialism of the season? Is giving a gift to get a gift the best way to celebrate God’s incredible gift to us? How much do churches in general and our church in particular buy into the culture’s message about what Christmas ought to be, and how much do we provide a correction and respite from it?
I don’t have any clear answers, but it is worth considering the question. I was challenged by an article in the Christian Century by a pastor of a Mennonite church. A new family started attending, and informed the pastor they did not celebrate Christmas for a number of reasons, including the consumerism and materialism at its heart, and the lack of scriptural basis or meaning of many of its rituals. They worried that Jesus’ poverty, vulnerability and self-sacrifice were being replaced with magic reindeer, a pile of toys, and “ho, ho, ho.” After a few conversations with the family, the pastor took the concerns to the church elders, where there was more discussion and reflection. They agreed that many of the things they did muddied the good news of Christ Jesus, and they wanted it to come through loud and clear. So they made some changes, adjusting even some of its cherished traditions. I think Jesus would appreciate that – a church taking time to reflect on how it proclaims the good news, rather than clinging to the comfort of tradition, or adapting itself to secular, commercialized notions of the holiday.
God’s incarnation through Jesus was a gift to all humankind. It is something to be recognized and celebrated. May your celebrations fill you with love, wonder and awe.
– Pastor Doreen
Worcester Fellowship, December 31
What a timely opportunity to embody the giving spirit of the Christmas season by participating again in the lunch assembly on the Sunday after Christmas. There will be a sign up sheet for food donations on December 10. We accept donations of socks, mittens, gloves, hats, scarves, and rain ponchos at any time. As always, people are most welcome to join the lunch and worship behind Worcester City Hall at 1:00 p.m.
Church Fair Update
To date the 2017 Fair total is $4,133.60. In addition the Desautels’ children raised $153 for Heifer International at their white elephant table. A big Thank You to all who helped to make our fair a success again this year.
Mission Accomplished!
Thank you to all who made our goal of 150 cans of french fried onions possible. While we were just shy of the 150, we did collect 144 cans to deliver to the Leicester Food pantry to be used for the Thanksgiving baskets. I was informed that it is okay because not everyone takes them.
Something I didn’t know, which I want to share with you, is that the hall in the food pantry is set up kind of like a store for this event. Individual grocery items (like the onions) are grouped together and lined up around the hall. Each “shopper” who has called and made a reservation for a basket, can then go around the hall and pick out one food item from each group (or not) to complete their basket. There are high school volunteers who carry the basket for the individual.
The need to keep the food pantry stocked is constant. Yes, we have completed our immediate goal to help but let’s make the giving a weekly event. All dry goods, canned goods and toiletries are needed. I would love to see First Congregational Church focus on one product a month to donate in volume. This month my suggestion is CANNED SOUPS. Try to make a goal for your family to bring in one can each week. “Whatsoever you do to the least of my brothers,that you do unto me”.
The pantry is located at St. Joseph’s Church, 759 Main St Leicester They are open Tuesdays from 5-7 .For questions regarding eligiblity or to volunteer or make a donation, call 508-892-7407.
Deacon Carol Mulrain
