Feb 2014 Newsletter
CONGREGATIONS CONNECTIONS
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February is Blanket Month:
Have a Heart- Give a Blanket
Church World Service says the $5.00 blanket is the basic concept of every disaster response program. When people are homeless, cold and alone, a warm woolen blanket provides both primary protection as well as shelter. Your $5.00 donation will provide that blanket to someone who needs on, here in the US and around the world.
Checks made payable to: First Congregational Church of Leicester Note: Blankets
Can be placed in the collection plate or checks/cash can be given directly to Nancy Desautels.
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Worship Cancellation Procedure
The pastor, deacon and trustee will consult by 7:30 am on the day of the worship service to determine if the worship service must be cancelled due to inclement weather. Consideration will be given to travel advisories, weather outlook, and the condition of the church itself (i.e. confirm there is heat and electricity and that the parking lot and walkways will be cleared).
Regardless of whether or not worship is officially canceled, all parishioners, staff and leaders are urged to make their own decision based on their individual circumstances: safety is our first priority.
Any worship or Sunday school leader unable to be present can notify Rev. Doreen via her cell (978-846-6498). By 8 am, information regarding the canceling or continuing of worship will be left on the outgoing voicemail. All staff and lay leaders are advised to check the outgoing voicemail for the information. If the power is out, the answering machine won’t be activated, and worship is likely canceled. People may also call the parsonage in that situation for confirmation (508-859-8060). If the decision is made to cancel or postpone the service, calls will be attempted to the following individuals, but they should also check church voicemail: Organist and Choir, the Deacons of the day, any individuals participating actively in the service (e.g. special guests and worship attendants).
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A Note From the Pastor
Grace and peace to you. I’m excited to continue the conversation on justice issues. I want to remind you that the goal of these conversations is just that – conversation. I hope they stimulate you to consider some of the complexities of our world, some of the barriers to God’s Beloved Community, and brainstorm together about what role we can play in healing them. When I lift up a particular viewpoint, it is as an individual, not as a representative of First Congregational Church. I promise to share the viewpoints of others in this space next month. All I ask is that responses be respectful and on-topic. I will publish them anonymously if the responder prefers, but hopefully people feel safe and appreciated enough to claim their positions.
The focus this month is racial justice. The United Church of Christ includes a focus on racial justice in its Justice and Witness Ministries. Their website blurb says, “Racism is racial prejudice plus power. Its power is manifested in every institution and system, both nationally and internationally, which was historically established and continues to function to benefit one group of people to the disadvantage of other groups. Awareness and education will help us to become anti-racist individuals and foster the development of anti-racist systems and institutions that can eliminate privilege for some and oppression for others.”
I was a teenager in the 1970s and lived just outside of Boston, where forced busing was implemented. I remember watching the newscasts and feeling overwhelmed by the level of hostility and rage expressed, not just against the policy, but against people of color. I read a great deal about the experiences of people of color who faced discrimination, and have long felt called to take some responsibility to heal this great of racism. I am confident that everyone reading this agrees that racism misses the mark, that institutions and systems that function to benefit one group to the disadvantage of other groups is not what God had in mind. But there may well be disagreement as to whether such institutions and systems have already been dismantled, and if not, what the best ways to do that are.
In my commitment to racial justice, I have joined the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People). Established in 1909, it is the oldest and largest civil rights organization. Their work includes the 1954 landmark Supreme Court decision, Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka which declared that state-sponsored segregation of elementary schools unconstitutional. More recently it has been focused on racial profiling by law enforcement, criminal justice inequalities, affirmative action in colleges and universities, and voting rights.
Race and racism are difficult topics to discuss. Tremendous strides have been made in this country to right the wrongs of slavery and Jim Crow laws, and provide greater opportunities for full and equal participation in all the rights and responsibilities of citizenship. I believe we still have a ways to go. I believe that we are not always aware of our own prejudices and unconscious beliefs. Studies have shown that people often exhibit unconscious discrimination, thinking, “I just feel more comfortable with this person,” or “That person just looks more suspicious,” with no conscious thought of the relation of skin color or race. So I look to the data to see patterns and trends, and the data indicates that white people have more privilege and advantages than other racial groups. Whites have more money, more power, more security, better health, higher education rates, lower prosecution and incarceration rates. They are less impacted by environmental or economic upheaval. One of the privileges that white people have is that their well-being does not require them to consider race and racism. That is generally not true for people of color.
In our Monday night book group we are reading Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith by Anne Lamott. She shares an incident that happened at her church. “One of our teachers, a blue-eyed blond, stepped to the pulpit during worship to talk about something that was tearing her up. She was teaching, so had to make it quick. She said that even though she was a civil-rights activist, she had secret thoughts about race that scared her. She’d been watching the news, and the image of a black man in a T-shirt flashed on the TV screen, and her first thought had been, ‘What did he do?’ He hadn’t done anything – he was an expert on the law. She didn’t have a clue where to begin with this old ugly thing inside her, except to stand before us, crying, and say it. Then she walked down the aisle to go teach, and so she did not see that every single person in the church had stood to applaud her.”
Such grace and courage. I invite you to courageously share your thoughts. Do you think there is a place for legislative action in healing the racial divide? Do you think the changes to the Voting Rights Act in 2013 were a blow to communities of color? Do affirmative action policies enrich our universities and colleges, or harm them, or something in between? Do you think conscious or unconscious racism accounts for racial disparities in criminal sentencing and incarceration? What other thoughts do you have about racial justice?
Blessings, Pastor Doreen
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Super Saturday: Sat, March 1
Join hundreds of delegates, pastors and lay leaders from all over the Massachusetts Conference for a day of worship and workshops. Saturday, March 1 from 9 a.m. – 3 p.m. at Ludlow High School. See the Mass Conference website (www.macucc.org) for information about workshops offered. Let Pastor Doreen know if you are interested in attending, and she will register everyone together for a discount.
http://www.macucc.org/events/detail/1458
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Worcester Fellowship Lunch Providers: Sun, Feb 23
Please look for the contribution signup sheet in Russell Hall beginning February 9 if you wish to donate lunch supplies. Many helping hands are needed to assemble the lunches on Feb. 24, 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.
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Ash Wednesday Service
March 5 at 7:00 p.m.
Begin the season of Lent with a time of quiet reflection and worship, including Communion and distribution of ashes.
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January Newsletter — Collector’s Report by Ellie Latham
MACUCC –
Loose Offerings Envelopes/Pledges Typhoon Relief Advent Totals
11-24 $ 52.00 $1,153.00 $1,205.00
12-01 $104.00 $ 632.00 $100.00 $ 836.00
12-08 $ 40.00 $ 979.00 $ 25.00 $ 50.00 $1,094.00
12-15 SNOW- Church Cancelled
12-22 $ 82.00 $1,013.50 $ 20.00 $177.00 $1,292.50
12-29 $ 19.00 $ 840.75 $ 10.00 $ 869.75
Totals $297.00 $4,618.25 $155.00 $227.00 $5,297.25
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Thank You, Thank You, Thank You
There are so many thank you’s to share after a wonderful holiday season of blessings. I receive cards of greetings and thanks to the congregation often. Sometimes I remember to post them in Russell Hall, and sometimes I don’t. I thought I would share a few I’ve received recently. There was a thank you from Ellie Latham for remembering her at Christmas time; a beautiful handmade Christmas card from Worcester Fellowship with loads of signatures of their members; a thank you from EPOCA for the donation made to them at their speaking engagement here; a thank you from Rev. Luis Miro for welcoming him so warmly when he came to share his message of renewal; and a Christmas card from Mary Ellen Broshihan and her aunt, Catherine Quinn, and a thank you from Mary Ellen for all the care she received at her aunt’s passing.
And Quentin and I are so very grateful for all the lovely cards, gifts and thoughtful assistance so many of you have given us. I’m afraid I will unintentionally leave someone out if I name names, but please know your gifts of chocolate, wine, ornaments, food, and donations in our honor have warmed our hearts. The loving sentiments in the Christmas cards we received remind us of what a wonderful community we are part of. I am grateful to everyone who came to the open house and made it such a fun and festive occasion. I do have to name my “decorating team,” as they went so far above and beyond in blessing us this Christmas season. Bonnalee Bohlman and Deb Arsenault, Cindy LaPointe and Nancy Desautels spent hours and hours decorating the parsonage in time for the open house. And that doesn’t include shopping time. Those who saw it know how gifted they are, and I tell you they did it with such joy.
I need to thank all those who helped make worship during Lent and Christmas so special – the choir and music minister, all the deacons, the readers, the Advent Candle lighters, the children who put on such a great pageant, the Sunday school director and adult helpers who pulled it all together. Thank you to all who used the special Advent/Christmas offering envelopes to give to the church, to those who gave for Typhoon Relief, to the Christmas Fund, and to help others in need. You are some of the most generous people I have known. May blessings come back to you tenfold in this new year.
Love, Pastor Doreen
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Mission Impossible…
Our church responded so well to the Great Green Bean and Ham challenges
that the church council wanted to see it continue.
Your next mission (if you decide to accept it) is to bring in toilet paper during the month of February and accumulate as many rolls as possible to stock the shelves of the Leicester Food bank. You will accomplish this task in any fashion you choose, looking for sales, using coupons or simply buying a single roll. TOGETHER, we will complete this mission.
Good luck. This message will self-destruct within 60 seconds.
With many thanks and appreciation,
Carol Mulrain, your FCC agent
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The Women’s Association
The Women’s Association is coordinating gift bags again this year for Worcester Fellowship. Items needed are winter knit hats, scarves, mittens or gloves, hand warmers, and candy canes. Items can be dropped off at the church anytime either in the Book Room or in the designated box or basket in Russell Hall. We will be assembling them on Sundays during fellowship and bring them to Worcester on our lunch date, February 23rd! This will help to make this frigid winter weather a little warmer for those out on the streets.
Also, on February 5th, at noon the Women’s Association Meeting will be having a guest speaker, Matthew F. Ryan, Jr. from Build a Habit, Save a Home Interfaith Coalition to inform us about their mission and how we can help. After, we will be putting together the infant layettes. We are still in need of baby shirts (not onesies), cloth diapers, diaper pins, wash cloths, gowns or sleepers under 12 months size. Please contact June Kelley at 508-892-3795 about donations so she can coordinate the sets. Bring a baby picture of yourself and
*************************************we will have some fund guessing who’s who! As always, there will be some great refreshments. All women of the church are always welcome to come!
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 the family of Jonathan Ball, including his parents Donald and Gail (Hebert) Ball of Worcester, and grandparents Cliff and Jan Albrecht. Jonathan died in a car crash at the age of 23 on Nov. 27, 2013.For
− For Marge Rabidou who has not been home since the day after Christmas due to on-going medical issues. Please pray for healing of her body, mind and emotions.
− For Carol and Neil Mulrain’s grandson Dean who needs surgery for a torn ACL.
− for those who spend their days and nights in the cold on the streets just trying to survive another day. May they find warmth and comfort in God.
− For continued recovery for baby Edmund, and for his parents Gloria and Brian that they have a chance to relax and enjoy this sweet boy without the constant worry about his health.
− For Ellie Latham’s friend Kathy and husband Frank as she suffers with a neurological disorder, he suffers from severe depression.
− For Ellie’s cousin Joe McKeon’s family and friends as they mourn his passing last week. (I am sure you have a better way to say this)
− For my friends David for continued healing of his Rt. great toe/foot and for Rick is facing Lymphoma treatment again after a 2 year remission.
