March 2012 Newsletter

CONGREGATIONS CONNECTIONS
MARCH 2012 ISSUE


BUNNY DAY EGGSTRAVAGANZA

SATURDAY, March 31, 2012

Spring time is coming! It’s time to prepare for BUNNY DAY and we need your help again this year to get ready for Peter Cottontail’s Easter Party. The date this year is Sat., March 31st and if you can help in any way, large or small, we would be most grateful.

DONATIONS NEEDED:

We are collecting baskets, stuffed animals, small toys, books, games, etc., for our basket raffle…..all for children ages ten and under. Also, plastic eggs filled with soft, pre-wrapped candy. If you need plastic eggs to there are bags available in Russell Hall.

 

DONATIONS DUE BY: Sunday, March 18th

 

 

HELPERS NEEDED:

There is a sign-up sheet available at Coffee Hour. We need help with decorating, working on a craft table, selling raffle tickets, serving coffee, and helping to keep the children safe when they go outside to collect Easter eggs. On Saturday morning we will meet to begin setting up and continue decorating at 10 AM with children due to arrive at 2 PM. Games, crafts and fun will continue until 3:30 PM when we will lead the children outside for the Egg Hunt. Clean-up will begin after 4 PM.

ALL PROCEEDS from Bunny Day are donated to the LEICESTER FOOD BANK along with the food collected as “admission” to the event.

Women’s Association: March 7

Meets March 7 at the church to fill eggs for Bunny Day.

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A Special Gift for Lent

 

For the six people willing to participate in worship by saying a few words about Lent. See Pastor Doreen to receive your gift and choose a Sunday between March 4 and April 1, inclusive. It happens before the Children’s message, so children and teachers are able to do this.

 

Enclosed with this newsletter you will find a lenten offering envelope addressed to the church. This is for those who are interested in making an offering to the church in honor of Lent and Easter.

The act of “giving up” something for Lent can be as simple as forgoing that morning latte to make a contribution to the church or other service organization, or it might be spending time helping someone in need. However you honor this sacred season, may its blessings surround you.

 

 

Maundy Thursday Service:

April 5 at 7pm

Readers are needed. Let Pastor Doreen know by April 2 if you are interested.

 

Easter Sunday Worship:

April 8 at 10am

Please come and rejoice, celebrate the resurrection and the glorious homecoming that was begun, but is not yet finished, through Jesus Christ. Through him God cleared a path to our full reconciliation with God, with one another and with all of Creation.  Let us join together to sing praise and give thanks to the God who loves us so much to call to us this way, to call us to the fullness of our humanity, to our home in God’s love.

Pot Luck Lunch & Family Games:
March 11
Will be held following worship.

If your last name begins with A-J, please bring a main dish to share.

If it begins with L-Z, please bring a side dish or dessert.

 

 

 

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Note from the Pastor

Grace and Peace to You, My Friends,

Last month (and this one!) I offered a gift to people who are willing to participate in worship over the six Sundays in Lent by briefly sharing thoughts and reflections on what this season means to them. The gift is a booklet, put out by the UCC Still Speaking Writer’s Group, of Lenten devotionals, called “Give It Up!” It aims to invite the reader to “rethink the Lenten themes of sacrifice, repentence and renewal in new and unexpected ways.” So I was surprised to see an entry called “In Praise of Guilt and Shame.” That didn’t seem like such a new idea at all. It seems to me that focusing on guilt and shame is an idea that has been around in churches for a very long time, and, in my mind, unfortunately so. I have seen people so broken down by the message that they are unclean, bad, and unaccep-table that they seemed to be in a pit of paralyzing despair. I have experienced, in contrast, the power of affirmation and love to move people to do more good and be more thoughtful. I believe that loving others comes easier when you believe yourself to be loved and lovable. And so I try to emphasize God’s great love of us, how we were created in love and were called good, very good.

But we all know, don’t we, that that’s not the whole story. Guilt, shame and repentance don’t have to impose upon us a sense of being unclean and unacceptable. They don’t have to put us in a pit of despair. I would even suggest that the freedom we are offered as Christians is the freedom to come clean about the ways we are broken, the ways we have missed the mark, about the shadow places in our hearts and minds, about the unclean things that come out of our mouths at times.  We can own up to these things with God because we have already been forgiven for them. We can trust that God would never turn away from us, but will always meet us where we are and invite us into a better way. The message of this devotion was about how the painful experiences of guilt and shame over something we have done can lead us to greater faithfulness. In bringing these feelings to God, we make room for the grace God wants to fill us with. In sharing our regrets with someone we have harmed, we have the chance to build a new kind of relationship. This experience can soften us, allowing God to reshape our lives.

It can be tricky to discern softening guilt from paralyzing shame. If you are carrying something painful in your heart and would like to talk about it, please let me know. No matter what, you are indeed loved and lovable.     Blessings, Pastor Doreen

(P.S. Two books and speaking spots left. Call me!)

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SPECIAL EASTER CANTATA: April 1st at 4pm (PALM SUNDAY )

Once again the Christian Community Choir will perform a free concert in our sanctuary. We are so blessed to have them. The Choir is composed of singers from 10 churches and number 50 plus voices. The Choir is under the direction of Mrs. Linda Cross of the East Brookfield Baptist Church. A collation will follow sponsored by the Woman’s Association. Please speak to Judy Ivel or Cindy Lapointe to volunteer to bake or help with the collation.
The program is called EYES OF FAITH, Seeing and Believing the Messiah. Spiritually we look through the eyes of these followers of Jesus (Simeon, Judas, Mary Magdalene and Peter), their insights, feelings and emotion. We see how their lives were affected and changed by Jesus, and realize that Jesus is still affecting and changing lives today as we look through “eyes of faith”.

Schedule of other performances:
3/30/12 7p.m. St John the Baptist Catholic Church, East Brookfield
4/8/12 11a.m. East Brookfield Baptist Church, East Brookfield
4/15/12 2p.m. Masonic Home, Charlton

The Leicester Food Pantry

 

Open Tues 5-7 PM ~ St. Joseph’s Church, 759 Main Street, Leicester

The Leicester Food Pantry provides nutrition assistance to over 150 registered families living in town. Located at St. Joseph’s church, it is open to any resident who is in need of food. In accordance with the Worcester County Food Bank rules, shoppers can attend the food pantry once per calendar month and must show a photo ID each time they visit. There is a limit of 3 cloth or 6 plastic bags per visit.

 

Donations gratefully accepted:

• Nonperishable food items

• Toiletries, paper goods
• Monetary donations (mailed to P.O.Box 333, Leicester)

Welcome New Members!

On January 12, we had the joy of entering into covenant with six people who have found a home at First Congregational Church.

Darby and Doug Bashista

Doug and Darby Bashista live in Cherry Valley with their 7-year-old daughter Kaitlyn. They grew up in the Western Mass area, and have been married for 10 years. They have been living in Leicester for 7 years. Doug works in Hudson at Intel, Darby works at Spencer Family Dental. Their own faith was nurtured through family church involvement, and they are joyfully committed to sharing that with Kaitlyn. We are so glad they found here the sense of care, nurture and connection that helps us all grow in faith.

Katelyn Bouckaert

Katelyn Bouckaert is so glad to be able to attend worship regularly after a promotion out of Sunday shifts running a group home for adults with disabilities in Framingham, MA. She has long found strength in her spiritual core, and has been on the lookout for a place that would welcome and nurture that part of her. She and her partner Chase Orsi have been together 7 years and live in Auburn, with their goddaughters that they raise, Zena who is 6 and Gabrielle who is 5. Both were baptised in the church last May.

Diane and Bruce Dwyer

Diane and Bruce Dwyer also have lived in Cherry Valley for the past 3 years. Bruce is originally from Rhode Island and Diane from Leicester. Sundays are a special day shared with their large blended family of 3 daughters, Jen, Amy and Stephanie, as well as 2 sons, Christopher and Kevin. They have a total of 7 grandchildren – the children and step-children of Jen and Amy. They have found that their time with family, their time at work (Diane works for Reliant Medical Group as a Practice Manager and Bruce works for Kidder Fenwal as a shipping Manager), and their time in the world at large are all enhanced by tending to their faith through regular worship and participation in the life of FCC.

 

Stephanie Orsi

Stephanie Orsi grew up in Worcester and now lives in Natick. She says it is worth the drive each Sunday to come to a place that feels like home, surrounded by family (sister Angie Shea, grandmother Ellen Orsi, and other aunts, nieces, nephews and cousins). She has recently become involved in running and have done a number of 5ks and recently started rehearsing for her role in the chorus for Grandview Theatre’s production of Oliver! Stephanie was longing for that spiritual connection. Last October Stephanie decided to commit herself to Christ and was baptized here, along with her sister, nieces and nephews. We are overjoyed to extend to all of you the hand of Christian fellowship.

A Moment for Missions By: Ellie Latham
“We think sometimes that poverty is only being hungry, naked and homeless. The poverty of being unwanted, unloved, and uncared for is the greatest poverty”. ~ Mother Teresa ~

Growing up one of seven children, with a stay-at-home Mom and a Dad who worked sporadically due to illness and alcoholism it should be no surprise that hunger and a roof over our heads, often threatened us. At times, we were fortunate to have some (not many) services available to help us with food and back then extended family allowed us to stay with them when needed. It then also is no surprise that hunger and homelessness are very much in my thoughts and prayers in my adult life.

For many years now, my husband and I make regular non-perishable food, toiletry, and monetary donations to two local food pantries: St. Mary’s Food Pantry in Spencer and Leicester’s Food Pantry. They both serve well over 150 families on a regular basis. We have supported the Annual Food Drive for Spencer Access Cable, a benefit for St. Mary’s, by providing the sound and music. We also send financial donations to Worcester County Food Bank, 474 Boston Turnpike, Shrewsbury, MA who provides a reliable source of good food to a network of emergency food programs including the two pantries mentioned here.

I am reminded in Mother Teresa’s quote above, that poverty is not just about being hungry and homeless. It’s also being unwanted, unloved, and uncared for. I am grateful that I (and FCC) am involved with Worcester Fellowship. At each and every worship service every Sunday, people are reminded that they are loved by God. There are estimated to be about 2,000 people who are homeless or at-risk for homeless in the Worcester area. Family homelessness remains at very high levels in Mass. due to the continued difficult economy, including record foreclosures. The primary cause of homelessness is poverty and isolation. Worcester Fellowship is dedicated to ending isolation for those living in poverty, both those presently with and without homes.

The difficulties I endured growing up means that I take nothing for granted, not food or a home. It reminds me that even though I may struggle now in this economy myself, I need to be aware of what struggles others are suffering. I am so grateful and blessed to be able to share whenever I am able to. God has been good to me. I pray He is good to you.

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