Posts by First Congregational Church Of Westminster, MA
Thank You From Christian Outreach
A message from the Christian Outreach Committee Thank you all for your response, to our annual giving tree toy drive! This year we again used the ease of Amazon to our advantage and easily met the needs of some children who can use a little extra joy this holiday season. The Christian Outreach Committee again partnered with the Community Healthlink residential recovery homes where children are going through the reunification process with their mothers. We had 12 children from 3…
From The Pastor’s Pen
I’ve been thinking about house blessings as Epiphany approaches and at the same time also imagining the coming year as a house—a space in time that is opening itself to all of us. How will we inhabit the coming year? How will we enter it with mindfulness and with intention? How will we move through the rooms of the coming months in a way that brings blessing to this world? I also have been pondering what it is to carry…
Pastor Stacey Is A Clergy coach
(…though not yet certified) When our congregation signed a covenant with Pastor Stacey for her leadership during this transitional period, we celebrated her receipt of a grant through the Lilly Foundation and the efforts of the Southern New England Conference to be trained as a clergy coach. Just before Thanksgiving she completed the first level of her training and next week will finish her Mentor Coaching and will have achieved the status of Associate Coach. She will be moving on…
The Joy of Giving
The Christian Outreach Committee is beginning to think about the holiday season and the mittens in past years we have hung on The Giving Tree in the Narthex. There will be no tree this year as you enter the church, but that doesn’t take away the feelings we have for giving to others. This year we have decided to again support the Residential reunification homes run by Community Healthlink whom we worked with last year. These three homes, two in…
Advent Devotionals
Advent Devotionals Two Advent Devotionals are available as you enter the Sanctuary and near the office. One for families with conversations laid out to have around the dinner table and activities that help children and youth understand the story of Christ’s birth in expanding ways. The second is tailored to adults with a single devotion for each week of Advent and a variety of questions that can be explored as you progress through Advent. These devotionals connect with the Advent…
From The Pastor’s Pen
When I close my eyes in prayer and allow myself the possibility of looking within, to consider the wonder of God’s magnificent all-encompassing love, the darkness I experience is beautiful and inviting. It is a space of deep healing. In summer months, I volunteer for a program that I loved deeply as a teen and still love today for the power of transformation it serves as a catalyst of in people who dare to say yes to a week on…
Poinsettia Sign Up
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Thanksgiving Food Collection
Thankfully we have been able to make necessary adjustments to the current new normal, and some things have not changed. Poverty and homelessness still exist. People have lost jobs or had their income reduced resulting in more need for shelters and food pantries. We are fortunate to have the Westminster Community Food Pantry housed in our church. In a recent conversation with Dorcas Hurd, Director of the Westminster Community Food Pantry, she expressed great appreciation for everything our church does…
From The Pastor’s Pen
Have you ever pruned a tree? Have you had the privilege of raising a fruit tree from a mere “stick with roots in the ground” to fruit bearing on to maturity with a well-coiffed top? If you have, there is emotion you are registering in your body when you read these next words…you know it is not easy. If you haven’t, please believe those who have. It is especially not easy in these years of drought or too much rain paired…
October 2022 CE Update
Hi families, Welcome back and Happy Fall! We are off to a great start this year with lots of smiling faces, some old and some new! We will be starting the service together with our church family weekly in the Sanctuary. Children are invited to sit with their families and will experience the beginning of the church service including a special message for all ages before being dismissed to church school. We are asking that parents pick their children up…
Prayer Cards
On Sunday, October 16th, we will be stepping into a new process for requesting and maintaining our prayer list. We will ask that prayer requests be shared through Prayer Cards that can be filled out when you enter the church and placed in a basket in the Narthex on Sunday morning or next to the office on weekdays. The prayer cards will ask for you to identify yourself and a way for us to contact you should we need to double-check…
Staffing Changes
This Tuesday, the leadership of Christian Education and the church staff received a letter from our beloved Christian Education Director. Devon expressed to the congregation that given the current needs of her family and desire to be near her husband as he faces a difficult health diagnosis, she needs to resign from her position. We have known that this might be necessary for her and have wanted to be as supportive as possible in both her life and her ministry…
From The Pastor’s Pen
Mark Edelson reminds the Christian community in We Aren’t Broke: Uncovering Hidden Resources for Mission and Ministry, that the church has been doing “mission and money” since its inception in the book of Acts. Amid its many successes have come, if not failure, at least staleness.” When the church faces either, it backs itself into survival mode and protects its assets, at all costs, even to closure—a trend we have been seeing clearly across the country and in this Conference for…
Will You Take a Moment to Consider?
Nominating has begun the search to fill our committee slots. Please prayerfully consider how you can help support our church by joining one of the committees. Contact either Karen Brighenti or Ellen Holmes for more information. DEACONS This group works together to assist the Pastor in the work of the church, including assistance with various aspects of the worship services, and administration of Communion. Deacons perform their tasks along with at least one other person, so there is always support…
Surviving and Thriving
In a season of change As we celebrate survival, and hope, we must also seek ways to thrive in this season of change for our church. I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” John 16:33 In the past year, this church experienced a huge change; for many, Pastor Ray’s departure in May clicked into focus the church’s need to reexamine who…