News & Events to Nourish Your Soul By
Summer 2015 Edition
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Well, it's official...winter has ended!
Summer officially starts next Sunday, but the weather has been beautiful here in Connecticut...a true gift from God!
With summer comes some changes:
- Our Sunday Service will begin at 9 am beginning Sunday, July 5th through Sunday, September 13th (Tavern Day).
- This will be the last formal newsletter of the summer as this writer and our trusty editor-in-chief need some summer R&R! We'll resume our monthly email around September 1st. If something comes up between now and then, we'll do special emails. The next email deadline: Tuesday, August 18th
- Our Congregation members enjoy their vacations. So we ask that you please keep your pledge current to help with the summer cash flow. We have large insurance bills to pay in June, so a steady pledge collection helps keep us from liquidating our invested funds too much! You can mail your checks to:
- Congregational Church of Burlington, PO Box 1291, Burlington, CT 06013
Let's get to this summer's activities and thank you for reading!
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Congratulations Confirmands!
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Congratulations to our 8 young men, 1 young lady and 1 Superintendent who received the Sacrament of Confirmation from Rev. Taylor on Sunday, May 24th.
Thank you to all the sponsors who took time out to help mentor and teach our children this past year.
It was a beautiful ceremony and the Sanctuary was filled with many family members present to witness these fine young adults begin their Spiritual adulthood! Congrats again!
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Youth Sunday on Father's Day, June 21st
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From the Superintendent:
I'd like to remind everyone that Youth Sunday is on June 21st. Please mark your calendars as you won't want to miss this service! Our youth always does a great job at making memorable services!
Also, I'd like to mention what a pleasure it has been working with all of the students this year. They are a constant reminder of Heaven to me.
And of course, I am deeply grateful and thankful to all of you who have taught and kept our Congregation's children in your hearts this year.
Without your selflessness, our Church would not be nearly as blessed as it is.
If anyone is interested in teaching next year or assisting the Superintendent, please feel free to contact me.
God bless you all,
Your grateful Sunday School Superintendent,
Tim Higley
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Special 2nd Collection - Sunday, June 21st
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 As the Business Committee shared during the Annual Budget Meeting, we will have to do Special Collections as needed for expenses that are not budgeted for.
Remember, the Congregation voted in a non-balanced budget to avoid some very deep cuts with the promise to support these Special Collection calls.
We have several immediate expenses in an
Organ repair ($1,275.00) and our Constant Contact digital marketing renewal ($378). We will also have some required music licenses renewing soon, so any amount collected today will be used to offset as much of these expenses as possible.
Please help us balance our budget
by generously donating
when the wicker baskets are passed around
AFTER our normal collection
during our Youth Sunday Service this Sunday, June 21st!
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Congregation Approves Paint & Steeple Repair Project - The Clock is Ticking!
On Sunday, May 31st, our Congregation held a Special Meeting to discuss the Business Committee's recommended plan to repair our leaking steeple, restore our steeple clock face, prep and paint the building exterior and other items needed to protect the structural integrity of our church.
It was approved and the planning is underway with Stevenson Services to get a start date. If that name sounds familiar, it's because they did our roof a few years ago!
You can read all about the meeting here, but know that the church pictured was done by our vendor as well as the Plymouth and Kent Congregational churches.
Thank you to all who attended, shared their thoughts and voted. This is what makes the Congregational Church so special!
We have known costs now for the the next 3 years and we are exploring every avenue looking for outside funding, but the reality is it will take our Congregation contributing together over the next 3 years to make this work. More on that after the summer, but know we will be looking great like the new Streetscape...
Speaking of the Streetscape
Thank you all for your patience while the Town Streetscape Project moves forward towards completion. It should be completed in the next few weeks and we'll do our best to button things up to make our grounds look good. If you have any questions, contact Jerry Burns so he can get you answers.
Lawn Mower Repair Help Needed
Is anyone good with small engine repairs? We have enough volunteers for this year's Labyrinth/Grounds mowing and trimming, but I noticed that the old beast is burning oil at a good clip.
I may know computers, but I don't know engines beyond basic maintenance. If you know your way around a tractor engine, can you take a look at the problem to see if you can fix it? The plan was to put it in for basic servicing at the end of the cutting season, so any help now can save $$.
And, if someone gets a new tractor for Father's Day and has a decent lawn tractor just hanging around...well, a donation to your favorite Congregational Church would be greatly appreciated! We'll even give you fair value credit for your taxes! All we ask is that no maintenance other than normal be needed. Thanks!
Email us if you can help with the engine and/or wish to donate a mower.
 Check Writing Tips
Have you ever wondered if you NEED to use the old pledge envelopes? How about if you NEED to write a separate check for every week when catching up? Me neither, but here are some tips for those that do:
- You can make your check out to CCB, the bank is down with that!
- Put your Envelope # on your memo line to help our collection counters.
- If you do have 2 or more catch up weeks, just use the most current pledge envelope and write one check for the total amount (or put in all the cash). This will help the collection counters immensely!
- For a Special Collection, we suggest writing a separate check with the Envelope # and memo line notation in addition to your planned offering. Please make it out to CCB and not to the organization we are supporting. This will allow us to credit your donation through the church AND send one check from us to the organization vs. keeping track of many checks.
Do you have any other questions on this topic? Share it and we'll get you the right answer!
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Summer Relaxation Raffle on Sunday, July 12th - Need to Sell More Tickets!
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 Time is running out to sell and/or purchase your $2.00 ticket to win all you see below! Please
contact Maryann Burns ASAP if you wish to sell tickets to your friends, family and co-workers OR if you wish to arrange purchasing a few yourself!
The prizes are great and support our local economy! Good luck to everyone who enters and thank you for helping us support others!
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Be sure to check out the
Our Church Family
and
The Deacons' Bench
pages on our website as they share even more details on today's CCB news of importance:
- Father's Day is this Sunday, June 21st and it's not too late to donate to the combined Mother's Day/Father's Day collection for the CT Foodbank. Read all about it here and see the Check Writing Tips above to see how to complete your check for this collection. Thanks to all who have and who will contribute!
- Scrips is a KNOWN WAY to raise money & reduce the deficit - Commit to our Church by committing to this program. See Maryann Burns to learn how easy it is to do.
- The Deacons would like say "Thank You" to all our volunteer Lay Readers and Coffee Hour teams. Both programs have been a rousing success! We'll be in contact in September to finalize next year's lists. If you want to join or be removed from the list, you can let us know now (if you haven't already). Thanks again!
- As of this email, the plan is to do our Tavern Day Grill and the Potato & Apple Crisp tents again. Fundraising will need volunteers to help prepare the food, set up on Tavern Day, help serve and/or cook and clean up at the end of the event. There will be more information later in the summer, but please make note of the September 13th date so we have enough volunteers to make this another successful year (it's one of our best 1-day events)! Thank you in advance.
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Newsletter Tip:
Want to share an event or story with someone not attending our Church?
Share it to many friends at once by clicking your favorite social media icon in the bar at the top of the email.
Have one friend in mind? Click the Forward to a Friend button below, it's that simple!!
You can do one or more...spread The Word!
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July 11th Car Wash & Can and Bottle Drive!
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Cub Scout Pack 23 Car Wash July 11th from 10 am until 1 pm
Bring your cans and bottles and get your car cleaned at the same time on Saturday, July 11th!
We sponsor Cub Scout Pack 23 and we are happy to have them doing their Annual Car Wash while we do our Can & Bottle Drive.
Please help instill the gift of giving to the kids (and adults) by supporting this great event!
Get your garage cleaned out and your car clean for the garage...all on July 11th in our Church parking lot!!!
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Can & Bottle Drive July 11th from 8:30 am until 12 Noon
Can & Bottle Drive with Cub Scout Car Wash Join us on Saturday July 11, 2015 from 8:30 AM to 12:00 PM EDT as it's time to do our Quarterly Can & Bottle Drive!! Please support our causes so we can continue meeting our missions locally, nationally and world-wide through the UCC! In addition, Cub Scout Troop 23 will be doing their annual car wash in our parking lot! Come support us and the kids, it will be fun! |
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 Whew! I am always amazed at all that is going on each month. I would like to thank Joanne Kurnik for all the help and support in organizing and editing these.
Please have a safe summer and thanks in advance for your support of our special collections, raffles and July 11th Can & Bottle Drive. As I have said before, it truly "takes a Congregation" to nurture and grow our church...both inside and out!
May it be so,
Jerry Burns
Business Committee Chairperson
Digital Marketing & Management Chairperson
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Copyright ? 2015. All Rights Reserved.
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