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The Union Church in Waban
Friday, April 7, 2017
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Calling for Kids to serve as greeters for our
Palm Sunday Processional!
We are looking for a few more children and youth to serve as greeters at the doors, handing out palms and bulletins before the service.
Please contact Amy (
amy@ucw.org
) or come at 9:45 a.m. if you are able to help.
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Bible Discussion at 8:00 a.m.
We are walking through the Gospel of Luke and are engaging in discussion with all we find there. All are welcome
Choir Rehearsal at 9:00 a.m.
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Palm Sunday Worship at 10:00 a.m.
With palms, a procession and Loud Hosannas, we enter Holy Week on this Palm Sunday. Our scripture and sermon, will ask us to consider "What makes for Peace" in our time and where the Way of Jesus could be leading us?
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Palm Sunday Children's Processional
This weekend is Palm Sunday, when we raise palm fronds, shouting Hosanna!, as we walk together towards Holy Week and Easter.
We are looking for a few more children and youth to serve as greeters at the doors, handing out palms and bulletins before the service. Please contact Amy
(
amy@ucw.org) or come at 9:45am if you are able to help.
We also hope
ALL kids will come 5-10 minutes before 10 a.m. to line up for our Palm Sunday processional around the sanctuary at the start of the worship service. Looking forward to this special morning!
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Bell Choir Practice: 11:15 a.m.
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C
hildren,Youth, and
Family
Ministries
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Easter is next Sunday, and our annual Easter Egg Hunt following worship is always a highlight! We are very grateful for donations of plastic eggs filled with goodies - e.g. stickers, trinkets or wrapped candies (no NUTS please!). We also have helper-bunnies who can stuff eggs, if you prefer to drop off bags of goodies or unfilled eggs. Please find a basket outside the CE office for donations, or contact Amy at amy@ucw.org. Thank you for helping to make this such a fun celebration for our kids!
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Youth Lenten Series
This Sunday, April 2
nd
our Youth will help lead Communion
The youth are engaged in a creative new series, which began on Sunday, March 5th and will run through the five Sundays in Lent, and into Holy Week. This hands-on series explores the mystery of Communion and what it means to live together as beloved community. Over the past few weeks, the youth have baked bread and created items for our Communion table. Today, they will lead our congregation in Communion, with a liturgy they have written. We are so grateful for their leadership and hard work! An overview of the Lenten series, as well as a calendar of Youth Ministry events this year, was sent to parents, and can be found in the Crocker Chapel or online under the Youth Ministry tab of www.ucw.org.
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WISH LIST
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UCW Kids and Mini-Missions
Donation Boxes in the Crocker Chapel
THANK YOU!
Developed by the Christian Education and Teacher Teams, Mini-Missions is an initiative to involve our children in simple, tangible service projects that encourage them to see service as an integral part of their faith and lives. The kids have placed their Collection boxes, as well as wish-lists, for the three organizations - MSPCA, Newton Food Pantry and Birthday Wishes -in the Crocker Chapel and we are grateful for your donations! The wish-lists can also be found under the Youth & Children tab of www.ucw.org or by going HERE. With questions, and please contact Amy (amy@ucw.org). Thank you!
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UCW Youth - Maundy Thursday (April 13
th),
and
Upcoming Service Event (Sat., May 6th)
Many thanks to the youth, parents and members of the Youth Ministry Team who contributed to the beautiful Communion service last Sunday! As we look toward Holy Week and beyond, we extend a special welcome to our youth for our Maundy Thursday service, this Thursday at
6:15 p.m. This is a beautiful and engaging time to share a meal and worship together remembering the Last Supper. The youth are invited to help serve soup, read scripture, and/or simply experience this special service. Please contact Amy (amy@ucw.org), if your youth is interested in attending.
Please also SAVE THE DATE for the afternoon of Saturday, May 6
th
, when the youth are invited to an afternoon at
Gaining Ground Farm in Concord, MA
. All produce from this farm goes to local food pantries and meal programs, and we'll be helping them plant and harvest. Look for an Evite and more information soon.
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OUR EASTER SPECIAL COLLECTION
Food insecurity and access to good food for folks in elderly housing
and for
Geneva - Bowden Immigrant Families.
Our Partner, Sister Joyce, at Project Care and Concern, can serve many people when she
fills her donated van early Wednesday mornings with quality day-old breads and pastries
from Whole Foods. Sometimes she can fill two shopping carts on those mornings at
7:00 a.m.,
that she can then take to Harbor Point residence housing where seniors wait for her.
Then she drives to her tiny pantry in Bowden-Geneva and stocks the shelves, where many immigrant families come to get bread and canned goods.
However, the chance to have cash on hand to buy fresh fruits and fresh vegetables for the drop off with folks, who have no ability to go shopping is a rare God-send.
Our Easter collection this year will support Sr. Joyce as she buys good, healthy produce for
our neighbors. The truth about food insecurity for elders who must also pay for their
needed medications is often poorly understood.
Thank you for your generous gift this Easter to this Easter offering
in partnering for healthier lives through healthy food.
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HOLY WEEK OFFERINGS AT UCW
Palm Sunday, April 9.
Palm Sunday marks the entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem as the crowd gathered waving palms and singing Hosanna, and the beginning of Holy Week. As we remember the story from long ago, we take time to consider our own walk of faith and how we too are challenged to bring God's love into the death-dealing places of our day.
Maundy Thursday Service, April 13, 6:15 p.m
.
Our worship begins with a light meal as we join with Jesus' Last Supper with his disciples on the eve of his betrayal and death and remember his commandment to love each other as he has loved us. ("Maundy" is the Latin word for "commandment"). As the light fades, we move into our Tenebrae portion of the service where we move through scripture and song with Jesus and the disciples as the events of Holy Week unfold. "Tenebrae" is the Latin word for "darkness" and it is therefore during this time that we contemplate our own brokenness and weakness in the light of God's powerful message of redemptive love. Child care will be available. There will be a suggested donation of $5/individual or $20 cap for families to help cover the cost of our simple supper.
Holy Saturday Vigil, April 15, 7:00 - 8:00 p.m.
We begin our worship in the darkness that closed our Maundy Thursday service, but move steadily through song and prayer, communion and the reaffirmation of our baptisms into the dawning of the Good News of Easter that we know is coming! Child care will be provided.
Easter Sunday Worship, April 16, 10:00 a.m.
With joy and thanksgiving we celebrate the gift of Easter. Children are invited to share in worship, though we will have nursery care available. After the service, there will be a Easter Egg hunt.
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Directory is ready!
Stop by the table in Crocker Chapel this Sunday
to pick up a hard copy of the church directory.
If you would like a PDF of the directory sent to you, please be in touch with Office Manager, Aidan Cunningham.
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 GROWING TOGETHER
2017/2018 Stewardship Campaign
There may still be snow on the ground, but we've turned our clocks ahead, Red Sox Opening Day is right around the corner, and the vernal equinox is in the rear view mirror. Spring is here! So many great things happen in the spring, and right after flowers, birds and green grass comes....The UCW Stewardship Campaign!
During our stewardship Season we remember that Church in not so much something we partake of, but instead it is something we participate in. The church is all of us contributing our time, talents and treasures and creating a thriving community of faith where all can grow together.
Through out the month of April we will be hearing from different members of the church about what UCW means to them and why they give to the church. We hope you too will take a moment reflect on what the church means to you and to consider making a pledge.
You will be receiving pledging information in the mail in the next couple of days. Information is also be available in the Crocker Chapel, off the sanctuary. If you have any questions,
please do not hesitate to reach out to
Grant
Gund, chair of our
Stewardship Team.
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RUSSELL SCHOOL PARTNERSHIP UPDATE
An Evening at Haley House
Join us for "Lyricists' Lounge"! Haley House offers good food and great entertainment on Thursday evenings! We can show our support for their efforts to break the cycle of incarceration through their Transitional Employment Program, supporting people's return to their community.
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Music is back at Russell School!!
The students at Russell Elementary School lost their important music program to budget cuts.
This important offering is back with external partners funding support.
The extraordinary concert for parents and guests was attended by Nancy Zollers.
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Union Church supports the new Russell Parent Newsletter!
Parents now receive school news in their child's backpack, available in four languages!
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MISSIONS SPRING HAPPENINGS!
"love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor. Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers."
Romans 12:10-13
To quote Pastor Stacy, "Just as the bulbs planted deep in the ground begin to stir to new life as the days grow longer in the coming of spring, so too does this season encourage a kind of germination of God's spirit in us, calling us to new life and new beginnings . . ."
We welcome everyone at UCW to connect your hearts with one of our many offerings this spring!
Easter Sunday, 4/16/17
Project Care and Concern will be the recipient of the Easter collection.
The offering will be used by Sister Joyce to purchase fresh produce for their food pantry.
Date TBD
Bread for the World
Once again, we will participate in the annual Offering of Letters "urging Congress to make funding decisions that put our country and the world on track to ending hunger by 2030."
Contact: Priscilla Kelso,plkelso@verizon.net or Beth Sears, bsears112@yahoo.com
Thursday, 4/27/17
An Evening at Haley House
Join us for "Lyricists' Lounge! Haley House offers good food and great entertainment on Thursday evenings! We can show our support for their efforts to break the cycle of incarceration through their Transitional Employment Program, supporting people's return to their community.
Contact: Beth Sears, bsears112@yahoo.com
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Adult Education, Fellowship, and Spiritual Formation
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Our book choice for April will be --
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard
(Pulitzer Prize, 1975) -- an exhilarating study of faith and nature. A theologian and writer, Dillard explores religious themes in the cycle of the seasons.
Save APRIL 25 in your calendar
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A
dult, Small Group Retreat
Toah Nipi
Retreat Center
Rindge NH
Spring is the season when our natural world begins to wake up from its winter sleep and make ready for a new season and summer. It is when the frozen earth thaws; bears and their cousins emerge; tree sap flows. It is when many of our birds return home from their far away travels; and when our lakes and streams rebound with oodles of life. With all this stirring - "mixing memory with desire", the woods and fields become filled and pungent with ancient and new smells and sights and sounds and sensations that trigger and feed our own world and imagination. Let us take up spring's invitation and "Come to our Senses".
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Sun., Apr. 9
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11:15 a.m.
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Bell Choir Rehearsal
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11:30 p.m.
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Worship Team
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Mon., Apr. 10
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10:30 a.m.
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Bible Study
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7:00 p.m.
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Choir Rehearsal
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Tue., Apr. 11
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6:00 p.m.
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Council
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Wed., Apr. 12
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7:30 a.m.
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Prayer Group
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9:00 a.m.
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Coffee w/Stacy at Starbucks
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Thur., Apr. 13
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10:30 a.m.
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Waban Health Worship
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6:15 p.m.
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Maundy Thursday Service
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Sat., Apr. 15
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7:00 p.m.
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Holy Saturday Service
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Sun., Apr. 16
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9:00 a.m.
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Choir Rehearsal
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10:00 a.m.
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Easter Worship
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11:30 a.m.
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Easter Egg Hunt
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For a complete listing, and details of all upcoming events,
please visit our website calendar HERE
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Help lay the table during fellowship hour
One of the many ministries of UCW is hosting a fellowship hour after worship on Sunday morning. This table, laid with love and a simple spread is (as Adam Hearlson said in his mission moment a few weeks ago) very much a communion table. It not only nourishes our bodies, but it also nourishes the relationships that make us one Body, one with each other and with God. If you would like to share in this ministry and host this time of communion, please go
here.
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