Pastor Letter 
Rev. Rob Mark, Pastor
"Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so that a runner may read it.
For there is still a vision for the appointed time; it speaks of the end, and does not lie.
If it seems to tarry, wait for it; it will surely come, it will not delay."
~Habbakuk 2:2-3
Dear Church,
As you know, this year we together have been in the faithful process of leaning into the Holy Spirit's guiding whisper (1 Kings 19:12), listening with extra intention specifically as it relates to how the scope of our next settled Associate Pastor best supports our mission. Since January, your Council has been working hard to help lead our community through this process.
Following our former Associate Pastor Rev. Julie's transition to Emerson, we quickly established a Pastoral Transition Team that met frequently to help us discern the next steps forward. This process involved two congregational gatherings and a congregational survey. This led to the decision to search for and call our (wonderful!) Transitional Associate Pastor Adam Isbitsky for a 6-month period (August 27, 2019-February 25, 2020). It also led us to construct a position description for our next settled Associate Pastor who will come after Adam that encompasses: Children & Youth Christian Education, Innovative Outreach, 20s30s Ministry, and Worship involvement. The central question that has arisen is whether this position should be full time, ¾ time or half-time. While a majority of voices have raised it would be ideal to have this position be full-time, the reality of the significant associated financial costs to make that possible remain an open and challenging question.
This challenge has led us to begin looking prayerfully in new ways at the resources we have been entrusted with, to see what possibilities might make sense; including such ideas as seeking out creative partnerships, increasing our annual drawn from our endowment, investigating new streams of revenue, and others. Such work requires us to engage with numbers and ideas carefully, and requires us all to have the most information we can in order to make sound decisions. In continuing this deep dive into finances and ideas, your Council feels it would be beneficial for all of us to have a bit more time. In speaking with many people over the past few weeks since September 8, we have heard both a desire for more information and that a significant number of COTCers regretfully would be away and unable to make the September 29 meeting. Therefore, your Council voted to postpone bringing a motion related to the Associate Pastor scope to the congregation for a vote at that meeting.
This said, we still gathered for a Congregational Gathering (without a vote) on September 29 after worship in Bates Hall in order:
1. to provide our community with more financial projections related to ways to pay for ministry, and
2. to give updates on our commitment to come up with a 3-5 year COTC Missional Plan beginning in 2020
Your Council will be working hard (with additional special meetings in September and October) and will continue to engage the entire congregation this fall to clarify such a Missional Plan. This we trust will aid in the process of deciding about how our pastoral staff and staffing structures best serve what we feel most called to be about, as followers of Jesus heading into a new decade. As we know well at COTC, mission and vision should always guide our finances and stewardship as a church. But in order to solidify our vision for the next 3-5 years, we need everyone's participation. So, we invite you to be a vital part of this vital work! In choosing to postpone the vote, we in turn are committing ourselves in a new way to an intentional process that requires input and participation. So, as best as you are able, please join us on the following dates:
- All Church Retreat Oct 18-19: there will be time built in on Saturday to discuss our vision for the next 3-5 years together
- Congregational Meeting Sunday November 10, following worship in Bates Hall, when we will vote on the next settled Associate Pastor position in light of our missional goals
Thank you all for your participation in this important and exciting process. As we move along, listening together for God's guidance, let's keep each other and this process in our prayers. And don't hesitate to speak with any member of Council if you have any questions.
In peace,
Rev. Rob on behalf of Council (Trudi Veldman, Phyllis Galt, Anne Crane, Barbara Darling, Arnold Rots, Nancy Hollomon, Kathryn Barry, Betty Southwick, Liz Vizza) and Pastor Adam
P.S. It's not too late to sign up for the Retreat! Register here.
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Real Healthcare Reform
GBIO Campaign
By Holly Humphreys, GBIO Healthcare Captain for Covenant
Have you participated in the GBIO campaign for Real Healthcare Reform? The three emphases of this campaign include: Mental health and substance use disorders parity with physical health coverage, putting a limit on high drugs costs, and eliminating 'surprise billing.' Thank you! If you were one who called the legislative leadership last week to support this important initiative, along with congregations across the Greater Boston Area.
We are still waiting for a firm date in late October from the Commonwealth's legislative leadership to participate in a large GBIO action of over 800 people. Reportedly Deleo and Spilka etc. are being lobbied heavily by hospitals, insurance companies, and pharmaceutical companies. Citizens asking for Real Healthcare Reform will show that we are a force to be reckoned with.
We will let you know as soon as we have a date and a location. We pledged to turn out 24 people from our Covenant community. Please talk this up to friends and family.
Speak with me or any of your GBIO liaisons if you have questions or concerns about this important initiative.
Holly Humphreys, Co-captain of GBIO Healthcare Initiative at Covenant, for Tim Groves, Faith Perry, Anne Crane, Tom Reid, and Kathryn Barry.
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Global Climate Strike
By Barbara Darling for Consumption & Justice Group
On Friday, September 20, more than 4 million people all over the world took part in a Global Climate Strike. A group of us from Church of the Covenant participated in the Boston Climate Strike event, and we were all inspired and excited by all the energetic youth (and older folks) who care so deeply about this beautiful earth God created. We rallied at City Hall and then marched to the State House.
What Can an Individual Do about Climate Change?
By Evelyn Kimber for Consumption & Justice
One of the top high-impact actions
an individual can make to
stem climate change is to move towards a plant-based diet
. In fact, it is now "well-established  and uncontroversial science" that it will be impossible to achieve the goals of the Paris Climate Accords, even if we were to do everything else, unless humans
reduce our meat and dairy consumption in a major way, as described in J. S. Foer's new book,
We Are the Weather.
Several people from Covenant attended Foer's recent talk in Cambridge on this topic. Swedish teen climate activist Greta Thunberg went vegan for the climate, and convinced her parents to do likewise.
To that end, the Boston Veg Food Fest is here to serve! With FREE admission, this two-day event organized by Covenant member Evelyn Kimber and a team of volunteers, will be on Saturday & Sunday, October 19 & 20. It offers 120+  exhibitors, free food sampling, plant-based cuisines from around the globe, top national speakers, chefs giving cooking demos, activities for kids, and lots of fun and learning in a welcoming environment. Everything presented at this festival--food, fashion, and lifestyle products--are 100% free of animal products. Those attending Covenant Retreat on Saturday can zip over to the festival after church activities on Sunday, if desired, to catch the tail end. There are some excellent speakers on Sunday afternoon. (Hours: Saturday 11-6 and Sunday 10-4.)
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The Usher Team Needs You!
By Denice Thornhill
The Usher Coordinators invite everyone to sign up to usher. The need is great but the task is easy--greet people entering church, hand them a bulletin, and later in the service help collect the offering. Maybe a total of 30 minutes. If you can share 30 minutes of your church time once a month, it would be really appreciated.
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News from the Pews 
Compiled by Linda Pursley
David McKinney has been section-hiking the Appalachian Trail for many years. He only has about 250 miles (out of 2,190!) left, all in Maine. In July, Mark Huston and Nancy Stockford joined him for the first few miles of his next section, starting at Grafton Notch in Maine and summiting East Baldpate. Mark and Nancy left David to complete the next 145 miles over the next ten days.
Mary Robison has returned from Hamilton, NY where she and her children celebrated the 95th birthday of her dad's baby sister. About 90 cousins and friends joined the party for Aunt Helen, including her great, great grandson!
Liz Vizza reports on the beautiful wedding of her daughter
Sophie Hines at a summer camp on Lake Winnepesaukee in New Hampshire. It was three days of fun with friends and family--frisbee, arts and crafts for the kids, canoes and kayaks to use. The ceremony was simple and very moving, and by the end of the weekend it felt like one happy tribe--or a love fest, as one guest remarked. Photos not back from the photographer yet, but here are a couple:
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Under the Mango Tree 
by Tim Groves
Note: This column will be a monthly sharing of stories from our sister church community, Dulce Nombre de Jesus, in northwest Nicaragua.
Eduardo and Luis of our accompanying team Entre Culturas continue monthly visits to our Sister Community. They support the village in their determination to stay strong and united as a faith community of Church of the Poor. Entre Culturas also serves as a communication bridge between Covenant and Dulce Nombre. An important part of this communication are Community Letters back and forth, and here is the most recent Community Letter from Dulce Nombre, translated by Memo of Entre Culturas.
Dear Brothers and Sisters of Church of the Covenant,
We greet you with much love and joy, wishing that the peace of God be with you all.
On Thursday, September 19, we had a meeting with Entre Culturas who brought us a heavy rain from Managua. We went almost two months without having any rain. We also read the letters that you sent us.
We hope that the rains will continue so that we can have a little harvest because the first harvest was completely lost.
It also gives us great joy knowing that you have a new Pastor, Adam, who will be working along with Pastor Rob. We hope to meet Adam one day.
We want to tell you that we were very happy during the Celebrations of our National Holidays [
independence from Spain]. We celebrated with parades, school bands, cultural activities and inaugurating a new basketball and futsal court. The children of the primary school and adolescents of the secondary school participated.
We are preparing with Entre Culturas to be able to have the video call with you. We have decided that this conversation will take place on Saturday, October 19, at 4pm Covenant time. [
This video call is planned during our All-Church Retreat at Miramar; we will work to move the time earlier so that we will still be on Retreat together.]
On August 24 we gathered with Esperanza's family to commemorate 6 months of her departure with a Celebration of the Word at her home. The celebration was led by Maximino and Roberto, Gloria's brother. Then on August 27 we had a Celebration of the Word to commemorate six months of the departure of Nicolas, Ruber's father. This Celebration was led by Maximino.
On August 14 we celebrated "La Purisima" sharing different kinds of sweets, bananas and rice pudding, not only with the community but also with the whole region.
Today we were also meeting with the dentists from Canada and they have confirmed that they will be coming to Dulce Nombre on February 10, 2020, to provide dental care during two weeks for the people of Dulce Nombre and surrounding communities. The services that they will provide are dental extraction, fillings, cleaning and dental reconstruction, which is of great help to the people of the region because these are very expensive services.
On October 2 we will be inaugurating the Rodeo Grande Bridge so the community will be celebrating. [
Covenant's delegation in July got to see this almost completed concrete/steel bridge connecting adjoining villages in the neighborhood.]
Greetings and hugs to all.
Sincerely,
Maximino, Mildren, Gloria, Mariana, Cristel and Ruber for the Community
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Our
2019 All Church Retreat will be
Friday, October 18 and Saturday, October 19, at the Miramar Retreat Center in Duxbury, Mass. For details and registration,
click here.
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Council Report
By Phyllis Galt
At the September Council meeting, Council approved the following motions:
- Designate Barbara Darling as delegate to the Annual Meeting of the Southern New England UCC conferences.
- Designate Nancy Hollomon and Phyllis Galt as commissioners to the September Presbytery meeting
- Authorize candidate Tom Reid to serve communion at Church of the Covenant
- Call a special council meeting on Sunday September 29 at 9:45 AM to meet with potential new members.
- Call a special council meeting on Thursday September 26 at 7 PM to prepare a motion for a congregational vote on September 29
- Approve use of the sanctuary, free of charge, for a concert by The Unitas Ensemble at Covenant on November 8. The Unitas Ensemble, which specializes in Latin American music, would like to play a concert at Covenant on November 8. They would like us to donate the space in exchange for providing music on November 3, which happens to be Covenant renewal.
Other business and reports:
- The growing of our staff with Associate Pastor Adam Isbitsky has been very smooth and he has jumped fully into the flow of our ministry. The Committee on Ministry of South East MA has approved Adam for ordination as Transitional Associate Pastor position with Church at the Covenant. The ordination will take place in Stoughton in the fall.
- Recent follow up meetings were held with the Neighborhood Association Back Bay (NABB) around homelessness. Possible next forum at Boston Public Library will be early 2020 and will focus on housing and homelessness policy items
- A proposal was received from Anchor Church of Boston (http://www.anchorboston.com), Assemblies of God, to rent space from us on Thursdays, 5-9 pm. Council discussed the proposal and after deliberation decided to decline. Council expressed thanks to Bill Brown for his work on this potential rental opportunity.
- There was discussion of the Position Description for Settled Associate Pastor. Council requested additional financial information with regards to increasing the withdrawal from the Investment Portfolio. Council also plans to prepare a proposed motion to bring to the congregation for a vote on September 29.
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4 Liz Vizza, Karen Henry
8 David McKinney
11 Kay Carleton
12 Theodor Langenbruch
16 Fred Lopes
18 Mocky Day
23 Joe Waters
24 Wendy Woodfield, Blake Fox
25 Kaitlyn Martin Fox
29 Holly Humphreys
30 Kathryn Craig
Note: If your October birthday does not appear on this list, please notify Hillary in the church office so we can include you next year!
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October  2019
Calendar
most up-to-date church calendar.
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About This Issue
October 2019 Covenant News
Editor and Graphics: Evelyn Kimber
Template: Harry Forsdick
Deadline for the November 2019 Covenant News is Thursday, October 24. Please email your submissions to Evelyn Kimber at
[email protected]
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