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The Union Church in Waban
Friday, November 22, 2019
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8:00 a.m. - Bible Study in Stacy's Study
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8:30 a.m. - Teacher's Breakfast
All are invited on Sunday morning as we share breakfast and discuss our Sunday-morning ministries with children and youth! This Sunday we'll turn our hearts and creativity to the upcoming Christmas Pageant, and hope you will join us as we plan for this beloved worship service.
(Amy's Office, 8:30 - 9:30 a.m.)
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9:00 a.m. - Choir Rehearsal
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11:30 a.m. - Montgomery Travelers Presentation - Stories from our Journey
Three travelers, Kathleen Hobson, Arlyne Grant and Brita Gill-Austern, will share what shifted in their perspective and understanding regarding racism during their visit to Selma and Montgomery. Please join us for an important ongoing conversation (Stage).
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THIS SUNDAY:
Welcoming Olivia DiMaio
UCW's New Nursery Caregiver and Teacher!
We are very excited to welcome Olivia Dimaio to our Children's Ministry Team this Sunday! Olivia will oversee our nursery and provide care for our littlest ones, as well as serve as a teacher in our Littlehale (pre-k to 3rd grade) Sunday School classroom. Olivia grew up in Pennsylvania and has a wealth of experience with children, including summers as a counselor for children with special needs. She recently completed her Masters degree in Health Policy from UMass Amherst and moved to Brighton to work at Boston Children's Hospital Trust. Please join us in warmly welcoming Olivia!
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Special Collection This Sunday
This year our
Special Collection on Thanksgiving Sunday
,
November 24th
will be in support of the
Family Team of Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program
(www.bhchp.org). Our collection will allow Family Team staff to provide gift cards to parents in need.
More than 3,500 homeless families with children and pregnant women are currently housed through the Massachusetts shelter system, representing approximately 13,000 individuals, an estimated 60% of whom are children. Homeless parents struggle to raise their children while facing innumerable questions each day-
Where will our next meal come from? Are we safe? How will my children get to school or to a doctor? When will we find a home of our own?
BHCHP's multidisciplinary Family Team-comprised of physicians, nurse practitioners, nurses, behavioral health clinicians, and case managers-travels to 20 locations across greater Boston to deliver health care, supportive services, and basic resources to
1,000 homeless individuals, approximately 600 of which children
.
The Family Team works quickly to bring its services to where it is needed most, add necessary resources to support families in need, and advocate for a population that often feels voiceless. The Family Team helps families navigate systems to access a safe source of shelter, food, and other basic survival needs, even arranging them to stay in a hotel in times of crisis to avoid sleeping on the street or in unsafe settings. The Family Team brings as many resources to bear as possible to help families untangle complex problems by connecting them with legal services, assisting them with documentation and identification needs, and ensuring that they have much-needed medical and behavioral health care.
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Advent Devotional Booklet - Contributions Welcome!
You are invited to contribute to the 2019 UCW Advent devotional booklet. Our theme for Advent carries forward the idea of what it is to shine, something that we explored at the All Church Retreat and that Pastor Stacy will be entering into during the sermon this Sunday as well. In Advent, as we draw closer to the manger, we reflect on how God's love shines forth through Hope, Peace, Joy and Love. We also recognize that to shine as our true and authentic selves can also be scary. It can make us vulnerable and it takes courage, compassion, community and care. Do you have a piece of writing, a poem, a photo that you could offer to the booklet as we make our way through Advent?
If so please be in touch with Pastor
Stacy
.
Submissions are due by This Sunday November 24
th
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The Union Church in Waban
Christmas Tree
&
Greens Sale
On December 1st, 2019, we will welcome the Advent season by decorating the sanctuary with greens, wreaths and poinsettias.
The greens sale is an annual fundraiser that this year supports our work in Nicaragua. Wreathes, poinsettias, sprigs and other festive decorations are available to purchase to prepare our homes and our sanctuary for Advent and the celebration of Christmas.
Please help us continue our good works by purchasing poinsettias for the sanctuary or to decorate your home! Do not forget to offer an order form to family, friends, coworkers and neighbors to help 2019 be our most successful sale yet!
Download the Order Form
HERE
Orders are due by This Sunday November 24
th
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Catie's Closet Donations
THIS Sunday, November 24th is the last day for our collection!
Thanksgiving marks the time when the Mission Committee will transition from its theme of Inequity and Inequality in Education to Homelessness and Housing Insecurity -- realizing, of course, that these themes are deeply interconnected. To signal this transition, we will be making one more donation to Catie's Closet. So, with the colder weather in mind, please search your closets and dressers for warm clothing to donate THIS Sunday, November 24
th, the last day for our Catie's Closet collection. Thank you!
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 Children, Youth and Families
Growing in Faith and Community
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KIDS AND YOUTH SERVICE OPPORTUNITY: THANKSGIVING COMMUNITY DINNER
Today and Tomorrow
Our beloved Thanksgiving Community Dinner is coming up soon (see details above), and is a great opportunity for all-ages to serve! Come on Friday night to help set up, or on Saturday to help serve and welcome our guests. You can sign up here or through the link on the ucw.org homepage.
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THANK YOU! HELPING HANDS CLEAN-UP
Thanks so much to all the hosts, youth and adults who helped make our fall clean-up such a success last week! More than 30 volunteers visited four homes and worked at the church, filling more than 100 bags of leaves, planting bulbs, getting homes ready for the winter, and having a great time connecting over cider, hot chocolate and donuts. We're so grateful for this beloved community and how we care for one another!
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FOURTH GRADE BIBLES and THANKSGIVING SUNDAY
This Sunday, November 24th
On Nov. 24
th, we'll give thanks for and celebrate our fourth graders as they grow in their faith, and as the church gifts them their own Bibles. We hope you will plan to join us. If you have a fourth grader in your home or family who would like to be part of this special day, please be in touch with Pastor Amy (
amy@ucw.org).
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INTERGENERATIONAL
ADVENT WREATH-MAKING
Sunday, December 1st and 8th
, following Worship on the Stage
Bring the light of peace, love, hope and joy into your home during this Advent season! We'll have all the supplies you need to create an Advent wreath for your home, just bring your creativity and a desire to create sacred space in the busyness of the season. If you have a wire frame from years past, please feel free to bring it to add new greens and candles. Donations towards materials are welcome.
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SAVE THE DATE:
CHRISTMAS PAGEANT -
KIDS LEAD US IN ADVENT WORSHIP
Sunday, December 15th, (with rehearsal on Dec. 14th)
Calling all UCW Musicians!
We're excited to begin thinking about our child-and-youth-led Advent worship service. If you or your kids would like to share music for this special service, lead our storytelling or liturgy, or help behind the scenes, greeting, or in any other way, please let Pastor Amy (
amy@ucw.org
) know. There are ways for everyone to participate!
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Adult Education, Spiritual Formation and Fellowship
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norwood health
Pen Pal ministry
Once a month, a group from UCW worships with the residents of Norwood Health. Many of these residents were formerly our neighbors, living at Waban Health before that facility closed.
In addition to our monthly worship service, many of the residents enjoy writing and receiving cards. We know that loneliness adversely affects health and well being and many of the residents are quite socially isolated. Writing cards is one way we can help foster connection and share the love of UCW. If you are interested in being a pen pal with a resident of Norwood Health. Please be in touch with Stacy
.
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NEW DAY - THURSDAY MORNINGS
PRAYER GROUP: 7:30 - 8:15 a.m.
We live in a noisy world. There is much that clamors for our attention. Even when we shut our eyes at night it may take a while for the din to die down enough for us to sleep. You are invited into a practice of cultivating spaciousness and silence. You are invited into the beauty of the morning light streaming in through the windows of Memorial Chapel. You are invited to rest a while in the peace of stillness. If you have questions, please be in touch with
Sandra DaDalt
or
Pastor Stacy
.
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YOGA WITH ANDREW
CONTINUES THROUGH DECEMBER
THURSDAYS from 9:00 - 10:00 a.m.
(Note new time.)
Join body and spirit in an accessible yoga class. In this hour-long class, we will join breath and body both in energetic flow and restorative stretching. No matter where you are on your yoga journey, you will build strength and find a quiet restful center. This class is accessible to all body types and abilities. Please bring a yoga mat and any favorite props. Andrew has some props and mats available to borrow.
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Tuesday, December 10th, 7:00 - 8:30 p.m.
Our next book is "Between the World and Me"
by Ta-Nehisi Coates.
"In a profound work that pivots from the biggest questions about American history and ideals to the most intimate concerns of a father for his son, Ta-Nehisi Coates offers a powerful new framework for understanding our nation's history and current crisis. Americans have built an empire on the idea of "race," a falsehood that damages us all but falls most heavily on the bodies of black women and men-bodies exploited through slavery and segregation, and, today, threatened, locked up, and murdered out of all proportion. What is it like to inhabit a black body and find a way to live within it? And how can we all honestly reckon with this fraught history and free ourselves from its burden?"
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Reflecting on Mission/Outreach Experiences
Sunday, December 1st, 11:30 a.m.
Mission Outreach Leadership is offering a time to reflect on the experience of being of service on Sunday, December 1st. Whether you participated in the Thanksgiving Community Dinner, the raking and yard clean up activity on the 17th, attended one of the reflection sessions offered by the Montgomery Travelers, or had another opportunity to serve and learn, you are invited to this time of reflection as we think about the role of service in the life of faith. Also in light of our Hanging of the Greens service where we prepare our church home for the Advent season, we will reflect on our winter mission outreach theme of homelessness and housing and how we may being called into deeper service with those who are experiencing homelessness or housing insecurity.
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homelessness and housing
This year your
Mission Outreach Leadership Team
is organizing its work (and coordinating with the other areas of UCW life) around seasonal themes. These will provide an organizing context for the many mission activities and we will coordinate educational opportunities, worship, and children's education around these themes when possible. We also hope to coordinate our seasonal offerings around these themes.
Themes are as follows:
Winter -
Homelessness and Housing
Spring -
Climate Change (and disaster relief)
For more information about these offerings please feel free to reach out to
Carol Bascom-Slack,Jaap van Reijendam or Julie Heffernan.
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We, the members of The Union Church in Waban, true to our founding principle of being an inclusive church, covenant together to nourish and to sustain in our common life and practice a fully welcoming and affirming church for all persons. Welcoming all persons who seek to join with us in a commitment to love God and our neighbors, affirming the inclusive love of Jesus, we are open to all, without regard to race, gender, sexual orientation, nationality, ability or economic circumstance. We invite all to full participation in our worship, membership, leadership and life of this church.
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For a complete listing, and details of all upcoming events,
please
Note
: Material for inclusion in the Friday e-Blast newsletter should be e-mailed to the office at
ucw@ucw.org
, by 9:00 a.m. on the previous Wednesday morning.
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Revisiting Civil Rights Sites in
Montgomery, Selma, and Birmingham Alabama,
and Boston MA
Purpose
We propose a project of Civil Rights era remembrance for two audiences, for youth and for civic and academic leaders. This venture is intergenerational. Youth will be involved with film and social media; civic and academic leaders in an academic conference drawing from the New Democracy Coalition's program on Civic Literacy, CMM's Values over Violence and Interfaith Youth Initiatives, the Ella J Baker House and Seymour Institute, and additional partners, churches and synagogues. We seek to acknowledge the 55
th
anniversary of the crossing of Pettus Bridge in Selma (2020) and related events.
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Selma - 2020 Phase One:
Focus on Youth: travel seminar by bus and one night's hotel lodging
February 28
Friday: 20-hour bus trip as traveling seminar with civil rights video
February 29
Saturday: Montgomery, AL; visit National Memorial for Peace & Justice (Saturday Night - in hotel/motel)
March 1
Sunday: Jubilee Sunday: Church Service and Pettus Bridge Crossing
March 2
Monday: Birmingham Civil Rights Museum and 16
th Baptist Church
March 3
Tuesday: Back in Boston in the early morning/mid afternoon
April
Gathering of Sojourners: "What Did It All Mean?" Date & Place: TBA
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Boston - 2021
Phase Two:
Five nights of Boston hospitality, receptions and academic conference
April 16
Friday: Welcome reception by a supporting Institute
April 17
Saturday: Freedom Trail and civic welcome, Faneuil/Crispus Attucks Hall
April 18
Sunday: Church Services and Thurman Center, Boston University
April 19
Monday: Black Freedom Trail, Tubman, Baker Houses welcome
April 20
Tuesday: Seymour Institute Academic Round Table, Harvard University
April 21
Wednesday: Depart
or by phone at 617-244-3650.
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