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Latest information from Barrington Congregational Church, UCC
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If you missed any previous emails, they are being posted to our website
at this link for easy access. Some of the things that are
NEW in this email:
- Bulletin, Hymn Sheet, and Announcements for April 26th live-stream worship service
- BCCUCC needs you!
- Update on CARE Act loan application
- Deadline for Annual Reports
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Church Office is CLOSED until further notice
All in-person worship, meetings and activities at church are suspended or postponed until further notice. However, some things are happening virtually.
Thurs, Apr 23
4:30 - 6 pm Happy Hour via Zoom
Fri, Apr 24
Dale on call for pastoral emergencies
Sat, Apr 25
Sun, Apr 26
11 am Coffee Hour via Zoom
11:30 am CEYM meeting via Zoom
Tues, Apr 28
11 am Staff meeting via Zoom
Thurs, Apr 30
4:30 - 6 pm Happy Hour via Zoom
Fri, May 1
Dale on call for pastoral emergencies
Sat, May 2
Sun, May 3
11 am Coffee Hour via Zoom
Please note that looking ahead, cancellations and suspensions of meetings may not yet be noted in the on-line calendar as we don't know what the future holds.
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Join us for our (virtual) Sunday worship
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We were able to livestream our worship service on time last Sunday - beginning at 10 am - and hopefully this will continue each Sunday. If not, please be patient and the service will begin to livestream as soon as there is sufficient bandwidth available.
We hope you can join us live, but if not, you can watch a recording later at the same links.
Resources for this week's worship service are at the following links:
If you watch live, don't forget that that following worship (at 11 am) there's an opportunity to get together for a
virtual Coffee Hour
- see later.
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Dale and Linda include Prayers of the People during each Sunday's worship service. They invite you to email or text them prayers (to
dale@bccucc.org
or
linda@bccucc.org
), or leave a message on the church's answering machine (246-0111)
a
ny time prior to 9:00 AM on Sunday morning
so they can include them in the live stream. Please be sure if you are mentioning people, to confirm that they would be comfortable with being lifted up in public AND that you don’t include full names. Perhaps just mention first names. We want to be respectful of peoples’ privacy as we hold them in our prayers.
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Opportunities to get together (virtually)
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After worship coffee hour on Sundays
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We are hosting a Zoom coffee hour after church each Sunday
.
Beginning shortly after the ‘livestream’ worship ends,
around 11 am
, all are invited to log onto zoom and chat with your fellow church members and friends. We hope to see you there - but you'll have you bring your own coffee!
T
he zoom information needed to join this happy hour was included in the email sent out 4/23/20 but isn't included in this version going on our website for security reasons (to avoid zoombombers).
If you're new to zoom, see below for instructions.
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BCCUCC Happy Hour on Thursdays
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All are invited to stop by the BCCUCC virtual Happy Hour with Dale every Thursday anytime from 4:30 - 6 pm via Zoom. So grab your favorite beverage (beer, coffee, water, wine, seltzer, you name it), sit down with your computer, tablet or smartphone, and hang out with your church friends for a while. You’re welcome to drop by (virtually) for as long or short a time as you’d like – we miss you and hope you’ll join us!
T
he zoom information needed to join this happy hour was included in the email sent out 4/23/20 but isn't included in this version going on our website for security reasons (to avoid zoombombers).
If you're new to zoom, see below for instructions.
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New to Zoom? Here's what you need to know
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Zoom is pretty easy to set up and use. If you are using a tablet or smartphone (iPad or Android) there are apps to use. You should be able to find the app “Zoom” in your App Store.
If you are using your computer (ideally with a camera, like most laptops have) when you click on the link from your weekly church email, it will take you to a website and ask to install Zoom on your computer. Say “yes”. It is a very small and pretty quick download and install.
Once installed, whenever you click on a zoom link it will automatically launch zoom and log you into the meeting. If it doesn’t log you into the meeting automatically, you can manually type in the meeting ID into the Zoom app (on computer, smartphone, or tablet) and then the password, and it will take you to the meeting.
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'Llama Pajama Time with Andrea'
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If you're not able to watch live, you can always watch a recording later on the
live-stream page of our website.
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From your Membership Team
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There's a place for you at BCCUCC......
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It is time to think about the future at Barrington Congregational Church UCC. Our church needs your help to support our ongoing ministries. There are a couple of ways for you to get involved in the upcoming year.
CHURCH COUNCIL
, which is our governing body, has
3
open positions starting in July.
- Treasurer – The Treasurer is responsible for the care of the funds and financial records of the church and reporting the church’s financial activities and financial condition.
- Member-at-large – This person is usually not on a ministry team and represents the membership of our church on the church council.
- Auditor – The Auditor is a member of the church who is a qualified accountant and does not hold any other elected office in the church. An annual audit of the financial records of the church is prepared by the Auditor.
In addition, we have three
MINISTRY TEAMS
that need your support also starting in July.
- We need 5 people to join the Membership Ministry Team which seeks to make individuals welcome in our church community. They welcome visitors, new members, and work with ministry teams to encourage member participation in ministry teams and church council.
- We need 3 people to join the Stewardship Ministry Team which encourages giving of one’s self to God’s work. They currently focus most of their work on planning and organizing for Consecration Sunday.
- We need 4 people to join the Finance Ministry Team which manages the financial affairs of the church including the annual budgeting.
If you are interested in working together in ministry with others at BCC UCC, please contact Elizabeth Azevedo (860-301-2915) or
eazevedo17@gmail.com
) or another member of the membership team - Liz White, Libardo DeLaTorre, or Wendy Forman.
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From your Mission and Justice Team.....
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It's not too late to participate in the online 'march' for climate action
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Your Mission and Justice team invites everyone to
make a sign
and join Interfaith Power and Light’s online
‘Love Made Visible Climate March’.
Due to the current conditions, IPL won’t be hosting a real march but instead invites you to make and then share a climate march sign
on social media
during
Faith Climate Action Week April 17th – 26th
to continue bringing awareness to the climate crisis. The theme is "
Love Made Visible: Engaging in Sacred Activism
" to protect the people we love who are most impacted by climate change. People are more vulnerable to COVID-19 in communities where there are high levels of air pollution caused by the burning of fossil fuels. We need to continue to fight for clean air especially in light of the present pandemic. Your Mission and Justice team is asking you to take part in this virtual march by making your own sign based on this year’s theme, then take a picture of you or someone else holding the sign, and send it to the church office
office@bccucc.org
for posting on the church’s Facebook page during this time (April 17th – 26th). You are also encouraged to post it on your own Social Media! IPL has a suggested sign where you fill in the blank – saying
“ For Love of
(blank)
I stand for Climate Justice. #FaithClimateActionWeek ”
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Last reminder about 'RIP Medical Debt' offering
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Thanks to the generosity of our congregation, even during these very difficult times, we have collected over $2,000 for the R.I.P. Medical Debt program with a goal of $4,000.
The M&J team will continue to take contributions for a little longer,
so if you haven’t yet made a donation but would like to, please send it a.s.a.p. to the church office. Please make checks payable to ‘BCCUCC’ with ‘R.I.P. Medical Debt’ in the memo line and mail them to the church office at 461 County Road, Barrington RI 02806. To learn more go to:
https://www.sneucc.org/RIP-medical-debt
. Thank you.
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Update on our application for CARES Act Payroll Protection Loan
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Our loan application is complete and we have already received the money. We anticipate that this will help us be able to complete this year in a financially strong position even in the face of extra expenses and some income losses. Finance will continue to watch pledge and gift income as the year unfolds with hope that we will not need much of this money.
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It's time to start writing those annual reports!
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The work of the church continues despite all that's going on in the world, and it’s time to start preparing the 2020 Annual Report. The clergy, church officers and ministry team leaders are all asked to submit their individual reports to the church office
by Monday, May 18th
. They should cover the period from June 2019 – May 2020 and, if possible, also include any goals for the upcoming year. Reports should be emailed to Christine at
office@bccucc.org
or mailed in. An email with more information was sent to those involved on 4/21, but if you didn't receive it and think that you should have, please contact Christine. Our Annual Meeting is scheduled for after worship on Sunday, June 7th.
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Some of you have been hand delivering contributions to the office. While we appreciate your doing so, please do not enter the building, for your safety and for the safety of the limited staff that must work from the office. We encourage you to either mail your contributions to the church or leave them in the "church mailbox", located at the top of the steps leading to the office - on the wall on your left. The US mail and the church mailbox are checked daily by a staff member. Thank you.
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Stay connected with each other - and call the ministers if needed
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During this time of separation, we are all encouraged to keep in touch with each other. If there’s someone in the church you’d like to reach out to - maybe someone living alone - but you don’t have their contact information, please call the church office and leave a message (401 246-0111 x 101) or email
office@bccucc.org
Christine will then get their contact information to you.
If you’re in the hospital, a nursing home or rehab, or you’re simply staying home as required, but would like a visit with a minister, please don’t hesitate to call them and they’ll be happy to visit with you over the phone during this time of restrictions. Their numbers are Dale (401) 246-0111 x 103; Linda (401) 246-0111 x 104. Leave a message and they'll get back to you.
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Church Offering - please continue to give if you are able
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Thank you to those of you who have already mailed in your contributions to the church. If you are financially able to do so at this time, we encourage you to mail in your regular contributions or use online banking if that is available to you. This will allow our cash flow to remain stable and for the church to be able to pay its bills and meet payroll. We appreciate your efforts! If you have any questions or concerns, please contact our Financial Secretary, Pat Stoddard, at
pat@bccucc.org or 246-0111 x 102. Thank you.
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Ways to watch our live-streams
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We are doing our live-streams using 'Facebook Live' and there are two places to watch it online:
- On the church’s Facebook page www.facebook.com/bccucc
- On the church's webpage www.bccucc.org at the 'BCCUCC live-stream' link from the home page, where the feed will be embedded.
For Facebook live, simply go to
www.facebook.com/bccucc
to watch. You don't need a Facebook account to see it. If you do have an account, search for the church's Facebook Page which is 'Barrington Congregational Church UCC'. If you 'Like' our page should then get our news feeds, and also be able to comment on our posts and the live feeds.
If you're not able to watch live, you can watch a recording later, on the
live-stream page of our website.
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The office is closed but you can still reach us
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Following recent recommendations, the church office will be closed for the foreseeable future. However you can still be in touch with the ministers and staff. You can either send an email or leave a message on the answering machine at the person's extension. Both emails and voice mail messages will be checked regularly. Our contact information is:
As Dale says in his most recent blog "
if you need support, strength, or help in these days, please don't wait for Linda, me, or someone else from the church to call you. Reach out to us. We're still here and we'll be there for you in the ways that we can!
"
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