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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.
NEW in this email:
- Expanded time for Thursdays Happy Hour / Coffee Hour via Zoom
- All Ages Worship this Palm Sunday, April 5th (live-steamed)
- Bulletin and Hymn Sheet for April 5th live-stream worship service
- Announcements sheet (a summary of info sent in emails, plus birthdays and altar flower dedications)
- Holy Week Daily Devotions with Dale (live-streamed)
- Easter Sunday worship
- Message from the Mission and Justice team
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Church Office is CLOSED due to the COVID19 restrictions
All in-person worship, meetings and activities at church are suspended or postponed until further notice. However, some things are happening virtually.
Thurs, Apr 2
4:30 - 6 pm Happy Hour / Coffee Hour - via Zoom
(note the earlier start time)
7 pm 'Spiritual Gifts' class - via Zoom
Fri, Apr 3
Dale on call for pastoral emergencies
Sat, Apr 4
9:30 am 'Llama Pajama Time with Andrea' (live-streamed)
Drive-by pick up palms has been CANCELLED due to the 'Stay at home' order
Sun, Apr 5 Palm Sunday
11:30 am - 1 pm Confirmation Class via Zoom
6 - 8 pm Mission Trip meeting via Zoom
Mon, Apr 6
8 am Holy Week Daily Devotions with Dale (live-streamed)
Tues, Apr 7
8 am Holy Week Daily Devotions with Dale (live-streamed)
11 am Staff meeting via Zoom
7 pm Knitting for Others Group meet via Zoom
Wed, Apr 8
8 am Holy Week Daily Devotions with Dale (live-streamed)
Thurs, Apr 9 Maundy Thursday
8 am Holy Week Daily Devotions with Dale (live-streamed)
4:30 - 6 pm Happy Hour / Coffee Hour - via Zoom
Fri, Apr 10 Good Friday
8 am Holy Week Daily Devotions with Dale (live-streamed)
Dale on call for pastoral emergencies
Sat, Apr 11
9:30 am 'Llama Pajama Time with Andrea' (live-streamed)
Sun, Apr 12 Easter Sunday
Please note that cancellations and suspensions of meetings may not yet be noted in the on-line calendar as we work out which meetings may be possible via Zoom.
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We're sorry, but due to the 'stay at home' order in Rhode Island, we are no longer able to have the 'drive-by pick-up palms' this weekend.
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All Ages Worship returns!
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We may be
worshiping virtually
, but that doesn’t mean we can’t invite people of all ages to help lead our worship service.
This Sunday, April 5th
, our livestream worship will have a few special guests and participants as we celebrate
Palm Sunday
. Linda has a special All-Ages message on the meaning of Palm Sunday and Holy week and we’ll have a special story-time too. Don’t miss out as we stream live at
10 am
this Sunday on our Facebook page
www.facebook.com/bccucc
and website
www.bccucc.org/live-stream-page/
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:
See under 'Reminders' later in this email for how to:
- submit a prayer request for inclusion in this Sunday's 'Prayers of the People'.
- watch our live-streams.
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Holy Week Daily Devotions with Dale
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Once again Dale will be leading early morning Holy Week devotions. Due to our current circumstances, these, too, will be live-streamed on our Facebook page
www.facebook.com/bccucc
and website
www.bccucc.org/live-stream-page/
. These brief devotionals will last 15-20 minutes and begin daily
(Mon, Apr 6th - Fri, Apr 12th)
at
8:00 am
. They will remain available on both platforms for those who are unable to join us live. Each day will consist of relaxing music, prayer, scripture, and a brief meditation. Join us if you are able.
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There will be just one Easter Sunday worship service this year live-streamed at
10 am
on
Sunday, April 12th
. Watch
on our Facebook page
www.facebook.com/bccucc
or website
www.bccucc.org/live-stream-page/
If you are unable to watch live, a recording of the service can be watched at the same links.
Due to the current restrictions, we're sorry to say that there won't be any Ecumenical Sunrise Service or Easter Egg Hunt.
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Expanded time for BCCUCC Happy Hour / Coffee Hour LIVE!
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A
re you missing your church friends and pastors? We’re doing all that we can to stay connected these days, so we're hosting a weekly Happy Hour / Coffee Hour with Dale. This virtual gathering is being held
every Thursday
from
4:30 - 6:00 pm
via Zoom Meeting.
(note the expanded time from last week)
. We invite you to grab your favorite beverage (beer, coffee, water, wine, seltzer, you name it), sit down with your computer and hang out with your church friends for a while. Feel free to drop in as you are able and for as long (or short) a time as you want. We miss you and would love for you to join us!
The link to the meeting
will be the same each week
and was included in your weekly church email. (We aren't posting it here as there are Zoombombers crashing public Zoom meetings to cause disruption.) If you didn't get the email you can call/text/email Dale and he'll send you link.
For those of you new to Zoom check out directions on how to join us by going to our website and clicking on th
e “
BCCUCC Happy Hour / Coffee Hour is LIVE!
" link near the bottom of the page. Hopefully that will get you up and running!
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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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Chancel Fund donations for Easter 2020
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We are still planning to decorate with flowers the altar area of the sanctuary for Easter in celebration of Christ’s resurrection. You'll be able to see them during the Easter Sunday live-streamed worship service (even if it's via Zoom). Donations to our Chancel Fund are needed to pay for these flowers in the sanctuary, as well as the flowers that have been delivered by the deacons to our homebound, sick and recently bereaved. (Don’t worry – the deacons came up with a safe way to deliver the flowers without any contact with the recipient – keeping everyone safe from the coronavirus).
W
e invite you to contribute.
Download a Chancel Fund donation form
that you can fill out with your donation information, and the dedication you’d like included. A list of all the donors and dedications will be sent out along with the bulletin and hymn sheet for the ‘virtual worship service’ on Easter Sunday. Please mail in the completed form with your donation
by this Monday, April 6th
to the church office at 461 County Road, Barrington RI 02806. Checks should be made payable to ‘BCCUCC” with ‘Chancel Fund’ in the memo line. Thank you.
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'RIP Medical Debt' offering - it's not too late to donate!
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In early March, in a 'Moment for Mission', Seth Forman told the congregation about the R.I.P. Medical Debt Initiative that the Southern New England Conference was inviting all 609 churches to participate in to celebrate the birth of our new conference. He, and then Nancy Arena in an eBridge article, explained why the Conference had launched this economic justice initiative:
- Medical debt contributes to more than 60% of all bankruptcies.
- 75% of individuals in medical bankruptcy had health insurance.
- 43 million Americans now owe about $75 billion in past-due medical care.
- Medical debt forces families to forgo or be denied health care services.
- The financial burden of medical debt forces families to cut back on other critical needs, such as food and clothing.
Although much has changed since the M&J Team committed to this fund raising effort and there will be no special offering taken in church, we encourage all of you to prayerfully consider donating, as every $100 collected will be used to eliminate $10,000 in medical debt in some of the neediest communities in our region, including Providence. 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.
Thank you.
UPDATE:
Thank you to those who have already responded. We invite others to donate if they are able.
Our deadline for receiving donations is April 15th
.
The following is from an email received 4/1/20 from SNEUCC: "
To date, you, the members of the Southern New England Conference United Church of Christ, have raised $40,000. This will be used to eliminate $4,000,000 of medical debt! What a blessing this is!"
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A message from your Mission and Justice Team
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"In this time of social distancing, the Mission and Justice Team wants to let you know how we are reaching out to our greater community. At our recent meeting, we decided to dedicate funds from our budget to help groups meeting the needs of others. Checks have been sent to our local food pantry, TapIn, and to their coordinating partner, the Rhode Island Community Food Bank. Another donation went to a new alliance of groups working for the homeless in Rhode Island,
S.H.I.N.E.
The Rev. Jack Jones, minister at Mathewson Street Church in Providence, is director of this group which is asking for tents and sleeping bags to provide places for their clients to stay safe from the coronavirus. If you would like more information on any of these organizations, please contact a member of the Mission and Justice Team."
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The Book Group has chosen
A Woman of No Importance' by Sonia Purnell to discuss at their April meeting, scheduled for
Tuesday, April 21st, at 11:30 am. It's most likely that they'll meet virtually but stay tuned. More information from Helen Schall at
helenschall@hotmail.com or 245-4724. All are welcome.
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Dale and Linda are including 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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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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