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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:
- Happy Hour/Coffee Hour via Zoom
- Llama Pajama with Andrea - new time for her Facebook Live stream
- Bulletin and Hymn Sheet for Sun, Mar 29th live-stream worship service
- Announcements sheet (a summary of info sent in emails, plus birthdays and altar flower dedications)
- Chancel Fund donation information for Easter 2020
- RIP Medical Debt Offering
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Church Office is CLOSED due to the COVID19 restrictions
All in-person meetings and activities at church are suspended or postponed until further notice. However, some things are happening virtually - see below.
Thurs, Mar 26
5 - 6 pm Happy Hour / Coffee Hour - via Zoom
7 pm 'Spiritual Gifts' class - via Zoom
Fri, Mar 27
Linda on call for pastoral emergencies
Sat, Mar 28
9:30 am 'Llama Pajama Time with Andrea' - live-streamed
Sun, Mar 29 Lent 5 - What a Covenant! Jesus
Mon, Mar 30
(7 pm Vision 2020 meeting - undecided if doing via Zoom)
Tues, Mar 31
11 am Staff meeting
Thurs, Apr 2
5 - 6 pm Happy Hour / Coffee Hour - via Zoom
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
TBD - Drive-by pick up palms
Sun, Apr 5 Palm Sunday
11:30 am - 1:30 pm Confirmation Class via Zoom
6 - 8 pm Mission Trip meeting via Zoom
Please note that cancellations and suspensions of meetings beyond Mar 29th may not yet be noted in the on-line calendar as we work out which meetings may still be possible via Zoom.
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BCCUCC Happy Hour / Coffee Hour is LIVE! Thursdays 5-6 pm
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Are you missing your church friends and pastors? We’re doing all that we can to stay connected these days and
today
is no exception. We are pleased to announce BCCUCC Happy Hour / Coffee Hour with Dale! This virtual gathering will be held
every Thursday
(starting 3/26/20) from
5:00-6:00pm
via Zoom Meeting which some of our church committees have already been using. The link to the meeting is included in your weekly church email. (We aren't posting it here as there are rumors of 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 the link. So 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 hour. We miss you!
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'Llama Pajama Time with Andrea'
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'Facebook Live with Andrea' has a new name and time! 'Llama Pajama Time with Andrea' will be on
Saturdays at 9:30 am
. Be sure to tune in
this Saturday, March 28th
to find out how it got it's new name - and see if she's wearing pajamas! (The time had to be changed as it conflicted with virtual school that many of the children are doing.)
We invite both the young and young at heart to tune in to
www.facebook.com/bccucc
or
https://www.bccucc.org/live-stream-page/
as Andrea reads a story or two, shares a Psalm and talks with the children.
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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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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Live-stream worship on Sundays plus downloadable resources
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It may not be possible to gather for worship in the sanctuary, but we will be live-streaming a worship service on
Sunday mornings
at
10 am
until further notice. We are also making available various resources that can be downloaded ahead of time (or viewed on a second screen). Resources for this week's worship service are at the following links:
Announcements for 3/29/20
See below for how to watch the live-stream. 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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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 Facebook feed will be embedded.
For Facebook live, simply go to
www.facebook.com/bccucc
just before 10 am 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.
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Chancel Fund donations for Easter 2020
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Even though it’s very unlikely that we’ll be able to worship together in person in the sanctuary on Easter Sunday, we will still be decorating the altar area with Spring flowers in celebration of Christ’s resurrection for our live-streamed worship service. Donations to our Chancel Fund are needed to pay for these flowers in the sanctuary, as well as the flowers that are being delivered by the deacons in the next couple of weeks to our homebound, sick and recently bereaved. (Don’t worry – the deacons have come up with a safe way to deliver the flowers without any contact with the recipient – keeping everyone safe from the coronavirus).
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’ that day. Please mail in the completed form with your donation
by 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
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This Sunday, March 29th
is the date that the Mission and Justice Team had set for a special collection. Earlier in 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.
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We won’t be having in-person worship on Palm Sunday so are working on a way to have "drive-by palm pickup" available at the church sometime that weekend of April 4th – 5th. Details to come next week!
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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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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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