FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, UCC
115 South Main St.
PO Box 913
Wolfeboro NH 03894
(603) 569-1555
The Rev. Gina Finocchiaro
Senior Minister
cell: (207) 239-7796
home: (603) 515-0066
Krista Marschner
Office Administrator
Andy Campbell
Music Director
Cathy Marker
Music Director
Bethany Fitch
Coordinator for
Children & Youth Ministries
Dan Flaucher
Sexton
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CHURCH OFFICE HOURS
Office Hours
Monday - Thursday
9:00 am - 3:00 pm
* The church office will be closed for February vacation - 2/25 - 3/1
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WORSHIP SCHEDULE
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10:00 am Worship
at 115 South Main Street
Our traditional worship service in our beautiful sanctuary. This service will be one with music and choirs, a children's message and church school.
Watch our Worship Services
Wolfeboro Community Television Channel 25
Sundays:
9:00 am,
3:00 pm,
9:00 pm
YouTube Channel
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JANUARY &
FEBRUARY
CELEBRATIONS
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1/9 - Helen Campbell
Bob Davis
1/11 - Keli Douglas
1/14 - Kristopher Stengele
1/15 - Carolyn Hathcock
1/19 - Joyce Trevor
1/20 - Sara Fernald
1/21 - Patty Mac Hewitt
1/28 - Joan Joncas
2/3 - Everett Ronquillo
2/4 - Deb Hopkins
Stan Fredriksen
2/7 - Hannah Vachon
2/8 - David Bechard
2/9 - Beth Roark
2/10 - Joyce Titus
2/11 - Maggie Shaw
2/12 - Stephen Curtis
2/13 - Paula Bechard
Andy & Guinevere Campbell
(Anniversary)
2/14 - Brian and Marcia Arsnow (Anniversary)
Gary & Gayle Gosselin
(Anniversary)
2/15 - Robert Demaree
2/16 - Cole Butcher
David & Irmgard Brown
(Anniversary)
2/17 - Tennyson Whyte
2/18 - Gary Baker
2/23 - Bob and Bev Davis (Anniversary)
2/25 - Libby Barton
Denise Thayer
2/26 - Martha Charnock
2/27 - Gina Finocchiaro
Richard Thayer
Not on the list? Our database is incomplete and we need your help!
Please send your date of birth (you don't have to send the year), anniversary dates and any special announcements that you would like to let your church family know about.
PLEASE call or email the Church Office with the information. Call 569-1555 or email kristafccw@gmail.com.
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CONGRATULATIONS TO
... Tyler and Rachel Stengele who were married on January 5, 2019 in Gatlinburg, Tennessee.
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HORTON CENTER
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If your child is interested in a summer camp experience think about Horton Center, the NH Conference UCC outdoor ministry!
Located outside of Gorham, NH, on 100 acres covering the top of 2,400 foot tall Pine Mountain they offer programs that may include hiking, canoeing, rock climbing, intermixed with reminders of God´s presence and activity in our lives... finding the presence of God in the beauty and inspiration of the natural world, in community, in scripture, prayer, and within one another.
FCCW has camp scholarships and would be happy to help send one or more of our youth to camp! Please contact Bethany for a current application.
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MUSIC MINISTRY
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The Adult, Youth, and Bell Choirs practice each week and are excited to share their music with you!
All groups meet in the sanctuary.
Sundays
Youth choir - (Preschool - 6th Grade) after church on Sundays.
Mondays
Bell choir from 7:00 - 8:30 pm
Wednesdays
Adult choir from 7:00 - 8:30 pm
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CHANCEL FLOWERS
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Would you like to donate flowers for the cancel in the sanctuary?
Consider donating a flower arrangement for the beauty of the sanctuary at Sunday service. You may give it in memory of a loved one or to celebrate an anniversary, birthday, or holiday. You make take the arrangement home after worship or have a deacon deliver it to a shut in. Please call the office or Gayle Gosselin at 493-5390 or gayle6458@gmail.com for more information.
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EMAIL PRAYER CHAIN
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Members of our congregation's prayer chain receive prayer requests by confidential email. Anyone wishing to participate who does not use email may receive a phone notification.
To join: Call or email Krista at the FCCW office
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HELPING HANDS PRAYER SHAWL & VETERANS LAP ROBE
MINISTRY
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Do you knit? Do you crochet? Would you like to learn? Come and sit with us, every
3rd Friday from 10:00 - 11:30 am, as we make prayer shawls for members and friends of FCCW and lap robes for veterans in Hospice. Beginners and advanced knitters are welcome!
For more information please contact Corinne Brown at (603) 569-0029 or Dotti Kay at (603) 569-6467
The next Prayer Shawl group will meet on Friday, February 15th at FCCW in the 3rd Level gathering space.
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BATIK BOUTIQUE
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The Batik Boutique group will be meeting on
Friday mornings in the chapel on the 2nd level
from
9:30 - 1:00 pm.
Anyone interested in joining our group can call, Meg Geoghegan at 569-4886.
New members are always welcome! No beading experience required and sewers with machines welcome too.
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CHURCH FAMILY CARE
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If you are willing to "host" a coffee hour, please select a Sunday of your choice and sign up at the at the back of the sanctuary. Food is optional! If you are unfamiliar with the church kitchen and would like some assistance, please speak with a member of the Family Care Board. (Peggy Carlson, Peg Crawford, Karen Hardy, Patsy MacCabe, Phyllis Schamber)
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USHERS
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Want to get more involved in church life?
Ushering or leading worship are great ways to help our church. Ushering is fairly simple and requires little more than arriving early on the Sunday you're serving. Leading worship requires only a few minutes of your time during the service. Generally, ushers serve about four times a year, but there is no requirement for frequency. Whatever fits your schedule would be helpful.
If you think this might fit your schedule, contact
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FOOD DONATIONS
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If you are interested in donating food to the LIFE Ministries Food Pantry or "End 68 Hours of Hunger" please place your food in the donation box or wagon by the foyer door (parking lot side).
LIFE Ministries Food Pantry is looking for non-perishable food items
End 68 Hours of Hunger is looking for peanut butter, jelly, canned pasta, chicken noodle soup, macaroni, fruit in plastic cups, granola bars, cereal, tuna, pop tarts, horizon chocolate milk, and peanut butter crackers
GWAVCoop is looking for granola bars, apples, fruit cups, and other individually packaged healthy snacks.
Thank you!
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PASTOR GINA
The Rev. Gina M. Finocchiaro
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 For many years now, I have been a lover of poetry. It is the thing that calls to me when I cannot hold focus for long sentences and paragraphs, or chapters and too many pages. When my mind is rushing with fragment of thought or exhaustion or despair, it is poetry that brings me solace. Sometimes in the middle of the night, when I am restless and scattered, it is poetry that brings solace. In some ways, my love affair with poetry is as deep as the one I have with scripture. Shh... don't tell anyone.
I discovered Mary Oliver's poetry when I was in college. It was a gift from a mentor that arrived at just the right moment in my life. A couple of her poems I copied out, hung on the wall over my bed-- and I would look up at them, trying to memorize verse after verse. Offering direction and meaning to my journey, quieting my anxious spirit, assuring me of my place... in the family of things. (Wild Geese)
The world lost a beautiful artist in January, when Oliver died. For all her quiet apartness from the world, she bravely offered her faith, her doubt, her soul and journey in her poetry over a lifetime. It was some time before I knew the depth of Mary Oliver's Christian faith, her friendship with intellectual priests, and constant conversations with the holy. There are too many of her poems to summarize or to choose among.
But February is often a month we associate with love-- perhaps for many reasons, not all of them centered on St. Valentine's Day. So, for this month, I'll share this one little poem of hers with you. Maybe it will be the beginning of a love affair with the word for you, or simply nourishment on this cold start to the month.
With wonderment and love,
Pastor Gina
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Logos
Why wonder about the loaves and the fishes?
If you say the right words, the wine expands.
If you say them with love
and the felt ferocity of that love
and the felt necessity of that love,
the fish explode into many.
Imagine him, speaking,
and don't worry about what is reality,
or what is plain, or what is mysterious.
If you were there, it was all those things.
If you can imagine it, it is all those things.
Eat, drink, be happy,
Accept the miracle.
Accept, too, each spoken word
spoken with love.
-Mary Oliver, "Logos", Why I Wake Early (2004) |
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We offer childcare in the nursery for babies and toddlers and church school classes for students in preschool through 12th grade from September through May.
On the first Sunday of each month, all children are invited to participate in Youth Chapel - their own worship service, and then join their families for Communion. All other weeks the children will start in worship and after chancel steps will head to their classrooms with their teachers for the remainder of church. Youth will go to their classrooms after chancel steps.
PreK-Grade 2 - meets in the
preschool room on the first level
Grades 3-6 - meets in the Chapel on the 2nd level
Grades 7-12 - meets in 3rd level gathering space
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CHILDREN'S PLAYGROUP
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A time of sharing and community for parents and children of varying ages. The playgroup will meet
Monday mornings at 9:30 am in the Nursery. The group will generally meet weekly taking the school calendar into consideration.
If you know a parent who might enjoy fellowship with other parents during this time frame, please invite them to come to the group!
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ALL CHURCH MEETING
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Sunday, February 10th following the 10 am worship service there will be an all church meeting to discuss the fiscal reports and 2019 budget.
At this meeting the congregation will review the 2018 year end report and vote on the 2019 budget. Printed reports will be available in the gathering space and have also been sent out via constant contact.
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POTLUCK SUPPER
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Are you beginning to experience some "cabin fever?" Then please join us for an evening of good
food, fun and fellowship!
On
Friday, February 8, at 6:00 pm, the Family Care Board will be hosting a Pot Luck Supper. Guests are welcome!
To assist with planning, you are asked to sign up in the Gathering Space and indicate if you will bring a main dish, side dish/salad or a dessert. Please note that this will be a non-alcoholic event.
Following supper, Jeannie Burns, coordinator at Hope House, will speak about her work, will provide an update on the progress being made there and discuss the challenges in 2019.
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LENT
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Pastor Gina will be away for Ash Wednesday. Pastor Bill (of All Saints) will be downtown doing Ashes to Go without her and you are most welcome to go to noon worship at All Saints.
Ash Wednesday, March 6th
12:00 pm - All Saints Episcopal
Ashes to Go - 3/6/19
10:00 - 11:30 am - Main Street Post Office
2:00 - 3:30 pm - Main Street FCCW
Pastor Bill will be offering ashes and blessings on the street. Stop by and see him!
Lenten Devotionals
"Take Nothing With You" by the Still Speaking Writers Group will be available in the back of the sanctuary closer to Ash Wednesday.
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WOLFEBORO SERVES
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YOUTH GROUP FOR GRADES 7-12
Pastors Gina & Bill Peterson (from All Saints Episcopal) and Maria Found (from Brewster) have launched a service-focused, social-justice centered youth group for students in grades 7 through 12.
We are determined to be ecumenical (and happy to be interfaith, if you bring friends from other traditions!), welcoming, useful and inspired.
Our next meeting date will be Sunday, February 10th 4-7 pm. We will be offering activities, childcare and fun for children aged infant - Grade 6 so parent's can have an afternoon/evening out. See below for details.
If you would like to sign up to be a student helper, please let Pastor Gina know revginaf@gmail.com
Future dates will be on March 31st to make dinner for families at Hope House and April 28th to pack meals at the food pantry.
Bring friends! All are welcome!
To sign up your children for this fun night please use
this link.
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WOLFEBORO READS
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Join Pastor Gina and Pastor Bill from All Saints on Tuesdays for discussion and sharing around a common read. We will meet each week (with some exceptions), from 4:00-5:30 pm in the Gathering Space at FCCW, 115 S. Main St. We will spend a few weeks on each book that we read. All are welcome!
The next book for February will be
The Outsider by Stephen King.
This book will be discussed on 2/12, 2/19, and 2/26.
Future Books:
Everything Happens for a Reason and Other Lies I Loved
by Kate Bowler on 3/12, 3/19, and 3/26.
A Tangled Mercy
by Jordan Lake on 4/9, 4/16, and 4/23.
The Immortalists
by Chole Benjamin on 5/7, 5/14, and 5/21.
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INCLEMENT WEATHER
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It's that time of year again! In this season on ice and snow, please make decisions about driving that keep you and yours safe, above all else. If it seems too treacherous, and the decision is made to cancel worship, the news will come out in an all-
church email, as well as on WMUR (channel 9), and the message on the church voice mail system will reflect the news too.
This winter if any any time the school district is cancelled for the day, the church office will also close and all activities at the church are cancelled. Please stay safe, warm and dry! If you need to get in touch with office staff on snow days please email us. We will be working from home as long as there is wifi!
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DINNER BELL
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Dinner Bell is a program that offers a free meal at All Saints Church on Thursdays at 5 pm. We are looking for volunteers to help every 2nd week of the month from 3:00 - 6:00 PM.
We need 2 people to setup, serve, and clean up. You can call the church office for more information. 569-1555 or email Krista at
kristafccw@gmail.com
Dates to consider - 2/14, 3/14, 4/11, 5/9
Sign up at the back of the sanctuary. Please sign up!
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STARTING POINT SHELTER SUPPORT BOXES
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During the month of February, Faith in Action will be sponsoring our annual drive of most needed supplies for the Starting Point Shelter. Starting Point serves area women and children escaping domestic and sexual violence, working with local, state and regional agencies to that purpose.
There is a need for the following items:
FULL SIZE shampoo, conditioner, body wash
Razors, shaving cream
NO toothbrushes or toothpaste needed
Lysol/disinfectant wipes
Paper towels, kleenex, toilet paper
Disposable diapers (size 5 only) and baby wipes
Journals and pens
CHILDREN'S BIRTHDAY PARTY SUPPLIES
Boxes of cake mix and cans of frosting
Hats, cups, plates, napkins, tablecloths, birthday candles, etc.
Children's coloring books and crayons
Individually wrapped snacks for kids
Labeled boxes for your donations during the month of February are located in the front lobby
and the parking lot lobby. Many area organizations donate to Starting Point, but our church and one other group are the only ones who hold an annual drive for most needed items. Between the two organizations we provide enough toiletries to last a full year. Starting Point is most appreciative of our congregation's generosity and is especially thankful that we consult with them annually about the items most needed.
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BUILDING LIAISONS NEEDED
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Are you interested in helping out as a liaison for outside groups using our sanctuary? We are in need of a few volunteers to call upon to be the official FCCW member at the church for outside groups.
It would include unlocking/locking up the building, turning on/off lights, possibly turning on the sound/getting microphones ready, be around to answer questions, and free admittance to the event! We are happy to train you.
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ARTS ON THE EDGE
ST. PATRICK'S DAY DINNER
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Looking for something to do on St. Patrick's Day? Come to Arts on the
 Edge Wolfeboro's fifth almost-annual St. Patty's day dinner and auction, held in Fellowship Hall on
Friday, March 15th. Doors will open at 6:15 pm and dinner will be served at 6:45 pm.
Featuring a traditional home-cooked Irish dinner of corned beef and vegetables, the event will include musical entertainment and the chance to purchase some special items at auction.
Tickets for the St. Patrick's Day evening gala can be purchased after church. Cost is $20 for adults, and $10 for children twelve and under. Bring your own wine or beer (no liquor) All proceeds will benefit programming for Arts on the Edge.
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PREPARED TO SERVE
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The NH Conference of the UCC will be holding a day of classes and workshops called Prepared to Serve on
Saturday, February 23rd at Pembroke Academy.
All are welcome... laypersons and clergy alike.
Prepared to Serve is a special training event that welcomes participants with fellowship, inspiring worship, and educational, faith-building workshops on a wide variety of topics, including stewardship, church leadership, church finances, global missions and Christian education. We offer over 50 unique workshops on a wide range of topics. The day also includes a delicious catered lunch and refreshments throughout.
Last year's event was incredibly well-attended (500+), and well-received by all. We were delighted with the record turnout and response, and hope to see each and every one of you again for 2019's event!
Online Event Registration is now Open
A copy of the event brochure is available in the copy room (3rd level) at the church.
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BEREAVEMENT SUPPORT GROUP
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Central New Hampshire VNA & Hospice coordinator Dan Kusch and Pastor Gina are offering several different types of support groups this upcoming late winter/spring. All the support groups are free of charge and will meet at FCCW. To register for the group, learn about specific dates, times, locations and/or more information, please call or email Dan Kusch,
Phone:
603-569-2729
or
Living with Grief - Offers adults a weekly space to connect, to learn about grief, discuss ways of coping with loss, and gain support of others in a safe, caring environment. Meets for 7 weeks on Tuesdays starting March 5th, 2 - 3:30 pm.
Next Step - Offers participants of our past grief support groups an opportunity to continue to connect and share ongoing support. Meets monthly on the 2nd Tuesday at 4 pm in the Quimby Room. Next meeting will be on February 12th.
Parent's Circle - Grief Support for parents who have lost children at any age to any circumstance or reason. All are welcome. We encourage you to come as individuals or together. We will meet monthly on the 2nd Tuesday of the month from 6:00-7:30 pm in the Quimby Room. Next meeting will be on February 12th.
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CHURCH PHOTO SITE
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The FCCW photo website is now up to date. Click on the link
FCCW Church Photos to access. Please note that this is a new and better link. When you get to the site you will notice that there are seven albums by topic.
Service:
Photos of general church services
Sacraments:
Baptisms, Communion
Children in the Service:
Chancel Steps, Children's Choir, acolytes, other activities involving the children
Music:
Adult Choir, Bells, Children's Choir, musicians
Events: Gifts of Hope, Pageant, New Pulpit
Sunday
, new members, Gina to Leah transition, Easter (Resurrection
Sunday
), etc.
Miscellaneous:
Photos that don't fit into a specific category. There is a church tour there
Old to new Church:
Photos of our change from the old church to the new church
The photos are arranged from new to older so that you do not have to search for the newest ones. The only disadvantage to that is that church service slide shows on a specific date will run backwards. Each album can be viewed as a separate slideshow, If you save this link you can view updates as they happen. I will update periodically.
Bruce McCracken
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