Neighbors in Need UCC Special Offering 9/25 and 10/2

The Neighbors in Need offering, which we will collect starting this Sunday, September 25-October 2, supports the UCC’s ministries of justice and compassion throughout the United States.

Two-thirds of the offering is used by the UCC’s Justice and Witness Ministries to fund a wide array of local and national justice initiatives, advocacy efforts, and direct service projects.

One-third of the offering supports the UCC’s Council for American Indian Ministries (CAIM). Today there are 20 UCC congregations on reservations and one urban, multi-tribal UCC congregation in Minneapolis, Minnesota. These churches and their pastors are supported by CAIM.

Donations can be put in the offering plate or given to the office. If you are donating by check, please designate Neighbors in Need or NIN in the subject line. Thanks for your continued generosity.

Enhance Your Faith This Fall with a Spiritual Practices Series

Join Pastor Kathy this fall for a four-week series, “Enhancing Your Well-being with Spiritual Practices.” Each session will be about an hour long and will include learning about and trying different spiritual practices. Session will be held in-person on Thursday mornings at 10:00am in the youth room upstairs from the sanctuary, beginning on Thursday, September 29^th.

There is a sign-up sheet at coffee hour or contact the office or Pastor Kathy to sign up or with any questions. 

Did You Know...

Did you know that you can check for yourself if the steeple is available to be lit? Did you know you can also check if one of the church rooms is available for you to use?

Our church calendar is updated with all the events, the rooms where those events are held, and all steeple lightings. You can see it from our website by clicking on "New To HCC" on the menu located at the top of the web page and then selecting the HCC Calendar. The calendar now displays right within our website.

Check it out here

Community Supper

Baked Potato Bar

October 15

Saturday, 4:00-6:00pm

We will be holding our next Community Supper on Saturday, 10/15 from 4:00-6:00pm. Please mark your calendars, and plan to bring your friends!

We always can use donations to help keep the costs of the dinners down so everyone who wants or needs a meal, can attend. Anything you can provide is greatly appreciated. There is a signup sheet in the social hall. Sign up during coffee hour, or contact the office. Cash or Market Basket Gift Cards are also an easy way to contribute and can be dropped off with Suzanne in the office.

Help for setting up, serving and clean-up is always appreciated as well. 

Thank you - Your Community Meal Group

Fiber Arts Gathering

The next gathering will be this Saturday, September 24 10AM - Noon in Hadley Hall. All are welcome!

No experience is needed--just stop by the 4th Saturday of the month to learn, to craft, and to chat. 

Worship This Week

Please join us in our Sanctuary

or online at 10am for the

Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost.

Coffee hour will be held in Hadley Hall after the service.  We hope you will join us.

The service will be live streamed through Facebook Live here or on 3CX here.

artwork:Dance of the Seasons 2 © Mary Southard

Bible Study Group Break

Now - October 26th

The bible study group will take time off starting now through October 26th due to the spiritual practice study Pastor Kathy will be leading beginning on September 29th.

The bible study group will resume on Wednesday. November 2nd, at Jane C's home at 9:30 am.

The 221st Annual Meeting

of the NH Conference

United Church of Christ

will be held on

Saturday, October 15, 2022

The annual meeting will be happening next month. This year's theme is "Sing a New Song". The annual meeting main page can be accessed here. If interested in attending, you can register here. You can attend in person or via Zoom. Please let Pastor Kathy know if you are interested in attending--we are looking to have a delegate or two representing HCC. 

Invitation to Annual Meeting - Watch a short video from Rev. Gordon Rankin,

Conference Minister

A Word from Peace and Justice

Last week, I received an email from UCC about this humanitarian response last. It is an appeal for donations to the United Church of Christ's Pakistan Response Fund.

Pakistan has had unusually severe monsoon season since the beginning of June and the rain continues. Over half of the governmental districts in Pakistan have been declared "calamity hit". With 33 million people affected, 6.4 million are in dire need of humanitarian assistance. This caught my attention as one of my sons-in-law has family in Pakistan.

For details about the need, the fund and its distribution, check out this web page here. There is information about how to contribute at the bottom of the page.

Blessings,

Debra

Recycling for Community Benches

During Coffee Hour this past Sunday, the topic of recycling those specialized plastic wrappers came up.  I decided to share the information from an article written last year on recycling.

Consumer Reports had an informative article about plastic recycling last year. Its tag line was "Think that all of what you toss in the recycling bin actually gets recycled? Think again." The full article had some shocking statistics about single-stream recycling. It explains where most of the plastic goes and what steps individuals can take to limit plastic waste. Some of the suggestions are actually easy to do, and some maybe not be as easy. Read the article here.

A woman in East Hampstead is volunteering her time and helping the cause by collecting plastic film and bags to recycle into benches for the community. She partners with the Trex Community Recycling Program where for every 500 pounds of clean plastic film, Trex will donate a four-foot composite bench. To date, she has collected over 8,500 pounds of plastic and donated 17 Trex benches to the local community including the Hampstead Conservation trails. She is now working on the 18th bench to donate!  That 18th bench is going to be donated to our very own Stepping Stones!

The collected items are everyday plastic items that many people just throw in with their regular trash. The goal is to promote recycling and keep these items out of our landfills. Our benefit will be a "forever bench" for our community. The items that are accepted are:

Grocery and retail bags

Ziploc bags

Dry cleaning bags

Bread bags

Bubble wrap

Wood pellet bags

Produce bags

Ice bags

Case overwraps

Plastic shipping bags

Pallet wrap

Newspaper sleeves

Cereal bags

Salt bags

No cellophane or hard plastic. All plastic must be clean, dry, and free of food residue.

You can drop off plastic in the recycling bin set up at the end of the driveway at 30 Collins Drive, East Hampstead (Blue house with black shutters). 

Debra Sawyer

Isaiah 58 Eighth Annual Charity Benefit

To Help Fight Homelessness

October 6, 2022

For more information or to purchase tickets, click here.

Rockingham VNA &  Hospice Grief Support Offerings

Steeple Lighting

September 23 - September 29

In loving memory of Michele Hughes

Always in our hearts

Upper Room Devotional

We have copies of the September/October Upper Room devotional available in the foyer to Hadley Hall. If you need a copy mailed to you, please contact the main office.

New Hampshire Conference UCC Weekly News

We thought you might enjoy reading the NH Conference UCC weekly newsletter. You can read it with this link.

09/20/22 Newsletter

Each week, we will update this section of our Weekly Word with the new link for the current newsletter.

Food Drive to Support

Saint Anne Ecumenical Food Pantry

The New needs for the Food Pantry are:



hearty/meaty soups, salad dressings, coffee, tea, cereal, flour and sugar

Please drop off any donations in the foyer of Hadley Hall

Thank you for all your support!

Scam Emails & Texts

Emails and Texts are often sent, saying they are from Pastor Kathy or another staff member. She (or the HCC staff) will never send out a generic email/text--she'll address it to your name. She will never ask you for money/gift cards over email nor via a text.

Also, any email from Pastor Kathy will always have her signature line on the bottom with her phone number/address.

If in doubt, please contact the church office or Pastor Kathy.