Pastors Barb and Mitch will be on vacation July 27-August 9. Pastoral coverage will be provided by Rev. Natalie Hill: natalielhill@gmail.com. Ted Crass will preach on August 7.

On Sunday, August 7, the Young Adults will meet during Zoom at 7pm, to discuss future Fall plans for the Young Adult ministries as the leadership is changing. If you would like to join, please email Adam at adam@harvardepworthchurch.org.  

We’ll spend four Wednesdays in August reading and discussing Bill McKibben’s most recent book, The Flag, the Cross and the Station Wagon: A Graying American Looks Back at His Suburban Boyhood and Wonders What the Hell Happened. Here’s the book's description:

The study will be on August 10, 17 and 24, at 7:00 pm, in a hybrid format (in person at church and livestreamed on Zoom). The Zoom link is https://zoom.us/j/99719695495. On August 31 at 5:00 pm we’ll join with the study group at First Church Cambridge on a Zoom call with Bill McKibben to finish the series and discuss application to our lives and HEUMC’s ministry.

Please contact the church office (office@harvardepworthchurch.org) to RSVP for the study. Scholarship funds are available to help purchase the book if needed. We’ll publish the Zoom link in early August.

New England JFON will be hosting their 10th Birthday Party on Sunday, August 14, 2022 at 1:00 pm. The event will be at St. Matthew’s UMC, 435 Central St., Acton, MA 01720; $30/ticket. Tables available. The group will celebrate the last decade, thank their donors and volunteers, and raise much-needed funds to support their important work. Learn more.

New England Justice for Our Neighbors, a UMC immigration ministry, welcomes immigrants by providing free, expert legal services to low-income and no-income immigrants seeking humanitarian-based visas. Theirclients include unaccompanied minors, asylum applicants, and victims of domestic violence, human trafficking, and violent crime.

Church members have raised more than $8,000 for aid and relief for Ukrainians since the Russians invaded the country on Feb. 24. Our donations were sent last week to the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) and the Kyiv School of Economics (KSE), where Ukrainian native and church member Bogdan Savych graduated. Thanks to all who joined us for the Adult Forum “Reflections on Ukraine” led by Bogdan and Gwen Savych. If you'd like to watch the recording of this session, click here for a Zoom link and enter the Access Passcode: Jf&2k!8C.

UMCOR donations will be used for refugee assistance relief as well as for direct aid for those still in areas under attack. KSE is buying and distributing medical kits, such as those shown in the photo. In a weekend Facebook post, school president Tymofiy Mylovanov said the kits are being delivered to Kharkiv and other cities, "the front lines where people suffer the most." To all donors, he said, "Thank you for your support. These kits stop blood loss and save lives. One life at a time."

The Missions Committee continues to collect donations for UMCOR and KSE, either through checks (made out to HEUMC) brought to worship or mailed to the church, or online at www.harvardepworthchurch.org by clicking the "Give Now" button, then choosing "Ukraine Relief" in the drop-down menu. Donations will be sent to these organizations.

For the summer season, we welcome flower donations for the Sunday morning altar. Please feel free to bring flowers from your garden or from a florist. If you wish to have a dedication printed in the worship bulletin, contact the office at office@harvardepworthchurch.org or 617-354-0837 by Thursday morning. We will resume weekly flower arrangements by Coady Florist in September. Thank you in advance for bringing beauty to our worship! 

The Friday Cafe, at First Church in Cambridge at 11 Garden St, provides a nutritious lunch and a welcoming community to over 100 homeless and at-risk neighbors every Friday afternoon.  Kate Layzer, the Director of Friday Cafe, sends this message:

On the third Saturday of every month, a volunteer team from Harvard Epworth brings sandwiches to homeless neighbors in Harvard and Central Squares. Harvard-Epworth will resume this ministry on Saturday, August 20.

Interested in joining the sandwich distribution? We gather at the church at 2:30 on the third Saturday of the month. For more details, email Lane at jamaicaplainlane@gmail.com.

Please join us after worship for coffee hour refreshments and fellowship, outdoors whenever possible and in the Vestry in the case of inclement weather. We ask that masks continue to be worn except when eating/drinking, while inside (please see below for a note on mask requirements). 

We'd love your help filling the table on this date and going forward. Please sign up at this link (https://signup.com/go/vLAxKUQ) or contact Sarah Bailey (sarahbailey202@gmail.com or 917 439 1103) if you would like to contribute. 

During the "online reality" that we find ourselves in, it is difficult for new people to get a sense of who we are as a church. Therefore, the Welcome and Evangelism committee is inviting people to submit a video (30 seconds or less) that introduces themselves and says what they find special about our church. We are hoping to put together a number of these short videos and release them in the coming weeks and months. This will be a great way for people to get a sense of this ministry we share in together. Please consider recording a short video and emailing it to Erin Lee, our Welcome & Evangelism Chair, at erinism614@gmail.com. Thank you in advance for being a part of this important opportunity of welcome! 

Remember that we have a Harvard Epworth Church Member Online Directory.  You can log in to the directory by going to directory.harvardepworthchurch.org by clicking on the link in the menu on the church website (it's next to the live stream link).

Current users can reset their password with the "Need a password" button on the directory login. If you don't have a directory account or access to it, email office@harvardepworthchurch.org  and we will be in touch with login information for you.