NORTHWEST WORD DECEMBER 2020
NWA Fellowship Gathering
Thursday, December 17, 7 pm

The Northwest Association is getting together for a night of fellowship.
Join us on Zoom.

We will begin with an opening devotion and break into small groups for conversation. Grab your coffee, a cookie or two and join us we gather together as the great NW Association.

We look forward to seeing you and sharing a story or two.

Please register in advance for this meeting:
Virtual Worship in the NWA

We're trying to keep current with online worship offerings of our churches. You can find a listing on our webpage, https://www.wcucc.org/associations/northwest-association/

Please let us know if there are corrections or additions
New Clergy Day-Zoom Event
Wednesday, January 13th, 2021

Contact Rev Rob MacDougall


Sermon Camp is fully online, runs from January 11 to February 19, 2021, and costs $299. Experience what participants describe as "the class I wish I had in seminary," "the exact sermon-writing refocus I needed for this time in my ministry," and "salve for my soul."
 
More details and registration here. Please direct questions to info@the-damascus-project.org or 507-222-0194.
The Christmas Fund for the Veterans of the Cross and the Emergency Fund
“For Such a Time as This” Esther 4:14

The Christmas Fund has been caring for active and retired clergy and lay employees of the United Church of Christ for over 100 years, providing emergency grants, supplementation of small annuities and health premiums, and Christmas “Thank You” gift checks each December to our lower-income retirees. Over the past nine months, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the emergency financial needs of many who serve the church have increased dramatically.
In such a time as this, the need for the Christmas Fund is more urgent than ever.
UCC congregations and members have blessed the Christmas Fund with their generosity for many years. This year, your care and compassion will be especially appreciated by those servants of the church who are facing a time of need. Thank you!

Suggested date December 20, 2020
Worship Services Available - and more on the way
Dear ministry colleagues,

I greet you with Advent hope despite the surging COVID cases and the worries and anxieties of these strange days. I want to express deep appreciation to you for the ways you have adapted and endured through this long pandemic. If we can muster the stamina to hang in there through the winter and into early spring, it seems we have a realistic hope that vaccinations will be available to the wider public. What a promising thought that – at long last – we might return to more normal worship gatherings! 

Many of us have suffered rising levels of anxiety, fatigue and stress brought on by this seemingly never-ending chapter of distanced ministry. We on the Conference Staff want to help facilitate some “respite” worship resources in order to provide a little breathing room for weary preachers.

Recognizing that many of you will want some time off following Christmas, we share with you a thirty-minute worship service from the Rev. Elizabeth Hazel, particularly fitting for December 27th or January 3. It contains a Greeting, Call to Worship and Opening Prayer, Scriptures, Sermon titled “Baby Jesus,” and Pastoral/Lord’s Prayers followed by a Benediction. You are welcome to use all of it, or pieces of it, and you are free to add music or additional worship components as you see fit. Elizabeth is one of our pulpit supply preachers, and offers this as a gift to the Conference! She lives in Park Falls, Wisconsin, and currently serves on the Conference Board of Directors as well as the Northwest Association Mission Committee. 

You will also recall the Council of Conference Ministers provided a service that came to you without much advance notice, so if you want to have that as another option here are the links:

Additionally, the Conference Ministerial Staff is working on two worship services for your use – an Epiphany Service and a Lenten Service. The Epiphany Service will focus on the lectionary scriptures for January 10th (Baptism of Christ Sunday) but it could also be used on January 3rd or 17th. This service will include all the usual worship pieces plus music and a children’s time. You will receive it via email later this month. The Lenten service will come to you by early February and will be appropriate for any of the Sundays of Lent.

We hope these resources will be helpful to you!

Advent blessings,

Franz
Save the Date for General Synod!
July 11-18, 2021

General Synod 2021 will be taking place entirely online. Read a welcome message from Synod leadership, check out the General Synod website, and mark your calendar for July 11-18, 2021, for General Synod!
Registration opens January 1.




Wisconsin Conference Life Newsletter
December 10, 2020

Stewardship Webinars
Creation Care Grants
Emergency Grants
Sermon Camp
and more

Click here