Volume 25, Issue 4

April 2024

CALL TO ANNUAL MEETING

Members of the Bristol United Church of Christ

are called to the Annual Meeting on 

Sunday, May 5, 2024, 11:00AM

following the morning worship service

The purpose of the meeting is to:

1. Receive reports of officers and committees,

2. Elect officers and committee members,

3. Act on other business that may properly come before the meeting.

 /s/ Mary Kay Haines, Clerk

Bible Study

Bible Study – Acts of Apostles – Mondays at 11 AM and 7 PM

Beginning on Monday, April 8, the Bible Study classes will be reading and discussing Acts of Apostles. Our guide will be the book, Acts, Catching Up with the Spirit, by Matthew Skinner. In this book, the author explores six key themes that illustrate the ways in which reading Acts is capable of igniting our imagination about the character of the Christian message, the work of God’s people (the church), and the challenges of living faithfully in a complex and changing world.

You need not be a Bible expert to participate in Bible Study classes. We are all learning new things day by day. Together, we make a safe space to ask questions and consider possible answers while exploring the New Testament book that tells the story of the earliest followers of Christ.

The classes meet on Mondays at 11 AM and 7 PM. Participants may attend either sitting based on their own schedule and preference. Each session will begin with a short video presentation by the author before discussion of the assigned reading.

There is no cost to participate. Pre-register with Rev Andrew.

Office Hours:

Monday thru Friday 9A - 12P

March Attendance

In Person + Zoom

March 3rd - 30

March 10th - 28

March 17th - 33

March 24th - 19

Maundy Thursday, March 28th - 20

THE PASTOR'S PEN

Easter Blessings

Easter changes everything. Easter matters.

             You and I may not think about it about it every day, but Easter really matters. It matters because Jesus Christ matters. The whole Jesus matters: not just the man Jesus, who taught the things recorded for us in the gospels; not just the Jesus who suffered and died on the cross; not just the Jesus whom God raised from death and who showed himself in body to the disciples; not just the Christ Jesus who spoke to Paul on the road to Damascus; and not just the Jesus Christ known to any one person or another. The whole of the New Testament tells us about Jesus Christ, the man in whom the fullness of God was pleased to dwell. All that he was and is and all that he said and did and continues to do is important for us in order to really know him and through him to know God.

Easter matters because in order to be raised to new life, Jesus had to be really and truly dead. He couldn’t just appear that way, using some kind of God power. Even though God was in Jesus, Jesus had to trust that when he died, God would continue to be with him in death and beyond. That trust is faith, Jesus’ faith in God. That faith is a faith that we can understand, or at least try to. We can relate to this faith. It is the faith in God with which each of us may find both joy and struggle over the course of our lives. But this by itself is not the faith that makes Easter so important, that makes Easter matter. There is a second faith to which Easter testifies: God’s faith. God showed faith in Jesus. God trusted Jesus to do and be all that he needed to do and be as a man so that Jesus would ultimately be able to testify and point to God, to who God really is. Easter matters because in Easter, God demonstrates God’s trust and faith in us, humans. Easter is God’s demonstration of faithfulness to us. God promises to be with us always, in life, death, and beyond. Raising Jesus Christ from death proves to us that God is trustworthy, that God is true.

Paul said it this way in his Letter to the Romans: For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Rom 8:38-39 NRSV) God loves us and has demonstrated that love through Jesus Christ: his birth, life, teaching, death on the cross, AND his resurrection. Placing our faith and trust in this faithful and trustworthy God, we may dare to live in a bold way, a way that will truly honor and testify to God. And should we ever fall short in our lives, we may dare to try again. Why?

Because Easter matters!

I pray the blessings of Easter for you, each and all, 

NARRATIVE LECTIONARY READINGS  

ESTELLE'S CORNER

WOMEN'S FELLOWSHIP

The Women’s Fellowship

Invites you to

Celebrate April Birthdays

and Anniversaries

At Coffee Hour

April 28th

Women’s Fellowship Upcoming Event

“SAVE THE DATE”

 Sunday, May 19^th

A special

“Thank you, to the Congregation”

Brunch and April Celebrations

provided by WF

Many thanks to the

congregation for always supporting Women’s Fellowship

***Please feel free to join our monthly meetings held on the second Thursday of each month.

Women’s Fellowship Library

We now have Volume Two of “Women of the Greatest Generation” stories of Faith, Hope, Love and Courage. This book is a collection of the unsung heroines of the second World War. One woman shares what it was like to grow up in Germany and live through the Allied Occupation. One Japanese woman tells what it was like living in Japan and being a war bride in America. Most of the women interviewed were from the Boston area. A most interesting read!

We have many “new to us” books donated to our little library. Lots to read.

Proof of Heaven – by Ben Alexander MD. A neurosurgeon’s journey into

the afterlife.

When Faith is Forbidden: 40 Days on the Frontlines with Persecuted

Christians by Todd Nettleton

Do it Afraid: Embracing Courage in the Face of Fear by Joyce Meyer

THE JOYFUL NOISE UKULELE BAND

The Joyful Noise Ukulele Band 

We will be having ukulele practice at

9:30 on Mondays. 

New people are always welcome. 

Contact the church office before coming so that we have materials ready for newcomers. 

The Joyful Noise Ukulele Band

will be playing the Garden Song

by David Mallett in church on April 21st

CHRISTIAN EDUCATION

Train up a child in the way they should go; even when they are old they will not depart from it.” Proverbs 22:6 

“Blessed are those who are punished for doing right”

Matthew 5:9

During the first part of the 2023-24 Sunday School year, we are going to learn about the Beatitudes; blessings taught by Jesus in the

Sermon on the Mount to guide people to live a good life. Each month we will use one of the Beatitudes to begin our portion of the Bristol UCC Newsletter. We will be using the book “Kids’ Travel Guide to the Beatitudes”. Starting in April we will learn about some of the Women in the Bible.

The first Sunday of each month is Intergenerational, so there will not be any formal Sunday School Lessons. Nursery care is offered on the first Sunday of the month. 

We will be running our Sunday School like a “little one room schoolhouse”: Attendance, Singing, Prayer , a Multi-age lesson on the Beatitudes, independent work for the older students, and guided activities for the younger students. Each week we have Ms. Sal leading us in song.

New students are always welcomed to join us at any time during the year! 

Here is the calendar for the month of April:

April 7 – Nursery care offered (Ms. Gracie)

April 14 – God Blesses Those Who Are Made Fun of. (Mrs. Keegan)

(The rest of April is School Vacation so we will not be having Sunday School on April 21 and 28)

Who Counts? 100 Sheep, 10 Coins, and 2 Sons

by Amy-Jill Levine and Sandy Eisenberg Sasso

Illustrated by Margaux Meganck

“One hundred sheep! If just a single one were lost, who would notice? Who counted sheep anyway? The man did. The man had a lot of sheep, one hundred of them.” And He counted them every day.

So begins this sweet little book about a Bible story most of you are

familiar with. Now it is time to share it with your Sunday Schooler!

MISSIONS

Mission Soup Day

Soup is on! 

April Mission of the Month

During the month of April, we shall be receiving donations to support World Central Kitchen’s mission to bring food aid to Gaza.

To learn about WCK’s aid programs and latest news, visit their website at wck.org

To learn about their recent efforts in Gaza, check out this video

CHURCH COUNCIL

Church Council

March 20, 2024

In attendance: Bill Nieman, Mary Kay Haines, Bonnie Biondi, Barbara McIntire, Lucille Keegan,

Debbie Doe and Andrew MacLeod.

Bill called the meeting to order at 7:00 pm.

Andrew led us in prayer.

The minutes of the February 21, 2024 meeting were reviewed. Betty emailed Mary Kay with a correction to add an a to the work annual on page one second line up from the bottom and to correct the spelling of Maundy on page 2 in the Pastor’s

report. Barbara made a motion to approve the minutes as corrected that was seconded by Lucille and the motion passed.

The Treasurer’s report was reviewed and placed on file.

Missions – Barbara – They are continuing with the monthly soup making and delivery, Andrew did it alone this month because others were not well or otherwise unable to do it. The March mission is One Great Hour of Sharing and April will be World Central Kitchen. Barbara said she saw on TV that all donations for World Central Kitchen are going to be matched, they have also been in the news delivering food Haiti and other hard hit areas around the world. The May mission will be Church World Service Blanket Sunday on Mother’s Day.

Trustees – Lucille for Tom – Tomorrow morning the trustees will be meeting with a structural engineer to go up to view the broken beam at an initial cost of $1700 which they will be putting through the insurance. They are using the same person as the TTCC is using for their renovation plan. The Sanctuary garden is missing the fence. Tom and Don Stokoe found it in bad shape and they are replacing rotten pieces, scraping and repainting. The church is helping the TTCC and Bristol Rotary with providing them use of Fellowship Hall for the annual Senior Lunch at no charge. Because of the renovations to the TTCC they cannot use that space as they have in the past. Fellowship hall has been a busy place lately with at least three private groups using the space for baby showers and birthday parties and they have all been wonderful and done a great job cleaning up. There is currently an alarm problem and both Tom and Andrew have been getting calls at all hours. It appears to be a problem in the phone lines and they will be working to get that fixed.

Nominating Committee – It has been very challenging getting people to sign up for open positions on committees. Andrew has some information to share from a workshop he recently attended. Bonnie suggested co-chairs something Debbie and Stephanie are already doing. Meeting attendance can be a deterrent for some people, another option might be meeting less often not necessarily once a month. There was some discussion about putting together some projects so people could pick and choose what they wanted to do that would allow them to still be doing something for the church without having to attend a meeting on a regular basis. They discussed this during the Diaconate meeting because they are really noticing the need seems to be greater lately.

Music –Debbie – Easter and Palm Sunday music is all set. The choir will be singing through Memorial Day or the 1^st Sunday in June then take time for the summer break. The piano to be tuned next week so it will be ready or Easter.

Pastor’s report Andrew- He went to a panel discussion at Prepared to Serve in February that was titled Church Governance in Changing Times that looked at Bylaws and are we actually following them as we struggle with changing situations and structures. He provided everyone with his notes to review and we can come back and revisit it. It will take some people some time do some brainstorming and soul searching for the direction we might want to take and how to get where we want to be. He suggested that we look over the notes and we can put out a call for anyone who might be interested in joining this group and that we need to make it fun and comfortable for people to be able to share their insight and vision for the future. He suggested we wait until after the annual meeting and really take the time to explore. We will look to reorganize ourselves to do the work of the church and rework our bylaws to be better able to get what needs to be done done. We should have fun and let the

spirit guide us as we work through a lot of stuff. He also asked us to set the date for the Annual Meeting that needs to be held in May and the only Sunday not filled with other stuff is May 5 so all agreed that is the date.

Christian Ed -Debbie – Adult Bible Study will start on April 8 with an 11am and a 7 pm time and will last for 6 to 7 weeks, they will be studying Acts, Catching up with the Spirit. They had a very successful craft this month with making hats, they did it two weeks and everyone really enjoyed it. They will be making an announcement asking everyone to wear their hats on Easter

Sunday, they do have some extras if you didn’t get a chance to make your own. The Ukulele group will be singing and there will be handbells and the kids will be singing Hosanna Rock. The kids will be doing another craft to hand out to people at the end of the service. On April 4 there will be movie and pizza and popcorn night with the movie being Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Come at 6 pm to eat and the movie will start around 6:30 pm. The last day of Sunday School will be May 26 and they will be hosting coffee fellowship with brownie sundaes. They have ordered books for next year. They will be doing the Easter Flowering cross on Easter again this year and Deb has already ordered the flowers. They have also purchased some new musical instruments which are already a hit. The Ukulele group has had a lot of performances lately, they went to Golden Crest, Peabody Place, Riverview Place and Bristol Elementary School and they will be playing at the Hebron Fair, Old Home Day and at the Minot Sleeper Library.

Women’s Fellowship – Bonnie – They met on the 14^th with only 4 people and they had a really good meeting. They discussed the pot luck supper on March 16 that was very good they had a lot of different foods and everyone had a good time. They are going to continue with the Brunch in May and will be having cake to celebrate birthdays and anniversaries since Christian Ed will be doing coffee fellowship on the last Sunday. She is happy to report that they now have 9 possibly 10 going to the state Women’s Fellowship spring gathering that will be held in Plymouth in April. Debbie is to receive a recognition award. A sub-committee comprised of Bonnie, Sandi Despins and Andrew met with Sandi’s son Scott to look at the issue with music on zoom. Scott was able to look at what we have and provided suggestions and some resources. They will continue to look at this after Easter. She said Scott did a great job communicating what he saw and explaining things they really appreciated him taking his time to work with us.

BCS – Barbara – going good it is so busy there.

Andrew sent us out with a prayer.

The meeting was adjourned at 8:19 pm.

Submitted by Mary Kay Haines

COMMUNITY

Thursday, April 4th

6:00pm

Movie Pizza & Popcorn Night

FOOD PANTRY NEEDS:

BRISTOL COMMUNITY SERVICES

FOOD PANTRY NEEDS

Pasta Sauce, Chef Boyardee Meals,

 CEREAL & Instant Oatmeal

Canned Fruit

Small to Medium size jars of Peanut Butter 

DRINKS

Dish & Laundry Soap

Condiments & Toiletries

CELEBRATIONS

We extend our warmest welcome and invite you to join with us each week in praise and worship. 

WORSHIP SCHEDULE

Sunday Worship 10:00AM 

In-Person & Zoom

Hard copies of the bulletin available Thursday after noon in the bin on the rear walkway table.

For All Groups Meeting at Bristol United Church of Christ

The BUCC will no longer use local school closures for bad weather as the determining factor for closing the church. Instead, the church will be available to organizations regularly using the church facilities at the group leader’s discretion. 

We do not guarantee that the parking lot will be cleared and sanded or the walkway shoveled. Please consider your group members’ safety first. Please have a clear plan for communicating your cancellation to your group members (email, telephone chain, etc.)

*******Please also leave a message on the church answering machine

(603) 744-8132 so that we will know of your cancellation.

The deadline for all newsletter submissions is the 20th of the month.

                Articles that come in after that date will be used in the following month’s newsletter. 

REV. ANDREW MACLEOD, Pastor and Teacher



Office: (603) 744-8132

Residence: (603) 217-0704

Email: pastorbucc@breezelinebiz.net 

BRISTOL UNITED CHURCH of CHRIST

“The Church on the hill”              

15 Church St.

PO Box 424

Bristol, NH 03222

Main Office Summer Hours:    

Monday thru Friday 9AM - 12:00PM

Office: (603) 744-8132

Email: bristolucc@breezelinebiz.net

Pastor’s Hours: 

Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday

9AM - 12 Noon and by appointment   

Email: pastorbucc@breezelinebiz.net