THE CHURCH CALENDAR THIS WEEK:
Today, Sunday, 10/18/09 CAPITAL CAMPAIGN CONSECRATION SERVICE
9:30am Choir Rehearsal (S)
10:15-10:25am Special Capital Campaign Prayers (S)
10:30am Worship (S) & Sunday School (FH)
11:30am Coffee Fellowship (FH)
Noon on – Capital Campaign Visits
3-4:30pm ‘Tweens, (FH)
Monday, 10/19/09
7:30pm Al-Anon (P)
8:00pm AA Meeting (FH)
Tuesday, 10/20/09
8:30am Morning Out Bible Study (P)
11:00am Age in Motion (FH)
5:30pm Brownies (FH)
8:00pm 12-Step Group (FH)
Wednesday, 10/21/09
6:30pm Choir Rehearsal (FH)
Thursday, 10/22/09
11:00am Age in Motion (FH)
6:00pm Pot-Luck Supper (FH)
6:30pm ENVISIONING TEAM GATHERING (FH)
Sunday, 10/25/09 Capital Campaign Celebration Sunday
9:30am Choir Rehearsal (S)
10:15-10:25am Special Capital Campaign Prayers (S)
10:30am Worship (S) & Sunday School (FH)
11:30am Capital Campaign Celebration Reception (FH)
3-4:30pm Pre-‘Tweens, (FH)
Pastor Alison will be working on Monday (10/26) and Tuesday (10/27) this coming week
because she will be at a UUA Retreat in Maine at the end of the week.
CAPITAL CAMPAIGN VISITORS NEEDED
Anyone interested in serving as a Visitor for our Capital Campaign is invited to meet with our Campaign Chair, Mim Johnson, after Coffee Fellowship today. These visits will be made throughout the afternoon today. Be assured that you will be neither begging nor “arm-twisting” anyone to give. Instead, you will be blessed by making friendly visits to other members of our church family and by being able to participate in a truly meaningful way in this important final step in our campaign journey.
The Winchester Weekly Window
Week of October 18th through October 25th
The United Church of Winchester
97 Main Street - P.O. Box 33
Winchester, NH 03470-0033
(603) 239-4465
Asia Pacific Disasters
When Typhoon Ketsana, a South Pacific earthquake and tsunamis, and an earthquake in West Sumatra wrought death and destruction across Asia and the Pacific within a five day period – it was because of your previous gifts to One Great Hour of Sharing® that the UCC could respond immediately. Emergency assistance grants were sent to a host of partners across the
disaster zone to support their initial relief and recovery efforts. Now the UCC calls on your generosity to raise an additional $250,000 for the OGHS Pacific Disaster Appeal to strengthen our partners’ response efforts and support long term recovery and rehabilitation.
Please pray for all the people whose lives have been affected by the South Pacific Disaster, especially the injured, the homeless, and all who lost friends or loved ones. Also pray for those who are providing relief and rehabilitation assistance, especially our partners.
Please give to the rebuilding of these communities. In less than a week, people across the region suffered a range of losses. There hope lies in the ability of others to care and to provide assistance.
MOST NEEDED ARE UNRESTRICTED DISASTER FUNDS so that the UCC’s response can be geared toward the greatest need. Unrestricted gifts may be sent to the Pacific Disaster Fund. If you wish to designate your gift for a specific disaster response, please specify that your gift is for Typhoon
Ketsana (Philippines, Vietnam and Cambodia), South Pacific Tsunamis (Samoa, America Samoa, Western Samoa, and Tonga) or the Sumatra Earthquake (Indonesia).
Thank you for your prayers and offerings.
For more information go to:
www.ucc.org/disaster
Church World Service: Pacific Disaster Relief
To assemble a Hygiene Kit you will need:
- One hand towel measuring approximately 16" x 28" (no fingertip or bath towels)
- One washcloth
- One wide-tooth comb
- One nail clipper (no metal files or emery boards)
- One bar of soap (bath size in wrapper)
- One toothbrush (in original packaging)
- Six Band-Aids®
Please do not add toothpaste to the Hygiene Kit. Toothpaste that has an extended expiration date will be added to Hygiene Kit shipments just prior to shipment. Seal all items in a one-gallon plastic bag with a zipper closure.
Hygiene Kit value: $10
Processing/Shipping Cost: $2 per Kit
(If you want to make a kit, please do so to the above specifications and leave in the breezeway of the parsonage)
Volunteer Sheets for the Mission Fair scheduled for November 21st will be available at Fellowship time this morning. Please take the time to look them over - you could work at a table, bake for the food sale table, donate items for the luncheon, help set-up on Friday morning, work on Saturday or help pack up on Sunday after church. Something for everyone!
Thank you for helping make this mission possible.
The Ways & Means Committee of the Ladies’ Society
A Pastoral Reflection on the Violence in Mont Vernon
God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear. -Psalm 46:1-2a, NRSV
These are familiar words from a favorite Psalm. They have seen many saints through deep valley times. Last night, as I attended a simple Communion service at the Congregational Church in Mont Vernon, these words held special promise and power. Two colleagues from the Hillsborough Association and I had been invited into that community, where a terrible tragedy was heavy on the hearts of everyone. A local woman, Kimberly Cates, had been murdered early Sunday morning. Her daughter was left for dead, but is recovering in a Boston Hospital. Four young men-teens-from the local area have been charged in the crime.
As I reflected in the silence, with candles aglow around the cross, my prayer was grounded in the ancient text: "God is our refuge and strength." All the other things that seemed to anchor us are gone. They do not secure our lives. Schedules no longer matter when the shadows grow long in the soul and the groaning of the whole creation reverberates in our hearts. Only God is our refuge and strength.
And God was not far distant as we prepared to receive the gift of Presence, broken bread and outpoured wine. The present tense captured my spirit. God is our refuge and strength right here, right now, especially amid this terror and trouble. It is amid earth's trouble that our faith sustains and God becomes a very present help. Our faith is rooted in the assurance that not even the trouble will keep God's love from reaching us, holding us, and resurrecting us.
Please join with those who have suffered so in this violent, senseless act. Please pray for this family . . . and all the families who are affected in Mont Vernon and in the communities that surround it. Please pray for the churches and the pastors who share the grief and disbelief that these days have brought. Please pray . . . .
O God, our Helper, be present with those who are numb with grief, with those who are caught in fear, and with those whose anger and guilt are great. All the emotions are here bundled closely togther. Let your Spirit be near all who mourn this loss and all the other losses connected with it. Come, Lord Jesus, weep and walk with us all, that we may find your peace and comfort and life. Just come . . . now. Amen.
--Rev. Gary M. Schulte, Conference Minister
