During this Lenten season the Deacons would like to offer our congregation a chance to center ourselves with prayer. We will be holding a 24 hour prayer vigil in our sanctuary. We will have 30 minute increments in which you can sign up for silent prayer beginning on April 8th at 6pm to continue until April 9th at 6pm.
Enjoy the quiet peace of our sanctuary and help us create a 24-hour period of prayer and reflection. A basket with materials to guide your time will be provided. You may want to read devotionals or scripture, draw or color, create music, or simply rest in God’s presence. Invite a friend to join you if you’d rather have company during your shift! Sign up at uccmanhattan.org/sign-ups or contact the church office to reserve your space. Can't make it to the building? You can still participate. We are hoping to have a Zoom room open for a portion of the vigil (we'll set up the computer in the sanctuary so you can log in to Zoom and focus your prayer time while viewing a live feed of our sanctuary). If this is something you're interested in, please reach out to Nell so we can coordinate the best time to open the Zoom room. Here are some actions you can take to help keep everyone safe as we gather for worship and other activities:
This list was created at the end of December 2021. If you're reading it at a later time, things have almost certainly changed. You can also read our full COVID policies here. Thank you for loving like Jesus and doing everything you can to care for your neighbor. The official name of the final UCC Denominational offering of the year is The Christmas Fund for the Veterans of the Cross and the Emergency Fund. 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.
United Church of Christ 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. We will take the offering at our Christmas Eve Service on Dec. 24, but if you'll be out of town or otherwise occupied on Christmas Eve, you can send your offering donation to the church office. Thank you! Donate via PayPal Remembering the Victims of the Residential Schools: A Worship Service of Lament Sunday, October 24th, 5:00 p.m. at the Leadership Studies Amphitheater (rain location: LS 126)
Choir safety updateWe had sincerely hoped to bring the choir back to our Sunday morning worship, beginning in September, but the resurgence of the COVID pandemic, and the particular virulence of the Delta strain, has put a hold on that activity. While we seem to be doing okay with quiet congregational singing in the pews (one hymn a Sunday, alas!), the prospect of rehearsing and performing as a choral ensemble in an inside space is not yet a safe one. Our church’s COVID Task Force will re-evaluate the situation in October, and we’ll see if we can reassemble later this fall. Bells, anyone?If we can’t sing, we can play handbells! We have a beautiful 3-octave set of Malmark Handbells that have been under-utilized for the past fifteen years or so, and now seems to be a great time to try to start a handbell choir. If you are middle-school aged or older, can read music reasonably well, and know your right hand from your left, this could be the musical opportunity you have been waiting for!! Please let Gretchen Lewis know if you’re interested, or if you think you could be interested, in learning to ring handbells. It’s lots of fun, and it’s a great opportunity for fellowship and music making. See Gretchen at church or email. Tentatively, I’m planning an organizational meeting and introductory rehearsal on September 12, after church at 12:15 up in the Conference Room. How about percussion?In early July, I attended the biennial Conference of UCC Musicians, which was held virtually from Hartford, Connecticut. The event began with a music reading session on Thursday evening July 8, and ended with a concert on Saturday afternoon. The first workshop I attended featured the amazing 80-something year-old Miriam Therese Winter, poet, song-writer, and member of the Medical Mission Sisters, who shared some of her songs with us. Other workshops I found stimulating included some huge puppets by Sue Aziz, an exploration of global hymnody in North American worship led by Patrick Evans, and my personal favorite, a presentation on the use of percussion ensembles in worship, led by Michelle Horsley. She offered very practical advice on starting a basic inter-generation percussion ensemble in the local church, and I’m mulling over the possibilities of beginning one here at First Congregational later in the fall. If you’re interested, talk to me, either at church or by email.
Gretchen Lewis, music coordinator
More about the book from the publisher:Valarie Kaur — renowned Sikh activist, filmmaker, and civil rights lawyer — has ignited the hearts of millions around the globe, making “Breathe and Push!” a mantra in movements for social change. Now in her stunning debut, Kaur declares revolutionary love is the call of our times, a radical, joyful practice that extends in three directions: to others, to our opponents, and to ourselves. It enjoins us to see no stranger but instead look at others and say: You are a part of me I do not yet know.
Drawing from the wisdom of sages, scientists, and activists—and her own riveting journey as a brown girl growing up in California farmland; as a young adult galvanized by the murders of Sikhs after 9/11; as a law student fighting injustices in American prisons and on Guantánamo Bay; as an activist working with communities recovering from xenophobic attacks; and as a woman trying to heal from her own experiences with sexual assault and police violence – Kaur discovers practices of revolutionary love to bring us longevity, resilience, and joy. See No Stranger is a practical guide to changing the world, a synthesis of wisdom, a chronicle of personal and communal history—all joined together by a story of awakening. Revolutionary love is medicine for our times. It just might be our best chance for our collective future. (Source) Once upon a time, Jesus’s friends asked him, “How should we pray?” For once, he answered the question instead of just posing more questions, and followers of Jesus have been praying that prayer in many languages and versions ever since. Join us worship online or in-person from August 8 through September 5th as we explore The Prayer of Jesus. We’ll be unpacking it bit by bit and we hope that this series will give you a sense of freedom as you explore your own prayer life as summer comes to a close.
ResourcesWright, N.T. The Lord and His Prayer.
Crossan, John Dominic. The Greatest Prayer: Rediscovering the Revolutionary Message of The Lord's Prayer. Do you have other resources to share with us? Use the "click to share with us" button and let us know! Compiled versions of the Lord's Prayer from Rev. Angela Menke Ballou Compiled versions of the Lord's Prayer from Rev. Phiwa Langeni (with a couple additions by Pastor Caela) Whether you choose to continue to worship with us online or join us in the sanctuary, we can't wait to SEE YOU SOON! This Sunday, June 27th, is the first time our sanctuary will be open to all - hallelujah! Here are some quick tips for those of you who will be coming to the sanctuary for worship: 1. Please remember to bring your mask, but we'll have a few on hand if you forget. 2. You'll notice new hand sanitizer stations throughout the building and we've also upgraded our HVAC system for a healthier building. 3. You have OPTIONS for your worship bulletin and sign in. We will have paper bulletins on hand, but you can also continue to access the bulletin from your own device if you'd like. We will not be using the pew pads but you can fill our a Connect Card online to sign in OR you can use a paper sign in sheet at the door. 4. Once you're in the sanctuary, please look for the blue tape on the pew backs to indicate spaces that are open for seating. 5. After worship, we ask that you leave the building in a timely fashion, to minimize our time spent together indoors. You are encouraged to bring a lawn chair (and your own snacks, if you'd like!) to enjoy fellowship on the lawn. We know it's going to take us all some time to get used to being together in person again. Pastor Caela recently said she can't remember AT ALL when we usually sit and stand throughout the service! Lucky for us, God has a great sense of humor and we will all just roll with it together in this time of holy experimentation. What a gift to be together again AND to be able to continue our vibrant online ministry. We can't wait to SEE YOU SOON! Other helpful information: Join us on Sunday, June 6th after worship for our annual blessing of the animals. We will gather at 12:15 p.m. at Long’s Park (17th and Yuma). Please bring along your mask and a lawn chair. Pets of all kinds are welcome and kids can also bring stuffed animals for a blessing. We will bless the animals together, share a brief communion prayer, and then you can stay to play and visit as long as you’d like. You are also encouraged to “fill the breadbasket” for the Second Helping. Please remember to show your care for our wider community by reviewing (and following!) our current COVID policies for church events at uccmanhattan.org/covid. |
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