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Join us for Brunch Church in on July 6th and August 3rd. Bring a dish to share and we'll gather around tables to sing, pray, reflect on scripture together, and share Communion. Zoomers, stay tuned as the Deacons will share details soon about how you can worship when we're having Brunch Church. 
This year we have TWO options for free devotionals to help guide your Lenten journey.
Devotional Booklets (hard copy or digital)
1) Our Lenten Devotional Booklets from A Sanctified Art are available for pick-up beginning March 2. You can pick up in the church lobby or in the plastic box outside the office doors. If you prefer a web-based version or would like a hard copy placed in the U.S. mail, please contact the church office. (This is the devotional that the Adult Sunday School class will use to guide their conversations throughout Lent.)
About the devotional: "Beginning with Ash Wednesday and concluding on Easter Sunday, this devotional follows Jesus through Luke’s Gospel. Each week offers commentary, poetry, visual art, hymns, and reflection prompts. We encourage you to walk through these weekly readings at your own pace throughout the season, following the rhythm that works best for you. The devotional features biblical commentary by our guest writers, Rev. Jeff Chu and and Dr. Mindy McGarrah Sharp, and art and reflections by our guest artist, Steve Prince." (from sanctifiedart.com) Daily Devotional Cards (via e-mail)
2) For those who prefer a daily devotional, we are pleased to offer Daily Devotional cards via email. Receive a daily invitation to a Centering Practice, Reflection Question, and Prayer. These cards were also created by A Sanctified Art and follow our Everything [In] Between theme. If you’d like to receive one each day in your inbox, please email [email protected] and we’ll get you added to the list.
Use one or both of these great resources to guide your spiritual journey this Lent. And....don't forget about the Spotify playlist for when you need some music.
 Dec. 1 - Advent Begins with HOPE Don’t forget to pick up your free Advent devotional and calendar at the church building. Online version also available - just email the church office.   Dec. 8 - Second Helping Celebration and Brass in Worship We’ll be joined by our beautiful brass ensemble during worship on December 8th. Join us at 10:30 a.m. for pre-service music in-person or via Zoom. We are also marking a momentous occasion in the life of our church - the transition from Second Helping to Common Table. The first Second Helping meal was held in November 1998. The final Second Helping meal will be held on December 29, 2024. During the first week of January, our meal will move to the Lincoln Center at 901 Poyntz. Dinner will be offered through Common Table seven nights a week - all in one location. Common Table will take over meal planning, grocery shopping, recruiting volunteers, and more. We hope, of course, that our Second Helping volunteers will support this new endeavor and our church plans to continue supporting Common Table financially, as well. We will celebrate 26 years of the Second Helping and pray for the future of Common Table on Sunday, December 8th during worship. Our Mennonite friends, who have been faithful volunteers at Second Helping, will also be marking this occasion during their worship service that same morning.  Dec. 15 - Christmas Pageant It's our annual Christmas Pageant, led by the children of our congregation! Join us in person or via Zoom at 10:45 a.m. for this special service. The kids will be sharing scripture, story, and song. We can't wait to see what they've created!  Dec. 22 - Lessons and Carols Join us in-person or via Zoom for our annual Lessons & Carols service, led by members of our vocal and bell choirs.. Many thanks to our musicians for sharing your gifts in this way.  Dec. 24 at 7:00 p.m. Christmas Eve Worship Christmas Eve is a time for singing carols by candlelight and remembering the gift that came to us in a tiny town all those years ago. Join us at 7:00 p.m. on December 24th as we celebrate the birth of Christ by hearing the story once again and sharing Communion at Christ's table (open to all!). People of all ages are welcome at this service, in-person or via Zoom. Pre-service music will begin at 6:45pm.  Dec. 29 Lessons & Laughter
Inspired by our theme and the tradition of Lessons & Carols, we have crafted a “Lessons & Laughter” creative liturgy for the first Sunday after Christmas. It interweaves joy and playfulness with scripture readings that emphasize all of creation rejoicing. The order of worship includes three lessons; in each lesson, there is a scripture reading, a hymn/song, and a creative response rooted in joy.  Sep. 22 is Faith and Democracy Sunday and we are joining other UCC churches in blessing VOTE-ive candles during worship. Please bring your favorite candle to worship on Sep. 22 OR pick up one of the VOTE-ives we will supply (LED options, too!). After the service, we'll all take our candles home and light them each day as we pray using one of the resources below:
7 day resource (re-use each week) 40 day resource (one prayer for each day) On All Saints Sunday (Nov. 3), which is also the Sunday before the election, we will place an emphasis on those saints/cloud of witnesses who fought to win and safeguard our voting rights, and we will ask all who took part in the 40 days of prayer to return their VOTE-ive candles to place on the worship table/altar; we will light them as a sign of the many prayers that have faithfully surrounded this election. Please know that the prayer portion of this is in addition to: *making and enacting a plan to VOTE *each one, reach five efforts to help our friends and family identify their voting plans *encouraging your friends and family to check their registration status NOW *phone-banking, post-carding, letter-writing, door-knocking *engaging in challenging conversations (with a spirit of curiosity!) to help build more robust communities *checking in with newly-eligible young adults to ensure they know how to exercise their right to vote *collaborating with partner organizations to reach those who may experience obstacles to voting *volunteering at the polls Through collective prayer and action, we can experience the truth that we are not alone as we work to make a More Just World for all people and creation. Many, many thanks to the Potomoc Association of the UCC for inviting us to be a part of this effort.  Some think of curiosity as just for kids or as a negative thing in our faith journey, but curiosity is valuable for ALL of us. Being curious about the world around us is a spiritual practice. We can be curious about other people which leads to empathy, community and a desire for social justice. We can be curious about God which leads to prayer and reflection. We can be curious about ourselves, leading to better mental health and healing. In this series, Be Curious: Surviving and Thriving in an Angry World, we will explore, experiment, and challenge ourselves to Be Curious! We will follow Jesus’ example, worshipping in curious new ways and asking plenty of questions. We will connect in ways that encourage curiosity about our community. We will be compassionate for others as we recommit ourselves to Loving Every Single Other. This divided world needs more curiousity. Let’s explore together!
For more information, contact Gretchen Lewis.
Church Choir Our choir rehearses each Sunday morning in the sanctuary at 8:30, and we'd love to have some new singers join us. Please see Gretchen if you are interested. We are looking forward to singing in worship this year. We are also looking forward to participating in a late September choral workshop with well-known contemporary composer and choral clinician Mark A. Miller. Dr. Miller will be in Wichita September 27 - 29 for a United Methodist Event, and Dr. Amy Rosine, choir director at College Ave Methodist, is organizing an ecumenical song festival here in Manhattan on the afternoon of September 29. She has called our local event: Songfest, Songs of Hope, Compassion and Joy. Further information will be upcoming about the time of the local concert. If you're interested in attending the workshop, talk to Gretchen for more information. Congregational Handbells The bell choir will resume rehearsals in September. The first rehearsal is Tuesday, September 3, at 5:00 pm in the sanctuary. If you'd like to ring with us, and you're free on Tuesday evenings, please reach out to Gretchen. We aim to offer a Handbell Prelude in worship once a month. First Congregational Mini Hymnal We had some excellent congregational singing this summer. I'd love to put together a kind of First Congregational mini hymnal of hymns you'd like to sing every two or three months. If you have favorite hymns to suggest, please send me some hymn titles. If we have a good response, we can select the 15 - 20 greatest hits, and put them in a rotation. Thank you!
 The students are back, parking is harder to find, and we're ready for another year of learning and growth. Sunday School for children and adults will resume this Sunday at 9:30 a.m. and the choir will be back from their summer sabbath. Guess who else is returning from sabbath? Pastor Caela will be back in our pulpit as her sabbatical draws to a close.
During worship we will also be blessing learners and educators of all ages. You don't want to miss it, so join us at 10:45 a.m. in-person or online. Kids and grown ups who are students, please bring along your backpacks to receive a blessing. Educators, please bring along your work bag or another object that represents your work. A big thank you to the Ministry of the Decorative Scissors for creating backpack tags again this year. We will be handing out backpack tags for students and educators of all ages during worship in the sanctuary, but if you worship online or are out of town, please contact [email protected] to request your tag. On Nov. 5th, we join with Christians around the globe in remembering our saints on All Saints’ Day. We will name those who have died in the past year who we hold dear to our hearts. Please join us for worship as we remember our saints together.   Since the late 1990’s, our faith community has held a Thursday night worship service of prayer and song, inspired by the worship tradition in the community of Taize, in southern France. During the Covid-19 pandemic, we moved this worship experience online, meeting over Zoom on Thursday evenings. We have been on a summer vacation since May, however, and as we resume, we will be making some changes. Beginning on October 19, we will resume worshipping together in person only, in Pioneer Hall. We will meet once a month, at 7:00, for prayer and song, on the third Thursday of each month thereafter. We have missed the communal aspect of our songs and prayer, and look forward to being together again. We extend a loving invitation to all of our church family to join us for this quiet, approximately 30-minute time together.
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