Annual Christmas Collection for Families in Need

Every year our congregation collects items to give at Christmas. This year we are collecting for the Manchester Diaper Pantry. Due to the challenging economy, what the pantry needs the most isn't gifts, but basic supplies for babies.

So--we are collecting DIAPERS, WIPES and FORMULA this year

All types of formula and diaper sizes are needed!

Please drop off in the foyer of Hadley Hall now through Christmas.

Monetary donations are also welcome--the team will buy the supplies for you.

On behalf of the Missions Team--THANK YOU!!!

Worship This Week

Please join us in our Sanctuary

or online at 10am for the

Third Sunday of Advent--Rejoice Sunday!

Coffee hour will be held in Hadley Hall after the service. 

We hope you will join us.

The service will be live streamed through Facebook Live here or on 3CX here.

artwork: At The Heart of The Universe © Mary Southard

Blue Christmas Recording

For the past three years, we have offered a Blue Christmas Service of Loss and Remembrance--recognizing that the holiday season can be a time of great grief, loneliness, and heart ache for some.

This year we are offering a recording of a previous service. All are invited to take some time to reflect and watch the service here. May it comfort and bring solace to those in need.

Christmas Eve Service



We will have one Christmas Eve service this year on Saturday, December 24th at 4pm.

It will be an outdoor candlelight service, so please dress warmly, bring a chair (if needed), and gather in the front of the church around the luminaries. This service will also be live streamed on Facebook Live and recorded.

As a prelude to the service, we will be singing Christmas carols beginning at 3:40. Please bring your families and invite your friends to sing some carols and participate in this special service. We will have our regular Sunday service on Christmas, Sunday, December 25th. 

Greens Workshop Pictures

We had a good turnout last week for the Greens Workshop. The very talented Kari Allard led us in creating some beautiful wreaths, swags, planters & table centerpieces.

Thank you to those that donated greens for this workshop.

Christmas Craft Fair Success

The Fundraising Team would like to thank everyone who helped make the Christmas craft fair a success!

It is a lot of work to make the craft fair happen, but divided amongst many it’s so very doable. Whether you helped to set up or breakdown the classrooms, baked some goodies, made soup, donated raffle items, made greens and/or donated your time at the tables you were part of the success! Without you, it would never happen. Thank you all so much.

Thanks for Food Donations

For the Thanksgiving Drive, Hampstead Congregational Church donated over 100 items – including over 30 cans including vegetables, pasta & meat, beans, and tuna, 14 jars of condiments, 12 bread mixes, 10 boxes of cereal and a whole bag full of candy! St. Anne’s Food Pantry has let us know that they are very appreciative of our ongoing support.

Again, THANK YOU for your caring and generosity.

The Missions Team

Steeple Lightings

The HCC steeple is being lit the week of December 4th

in loving memory of Bob & Lois Chase

and their son Gary Chase.

Lighting being offered by family members

Lauren Chase Stuck & Scott Chase.

The week of December 11th, the steeple is being lit

in memory of Juanita & Maurie Randall

Love, The Girls

A Word from Peace & Justice

During the holiday season from Thanksgiving through Christmas the food and housing insecure are often, if not foremost, in our thoughts and prayers. We are even more likely to be moved to action through pantry donations, food drives, support of Isaiah 58 and various homeless shelters.

This is all good and helpful grace in action. When we do this we are usually thinking of the large number of families that are living one emergency away from financial disaster. A huge population is in need of ministry and support.

However, we know that unemployment, underemployment, low-wage jobs, and medical crises are not the only way families can find themselves food and housing insecure. Many women find themselves in crisis either through divorce or widowhood without the financial means to support themselves. Women, many with young children, who are survivors of domestic violence are also frequently in need of support for shelter and food.

The book Maid: Low Pay and a Mother’s Will to Survive, by Stephanie Land is a great look at the difficulty of getting help to leave a dangerous home situation.

This past week I read an article about those that are homeless due to mental health issues, “Why involuntary mental health treatment isn’t the answer”. It is a thoughtful consideration by Eugene Robinson on the recent implementation of forcing people who behave violently because of mental illness into hospitalized treatment in California and New York City. One plan empowers police to involuntarily hospitalize people they encounter on the streets whom they deem too ill to care for themselves and the other allows family members, police officers, or emergency workers to petition a judge to order someone with severe mental illness to submit to involuntary treatment for up to 1 year. Robinson details the situations that led to these actions and the limited effectiveness of these steps. He hopes that the limitations can spur us to do more, and better. This statement by Robinson seemed to

sum up our collective discomfort and paralysis at the intersection of mental illness and homelessness: “If mass institutionalization warehoused those people out of public view, deinstitutionalization has encouraged us to build our own walls to separate ourselves from our suffering fellow citizens. We walk past such Americans every day, and we pretend not to see their dishevelment, not to hear their incoherence.”

I know I have struggled with this on the streets of Portland and in driveways to Walmart

in Plaistow and Derry.

Here is the full article: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/12/01/mental-illness-

involuntary-treatment-newsom-adams/

Blessing,

Debra

Lights of Hope

The Hampstead Lions Club will again be selling luminaries which benefits local charities. This annual community-wide event, now in its fifth year, will take place on December 24.

The current times have brought about big demands from our community locally and globally, including helping to fund our own food pantries, disaster relief, vision testing, and more. By lighting up Hampstead we bring light to the issues that face us along with hope, healing and joy.

Please help us to help others by purchasing the candle kits. The cost for the kits is $10. Each kit includes six candles and six bags with directions. Purchasers supply their own sand or alternative such as dirt, kitty litter, rock salt, etc.

To order, please go to Hampstead NH Lions Club website: http://hampstead.nhlions.org.

You can also purchase luminaries by mailing payment with a contact name, address and phone number to: Hampstead Lions Club, PO Box 171, Hampstead, NH 03841 or by emailing Roxanne Schloth at lightsofhampstead@yahoo.com.

Luminaries can be purchased any time of year for any occasion.

The Music Corner by Herb Tardiff

The Christmas Oratorio by Johann Sebastian Bach. The opening of this composition is truly an inspiring and joyful celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ.

In the Lutheran tradition, the Christmas celebration didn’t begin until December 25th and continued until January 6th. There were daily services with special music to commemorate the Christmas season.

Bach often used previously written compositions to create these marvelous works of

art. I invite you to listen to the opening movement using Baroque period instruments. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98UjjwzJBFE

New Hampshire Conference UCC Weekly News

We thought you might enjoy reading the NH Conference UCC weekly newsletter. You can read it with this link.

12/06/22 Newsletter

Each week, we will update this section of our Weekly Word with the new link for the current newsletter.

Food Drive to Support

Saint Anne Ecumenical Food Pantry

Holiday Needs



 Grated cheese, salad dressing, pasta sauce, quick bread/muffin mix,

hearty/meaty soups (Chunky, Progresso), boxed crackers, hot cocoa,

cereal (Cheerios & Multigrain Cheerios).



Please drop off any donations in the foyer of Hadley Hall

Please, no expired items.

Thank you for all your support!

Scam Emails & Texts

Emails and Texts are often sent, saying they are from Pastor Kathy or another staff member. She (or the HCC staff) will never send out a generic email/text--she'll address it to your name. She will never ask you for money/gift cards over email nor via a text.

Also, any email from Pastor Kathy will always have her signature line on the bottom with her phone number/address.

If in doubt, please contact the church office or Pastor Kathy.