November 21st Weekly Word | |
|
Worship This Week
Please join us
in the Sanctuary
or online at 10am for the
Thanksgiving Sunday
Coffee hour will be held
after the service
in Hadley Hall
The service will be live streamed
on Facebook Live here
or on 3CX here
Reader: Linda Tilden
Coffee Hour: Al & Marion Lake
| | | |
|
Thanksgiving Week Hours
Due to the Thanksgiving holiday, Maria will be in the office Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday next week from 9am to 3pm.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
| |
|
Welcome to HCC's New Members
This Sunday we will be receiving three new members to our HCC family.
Please join us in giving them all a warm welcome.
| |
|
Rob & Joanne Reeves
Rob & Joanne moved to Hampstead to be closer to family after retiring to the Wilmington, NC area in 2015. Rob Worked for the YMCA for 35 years and Joanne worked as an Administrative Assistant at various companies. They have two daughters, Courtney and Victoria and two grandchildren, Frankie (21 months old) and Millie (12 days old). They both love volunteering for HCC. As Joanne says, "The warm welcome we received and the people at HCC and the Lord are what drew us here."
Thomas "T.J." Siwacki Arndt
T.J. is husband to Allison and father to Jasmine, Joey, Elios, David, Tessa and many, many pets. He is originally from Florida and moved to New England from work. They started coming to HCC because Allison came here as a child, and they fell in love with it. An Epidemiologist by trade, T.J. also enjoys lectoring.
| |
|
Stewardship Update
Imagine Together our collective abundance and what we can do in the changing of lives for those less fortunate. As stewards of the abundance God has given each of us, we can choose how we can make a difference in our financial support to our church, its missions and its many ministries. A pledge is a structured way for our church to plan how it utilizes our money to carry out those missions.
While many of us returned a pledge card on Stewardship Sunday, we are hopeful there will be additional intentions to pledge. Pledge cards were mailed to members and friends last month before Stewardship Sunday.
If you need another pledge card, one can be requested from the church office or one can be found on information tables at the church.
God Bless.
Your Stewardship Team
| |
This Sunday at the Olde Meeting House | |
|
Looking for Donations for
Attic Treasures Table
We are asking for donations of new or gently used items to be sold at our Attic Treasures table at the Christmas Craft Fair on December 7th. If you have anything, please contact Barbara Wallack at bsw91@comcast.net or bring it to the office.
This is a great way to donate things and clean out your garage or attic!
| |
|
Need 2025 Offering Envelopes?
If you would like Offering Envelopes for 2025, please let Maria know in the office by either calling 603-329-6985 or email at HCC1752@gmail.com.
Please specify if you would like weekly or monthly envelopes, or something else. We can print to order.
| |
|
Fiber Arts This Saturday
November 23rd
The Fiber Arts group (knitting, crochet, hand work, etc.) meets the 4th Saturday each month from 10am-noon in Hadley Hall.
All skill levels are welcome and no commitment is needed. Just drop in when you can and enjoy the company and crafting. We hope you'll join us!
| |
|
Christmas Greens Workshop
Join us on Tuesday, December 3rd at 5pm in Hadley Hall to help create beautiful creations to be sold at the Christmas Craft Fair. Bring scissors, clippers/pruners for the greens.
We will be decorating wreaths and making swags and centerpieces out of greens. Kari will be leading, teaching and directing, so even if you have never done anything like this before, join us. We always have so much fun!
If you have any pine, hemlock, spruce, holly, or any other kind of evergreen in your yard that you could cut and bring in, please bring it in ahead of time. We can store it in the basement. Collect pinecones, birch branches, winterberry and any other interesting natural finds that could be used as well. Kari will be providing ornaments, ribbons etc. for decorating.
All the products we create will be for sale at the Christmas Craft Fair.
| |
Rev Paige's Corner: What Stories are We Telling?
Through the years, I have come to think more about the stories we tell to ourselves and about ourselves. What do we highlight? What do we leave out? And while this is really interesting to think about as individuals, as an interim pastor I find it helpful to think about the stories that church communities are telling about themselves.
Recently I ran across a folder in the church archives labeled "HCC and Atkinson Yoking". In that folder were the agreements between our two churches - one from 1945 and another from 1951. And there are 6 years of joint newsletters from the early 60s. The last one speaks about how the churches had been yoked and sharing a pastor for 20 years! However, both churches have largely forgotten about that time.
In the April-May 1966 newsletter, the pastor, Ted Hadley, wrote: "Our two churches have been yoked for almost 20 years. It was a good idea to have them work together, and the years have shown that we have worked together well. The towns have grown, and so have the churches and the church schools. Our financial matters have propered. We have made a great many fine improvements to our church property in both towns."
At one point when the yoked churches needed more than 1 pastor could do, they hired a part-time associate pastor, the Rev Jessie Deale.
In 1966, the two congregations decided they wanted to each seek their own full time pastor. For Atkinson, that meant building a parsonage.
What is evident to me scanning through these newsletters is that both churches were vibrant and active in these days. There are stories of Vacation Bible School and women's club meetings, building projects and Men's meals. There were weddings, funerals, baptisms and usual slew of meetings it takes to run congregational churches. It was a different day and yet the yearning to be a strong community of faith serving our community was much the same.
As we consider moving back towards a yoked relationship with the Atkinson Church, I find myself wondering what we might learn from these old stories about a pair of churches that collaborated for a time in a way that helped them both grow and thrive. And I wonder what stories might be told about these days 50 years from now.
Blessings and peace to you all.
Rev Paige Besse-Rankin
| |
|
Transition Talk - December 1 following worship
An Exploratory Team with members from our church and the Atkinson Congregational Church has been exploring the possibility of “yoking” our two churches. A Yoked relationship is not a merger! Each church maintains its own independence, building, team structure, budget, etc. In a yoked relationship, the churches share a pastor. Some yoked churches explore others ways to collaborate in programs, mission, staffing, fundraising, and more. Although we have talked about this in broad terms, we are now looking at more details and specifics in preparation for each congregation’s annual meeting. Join us after worship on December 1 for lunch, presentation and conversation!
| | | |
Book Group Advent Study Starts this Week!
Our Thursday Morning Book group continues to meet with warm beverages and warmer conversation from 10 - 11:30 am. All are welcome to join us - even if it can only be occasionally.
we are beginning our Advent Study with Amy-Jill Levine and her book "Light of the World".
In Light of the World: A Beginner’s Guide to Advent, author, professor, and biblical scholar Amy-Jill Levine explores the biblical texts surrounding the story of the birth of Jesus. Join her as she traces the Christmas narrative through the stories of Zechariah and Elizabeth, Mary, the journey to Bethlehem, and the visit from the Magi. These stories open conversations around connections of the Gospel stories to the Old Testament, the role of women in first-century Jewish culture, the importance of Mary’s visitation and the revolutionary implications of Mary’s Magnificat, the census and the stable, and the star of Bethlehem and the flight to Egypt.
AJ describes herself as an unorthodox member of an Orthodox synagogue and a Yankee Jewish feminist who until 2021 taught New Testament in a Christian divinity school in the buckle of the Bible Belt. Our study will include companion videos with her presentations.
New and used copies of the book will be available for those who want it. It is also available digitally on Amazon. The schedule for our Advent Study will be:
Nov 21 - Introduction and Meaning of Memory (Zechariah and Elizabeth)
Nov 28 - Thanksgiving
December 5 - Promise of Potential - (The angel with Joseph and Mary)
December 12 - Journey to Joy - (The journey to the manger)
December 19 - Gifts of Gentiles - (The Magi)
Finally, for those who would like it, we do have copies of the "Living Compass" devotional for Advent which is themes on "Practicing Peace".
| | | |
|
Volunteers Needed for Christmas Craft Fair
Our annual Christmas Craft Fair is scheduled for Saturday, December 7th. This fundraiser is one of our most successful events and is essential to our bottom line. Though it is work intensive, it is also a fun time and great community event. To continue this tradition, we need your help. Please consider volunteering.
Thursday December 5th
5pm – Clear out Classrooms
Saturday December 7th (day of the fair)
9am – 11am Man tables
11am – 1pm Man tables
1pm-3pm Man tables
3pm Clean-up and return classrooms to original order.
Sign-up sheets will be available at Hadley Hall by October 20th. You can also contact HCC at 603-329-6985, or text Barbara Wallack at bsw91@comcast.net to sign up or with questions.
We greatly appreciate any help you can offer.
| |
|
Peace & Justice
We have so much to be thankful for - food, housing, family, friends, and so much more. I want you to think about your Thanksgiving celebration and traditions for a moment. Will you be in a small or large gathering? Will you travel or are you hosting? Will some of the folks at the table have allergies or other food restrictions?
Now picture that table loaded with food. Have you been waiting for Aunt Willa's secret ingredient pumpkin pie or Uncle John's deep-fried turkey? What other wonderful food will be on that table? Are you hungry yet? Are you planning on wearing your stretchy pants? (For giggles listen to “I've Got My Stretchy Pants On”)
Now let's think about what that table would look like if you lived in a food desert. These areas are in very poor urban areas and sparsely populated rural areas. See USDA and wikipedia for definitions and a locator. Many of these areas only have a convenience or Dollar Tree type of store for food. So, I took my grocery list to a local Dollar Tree to see what I could find for that feast.
Some things I expected - for the turkey I only had breaded chicken nuggets or a chicken and broccoli pot pie. There were plenty of spices as well as quick rice packets and instant mashed potatoes. There was a thin selection of canned vegetables and fruit. What did surprise me was that some frozen fruit and frozen vegetables - broccoli cuts, asparagus, and California blend - were on offer. If I had access to eggs, I could have taken advantage of cornbread, cake, and muffin mixes. None of the shelf goods offered diet or gluten-free options.
Also, thanks to Terri Malcolm who shared a YouTube of a young woman putting together a Dollar Tree Thanksgiving dinner.
Map of low food access areas around us.
|  | | |
|
Music Corner by Herb Tardiff
One of the best decades for dance music.
Top Ten Songs of the 1930s
1. Judy Garland, “Over the Rainbow,” 1939.
2. Glenn Miller, “Moonlight Serenade,” 1939.
3. Artie Shaw, “Begin the Beguine,” 1938.
4. Bing Crosby, “Pennies from Heaven,” 1936.
5. Fred Astaire, “The Way You Look Tonight,” 1936.
6. Fred Astaire & Leo Reisman, “Night & Day,” 1932.
7. Kate Smith, “God Bless America,” 1939.
8. Benny Goodman, “Sing, Sing, Sing (With a Swing)”, 1937.
9. Fred Astaire, “Cheek to Cheek,” 1935.
10. The Andrews Sisters, “Bel Mir Bist Du Schoen,” 1938.
Quite a list of familiar songs and artists!
| |
|
Steeple Lighting
Steeple Lit
in loving memory of
Steven Perry
Happy Heavenly Birthday
Your Loving Family
| |
|
Steeple Lighting
Steeple Lit
in loving memory of
Harry Mildonian Jr.
Love Always, Marcy
Family & Friends
| |
|
New AMAZON Wish List for
Saint Anne's Food Pantry
St. Anne's Food Pantry will be preparing over 110 food baskets to be distributed to their Food Pantry recipients for both Thanksgiving and Christmas this year.
They are in need of certain foods for these baskets, and we are collecting stuffing, gravy and cranberry sauce through December 16 to assist in filling these baskets.
Thank you in advance for any donations.
Please no expired items and non-perishable items only please.
Drop off in the foyer of Hadley Hall.
| |
|
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.
11/19/2024 Newsletter
Each week, we will update this section of our Weekly Word with the new link
for the current newsletter.
| |
Are you on Facebook? Do you follow Hampstead Congregational Church? Please like our page to know about all the great events in the church. Liking also supports our church when people check us out. If you are already connected, share our good news!
| |
|
Help Us Continue Our Mission at HCC | |
Want to get the word out about what’s happening at HCC? If you want to publicize your event or remind the congregation about something, please email the office (hcc1752@gmail.com) by Wednesday at noon so that your information can be included in that week’s Weekly Word. Feel free to send in information up to three weeks in advance of an upcoming event. We want all of the congregation (not just the Team leaders) to be empowered to get the word out about all the activities that are happening at Hampstead Congregational Church!
| | | |
|
Our Mailing address:
61 Main Street
Hampstead, NH 03841
Church Office hours: Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday 9:00am to 2 pm
| | |
Hampstead Congregational Church Website
| |
| | | |
