Neighbors in Need UCC Special Offering thru 10/2

The Neighbors in Need offering, which we will collect again this Sunday, October 2, supports the UCC’s ministries of justice and compassion throughout the United States.

Two-thirds of the offering is used by the UCC’s Justice and Witness Ministries to fund a wide array of local and national justice initiatives, advocacy efforts, and direct service projects.

One-third of the offering supports the UCC’s Council for American Indian Ministries (CAIM). Today there are 20 UCC congregations on reservations and one urban, multi-tribal UCC congregation in Minneapolis, Minnesota. These churches and their pastors are supported by CAIM.

Donations can be put in the special envelopes in the offering plate or given to the office. If you are donating by check, please designate Neighbors in Need or NIN in the subject line. Thanks for your continued generosity.

Enhance Your Faith This Fall with a Spiritual Practices Series

Starts Tomorrow, 9/29

Join Pastor Kathy this fall for a four-week series, “Enhancing Your Well-being with Spiritual Practices.” Each session will be about an hour long and will include learning about and trying different spiritual practices.

Session will be held in-person on Thursday mornings at 10:00am in the Davis room upstairs from the sanctuary, beginning tomorrow Thursday, September 29^th.

Contact the office or Pastor with any questions. 

Looking for a Church Member

Willing to be our Auditor

Do you like doing analysis? If so, maybe you can help us out. 

The Operations Team is looking for a church member who will be willing to be our auditor.

If you might be interested, please reach out to the church office and we will get you in touch with the correct people so you can learn more about this important church role.

Food Pantry Donations

Thank you all for such a generous outpouring of food items for St. Anne’s Food Pantry! 

Here are a few facts about the Food Pantry:

For over thirty years, St. Anne’s Food Pantry has served families in need from the towns of Hampstead, Atkinson, East Hampstead, Danville and Sandown. The woman who originally started the Food Pantry is still active with the pantry and delivers food to families who don’t have their own transportation! 

Most recipients go to the Food Pantry on Thursdays and/or Saturdays; there are specific hours it is open. Check out their webpage here. Currently, the Food Pantry serves over 145 families each month. There has been a greater increase over the past couple of years and the Food Pantry anticipates an even larger increase this winter due to economic conditions. 

Some of the most popular food items are pasta items and canned goods containing meat and pasta. Popular items such as fresh vegetables, meat and eggs are purchased and/or donated weekly by Hannaford in East Hampstead.

So far this year (through September), Hampstead Congregational Church has donated over 450 items – including over 16 pounds of pasta, 23 packages of rice, 116 cans including vegetables, pasta & meat, beans and tuna! St. Anne’s Food Pantry has let us know that they are very appreciative of our ongoing support.

The current needs for the pantry are: hearty/meaty soups, salad dressings, coffee, tea, cereal, flour and sugar. These items can be dropped off in the bin located in our foyer. We reach out to the pantry frequently to get their current needs and include those current needs in our Weekly Word and our bulletin.

Again, THANK YOU for your caring and generosity,

The Missions Team

Community Supper

Baked Potato Bar

October 15

Saturday, 4:00-6:00pm

We will be holding our next Community Supper on Saturday, 10/15 from 4:00-6:00pm. Please mark your calendars, and plan to bring your friends!

We always can use donations to help keep the costs of the dinners down so everyone who wants or needs a meal, can attend. Anything you can provide is greatly appreciated. There is a signup sheet in the social hall. Sign up during coffee hour, or contact the office. Cash or Market Basket Gift Cards are also an easy way to contribute and can be dropped off with Suzanne in the office.

Help for setting up, serving and clean-up is always appreciated as well. 

Thank you - Your Community Meal Group

Blessing of the Animals

Please join us on Sunday, October 16th in front of the Church, for a Blessing of the Animals! There will be a short prayer at 1pm, but you can drop by anytime between 1pm and 2:30pm.

We invite you to bring your pets on leashes or in carriers, or bring a picture of your pet to be blessed. Please pass the word on to your neighbors and friends. 

Pets are one of our greatest gifts, especially in these challenging days, and we want to take time to celebrate and show our gratitude for them.

Did You Know...

Did you know that you can check for yourself if the steeple is available to be lit? Did you know you can also check if one of the church rooms is available for you to use?

Our church calendar is updated with all the events, the rooms where those events are held, and all steeple lightings. You can see it from our website by clicking on "New To HCC" on the menu located at the top of the web page and then selecting the HCC Calendar. The calendar now displays right within our website.

Check it out here

Worship This Week

Please join us in our Sanctuary

or online at 10am for

World Communion 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: One Sacred Community Communion © Mary Southard

Chester Scarecrows

The Village People

Did you know, every year the residents of Chester put out hundreds of scarecrows throughout their town? These scarecrows are lovingly known as The Village People.

Some residents go all out and create amazing scarecrows based on famous movies, books and historical & current events and genres.

Chester residents maintain a Facebook page, a webpage, and a map of all the known addresses with scarecrows to help people navigate to the scarecrow locations.

You can check out their Facebook page here.

You can check out their webpage and map here.

Bible Study Group Break

Now - October 26th

The bible study group will take time off starting now through October 26th due to the spiritual practice study Pastor Kathy will be leading beginning on September 29th.

The bible study group will resume on Wednesday. November 2nd, at Jane C's home at 9:30 am.

October Birthdays

We are continuing to only list first names and last initial to minimize scamming issues with personal information being shared via electronic documents.

Lloyd T 10/2

Carolyn C 10/3

Karen C 10/5

Jackie L 10/6

Eric K 10/15

Judy D 10/26

Marcy M 10/31

If you would like your birthday recognized, please call the office to make sure we have it in our records!

Another Successful

Fiber Arts Gathering

This past Saturday, Bea Randall led another successful gathering for people interested in fiber arts in Hadley Hall.

The next gathering will be Saturday, October 22 at 10am - spread the word and come join us!

A Word from Peace and Justice

Isaiah 58 continues to work on the mission of helping people “with food, clothing, housing, and other issues of justice”. Recently they have been renovating trailers in Salem to provide temporary shelter for the housing insecure in Western Rockingham County. Here is a recent Facebook announcement with pictures of a unit at Friendship Drive in Salem that will be ready soon.

The post also asks for the community to participate in their Annual Charity Benefit on October 6 to help Isaiah continue their important work - learn more about the benefit here.

Isaiah 58 also takes donations of clothing and furniture to distribute free to those in need, they have a donation center in Salem. Isaiah provides counseling and financial mentoring to clients at Isaiah's Hampstead office to help clients reach sustainability in maintaining their own housing.  To learn more about Isaiah and its mission, check out their website here.

On a more “root of the problem” mission, Isaiah 58, along with St. David’s Episcopal Church, has been spearheading a community initiative to combat the critical shortage of affordable housing in this area. This work began back in June after the tenants of Westgate Arms in Salem received eviction notices when the landlord planned renovations - read the Lawrence Eagle Tribune story here. 

Blessings,

Debra

Recycling for Community Benches

During Coffee Hour this past Sunday, the topic of recycling those specialized plastic wrappers came up.  I decided to share the information from an article written last year on recycling.

Consumer Reports had an informative article about plastic recycling last year. Its tag line was "Think that all of what you toss in the recycling bin actually gets recycled? Think again." The full article had some shocking statistics about single-stream recycling. It explains where most of the plastic goes and what steps individuals can take to limit plastic waste. Some of the suggestions are actually easy to do, and some maybe not be as easy. Read the article here.

A woman in East Hampstead is volunteering her time and helping the cause by collecting plastic film and bags to recycle into benches for the community. She partners with the Trex Community Recycling Program where for every 500 pounds of clean plastic film, Trex will donate a four-foot composite bench. To date, she has collected over 8,500 pounds of plastic and donated 17 Trex benches to the local community including the Hampstead Conservation trails. She is now working on the 18th bench to donate!  That 18th bench is going to be donated to our very own Stepping Stones!

The collected items are everyday plastic items that many people just throw in with their regular trash. The goal is to promote recycling and keep these items out of our landfills. Our benefit will be a "forever bench" for our community. The items that are accepted are:

Grocery and retail bags

Ziploc bags

Dry cleaning bags

Bread bags

Bubble wrap

Wood pellet bags

Produce bags

Ice bags

Case overwraps

Plastic shipping bags

Pallet wrap

Newspaper sleeves

Cereal bags

Salt bags

No cellophane or hard plastic. All plastic must be clean, dry, and free of food residue.

You can drop off plastic in the recycling bin set up at the end of the driveway at 30 Collins Drive, East Hampstead (Blue house with black shutters). 

Debra Sawyer

Steeple Lighting

now - September 29

In loving memory of Michele Hughes

Always in our hearts

The Steeple will be Lit

October 2 - October 8

in loving memory of Bob & Lois Chase and their son Gary Chase.

Lighting being offered by family members Lauren Chase Stuck & Scott Chase. 

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.

09/27/22 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

The New needs for the Food Pantry are:



hearty/meaty soups, salad dressings, coffee, tea, cereal, flour and sugar

Please drop off any donations in the foyer of Hadley Hall

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.