Welcome to Maura Mulhall

As Our New Auditor

We are happy to announce that Maura Mulhall has accepted the role of Auditor for HCC.

Maura served as treasurer at HCC for many years, and we are so grateful that she has stepped into this new role.

The Scammers Are At It Again

A member recently received the above email, and it looks like it came from Pastor Kathy. This email is scam.

How would you know this is not really from Pastor Kathy?

There are three things in this email that will alert you to it being a scam are:

1. Pastor Kathy will NEVER ask for money via email.
2. The email address is not Pastor Kathy's real email address.
3. The grammar is bad, and we all know Pastor Kathy has terrific grammar!

If you are ever unsure about an email from Pastor or the church, please contact us

at (603) 329-6985.

Fall Church Clean-Up,

Saturday, November 12

9:00am-12:00pm 

Save the date and your energy. Your Operations Team requests your help and has scheduled this Saturday, November 12 for our fall church clean-up. There are outdoor tasks, such as leaves and debris clean-up, garden clean-out, and indoor tasks that may include windows, dusting, etc.

Bring your rakes, tarps and cleaning supplies. You may also help with snacks and water for the volunteers.

PS - Rain Date, Saturday 11/19/22

Many hands make light work.

Thank you,

Your Operations Team 

Advent Devotional Available

Advent begins Sunday, November 27th.

We have a wonderful daily Advent devotional booklet available to anyone who wants one. This year's devotional focuses on practicing simplicity each day of Advent and beyond.

Those who used this resource in the past have loved it--so please pick up one for yourself this year.

Copies are available in the foyer of Hadley Hall, or if you would like one sent to you, please contact the church office.

Advent Discussion Group

Using the Living Compass devotional (described above), we will have a 4-week discussion group starting on Thursday, December 1st. We will meet upstairs in the Davis Room (large room at end of hall) at 10am. Sessions will run for about 90 minutes, and all are welcome. Our discussions will be based off the reflections and discussion questions provided in the booklet. If you have questions or would like to learn more, please contact Pastor Kathy.

A Farewell Thank You

Please join us Sunday, November 20th, during worship to express our appreciation for our administrator Suzanne Finocchiaro. We will have the chance to bid her farewell at coffee hour.  Suzanne has been a wonderful asset to our church and she will be missed. Her final day in the office will be November 21. 

Joann Klawitter, chair of Staff Relations, will be collecting donations for an appreciation gift. 

And Saying Hello

Maria Angelotti has joined our HCC team as the new administrator. 

Maria lives in Haverhill, MA and has spent the last 35 years working as an office administrator.

She spent her youth on the shores of Big Island Pond and loves everything about the town of Hampstead. 

Maria's hobbies include traveling, cooking, playing guitar and spending time with family. Maria is thrilled to be joining the staff at Hampstead Congregational Church.

Make sure to stop by the office and say hello to Maria.

Hampstead Thanksgiving Service

Back In-Person

Sunday, November 20 at 4PM

For over twenty years, local clergy and congregations have gathered at the Hampstead Old Meeting House for a town Thanksgiving service with the offering going to benefit Isaiah 58.

This year we are so happy to have the community service back in-person.

Please plan on joining us on Sunday, November 20 at 4PM at the Hampstead Meeting House at 20 Emerson Ave.

Updated Directories Being Printed

We are getting ready to print our HCC Members and Friends directory (last printing was in 2018).

We would love to get a current photo of you/your family to include in our updated directory, especially if you are a new member or friend.

Please email a current photo for our directory to [email protected]

Greens Workshop

Come create items for the craft fair while having fun with friends!

When: Wednesday, Nov. 30th at 6:30pm

Where: Hadley Hall

What to Bring: Scissors, clippers/pruners for 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, come join us. We always have so much fun! Bring a friend and make it a “night out.”

Ahead of time: 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 pine cones, 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 on Saturday, Dec. 3rd at the Christmas Craft Fair.

It's Back - The Christmas Craft Fair!

Save the Date: December 3, 2022

HELP WANTED

The crafters are all ready to go. We are completely booked. Now we need your help to make our annual Christmas Craft Fair a success. If you can help in any way it would be greatly appreciated.

Things you can do:

Provide baked goods;

Donate raffle items;

Man tables at the event;

You can help set up before the event on Thursday, December 1 or help break down after the event;

Make soup;

Attend and invite others to attend.

You can sign up at church, sign-up sheet are located outside of the office.

Let’s make this the best Christmas Fair ever!

As always, thank you for your support.

Your Fundraising Team

Worship This Week

Please join us in our Sanctuary

or online at 10am for

Twenty-third Sunday after Pentecost

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: Hemlock Radiance © Mary Southard

2023 Offering Envelopes

We are creating our own custom offering envelopes this year. The white envelopes will be for general giving and the blue envelopes will be for special offerings.

This is a cost-savings and paper-saving measure for our church as we can create just what we need for each person for each offering season.

We can create weekly envelopes for those that prefer giving every week OR we can create monthly envelopes for those that prefer giving once a month.

If you would like offering envelopes for 2023 and Suzanne has not already reached out to you, please contact the office at 603-329-6985.

Grace in Action

Thank You from Your Stewardship Team

We are thankful to those attending our recent Stewardship Sunday service. Whether you sent your

pledge card to the church in advance or presented your pledge card during the service, all were given a

symbolic blessing of our faithful financial gifts given in covenant. For this, your Stewardship Team is

thankful.

If you were not able to attend the service on Sunday and have not made a pledge for next year, we welcome your consideration to support the many ministries your planned commitment will fund.  Additional pledge cards are available by contacting the church office. Generous, Intentional, Proportional and Cheerful sharing of our abundance provides funding to maintain and create a better world for all as God intended, our Grace in Action.

Thank you,

Your Stewardship Team

LED Lights

Available

Recently, HCC was gifted some new DFWin 360 degree LED lights. These lights screw into a regular light socket and will allow you to angle each of the 3 sections the way you desire. The lights are $5 each or 5 for $20.  

If you are interested, the lights are located on a table on the left wall of Hadley Hall by the Hospitality Table. A cash box is on the table so you can leave cash or a check made out to HCC with a note of LED lights.

All proceeds will help towards our Capital Campaign.

Message from the

Interfaith Choir

You may have heard that the Interfaith Choir of the Greater Derry and Londonderry Area has started up again after a 2-year hiatus. We were very excited to regroup and we have a great selection of music planned for our Free December Holiday Concert!

This year, we will be having just one public concert on Sunday, December 4 at 4PM in the sanctuary of Hampstead Congregational Church. There will be refreshments in Hadley Hall immediately following the concert.

Steeple Lighting

Now - November 19

The nights are long

with autumn chill,

as the Church steeple

light shines

at the top of the hill.

May gratitude, hope

& kindness still

cover our town with

lasting goodwill.

In loving memory of

Harry Mildonian, Jr

By Marcy, Matt, Amanda & Family

A Word From Peace & Justice

In last week's Weekly Word we had an announcement about the relocation of the Trex bench recycling collection bins. Darlene Cote in East Hampstead passed the project on to Kim Colbert and Jen Samiotes. The new locations are at the Civic Club building (adjacent to the Town Hall) and at the Town Garage on Route 121. These new locations are certainly more convenient to folks townwide.

We became interested in this project after reading the Consumer Report article "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. Some, maybe not always. You can read the whole article here:

The recycle bins are part of the Trex Community Recycling Program. For every 500lbs, Trex will donate a four-foot composite bench. So far 18 benches have been donated to the

Conservation Commision, the town, and our own Stepping Stones.

These are everyday plastic items that the town recycle program will not take so many people just throw them in the 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 plastic 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.

Blessings,

Debra Sawyer

The Music Corner by Herb Tardiff

One of America’s greatest composers was George Gershwin, born in 1898 and only lived until 1937. As with many composers, he died young but still wrote a fair amount of music. George left school at the age of 15 to work as a “song plugger” and earned $15 a week. His first published song was, “When You Want ‘Em, You Don’t Want ‘Em” when he was 17 and received a big royalty check of 50 cents.

In 1916, Gershwin worked as a piano roll maker for player pianos arranging music or writing his own compositions. George’s first hit song was “Swanee” performed by Al Jolson. Later, Gershwin wrote two of his masterpieces, “Rhapsody in Blue” and “American in Paris”. He also wrote a staged music drama “Porgy and Bess” set in Harlem, New York City.

‘Porgy and Bess” has a special meaning for me because at the age of 15 when I saw this opera in New York City. I especially remember “Summertime”, one of the most enduring solos that is still being performed today.

November Birthdays

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

Erin M 11/2

Garrett M 11/6

Patrick M 11/18

Mariah T 11/22

Maria A 11/23

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

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.

11/8/22 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.