Worship This Week

Please join us

in the Sanctuary

or online at 10am for the

Third Sunday of Lent

Coffee hour will be held

after the service.

The service will be live streamed

on Facebook Live here

or on 3CX here

Readers: Linda Tilden

Coffee Hour Hosts: Carolyn Currier & Jill Gauthier

Join us for Lunch on Sunday After Worship!

The Transition Team invites you to join us for lunch following worship on March 23 and a "Transition Talk!" We will be working together on a fun exercise called "Asset Mapping" - a way to celebrate all of the blessings that God has poured out on this church. Everyone is welcome.

One Great Hour of Sharing Offering on March 30!

FAQs:

1. 1. What is One Great Hour of Sharing®?
2. One Great Hour of Sharing, part of Our Church’s Wider Mission, is the special mission offering of the United Church of Christ that carries God’s message of love and hope to people in crisis. The UCC works with international partners to provide sources of clean water, food, education and health care, small business micro-credit, advocacy and resettlement for refugees and displaced persons, and emergency relief and rehabilitation. One Great Hour of Sharing also supports domestic and international ministries for disaster preparedness and response.

1. 2. Who participates in One Great Hour of Sharing?
2. Several Christian denominations – American Baptist Church, Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), Church of the Brethren, the United Church of Christ, and Church World Service – work together to develop common promotional materials thereby sharing ideas, costs, and a commitment to faithful service. Each denomination receives and manages its respective One Great Hour of Sharing offering.

1. 3. How is the United Church of Christ’s offering used?
2. Over fifty-five percent (55%) of the UCC’s offering supports international development initiatives. The offering also funds refugee resettlement, disaster preparedness and response, and disaster-related volunteer initiatives in the U.S. and internationally.
3. Where and how are One Great Hour of Sharing funds shared?
4. The United Church of Christ responds to humanitarian and development needs in the world. Specifically, the UCC supports sustainable development and refugee needs internationally and provides disaster relief and immigration assistance in the United States.The United Church of Christ responds as a member of organizations such as Church World Service and the ACT Alliance. We also support the direct mission efforts of churches and church-based organizations that the United Church of Christ and the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) have direct partnerships with through Global Ministries. Nearly one-fifth of the UCC’s OGHS offering is shared through Church World Service to support refugee, and disaster programs worldwide.
5. 
   
6. 4. How are decisions made to fund the various projects? 
7. Most of the expenditures are put into the budget to support long-term sustainable development. All funding is reviewed and monitored by a leadership committee that also reviews grant requests for long-term disaster rehabilitation initiatives and refugee support.

Watch this inspiring video:

Invitation to join us on a Mission Trip

Our Confirmation Class is planning a summer mission trip to volunteer to serve the hungry and to help the unhoused. This trip is open to anyone aged 14 and older who would like to go. Dates are being settled and plans finalized. We will likely sleep on a church floor, cook our meals together, spend our days doing volunteer work, have fun, and learn together. If you are interested in participating in such an adventure, please email or speak to the pastor.

Rev Paige's Corner: Recognizing Abundance

It is very easy in small churches to get caught up in a sense of not having enough - enough people, enough resources, enough possibility. Particularly for those who look in the rear-view mirror to the "good old days", we can get caught in a feeling of scarcety that keeps us from feeling energized to engage in ministry and mission. "We are just a small church" people will say as if small churches don't do some amazing things in the name of Jesus.

That is one of the reasons that I love this particular exercise we will be doing together on Sunday during the Transition talk. It invites us to think of resources available to us in many different categories. Each time I have done this with groups, I have found the group discovering a sense of surprise and wonder about what is possible and the blessings that they can steward together.

There is a quote I shared on our Stewardship bookmarks in the fall: "Abundance is not something we acquire; it is something we tune into." (Wayne Dyer). This week's transition talk is about turning in - or, to use another phrase we have been using: It is about "Imagining Together!"

I hope you can join us.

With blessings!

Rev Paige Besse-Rankin

So We voted "yes!" Now what??

At our Annual Meeting this past Sunday we voted a unanimous “YES” to the Articles of Agreement to share a settled pastor with the Atkinson Congregational Church. Atkinson voted unanimously in favor at their Annual Meeting in January.

Here’s what happens now:

 Each church will appoint members to the "Covenant Team” to work on the details

related to what the compensation will be for the settled full-time shared pastor and how those expenses will be shared by the two

churches. Additionally, this Team will also settle on the final details around worship times, office hours, and other details of how the sharing will ‘work.’

 Each church will appoint four members to a joint Pastoral Search Committee. We will need to develop our Church Profile, and we will search together with Atkinson for a settled, full-time, shared pastor.

 After a few months, when both churches are ready, we will move to a

model of a shared full-time Interim Pastor, so we can begin to live into

this new reality, working out the kinks, while we prepare to actively

search for our settled pastor. The Rev. Paige Besse-Rankin, our interim

in Hampstead, is expected to fill this role. This transition will be

coordinated with the retirement of Jim Thomas.

Our Transition Team will continue to work on our Interim Goals to help us prepare fully for our new shared pastor.

MO will add to their work on the bylaws adjustments that will reflect this new relationship.

 When all the pieces are ready, we will begin an active search, as the

joint search committee receives pastor profiles, reviews them, and

interviews possible candidates. Once the committee has settled on a

candidate, the candidate will lead a joint worship service for both

churches, after which each congregation will separately vote on the

candidate. An affirmative vote by both churches would result in a call

to that pastor to serve both churches.

Please keep our churches in prayer through this transition!

Save the Dates! Upcoming Events

March 23 - Transition Talk: Asset Mapping after worship

March 30 - Chicken Around the World supper at 2pm

April 12 - Easter Egg Hunt at 9am

April 17 - Maundy Thursday Supper & Worship at 6:30pm

April 20 - Easter Potluck Breakfast following Sunrise Worship around 7am