Hosanna - Save Us We Pray

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CE Weekly 4/3-9

Easter Sunday

Christian Education for All

Technical Difficulties didn't allow CE Weekly to be sent until today.

Happy Easter Monday

Please read past notices for Good Friday & our Easter Celebrations

Through to notices about 2 upcoming events.

If all goes well, CE Weekly will continue to be posted on Fridays

Today's Good Friday Service

from Southern New England Conference - Click Link

Link to SNEUCC Seven Last Word From Christ

Remember: We are all on a Pilgrimage

and no matter where you are on life's journey you are welcome here"!

This Sunday is the perfect time to be together and hear the promises of Easter. Alleluia

Sunrise Service

Cole's Hill

6am

If Rain, it's inside at

Church of the Pilgrimage

Easter Service

10:00

for children:

Family Message

Prayground (in sanctuary)

Child Care Room

Growing Our Faith -lesson in Allerton Hall after Family Message

Easter Celebrations and Worship - 6:00 and 10:00 "Christ is Risen!" ===== "He has Risen Indeed!"

Two Events for Your April Calendars

#1 Soup Supper with Program

Thursday March 9th - 6:00

Soup and Ways of Peace for All

Presentation will be made by Lewis Randa who is the founder of The Peace Abbey Foundation.

You may know that his local office is in the JRC, and he has been very involved in the Together We C.A.N. program that supports our local immigrants. Founded in 1988, the foundation conducts and supports programs that bring together and promote the cooperation of people of different faith traditions and non-theists as well. They do this in the spirit of the 1986 International Day of Prayer for World Peace, as celebrated that year by religious leaders from around the globe in Assisi, Italy.

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#2 Pizza & Game Night

by Popular Demand

A Family and Intergenerational Event

Easy Saturday Night Supper

with friends + Games

Encouraging you and the kids to bring Friends that like Games and Pizza

menu: Pizza - Chips - Ice Cream Bars

We have many games but Bring your Favorite ones too.

Growing Our Faith

These 40 Days of Lent + Sundays

This space will use Bible stories as interpreted in a new Bible for youth,

The Just Love Story Bible.

Published in 2025 by Beaming Books, Minneapolis, MN.

Part 10 - The Power of Hope

(What follows are words from

The Just Love Story Bible

for adult's guiding children learning of God's Love at Easter.)

"In the time Jesus lived on earth, people thought in a few different ways about the importance of human existence. Some, like Plato, thought the human body was a container for the soul or spirit. When a person died, the body decayed, but the soul lived on forever. Aristotle thought the body and soul were tied together. When the body died, so did the spirit.

In the Bible, we learn that Sadducees thought there was no life for either the body or the spirit after death. Jewish Pharisees, thought that in the end times, all bodies that had died would be physically resurrected and reunited with their spirits. The New Testament writers, Mark and Matthew, thought about the resurrection sort of like that. The apostle Paul, thought that the body that would rise was a spiritual body, not a physical one. When Luke and John wrote about resurrection they wrote that when the body died, in time, it would come back to life exactly as it had been.

All our lives we might wonder about what happens when we die. Even people who have studied this question a long time can't say for sure. Here's what we do know: God loved the world enough to send Jesus into it to teach us just how love lasts forever. Love never ends, never dies. Love is a life-giving spirit. It outlasts our bodies. It rises up, in life and in death. The stories about Jesus after he died can help us see just how powerful and permanent love is. God's love never dies. God's Spirit is always with us. That' why one name for Jesus is Emmanuel which means "God with us." This ever-present Love gives us hope!"

Rev. Tim will use the gospel of Luke this year to tell the message of Easter.

For the children: Here are videos, each telling the stories of Jesus last days, how he died, how and where he was seen and lives among us.

1st for the youngest. It asks its listener to think about the people in the story and to make faces seen on those in this story
2nd for older youth, besides Easter, includes the days of Holy Week

Continuing Quotes from

The Just Love Story Bible

Jesus said, "Go tell my sisters and brothers I' going home to my Abba and yours; to my God and your God."

Mary Magdalene ran to the disciples and said, "I saw Jesus!" And she told them everything Jesus said to her.

Now that they story of Jesus has been told repeatedly, each of us has a role to play in that story. We get to love each other, like Jesus told us to, and love God with everything we have. We get to tell the good news of how God loved us enough to come in human form to be with us. He came as a baby and grew up to be a man. He taught and preached and healed people and fed them. Even though he died, God raised him back to life. Jesus continues to live!

++++++++++++++++++++

Youngest children may want to hear this story of a rabbit who finds the most wonderful egg of all.

Questions to ask: Why was this the most wonderful egg of all?

God loves you. How is this a story about love?

Prayer: Dear God, it is so hard to hear stories about how Jesus died. But your love for him was so great that he lives again. I want to remember what Jesus teaches us about Your love for all of us. God you are love. Help us to know you in all that we do today, on Easter and every other day of the year. Amen

For Adults Growing Their Faith

Pilgrimage Faith Formation Offerings

What's New & News from SNEUCC Conference

Tuesday - April 7 - Rev. Tim's Bible Studies (2 times) 10:30 - 11:45 and 5:30 - 6:45 JRC

Wednesday - April 8 Men's Bible Study 7:30 on Zoom

5 Things to Know & Share

For Your Good Friday: The SNEUCC has taped a service to be used by all conference churches who wish. "Seven Last Words of Christ". It includes reflections from seven Conference Ministers from across the UCC, accompanied by musical selections.

The conference asks that we not watch this until noon or later on Good Friday. You can either access it on the SNEUCC Facebook page or click the link below. It will be aired at noon on Good Friday.

Link to SNEUCC Seven Last Word From Christ

This Week's Devotional for Holy Week

UCC Daily Devotional

for March 30, 2026

by Kate Kennedy

Holy Week Love

[Jesus] said to [the lawyer], “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’” – Matthew 22:37-39 (NRSV)

In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus discusses the greatest commandment just a few days before his crucifixion.

Did you know that? I didn’t realize it until recently. I’d always pictured Jesus teaching the greatest commandment to his followers on an idyllic rolling hill, or from a cozy fishing boat, or in the synagogue in Capernaum.

But no. When he speaks of love, Jesus is in Jerusalem, surrounded by his theological critics, danger in the air. He says we shall love God with all our hearts, souls and minds, and love our neighbors as ourselves, knowing that in three days he will be executed by the state.

If you’ve ever wondered what the place and function of love is for God, you needn’t look farther than this. In the middle of our Holy Week, Jesus says love is not something we do just when we’re comfortable or safe. Love is what we do when we think they’re going to kill us.

This Holy Week, take hold of this truth in both hands. Practice lifting it, like a weight at the gym. When you’re angry at the world, do a favor for your next-door neighbor. When you’re afraid—of war, gun violence, climate change, or whatever keeps you up at night—write to your senator, and then call your mom (cousin, best friend) just to say hi. When you feel that white-hot hate, take a warm bath, or eat buttered sourdough toast. Practice the love Jesus leaned on this week. You’ll find his strength.

Prayer

Holy One, may love be my discipline, the exercise that strengthens me for Your glory. Amen.

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Discussion Questions

Read the conversation between Jesus and his critics in Matthew 22:23-46. Then read the devotional below, “Holy Week Love.”
What is the significance of the Great Commandments during Holy Week?
In what aspects of your life do you need to practice love with particular boldness?
How are Jesus’s strength and peace found through love?

About the Author

Rev. Kate Kennedy is a New Hampshire-based UCC pastor pursuing a career in family therapy.

Poetry a Gift to Consider

Holy Saturday 2020

by Christopher Grundy

The Christian Century

Remember when you walked outside

and the world was silent

except for the hum of hospitals

because for once,

the whole world was intent upon healing.

Remember this actually happened:

the engines of greed stalled

and for a moment

humans along every river,

people packed into every city,

on every tectonic plate,

paused.

Birds sang,

Breezes swept empty streets.

Smog tinned

and the Himalayas came into view,

while death hung in the air

unspeaking,

and the whole world

waited for life, and grace

to persist.

____________________________________________________________

Christopher Grundy is professor of worship and preaching, academic dean and associate dean for the chapel at Eden Theological Seminary.

Life Is A Pilgrimage

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"Go in Peace.

Go in Love."

Rev. Tim

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Send: Poetry, Pictures, Ideas, Suggestions, Comments

email: kathymarks1620@gmail.com

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CE Weekly 4/3-9

﻿Christian Education for All

Remember: We are all on a Pilgrimage

﻿and no matter where you are on life's journey you are welcome here"!

#1 Soup Supper with Program

#2 Pizza & Game Night

5 Things to Know & Share

*************

"Go in Peace.

Go in Love."

Rev. Tim

Christian Education for All

and no matter where you are on life's journey you are welcome here"!