Rev Paige's Corner: When Things Become Invisible

     I have noticed that sometimes when things are too familiar, they become invisible. This can happen at home for me. I plunk down a pile of junk mail on the counter and it sits there because I am busy doing other things. Over time it becomes invisible because I know what it is and I know I don’t need to do anything with it. Why I don’t move to throw it in the recycle bin, I don’t really know. I don’t notice random piles until company is coming and I really begin to look through different eyes.

   Of course, this can happen with churches, too. One of the gifts I bring as an interim pastor is a fresh set of eyes. I see things that have largely become invisible to folks who have been around for a while. I used to work with congregations on how to bring in new people. Before real efforts happen to do that, it is suggested having an anonymous visitor come for worship and to make reports on the experience. During one of these, for instance, the visitor commented that the front doors to the church were locked when she tried to come in. All the regulars used the parking lot door and no one ever walked around to the front, but, of course, there were no signs of anything indicating that.   After her visit, we made sure no one found that door locked again when they came for worship.

     There are certain scriptures that become that way over time. This week is one of those as it includes John 3:16. As a preacher, I sometimes wonder how to bring overly familiar readings back to life.   I heard a Biblical scholar once talking about the parables. He told us that the parables could be like a jewel mine. “You don’t stop digging after you find the first gem,” he said. “You keep digging around and you discover more.” This seems to me to be a good approach not just for the parables but for all of scripture. 

     And the reality is that even if the reading is familiar, our lives and our world continue to change. So a helpful question may be: what is God saying to me through these words is this particular time and this particular place?

   When I was in seminary, I took a course on Christian education where the professor came in to and threw the Bible on the table and said: “This is a big book. You can spend your entire life studying it and never be done.” She was right. In my mind, that truth is based not completely in the ancient words but in the living God who keeps speaking through them to us!

   May God give us ears to hear!     Rev Paige Besse-Rankin

Worship This Week

Please join us

in the Sanctuary

or online at 10am for the

Fourth Sunday of Lent



Coffee hour will be held

after the service

in the Sanctuary.

The service will be live streamed

through Facebook Live here

or on 3CX here

Reader: Debra Sawyer

Coffee hour host: Kathy Waller & Lydia Fagan

EPILEPSY FOUNDATON

BOOK DONATIONS

Due to lack of interest in our book sale over the past several months, the Ministry Oversight Team decided it was time to clean out our bookcases. The Epilepsy Foundation is pleased to accept books in good condition to help support their endeavors. Considering the books will be going toward a good cause we are opening the collection to our friends and members. It is a win/win situation. You get to clean out your own bookcase while helping a worthy cause.  

We have a few rules to follow if you choose to donate.  

1. Books must be in very good condition. No torn covers or mildew odor.  

2. Books must be submitted in a closed box.  

3. Books can only be delivered the last week in March to avoid too much clutter in Hadley Hall. Use the foyer if there is room and the church is closed.  

Feel free to contact Barbara Wallack if you have any questions.  

Barbara Wallack

Bsw91@comcast.net

603-548-8326

One Great Hour of Sharing

This Sunday, March 10th, we will be collecting monies to be given to the UCC special offering, One Great Hour of Sharing, which helps people in deep need.

When you give, you help families around the world become stronger, healthier and better equipped to address hardships and catastrophes that would otherwise leave them destitute and hopeless. 

HCC will be receiving donations for One Great Hour of Sharing through March 24th. You can put money in the special offering envelopes at worship, or make checks out to the church (designating “One Great Hour of Sharing”). Thank you, as always, for your continued support of these important mission opportunities.

To learn more about OGHS, watch the video below or visit, here.

Steeple Lighting

Steeple Lit

in Loving Memory of

Shelby Copeland Evans

From her family

A Word from Peace & Justice

Another event that was promoted at the Prepared to Serve Conference would be of interest to the younger folks among us. The Waypoint SleepOut 2024 will be held March 29. The SleepOut is a night spent outside to bring awareness about youth homelessness in New Hampshire and to raise fund for critical needs that can help transform lives. This is the 10th anniversary event and the funds directly support the state’s only overnight youth shelter in Manchester and youth drop-in centers in Concord and Rochester. Each of these cities is a location of in-person SleepOuts.

Waypoint also has programs for early childhood and family support, resources for families affected by incarceration, and home care for older adults and adults with disabilities.

For more information about the logistics of the SleepOut event, how to organize a team of sleepers, how to become a corporate sponsor and how to donate click the link above. Click this link for more information about the mission, programs, and other activities of Waypoint.

Thanks again to Marion Lake for this information.

Music Corner by Herb Tardiff

Scott Joplin (1868 – 1917)

Dubbed the ‘King of Ragtime’, Scott Joplin was one of the most important and influential composers at the turn of the 20th century. His ideas around harmony, as well as his complex bass patterns and sporadic syncopation, are still imitated by composers today.

Joplin’s untimely death, caused by syphilis which descended into dementia, marked the end of ragtime and a sad lapse in interest around his music. But his compositions were rediscovered and rose to popularity again in the early 1970s, when Joshua Rifkin released an extremely successful album of his pieces. This was followed by the Academy Award-winning 1973 film The Sting that used several of Joplin’s compositions, including ‘The Entertainer’ and ‘Solace’.

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.

3/5/2024 Newsletter

Each week, we will update this section of our Weekly Word with the new link

for the current newsletter.

St. Anne's Food Pantry

The pantry is currently in need of the following:

• Coffee / K-Cups
• Quickbread / Muffin mixes
• Easter Candy
• Ritz Crackers
• Ensure
• Scalloped / Au gratin potatoes
• Cereal (no oatmeal)
• All Condiments

Please drop off any donations in the foyer of Hadley Hall

Please, no expired items.

Thank you for all your support!