Sunday Snow

We’re watching the forecast for snow early Sunday. Though we anticipate that we will still gather for worship, the ministers and deacons may decide to cancel one or both services. We will send out an email and also update the church voicemail early Sunday if services are cancelled. *Please* do not travel if it is not safe to do so!  

Sunday School and Nursery Care

Old North Church welcomes children of all ages on Sunday mornings! Children are welcome in the sanctuary for the entirety of the service. Our nursery for children 3 months to 4ish opens at 9:50 but you may bring your little ones there at any point in the service. Sunday school (for kids aged four through 12) begins partway through the church service, following the "Moments with Children" during worship.

Faith Formation this Week

This Sunday, Holly Jannell and James Horgan will introduce the children to the idea of Sabbath during the church school time. 

Stewardship

With the unanimous approval of the 2025 budget, which included your wonderful commitment of $475,000 in pledged income, we wish to say thank you for your positive support. We also wish to say thanks to the many chefs who prepared the wonderful chili dishes that were served after the budget meeting. A grand way to celebrate our collective financial commitments to ONC.



With the proactive support of Rev. Lindsay and the various Ministry Boards, the Stewardship Committee will now consider the church’s need to remain financially strong well into the future. As a committee we look forward to working with, and seek input from, the congregation to this end. We always welcome your input on ways to improve our communications and strategies and thus hope you will reach out members of the committee with your comments and recommendations.

Betsey Halbert

Scott Fillenworth

Ginny Von Ruden

Stow Walker

Rick Settelmeyer

SINGERS!

Rehearsals for the annual Palm Sunday Lenten Choral Concert – featuring the Old North Senior Choir & Soloists and members of the Old North Festival Chorus and Orchestra – will begin on Wednesday, February 26, 2025. Our Lenten Concert will feature Dan Forrest’s stunningly beautiful Requiem For the Living, which was originally programmed in 2020, but abruptly halted due to the Covid-19 pandemic. All interested singers – from high-school-aged students to adults – are welcome to join this special choral performance. There are no auditions, and it is not necessary to be a member of Old North Church or the Festival Chorus to join, but previous choral experience is required. Please help spread the word! Singers are asked to purchase their scores at the first rehearsal unless they already own one. Please contact Maria at vankalken@gmail.com with questions and/or to reserve a score to be picked up at Registration on February 26.

Registration & First Rehearsal:      

Wednesday, February 26 at 7:30pm in the Parish Hall

(subsequent rehearsals: Wednesdays from 7:30 – 9pm)

Dress Rehearsal (mandatory):            

Saturday, April 12, 10am – 1pm

Concert: Sunday, April 13 at 7:30pm

Monthly Bell Ringing February 11th

Listen for the bells on Tuesday, February 11, at 11 am for 11 minutes. It’s our monthly event to remind us that we are indeed in the 11th hour of creation care – a reminder that this gift of creation given to us in our lifetime is fragile and mightily impacted by human behavior. It is 11 minutes of a prayer of thanks to God for this precious gift, of confession that we have not attended well, and resolve that we will do our small part to be a part of the solution rather than part of the problem of climate change.

As you listen to the church bells on February 11th, perhaps you can, in your heart, send the tolling out to the world in this time of turmoil and pain to be a blessing and a call to peace and righteousness and good will in all that we do for each other and for our planet home.



Join us in that prayer at home or at the church to take your turn at the bell rope. 

Prayer Shawl Knitters

Prayer Shawl continues to meet the second Wednesday of each month in 2025, 10:30-12 in the Great Room at Stacey Street. Dates are:

February 12, March 12, April 9, May 14

Please join us — we have yarn, pattern + needles.

Scrabble Group



The Scrabble Group meets weekly on Wednesdays from 2-4pm in the Great Room at the Stacey St. office building. Newcomers are always welcome to join in the fun!

ONC Reading Group 

The next meeting of the ONC Reading Group on Preserving Our Democracy and Environment will be held on Zoom, on Wednesday February 12^th from 9:00 to 10:30 AM. The meeting will open early, by 8:45 AM, for solving log-on and other problems. This meeting will be oriented towards preventing a transition to autocracy in the US after the recent November 5^th elections. Also, we will further discuss the book, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, by Yuval Noah Harari, and will address the question of whether to hold future meetings in person in the ONC Great Room, as well as on Zoom.

On January 8^th, The Atlantic published a very interesting paper, “How Hitler Dismantled a Democracy in 53 Days”, by Timothy W. Ryback. It serves as a wake-up call, to alert us to various dangers in regard to the stability of our USA democracy. Distribution is subject to permissions from the publisher under copyright law. If you would like a restricted copy to be emailed to you, please send a request to Duncan Cox at DBCC@comcast.net.

At our January meeting, Paul Hare delivered a lecture for us on lessons learned from his many diplomatic experiences, e.g., how Presidents Chavez and Maduro rigged the Venezuelan judicial systems, and on unprecedented factors influencing Trump’s foreign policy in his second term. (Paul was the UK’s Charge d’Affairs in Venezuela, and then the UK’s Ambassador to Cuba. He is now a Master Lecturer at the Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University. The lecture and ensuing discussion were extremely interesting, and were recorded on Zoom for future review. If you would like a restricted copy of the recording, please send a request to Duncan Cox at DBCC@comcast.net.

To join the February-12^th meeting on Zoom, just click on https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82896213028?pwd=n0feMmXa3axBgJknqu1IUD3qTwialx.1 . To use your telephone for audio, dial +1 929 205 6099 (New York) and follow the operator’s instructions with Meeting ID: 828-9621-3028 and Passcode: 537613.  

Life and Living Course Continues

February, 16

After a hiatus of two months let’s gather again and ponder existential questions about life. I suggest we revisit the expression: “I am spiritual not religious”. This sentiment can be approached in many ways and perhaps we start by defining the concepts of ‘Religion’ and ‘Spirituality’. Briefly, ‘Religion’ is one of the human institutions that carries out certain societal tasks; it involves an organized entity with rituals and practices focusing on a higher power by many referred to as God, while ‘Spiritualty’ involves a personal quest for meaning of life. I have selected a related essay you can access by clicking this link.

Please note that we are not meeting on Sunday February 9, as originally planned, but on February 16, with future dates: March 23, April 27, May 18, and June 22. We start at 11:30 AM in person in the Great Room of Old North Church or on-line via the zoom link below. If you would like to join the discussion and not on the mailing list, email: elsewiersma@comcast.net or contact the church office (781-531-1124), or mail office@onchurch.org

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89664581912?pwd=S2pxa2RUZDRVM1FKeng1NnVvUWdzZz09

Upcoming North Shore Youth Ministry (NSYM) Meetings

The NSYM typically meets Sundays and rotates Church host locations. Middle school age youth (6th-8th grades) will be meeting from 3:30-5:30pm and High School (9th-12th grades) from 6-8 pm.

The Winter schedule location is as follows:

•  Saturday, February 8 – Sunday, February 9 - Church Lock-In
• Winter Walk! We will meet at First Church Saturday 2/8 at 4 pm to play games, watch movies, do devotions & eat. Sunday morning, we will take the train down into Boston for the Winter Walk, exploring the city.
• Sunday, February 16 - No Group!
• Sunday, February 23 - Clifton Lutheran Church (combined group 4-6:30)
• Friday, February 28 - St. Andrews

For the month of March, we will be learning about each others’ churches, so we will be following Jess to a different church’s service each week. Formal Youth Group (combined) will be 12-2 pm after church each of these days at the church we are visiting. Look for more details on this as we approach March. 

Please click here to view the NSYM's Winter Newsletter

Donate to Support the NSYM Participating in Boston's Winter Walk

The North Shore Youth Ministry Group, joined by Rev. Lindsay, is participating in Boston Winter Walk to raise awareness of the reality of homelessness, particularly in the coldest months of the year, and to raise funds for groups that provide services to those that are experiencing homelessness. 

If you would like to contribute to their fundraising effort, please donate here through this link.



Anything you can give helps these amazing programs be able to provide services and care for the folks who need it most.  

Family Winter Camp Weekend 

Clifton Lutheran Church welcomes all NSYM partners for a weekend of fun, faith, and fellowship at Camp Calument in NH. The Winter Weekend flyer contains the basic information on the weekend. The registration form provides cost breakdown and cabin information.

Registration is first come, first served. If you would like to register for your family please do so as soon as possible. For more information on costs, lodging, and activities, or to submit a completed registration form, email Jess at Jess@thensym.org and Karin at Karin17e@gmail.com.

North Shore Youth Ministry (NSYM) Annual Report 2024

Please see the attached report to the congregations of Old North, St Andrews, Clifton, and First Church. The purpose of this report is for the board of the North Shore Youth Ministry (formerly Marblehead Youth Cooperative Ministry) to share the current progress of the cross-church initiative over the last year (January - December 2024).

Congregational Caring

Our dear church member Jean Yeaple died this past November, and we will be holding her memorial service at Old North on Sunday, February 16 at 1pm. Immediately following the service, the ashes of Jean and her husband Don (who died in 2022) will be interred in the church Memorial Garden, with a reception to follow in the Parish Hall. The family would love any Old Northers to come.  

Sunday, Feb 23: Commemorating Leslie's Retreat (When the Revolution Almost Started in Marblehead in 1775)

On Sunday, Feb 23, our church (along with St Michael's Episcopal and the UU Church of Marblehead) will remember this historic event, and our worship service will contain elements of what church would have been like in the 1700s (but without the two hour long sermon!). We will be joined by re-enactors from Glover's Regiment at the end of the service, and after church, Old North will host social and cultural historian Judy Anderson at 11:45am for a discussion about how the American Revolutionary War almost –– or could have easily started in Marblehead &/or Salem, 250 years ago, in exactly the same way and format that it did “officially” begin just six weeks later in April, in Lexington and Concord, on April 19, 1775. This event is open to all the churches in town! 

Background about Leslie's Retreat is attached!

Rev. Lindsay on MHTV

This week, Rev. Lindsay was interviewed for Mosaic, a Marblehead TV program hosted by Rabbi David Meyer and Pastor Jim Bixby. Mosaic is a chance for Marblehead faith leaders, elected officials, and other local leaders to share their stories, their visions, and their timely concerns for the town. Lindsay was their first guest this year! Watch for the show on MHTV when it airs over the next several weeks!

Green Tip of the Week

This week’s “Green Tip of the Week” – This week, take some time to check out the Sustainable Marblehead website. One event you might like to sign up for is “Meatless Meals Cooking” on Sunday, February 9 from 1-2 pm at the Glover Landing meeting room. Take note of the many areas that SM covers and consider joining, or at least getting on their monthly newsletter list. You will be very impressed with the many areas of interest that they attend to – something for everyone – with some very smart, knowledgeable people in the lead. Good for the spirit to be part of truly positive ventures in these times.

Responding to the CA Wildfires

You can support the United Church of Christ's disaster relief efforts in the Los Angeles area by making a donation online at https://support.ucc.org/california-wildfires-2025 

Our Outreach Ministry Board will continue to be in touch about local organizations on the ground in LA that we can support! 

Gifts of Cheer



If you know of anyone, either here at Old North or in the wider Marblehead community who is going through a difficult time, the Community Life Board would like to reach out with a little plant and a friendly note. Please contact Lynda Hare at hares8carrots@hotmail.com or 781-639-0107 if you know someone who would appreciate a little extra cheer.

Lectio Divina

A monastic practice of scripture, reflection and prayer dating back to the 4^th century, at Old North lectio divina has been adapted and practiced for more than ten years on every Tuesday morning from 9 to about 10:30 am. When Dennis was here, he led the practice. Since his leaving, we all take turns being the leader to select the readings. We have welcomed newcomers, some not from Old North, who seem to find soul food in the practice and the shared reflections that are part of it. We meet at 9 am both in person in the “Great Room” on Stacey St. and on Zoom.

We begin each meeting with a context-setting call to worship. Then we pair a scripture reading with a poem, chosen by the leader for the day and read aloud. We then move into 21 minutes of silent meditation, marked by chimes, and finally we share in “safe space” our responses – personal and intellectual. We end each session with prayers for healing and the Lord’s Prayer.



It is a rich time of being together in community and quite like no other. We invite you to give it a try.