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The Union Church in Waban
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Friday, December 11, 2020
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Online Worship This Sunday
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Children and Youth lead us in Worship
This Sunday, December 13th - Advent 3
10:00 a.m. Zoom Worship
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Artwork by Maggie Pond
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Our Christmas pageant will look a little different this year, but our children and youth will still help lead us in sharing the Story of Christmas with readings, prayers, art and music. We're grateful to all the kids and families who contributed to this special service! We hope you'll join us on Sunday and bring:
- Your ADVENT WREATH OR A CANDLE
- Any ANIMALS - live or stuffed - who would like to see the Pageant too!
- Your Prayer Circle and ribbons if you have one
To join worship on Zoom:
Zoom Link: HERE
Meeting ID: 897 3897 4833
Passcode: 214400
Dial in only: 1 646 558 8656
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NOTE: To connect to Sunday Worship or to any of our online offerings, you may go to our website at www.ucw.org. There you will find a click through to Sunday morning worship and to other online opportunities. You may also use the link below.
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Upcoming ADVENT and CHRISTMAS Services
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Children and Youth Led Service
This Sunday, Dec.13th at 10:00 am on zoom
Our children and youth will share the Christmas Story and lead us in worship.
Christmas Sunday
Sunday, Dec. 20th at 10:00 am on zoom
All-Ages Come to the Manger - Forest Church
Sunday, December 20th, 3:00 - 4:00 p.m.
During Forest Church, we'll create our own mini-Creche scenes to bring home for Christmas Eve
Christmas Eve: Thursday , Dec. 24th
In Person, Outside Service: 4:00 p.m. :
We will gather in a safe way outside to share the light of the world that is coming. To remember the story and to pray for our own and the world's deliverance into the way of love. Information regarding our place of gathering with be forthcoming.
Lessons and Carols: 6:00 on Zoom :
This will be an online version of our traditional service of lessons and carols. Bring a candle to light as we spread the light through our zoom room and across our communities and a bell to ring as we go out with Joy to the World.
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Advent Devotional Booklet
Version 2 - Now Available
(Contains new and updated content.)
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Our Advent theme this year is "Fear Not." As is our custom we compiled our Advent devotions booklet to accompany us through our walk of Advent. If you would like a hard copy mailed to you, please be in touch with Office Manager, Aidan ([email protected])
You may also access a PDF of the booklet HERE.
Heartfelt thanks to all who contributed to our booklet this year.
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Special Christmas Collection
Please consider donating to the Chelsea Collaborative for our Christmas Special Collection recipient. The City of Chelsea has the highest incidence rate of COVID-19 cases in all of Massachusetts and a large population of Latinx residents. La Colaborativa (The Chelsea Collaborative) is feeding families, supporting residents facing eviction, and disseminating critical information about COVID-19. This organization has a history of assisting and empowering immigrants through facilitating youth employment, providing English language classes, and in recent Get Out the Vote efforts, among other activities. Their goal is to empower through enhancing the social and economic health of the community.
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Adult Education and Spiritual Formation
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LUNCH BUNCH
Another NOONTIME CAROL SING
Wednesday, December 16th 12:00-1:00
Join us again for a second Carol Sing next Wednesday. We have more singing to do!
Meeting ID 811 0601 6553
Passcode 483854
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Wellspring, Women's Group
Our Advent reflection will be on
"The Promise and Peril of the First Nativity."
Given the perilous times we're in with the pandemic, it is helpful to remember that the birth of Jesus was surrounded by dire circumstances that somehow did not thwart God's promise of a better world through the Christ Child.
Wellspring is a time to gather and share, and pray for one another. Feel free to invite others to our gathering.
Meeting ID: 878 8544 6962
Passcode:780961
Or call in at +1 646 558 8656
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We know that the holidays can be hard for many of us. We know that the COVID-19 time we are in can make that even harder. We are not having the chance to chat with you before the service or in our time of reception. We do not get to linger with you in the parking lot after a meeting or have the delight of having you unexpectedly knock on our door. All of this makes it hard for us to have our fingers on the pulse of how you are.
We are committed to reaching out to all of you but please also reach out to us! Don't worry about being a burden - know you are a joy to us always. Do not worry about taking up our time - we have all the time for you!
The essence of this church is the bonds of love that hold us one to another. If we are going to celebrate when all of this COVID-19 challenge is over, we will celebrate how we have come through it all together.
So please, do not sit alone with your troubles, pain or need. Reach out to us - Please!!
With much love and gratitude for the privilege of serving you in this time,
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With joy and peace, we are invited to gather to make space for the mystery, light and hope of this season. Please plan to join us:
Family Devotional and Materials for Advent:
Families may have noticed that the last week in November was the final week in our Children and Families Fall Prayground packet! If you weren't able to join us last week to pick up materials, please come this week to Forest Church Star-Making (below) or contact Pastor Amy. Among the materials for families this Advent are:
- The UCW Advent Devotional Book
- Table Tents with reflections, prayers and simple activities for all-ages, that explore Advent through the lens of the Danish practice of Hygge 'the art of coziness' (a PDF can be found by CLICKING HERE)
- Materials to create simple and beautiful prayer circles for your home, with a ribbon for each day of Advent that your family can add as a prayer
- Materials for an Advent Wreath.
- A Candle and jingle bell for Christmas Eve
This Sunday, December 13th - 10:00 a.m. Zoom Worship - ADVENT 3
Children and Youth Share the Christmas Story
Our Christmas pageant will look a little different this year, but our children and youth will still help lead us in sharing the Story of Christmas with readings, prayers, art and music. We're grateful to all the kids and families who contributed to this special service! We hope you'll join us on Sunday and bring:
- Your ADVENT WREATH OR A CANDLE
- Any Animals - live or stuffed -- who would like to see the Pageant too!
- Your Prayer Circle and ribbons if you have one
December 20th- 3:00-4:00 p.m. - ADVENT 4
All-Ages Come to the Manger - Forest Church
We'll create small Creches with wooden blocks and illustrated ministry stickers to bring home, and add the animals, angels and more to our manger (like we do on Christmas Eve).
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Youth Groups:
Dec 13th - Middle School Youth Group - 7-8:15pm on ZOOM - Christmas Party!!
We'll have fun and Celebrate Christmas together! Middle school families should have received an Evite with a zoom link. Contact Pastor Amy for details! ([email protected])
Dec 20th- 9th. Grade Youth Group
We'll gather outside at 4-5pm after Forest Church to Celebrate and prepare for Christmas!
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Thank you to all for our
Community thanksgiving Dinner
Who would have thought UCW could execute our annual Community Thanksgiving Dinner in the midst of a pandemic? Thanks to the leadership of Alicia Collins and many other UCW members, this year's dinner, although different, was a smashing success. We served 33 different guests/households, and approximately 70 servings. The youth painted glass candle holders that Amy Feldman put inside an adorable fall themed bag (thanks to Jill Coull) along with a battery operated tea light. Guests also received a mason jar bouquet of flowers. Daon Drisdom, Greg and Ben Feldman played music for approximately two hours in the little grass circle at the top of the driveway. We had 20 different UCW volunteer families who baked, delivered dinners, divided up dinners, arranged flowers, and handed out meals at the church. Thanks to everyone for making this season bright.
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Donate a Tree to the
Newton Food Pantry
We have an opportunity to bring joy to the Newton Food Pantry Families and support our mission efforts!
As you may know, greens sales support our UCW mission efforts and our Nicaragua partnership. Last year we launched an initiative for UCW folks, in their greens order, to donate a tree for Newton Food pantry families. The response and gratitude were resounding.
This year, due to COVID uncertainties, we didn't know if we could offer the same opportunity to support these families. We now know trees can come from our Canadian provider and cross the border into the US (total thanks to the Nagle family) - so at this late date we are asking if anyone would like to donate a tree to the Newton Food Pantry.
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Mitten Tree Gift Drop-Off
This Sunday! Dec. 13th, 1:00 - 3:00 p.m.
Our congregation is incredibly generous! We are so appreciative of all the slots being filled for purchasing gifts for friends at Project Care and Concern and Norwood Healthcare.
Please stop by the church between 1-3 p.m. on Sunday Dec 13th to drop off your gift.
We'll be out front to receive the gifts. If you have a conflict with this time pls let us know and we can coordinate an alternative arrangement. We'll be delivering gifts on Tues. Dec. 15th so we need to have them all returned before then.
Thank you so very much for participating in this beloved Christmas tradition
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1K Task Force Chooses
New Recipient for 1K Loan!
Meet Aaron Spencer, Owner of A-Butter
The 1K Task Force, decided it was appropriate to focus our outreach to those communities where small businesses were being hit the hardest by Covid 19, black and brown communities. In order to do this we contacted over 10 churches and several individuals and businesses to explore possibilities.
We chose to make a $2500 loan, to be repaid within two years, to Aaron Spencer, owner of A-Butter. A Butter's mission is to provide people in local communities with a healthy and tasty eating option with different almond butter flavors. These are: original, maple, honey and apple cinnamon, plus seasonal specialties of pumpkin spice and gingerbread spice. After interviewing Aaron Spence the committee was unanimous and enthusiastic in our wanting to support A-Butter. We are confident that he will not only repay his loan, so we can pay it forward to another, but that he is providing a service to his community. In addition he is a delightful human being, an enterprising and smart business person with whom Union Church in Waban can build a relationship We look forward to you meeting him virtually or in person in the near future. In the meantime please read the Boston Globe article published on Wednesday in the Food Section of the Boston Globe. We hope you will order some Almond Butter for Christmas gifts and stockings to support our loan recipient. Just go to www.abutterbyaaron.com!!! Let Aaron know you are from Union Church. IK Task Force
Alan Cody, Alison Mc Carthy, Frank Laski, Soo Laski, Nancy Zollers, Kevin Johnson and Brita Gill-Austern, chair.
A-Butter Almond Butters, a healthy spread that's
spreading the word
Aaron Spencer of Roxbury first started whipping up almond butter for himself as a nutritious source of protein when he chose a vegan diet, hoping to lower his risk for the health problems prevalent in his family
By Ann Trieger Kurland Globe Correspondent,Updated December 1, 2020, 12:00 p.m.
. ............continue reading the full Boston Globe article HERE
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Advocates for Racial Justice
Did you know......
On December 2nd, 1922, Harry Laughlin, biologist and co-founder of the American Eugenics Society, published a model sterilization law in his study, Eugenical Sterilization in the United States.
The model law was designed to aid lawmakers in developing more effective and "constitutionally acceptable" sterilization laws in their jurisdictions. Mr. Laughlin's model law passed the ultimate test in 1927, when the United States Supreme Court upheld Virginia's compulsory sterilization law in Buck v. Bell. Virginia's law had been developed using Mr. Laughlin's model as a blueprint; 18 states eventually passed similar statutes, with devastating consequences.
After the publication of Mr. Laughlin's model law and the Court's decision in Buck, the rate of sterilization in the United States soared. Prior to the mid-1920s, approximately 3,000 Americans had been forcibly sterilized; by 1938, the number had increased to nearly 30,000, and reached at least 65,000 by the 1970s. American sterilization laws were used as a tool of racialized population control, particularly in the South, for decades.
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Remote Teacher's Assistants Needed for Public School
The Boston Education Collaborative continues to support the urban public school districts in Boston, Cambridge and Chelsea. You may remember them from their presentation around public education last year at our church. With all classes online, they are looking for more volunteers to be a "Remote Teacher's assistant". It would require a commitment of 1-2 hours per week during school hours (8:00 a.m. - 4)00 p.m.) for a period of 3+ months.
For detailed information and how to sign-up please visit our website HERE.
You can also attend one of their regularly short information sessions:
Every Tuesday night through Dec. 15th, 8:30-9:00 PM:
Every Wednesday morning through Dec. 16th, 8:30-9:00 AM:
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Book Buddies! |
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We are able to distribute loaves and fishes in the form of books to children who are hungry for reading.
THANK YOU to all who have signed up to be book buddies with children in Lowndes
Mold, Possums and Pools of Sewage:
No One Should Have to Live Like This
To read a piece about Lowndes Country in the NY Times written by Catherine Coleman Flowers and entitled "Mold, Possums and Pools of Sewage: No One Should Have to Live Like This" go HERE.
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Be Part of our On-going Common Cathedral Team
For More Details and Ways You Can Help: GO HERE
We are bound in powerful ways to our beloved unhoused siblings in Boston. Our team of UCW members continues to bring sandwiches, granola bars, fruit, socks and other needed items - like cards and notes of love and support - to Common Cathedral's Boston Warm Day Center each week. We very much hope to continue to walk with our friends at Boston Warm into the fall, for as long as they need us. Come be part of this awesome team!
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Please look at the Sign Up Genius HERE, and sign up to read Scripture. Youth are greatly encouraged to sign up, too! (The link is also always available on the ucw.org
homepage)
Thanks you, UCW Deacons
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We, the members of The Union Church in Waban, true to our founding principle of being an inclusive church, covenant together to nourish and to sustain in our common life and practice a fully welcoming and affirming church for all persons. Welcoming all persons who seek to join with us in a commitment to love God and our neighbors, affirming the inclusive love of Jesus, we are open to all, without regard to race, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, nationality, ability or economic circumstance. We invite all to full participation in our worship, membership, leadership and life of this church.
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Mario Purser's Nature Art
Now Available Online
Realistic, Expressive and Vibrant Drawings
We are happy to drop off calendars rather than mail them.
Visit Mario's Website HERE
Thank you for your interest and support in Mario's art.
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Fill A Kid's Bag Food Drive!
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Members of the Elliot Church, are collecting bags of food specifically for children to go to the Newton food pantry. If you would like to contribute, please either bring to the home of Patrick, an Elliot church member, by Dec. 12th, 2020. Alternatively, Amy McMahon has offered to coordinate pick up and delivery.
Instructions:
Please double bag the items from the list below, enclose a note if you'd like, and drop at Patrick's home or in his carport (or coordinate with Amy McMahon, [email protected]).
Any of these items
Box of granola bars
Box of cereal or oatmeal variety pack
Jar of peanut butter
Jar of jam
Package of mini milk or juice boxes
1-2 boxes of mac-n-cheese
1-2 cans of soup or pasta (spaghetti Os)
1 snack pack pudding, cookies or fruit snack
4 Small bags or 1 large snack bag:
pretzels, corn chips, goldfish, crackers
OPTIONAL - fun item - crayons, chalk, activities book
Write a note - decorate the bag - nice!
18 Pettee Street, Newton Upper Falls.
(a row of townhouses - we are 4th in. The sign in front says Lantern Woods.)
Cell:617.448.3748
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