PACC-Men Gather September 6th for Suds, Grub and Shots

The regathering event will be on Tuesday, September 6th at 7:00 p.m. at Waverley Oaks Athletic Club, 411 Waverley Oaks Rd, Waltham. We’ll share some beer or soft drinks as we have dinner from the pub menu at their grill, shoot the bull (i.e., have gentlemanly conversation) and take shots with sticks and balls in the multi-table billiard room. Note the earlier start time, which I hope will be more convenient for guys who generally eat dinner earlier than our historical 7:30 time. Please let Mike Rich know by 4:00 p.m. on the 6th if you will be attending.

Sarah’s Circle, Annual Celebration

We will be meeting on Saturday, September 10^th at the home of Margaret Bell.  As this is a potluck lunch, we will be meeting from 12 to 2 PM.  Choose your favorite female poet and bring some spiritually focused poetry to the meeting to share and discuss.  Please RSVP and what you would like to contribute.

Knitting Group, September 13 and 27

Join us for handcrafts and conversation on Tuesday, September 13 and 27 at 7:30 in the Fellowship room.

If you have any questions, please speak to Kate.

Women’s Guild, September 15

Women’s Guild resumes on the third Thursday of each month on September 15 at 11:30 am.  Please bring a brown bag lunch.  Coffee, tea and a dessert will be provided. This will be a planning meeting so bring ideas about things you would like to do.

As always, all women of the church are invited and we are looking forward to the new program year.  Please join us on the 15th.

Town Day

September 17, 2016

Town day is fast approaching. We need volunteers to help set-up, tend the booth in one or two hour shifts and clean up after Town Day is over.  We also need a driver with a van who can pick up the table and chairs to bring to Mass Ave before 8:15 on that day (church key required) and return them to the church that day or the next morning.

If you are able to help, PLEASE call or email me. It’s a lot of fun and a great way to talk up PACC!! I will be in church with a sign up sheet for the next three Sundays!

Betty Rich

Choir Rehearsals Resume

Chancel and Festival Choirs

The Chancel Choir, which sings during worship most Sundays, will begin rehearsals Thursday,
September 8, at 7:30 p.m. in the Nicoll Room (upstairs). The coming season promises to be exciting as we revisit familiar and beloved pieces and add interesting works to our repertoire.  For those who enjoy singing but not on a regular basis, the Festival Choir is your place!  The Festival Choir assists our Chancel Choir on Easter and in our annual Christmas Concert which will be December 4. If you have questions, speak with Jeffrey Brody or any member of the choir.

Youth Choir Gets Back Into the “Sing”!

Greetings to all Youth Choir singers! We will have our first rehearsal on Sunday, September 11, at 10:45. Since that is Regathering Sunday, our rehearsal that day will be somewhat brief, so you can join your family and friends at the luncheon and Post Office Auction after church. Further scheduling details will follow, via weekly email updates to the Youth Choir list.

Youth Choir rehearsals are generally the 1^st and 2^nd Sundays of each month, in the Nicoll Room, during the latter part of church/Sunday School (10:45-11:30).  On the 3^rd Sunday, we have an early rehearsal at 9:20am, before we sing in the church service.  We meet September through June, and prepare special music for the Pageant, Christmas Concert, and other events.  Newcomers are welcome!!  If you have a young singer (3^rd grade or older) in your family who is considering joining this fun and lively group, please contact Andy Hart.

Christian Education

September 2016

Sunday school

Welcome back to Sunday school!  We’re looking forward to seeing everyone and hearing about your summer adventures!  Look for an email in the first full week of September letting you know who your Sunday school teacher will be and where you’ll be meeting this fall.  We’ll continue to use the Shine story-based curriculum.  Preschoolers will focus on Old Testament stories about God’s faithfulness and older kids will learn

Old Testament stories about Jerusalem’s rise and fall and exile and return.  Calendars will be available in the narthex on Regathering Sunday.

Youth Group

Middle schoolers will continue to meet during worship.

Seventh grade and up will meet on Sunday, September 25 from 7-8 in the Fireplace room for brownie sundaes and planning for the year ahead!

Adult Education

Evening Bible Group typically meets on the 2nd and 4th Wednesdays of each month in the Fellowship Room from 7:30-9 p.m.  Please join us September 14 and September 28 for lively discussions! All are welcome.

Small Talk

September 2016

My mother collected Hummels. Her first one was a little Christmas ornament that was given to her at a friend’s baby shower. From that, a whole collection grew. She had figurines, dolls, bells, plates, a nativity set – if it was a Hummel, there was a good chance it was in her collection. When she moved to Maine, the Hummels came too.

My mom thought her collection was valuable, and I suppose it was. In terms of dollars, I’m not sure we could break if we tried to sell them. Their value, really, was that these little painted figurines brought her joy. She loved hunting for the elusive “one I don’t have”, she loved displaying them, and she loved talking about the ones that had special meaning for her: ones my dad gave her on a birthday or anniversary, a “find” that turned up unexpectedly, the three-foot-tall Apple Boy that I took her to see in Windsor, Ontario, when I was student teaching in Detroit. About the only thing she didn’t love was dusting them!

Some of my mom’s Hummels are on display in my house. When I look at them, I see her. For me, that’s their greatest value.

My mom’s enthusiasm for her Hummels did not rub off on me. I do have a lot of books and I like timepieces, so there are some of those around, but I really don’t think of myself as a collector.

Collectors are intentional. Yes, they sometimes get lucky, but building a collection takes focus and often, it takes time. The same is true for building a congregation. After all, we are a collection of unique individuals, gathered by the One into the Church Universal. Christians are a 2000-year-old collection of disciples and scholars and skeptics and servants. Sometimes we get a little dusty but the Spirit breezes in and brings out the beauty that is the Church.

We’re also members of a particular congregation and every congregation I’ve served has indicated that it wanted to grow. If we want PACC to grow, it can and it will. The operative word is “if”. Yes, we might get lucky, but typically, that’s not how a congregation grows. It grows because it plans to grow and then it implements those plans. Growth takes time, and the good news is that time can start right now.

Regathering Sunday, September 11, would be a great day to gather a wonderful collection of longtime members and newcomers. Invite your friends, co-workers, neighbors, people you chat with at the gym, even your online contacts to join you on a Sunday morning at PACC. Tell them, “There’s a place in the pew for you”. Come, and become part of God’s collection.

Faithfully,
Jill
The Reverend Jill H. Small

Regathering Sunday

September 11, 2016

Worship Service

On September 11, Park Avenue Congregational Church will celebrate “Regathering Sunday.”  This marks the return to active participation in the life of our faith community after vacations and other summertime diversions.  The service will feature the return of our Chancel Choir and the start of regular Sunday School Classes.

Potluck

Following the service will be our traditional potluck luncheon in the Parish Hall.  We request that you bring food according to the following plan:

• If your last name begins with A-G, bring a dessert;
• If your last name begins with H-L, bring a side dish or salad;
• If your last name begins with M-Z, bring a main dish.

The Fellowship and Care Ministry will provide bread and butter and beverages.

Post Office Auction and Drop a Dime

During the potluck the dime bottles will be collected and Judie Phelps will be auctioning off items donated from summer travels. Find more details inside.

Celebrate Maria Yunis and her time at PACC

August 28, 2016

Please join us after worship on August 28, as we say goodbye to Maria Yunis who will be leaving her job as PACC Church Administrator on September 9.  As much as she has enjoyed her time with us, she wants to focus on her business.

Maria has been with us for over 2 years and we will miss her dearly.  We are grateful that she came to us when she did after Kathy Richardson’s retirement. Those were big shoes to fill and Maria slipped into them nicely.  Soon after her arrival, the PACC landscape changed.   She calmly and professionally dealt with a pastoral medical leave, a short-term interim minister, several pulpit supply ministers, and the search and hiring of Jill Small, our long-term interim.

During this time, Maria has worked with PACC tenants, served as our Financial Secretary, and kept the office running smoothly, handling telephone calls, preparing worship bulletins and Spires, and everything else that we take for granted.

Hope to see everyone on Sunday, August 28.

Valerie Censabella, Administration Ministry Deacon

A Note from Maria

Dearest Members and Friends of PACC,

With some mixed emotion I inform you that I have discerned it is time for me to transition out of my position serving Park Avenue Congregational Church as Church Administrator.  As most of you know, I have a leadership and life coaching business that I have been working on relaunching for a few years and it’s become clear to me that it is time to focus all of my work energies and attention on the success of my business. I recently embraced new messaging for my business:  “It’s not too late to live your dream.”  It is with no surprise that, initially unknowingly, I launched myself into my own program and I am making it happen!

My hope is that this will work out to be good timing.  With the church in the capable and organized hands of Jill Small, my replacement will be able to learn the ropes this program year to be ready for the new settled pastor.

It truly has been an honor and a joy to work with many of you closely. I have grown to love and appreciate this church as a loving community as well as each individual I have had the chance to get to know. I have been and felt very welcomed, embraced and supported in my role and have felt part of this community in a special way as well. All of this and all of you, I will miss! I don’t plan to disappear completely and hope to stay in touch.

I will be working through the summer to finish up some projects that have been outstanding and get things in order. My last day will September 9th. I look forward to seeing you over the next couple of months.

With gratitude, love and respect,

Maria Yunis

Mass Conference Annual Meeting Delegate Report

July 2016

Mike and I were the lay delegates to the 217^th Annual Meeting, held in Amherst, MA on June 17 and 18^th.   We have both been to several Annual Meetings and Super Saturdays during the many years we have been members of PACC.  I often come home from these meetings with a few thoughts – but THIS TIME – I returned with several WOW moments.   The major theme of this Annual Meeting was “BE BOLD.”

The guest preacher this year was the dynamic and enthusiastic Otis Moss III.  He is the Minister of the Trinity United Church of Christ in the South Side of Chicago.   Not only did he get my blood pumping with enthusiasm, he was also very funny.   So, having said that, these are my take-away moments:

The main point I took from Rev. Moss is that we need to be BOLD enough to try new things to attract new people to the church.  The demographic he talked about in both of his speeches and his focus group were the Millennials, people reaching young adulthood around the year 2000.  They are tech savvy, quite aware of our country’s socio-economic challenges and want to be active in something that will have a positive effect on the world.  Some are looking for a faith center for themselves and their growing families.  It is these people that we need to attract if we are to be a growing and living church, especially as we all get older.  Do we want these young folks to come to PACC or go to another more progressive, active, socially conscious church?

The answer is growth. If we don’t attract new members, where they are coming from, we will eventually fade out, as we all seem to be getting older at the same pace.  Church is not a one-size-fits-all thing but if we are willing to get our egos out of any disagreements, we should carefully think about/discern whether something will maintain PACC’s integrity and encourage PACC’S growth and longevity.   Therefore, when we do things for the right reason, with our hearts and minds confident in our work, we can TRUST GOD AND BE BOLD.

You can find additional highlights from Annual Meeting at www.macucc.org/2016am

Yours in Peace,
Betty Gitlin-Rich, Membership Co-Deacon

Mission and Justice

July 2016

Youth Villages Birthday Bags

Our next monthly birthday bag for girls at Youth Villages/Germaine Lawrence will be at the beginning of August.  Every month we pack a birthday party for about 20 girls in a bag for one of the dorms to celebrate the month’s birthdays.  If you’d like to donate items, each month we need:

• 4 boxes of cake mix and 4 containers of frosting
• plates, napkins and plastic forks for 20
• birthday candles, cupcake liners, candy or sprinkles to decorate cupcakes
• something fun—stickers, temporary tattoos, bubbles, light sticks for 20

Drop donations in the bucket in the narthex. Thanks!

Arlington Food Pantry (AFP)

We will be collecting non-perishable food items
and household goods for the AFP on Sunday, August 7. For a list of recommended items and for “How to Register to Receive Food from the Arlington Food Pantry” visit www.facebook.com/foodpantryarlington or arlingtonfoodpantry.org.  We are also looking for regular or occasional volunteers to deliver to the AFP.

Talk to Kate Lindheim, Lauren Evans or Mike Rich.

Community Supper

July 2016

Our next two dates to provide the meal are Mondays, July 25 and August 22.  We need to provide a main dish, salad and salad dressing, a quart of half and half, drinks (some sugar free) and fruit for about 20 people.  I’ve got disposable dishes to use that will also help serve as a guide for quantities.  Please let me know if you’d like to donate any part of the meal.  I’ll deliver the meal and you can bring items to church on July 24 or Aug 21 or I can coordinate a drop off/pick up with you.  Email Kate with any questions or donations.   Thanks!