Mission and Justice Matters
April 2016
Local Outreach
Arlington Food Pantry (AFP)
We will be collecting non-perishable food items and household goods for the AFP on Sunday, April 3. 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. Your donations make a difference! We are also looking for regular or occasional volunteers to take our donations to the AFP. Talk to Kate Lindheim, Lauren Evans or Mike Rich.
Community Supper for the Homeless
Monday, April 25, is our week to provide the meal for the Community Supper at First Church Somerville. They have asked us to scale our portions up for 20-25 people. More people are being served at the supper, and they like to be able to offer seconds to anyone who’d like them. Any food that is left over will be sent to the shelter across the street, so no food goes to waste. For this month, we need a main dish, bread, a quart of half and half, drinks (some sugar free), dessert and fruit.
Kate can deliver the meal, and you can bring food to church or coordinate a pick up/drop off with her. If you’d like to provide food, help serve or coordinate, please speak to Kate Lindheim. Thank you!
Birthday Bags for Girls Age 12-18
We provide one of the dorms at Youth Villages/ Germaine Lawrence with a birthday bag to celebrate that month’s birthdays. It is a residential school for girls age 12-18 who have complex emotional and behavioral challenges and only steps from church. Birthdays can be hard because they are away from family and friends and can be a reminder of that loss.
The middle school youth group has been making birthday cards and assembling the birthday bags. If you’d like to donate items for the birthday bags, there is a blue bucket in the narthex. We are collecting items on an ongoing basis. We need cake mix, frosting, birthday plates and napkins, plastic forks, paper decorations like birthday banners, crepe paper, anything that would make a birthday feel special.
Lace up your walking shoes and join us for two walks for great causes this spring!
Walk for Affordable Housing
The Housing Corporation of Arlington’s Walk for Affordable Housing is on Sunday, April 3 from 1-3, starting and ending at the Jason Russell House on the corner of Jason St. and Mass. Ave. This is a 3 mile walk down Mass. Ave and back and raises funds and awareness for affordable housing in Arlington.
Walk for Hunger
On Sunday, May 1, we’ll have a team of walkers for Project Bread’s Walk for Hunger. This year’s route is 10 miles along the Charles River, starting and ending on Boston Common. Jill Lewis and Kate Lindheim love to start early, when the weather is cool and the crowds are thin. We’d love to have you join us– talk to either of us for details. If you can’t walk, but would like to support the Walk for Hunger, we’ll have pledge sheets at church on April 17 and 24. Thank you!
Mass Incarceration Awareness
Racial and Economic Justice
Thursday, April 7, 7:30 p.m., at Arlington Town Hall – Arlington’s Vision 2020 Diversity Task Group, PACC and several other organizations present “Unconscious Bias”— Christopher Dial, Lab Manager of the Social Cognition Laboratory in the Department of Psychology at Harvard University, explores the mistakes that our minds make even when making big, important, thoughtful decisions, and how—without realizing it—our minds can lead us to behave in ways that don’t align with our personal values. Talk to Jill Lewis or Mike Rich if you are available to volunteer before, during or for clean up after the event.
PACC’s Mission and Justice Deacon is Lauren Evans, supported by Mike & Betty Rich, Jill Lewis, Margaret Bell, and others. They’d be happy to talk with you about this ministry!
Are Mission and Justice Matters are your passion?
Each month we’ll feature different opportunities to keep you informed and to help you get involved in making a difference.
In the UCC
PACC Connects with Wider Church!
On Saturday, March 12, PACC sent five persons to Killingly, CT for the MACUCC, RICUCC and CTCUCC Super Saturday. It was day of presentations, worship, celebration and workshops featuring the Rev. Traci Blackmon. Traci is a community leader, civil rights activist, pastor of Christ the King UCC, Florissant, MO and the newly appointed Acting Executive of the UCC Justice and Witness Ministries.
You can find highlights of the day here: http://www.macucc.org/newsdetail/super-saturday-raises-burning-question-4143249 or talk with Margaret Bell, Chickie Olson, Betty Rich, Mike Rich or Jill Small for their comments.
Mass Conference (MACUCC) “Conference Buzz”
The Massachusetts Conference website has links to many interesting articles, blogs, and information about upcoming events. See www.macucc.org.
MASS CONFERENCE ANNUAL MEETING
Registration is now open at http://www.macucc.org/eventdetail/2392063 for the 217th Annual Meeting of the Massachusetts Conference. “Boldness” will characterize the Meeting, where The Rev. Otis Moss III, who serves as senior pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, IL, will be the Keynote Speaker and Preacher.
The Annual Meeting will take place at UMass Amherst from Friday, June 17 to Saturday, June 18. It’s an opportunity to gather around God’s immense table of grace, to spend some time in a season of discernment concerning our future. It is a time when bold new initiatives are presented, worship is creative and uplifting, networking is possible at every turn, new ideas are introduced.
PACC is entitled to send two voting delegates, in addition to clergy. Talk to Mike Rich or Tim Durning if you want to be a delegate or alternate.
