Christian Education

May 2017

Sunday, May 7 is a Communion Sunday. Younger children (downstairs classes) will start Sunday school at 10 and come upstairs for Communion.  Older children (upstairs classes) will stay in church for the worship service.

Sunday, May 28, we’ll have one multi-age Sunday school class.  We’ll be learning about what Jesus taught his disciples about true greatness.

Middle school youth group

The middle school youth group meets during the worship service on Sunday mornings.

May 7   — Communion, stay in church for the service

May 14— We’ll be learning a story about a young girl and Naaman and talking about how small actions can have a big effect.

May 21— We’ll make salad for the Somerville community supper.

Evening youth group (7th grade and up)

We’ll join together with the youth group from North Prospect Union UCC in Medford for pizza and a game night at PACC on Sunday, May 21 from 6:30-8 in Parish Hall.  Bring a game to share if you’d like and we’ll also have games– life size Hungry, Hungry Hippos!

Somerville Community Supper, Monday, May 22

It is our turn to provide the meal for the Somerville community supper.

I’ll send a recipe to chat for the main dish.  We also need:

• bread (25 pieces)
• quart of half and half
• fresh fruit
• dessert (25 portions)
• 4 liters (2 gallons) of drinks, including some sugar free.
• Examples include: lemonade, seltzer, iced tea, juice

I have disposable pans to put the food in.  You can bring food in on Sunday, May 21, or we can coordinate a drop off/pick up.  Let Kate Lindheim know if you have any questions or if you’d like to donate any of the items for the dinner, or if you’d like to volunteer to serve the meal between 3-6 pm on Monday, May 22. Thank you very much!

Small Talk

May 2017

Ecclesiastes, the Preacher, wrote, “To everything there is a season”.  With great respect to the Preacher, as I compose this in April, I’m reminded that seasons sometimes overlap. What richness surrounds us when we find ourselves in the midst of having options. Notice the similarity between the words option and opportunity!

I like sports, and this week, there are plenty of options for me I can watch professional baseball, hockey, and basketball and I can watch more than one game at a time. Of course, while I can cheer or moan, when it comes to this analogy, I only can be an observer.

What if we take that imagery and think about it in relation to the Church and to this church?

First, this is the season of resurrection! The Creator-Redeemer-Comforter surrounds us with hope and commissions us to carry the message and mission of the Christ into the world.

It’s a growing and renewing time. Amid these wonders and gifts, people who are beloved by God continue to wrestle with fear, pain, and injustice. The Divine calls us, you and me, here and now to think, to talk, and to take action that helps bring about the realm of justice and peace.  That is the cost and joy of discipleship and we have to be in the game.

Right here at PACC, it’s the season of Search and Call. The work of the Search Committee is at the forefront of this season. For the eight members of that team, it’s a high energy, deep investment, hands-on, hearts-in time for them. Remember that they are discerning

This also is a season for continuing the conversations of the interim time: who are we, who is God calling us to be, and who is our neighbor? You have done much good work. There still are options and opportunities to explore and to expand as you live into and out of those conversations.  Ask questions, brainstorm, and invest in vision and dreams.

This is your time at bat, on the free-throw line, and at center ice! I’m cheering you on.

Peace,

Jill
The Reverend Jill H. Small

Mission and Justice

April 2017

One Great Hour of Sharing

One Great Hour of Sharing® is the Lenten Offering of the United Church of Christ that supports disaster, refugee, and development actions. We will be dedicating our OGHS offering on Sunday, March 26, but please continue to make your donations through the month of April.

This year’s theme is “You are here.”

Chapter 25 verse 40 of the Gospel according to the school of Matthew says, “Just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.” When you give through OGHS to those who suffer from natural disasters, war, or systemic poverty, you let them know.

For more information see the enclosed flyer around and check out the UCC OGHS Facebook page [here www.facebook.com/onegreathourofsharingucc/] and see www.ucc.org/oghs

LOCAL OUTREACH

We will be collecting non-perishable food items and household goods for the Arlington Food Pantry on Sunday, April 2nd. Visit arlingtonfoodpantry.org for the list of needed and “high need” items. THANKS to Kate Lindheim for bringing our donated items to the AFP each month. If you are interested in helping, periodically or regularly, talk to the church office.

Walk for Affordable Housing

The Housing Corporation of Arlington’s 16th Annual Walk for Affordable Housing will be on Sunday, April 30, 2017 from 1:00-3:00 pm. 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. More details at www.housingcorparlington.org. Talk to the church office if you would like to organize a PACC walking team or staff a water or snack table.

49th Annual Walk for Hunger On Sunday, May 7, we’ll have a team of walkers for Project Bread’s Walk for Hunger. 20 MILES TO END HUNGER. The 49th Walk for Hunger & 5K Run is an annual community movement of neighbors helping neighbors across the Commonwealth. Since its inception in 1969, the Walk for Hunger has raised more than $100 million to support local programs that alleviate hunger.

This year, more than 300 local programs in more than 100 Massachusetts communities will be supported through money raised by Walkers (and runners!) including: food pantries, meal programs, food rescue, urban agriculture, and critical child nutrition programs. Your Walk makes it possible.

Learn more http://www.projectbread.org/walk-for-hunger/about-walk-for-hunger.html See Jill Lewis or Kate Lindheim to walk with or donate to the PACC Team.

SAVE THE DATE!

On Sunday, May 7th, we will be celebrating the TENTH ANNIVERSARY of PACC having covenanted with the Open and Affirming Coalition of the UCC to become an OPEN AND AFFIRMING (ONA) Congregation.

Tri-Conference Annual Meeting

Friday, June 17 and Saturday, June 18 Be part of UCC history! This year the Mass. Conference UCC Annual Meeting is an historic Tri Conference meeting. As the Mass., Rhode Island and Connecticut Conferences are discerning whether to merge into a single Conference, they are holding a combined Annual Meeting held in Hartford on Friday, June 17 and Saturday, June 18.

There are major events planned for Friday afternoon and evening. Here is the link to the main page: http://www.macucc.org/eventdetail/6345699.

PACC’s Council of Deacons and Finance Working Group have indicated there may be possibilities for financial assistance for registration fees and lodging for PACCers who want to attend as delegates or guests. Talk to the church office if you want to apply.

Christian Education

April 2017

Palm Sunday Pancake Breakfast

Come join us for pancakes on Palm Sunday (April 9)! The youth group will serve pancakes, bacon, sausage, fruit, coffee and juice from 8:30-9:30 in Parish Hall. Adults/$5, Children/$3, Family cap/$20

Easter Egg Hunt

Join us in the garden after the worship service on Easter for an Easter Egg Hunt! Hunt some eggs and turn them in for an Easter treat!

Sunday school

On Palm Sunday, April 9, we’ll have our Holy Week workshop. We’ll learn about the events of Holy Week through stories, crafts and a special snack during Sunday school. There will be no regular Sunday school on Easter, April 16. There will be childcare available for children in Kindergarten and younger and we’ll have activity bags for older children to help them sit through the service.

We’ll have Art with Gwen on April 23. Gwen will help kids make something to show in the PACC Art Show on May 7.

Small Talk

April 2017

As the days grow brighter and warmer, we anticipate the Festival of the Resurrection. Everything in the Christian Church is grounded in this celebration, and it should be.

Easter is about a lot of things but in the final analysis, it’s about hope. It’s that simple and that profound.

As I look at my Complaint Free World wrist band, I think about the importance of hope. The wrist band has given me hope that I can be more patient and optimistic. As I see the seasonal markers show that spring has arrived, I find hope in the tiny plants that work so hard to reach toward the light so that they can grow and flower, renewing the cycle of life. As I remember that God is Still-speaking, I am filled with hope for the new thing that God is doing right here and right now as the Spirit moves in our midst.

On Easter, we often focus on the empty tomb, but today I am thinking about the stone that rested in front of that tomb. That stone was the weight of hopelessness. It takes a lot of move hopelessness. Easter reveals that it can, and has, been done.

Paul wrote to the Corinthians that faith, hope, and love remain and that the greatest of those is love. I can’t quibble with that at all. I will say that if Paul had written that hope was the greatest, I’d be fine with that too. Hope makes it possible for us to imagine safety, peace, cooperation, fullness, joy, generosity, and so much more. It is a powerful resource, one that is continually renewed by the friend who listens, the colleague who takes on some extra task, the stranger who takes time to say hello, to buy a cup of coffee for the next person in line or to hand a sandwich and a pair of socks to someone in need.

The story of Easter, the Good News of the resurrection of the Christ, has offered hope to people of faith for thousands of years. I have every confidence that there is more than enough hope for all God’s people, especially when we are eager to share it.

My prayer is that each of you will be here at PACC on Easter Sunday to rejoice in a stone moved aside allowing hope to move so freely among us.

Faithfully,
Jill
The Reverend Jill H. Small

Christian Education

March 2017

Lent

Materials for observing Lent at home for children and adults will be available on the table in the narthex.

Sunday school

Our theme for this spring is God’s Good News. We’ll be learning stories about Jesus from Matthew and John and then after Easter, we’ll be learning stories that focus on peacemaking with an emphasis on God’s care for the most vulnerable. Calendars with the stories we’ll be learning in Sunday school and ideas for discussion and activities at home are on the table in the narthex and will be sent home with Sunday school families.

Middle school youth group

The middle school youth group meets during the worship service on Sunday mornings.

• March 5– stay in church for worship service and Communion
• March 12– we’ll be learning a story about how Jesus refused to cast stones & making memory rocks
• March 19– we’ll be making birthday cards for a dorm at Youth Villages/Germaine Lawrence
• March 26– we’ll be making dessert for the Somerville Community Supper

Evening youth group (7th grade and up)

We’ll reschedule our movie and pizza night with the North Prospect-Union youth group! Look for an email with details.

Community supper– March 27

We provide the meal for about 25 people for the Somerville Community Supper at First Church UCC in Somerville on the fourth Monday of every month. In March, that’s March 27. We have a main dish and a dessert, but we need:

• 4 liters (2 gallons) of drinks, including sugar free. Examples: seltzer, lemonade, iced tea
• vegetarian dish for 4-6
• bread
• salad and salad dressing
• fresh fruit
• quart of half and half

Please let me know if you can provide any of these items and I’ll give you disposable pans for the vegetarian dish and the salad. You can bring the food to church on March 26 or we can coordinate a drop off or pick up.

Small Talk

March 2017

Lent begins with ashes.

In many churches, PACC included, the ashes come from burning the palms from the most recent Palm Sunday and mixing them with a bit of oil. Those ashes are a reminder than there is both a cost and a joy of discipleship. Jesus’ entry into the Holy City was celebrated with shouts of “Hosanna!” That was a shout of celebration and a cry for salvation.

Lent begins with ashes.

Like the ashes, Lent is a season of mixed emotion. It’s a time for reflecting on the relentlessness of conflict in the world and remembering the call to mercy, justice, and humility. It’s a time of anticipation because we know already that the Christ was not bound by death.

Lent begins with ashes.

The imposition of those ashes reminds us that “we are dust and to dust we shall return”. For that very reason, ashes also were (and are) part of mourning ritual. Because I like to play with words, I’m reminded that mourning and morning meet in the words of the psalmist: weeping may linger for the night but joy comes in the morning. (Ps. 30:5a)

Lent begins with ashes.

Faith calls us to embrace the challenges of living first and foremost out of love. One of the ways we’ll strive to make that real is by wearing purple wrist bands to help us be mindful of how we respond to the people and circumstances of daily life. I hope you’ll pick up your “A Complaint-free World” wristband on March 1st Ash Wednesday, between 5:30 and 7:00 p.m. in the Narthex and Sanctuary.

Lent begins with ashes.

They mark us as God’s own, each made in the image of the Divine, and that is reason to rejoice.

Faithfully,
Jill

Sarah’s Circle

February 2017

For February, in honor of President’s Day, Sarah’s Circle has selected a book about the remarkable relationship of John and Abigail Adams: My Dearest Friend: Letters of Abigail and John Adams. Join us Saturday February 11 from 10 am until noon in the Fellowship Room (with meditation at 9:30 am for those who wish to join us.

Women’s Guild

February 2017

The Women’s Guild will meet on Feb 16, at 11:30 AM for our annual Pizza Party and book reviews. Hostesses Claire Gibbons and Meredythe Schober will supply coffee, tea and dessert. This is your opportunity to share information on books that you have recently read. As always, all women are invited to share in this enjoyable time for fellowship

Shrove Pancake Dinner

February 2017

Shrove Tuesday is traditionally a time to use up fats and sugar before the simpler meals of Lent. Pancakes are often served on Shrove Tuesday. Join us on Tuesday, February 28 from 5:30-7 in Parish Hall for pancakes, bacon, sausage, fruit, juice and coffee. Adults $5, Children $3, $20 family cap. Please speak to Betty Rich, Barbara Wagner or Kate Lindheim if you have questions or if you’d like to help set up or clean up.