PACC-Men, Tues., January 5

The PACC-Men will gather for fellowship, a presentation and light refreshments at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, January 5th in the Fellowship Room. Please let Mike Rich know if you will attend, what snacks or beverages you will bring and whether you have a subject you’d like to inform us about.

New Members Meeting

Interested in membership at PACC?

Please join us for two sessions designed to review PACC’s history and structure, the UCC, and provide an opportunity to learn about programs and activities we host and sponsor. We’ll gather on February 21 and 28 from 7:00-8:30 in the Fellowship Room. That’s the ground-level room with the stained glass.

Those wishing to covenant with us will be received into membership on March 6 during the 10:00 a.m. worship service. Please contact our pastor (jhsmsall@pacc-ucc.org) or membership Deacon, Linda Cohn (cohn@tiac.net) if you’d like to participate or for more information. By the way…if you’re already a member, you’re welcome too!

 

Opportunities to Observe MLK Day

MLK Day of Service

City Mission Society is organizing two days of service this year— January 16 and 18. The days run from 9-12 and then include lunch and closing reflections from 12-2. The lunch and reflections will be at the Mather School in Boston, the oldest public school in North America. The service projects will vary– sorting clothes and making food at Pilgrim Church in Dorchester, cleaning, painting and organizing at various public schools in Boston and probably a few other projects. Last year over 300 volunteers impacted over 3,000 people. This is a great, easy way to make a difference in someone else’s life and to meet people from other churches and organizations in and around Boston. My family has enjoyed participating in these half day projects and we’ve visited places that we might not otherwise have seen– Twelfth Street Baptist Church where Dr. King worshipped when he lived in Boston, small churches in Dorchester and Roxbury and elementary schools in Boston. We always have a core group from PACC participating in this service day and we’d love to have a big group from our congregation this year. Please let Mike, Christie, or Kate know if you’d like to attend on January 16 or 18. Details about registration will be coming soon.

Arlington’s 28th annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Birthday Observance will be at Town Hall on Monday, January 18. Doors open at 6:45 p.m. with light refreshments. The program begins at 7:30 p.m. This year the people and program of Arlington’s 50 years of METCO will be recognized.

The guest speaker will be Tito Jackson who is a lifelong resident of Roxbury’s Grove Hall neighborhood and is the son of Herb and Rosa Jackson, two beloved community activists. As the District 7 City Councilor, he currently represents all of Roxbury and parts of the South End, Dorchester and Fenway neighborhoods.

First elected to the Boston City Council in March of 2011 during a special election, voters re-elected Councilor Jackson the following November for a full two-year term. In November of 2013 75% of the electorate once again called upon Councilor Jackson to serve the people of District 7 and represent them in City Hall.

Councilor Jackson currently serves as Chairman of the Boston City Council’s Committee on Education, and is Vice Chairman of the Committee on Government Operations. He also serves on the Economic Development & Planning & Labor Committee, the Special Committee on Small Business, Entrepreneurship & Innovation and the Special Committee on Transportation, Public Infrastructure, Planning and Investment.

The Gospel Ensemble of the Myrtle Baptist Church of West Newton, founded by freed slaves in 1874, will provide music. Non-perishable food items for the Arlington Food Pantry will be collected and a free-will offering to benefit public and non-profit programs that further the goals of Dr. King will be taken.

Sacred Conversation on Race

January 31, 2016

In tandem with posting a Black Lives Matter banner, the Council of Deacons promised to provide opportunities for discussion about race. We’ve been in touch with the MA Conference and have requested a facilitated Sacred Conversation on Race. As soon as the Conference confirms a date, we’ll let you know.

In the meantime, we are offering a book discussion. Deborah Irving, an author from Winchester, wrote a memoir about her gradual awareness of institutional racism. This is a short, accessible book that is a start to a conversation about race. Each chapter has discussion questions designed to prompt readers to think about their own thoughts and life experiences. We’ll order several copies of this book and have two discussion sessions: Tuesday, January 19 at 7:30 in the Fellowship room and Sunday, January 31 after church in the Fellowship room. If you’d like a copy, please let Jill, Mike or Kate know by January 10.

Finally, here’s a short bibliography and links to resources you can consider for further reading. If you have a recommendation for additional material, please let us know.

Bibliography:

Waking up White by Deborah Irving. Irving is a contemporary, local author whose book has been cited as a “must read” for discussion of race and racism. Her website includes resources for further reading: http://debbyirving.com/recommended-resources/

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. This is the Nigerian author’s classic work. Set in post-colonial Africa, and written in 1958, its lessons are timeless.

Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates. The most emotionally charged resource on this short list, Coates’s book takes the form of a letter to his 15-year old son in the wake of the announcement that no charges would be brought against Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson in the killing of Michael Brown.

The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson. Wilkerson chronicles the decades-long migration of black citizens who fled the South for northern and western cities, in search of a better life.

UCC website:   http://www.ucc.org/justice_racism_intersections

Books for Understanding website:     http://www.booksforunderstanding.org/race/list.html

Evening Bible Study

Evening Bible Group typically meets on the 2nd and 4th Wednesdays of each month in the Fellowship Room at 7:30-9 p.m. January dates are January 13^th and 27^th. Jill facilitates and we will continue with our study of the book of Amos. Join us for a lively discussion! All are welcome.

Christian Education

Sunday School

Winter Sunday school calendars are on the table in the narthex. The calendars include the stories we’ll be learning about this winter in Sunday school and ideas for activities and discussion at home.

There will be no regular Sunday school on Sunday, January 17. We’ll have a multi age class for kids in preschool through fifth grade. Nursery care will be available.

Youth groups

We have been putting together birthday bags to help the girls at Germaine Lawrence/Youth Villages celebrate their birthdays. Each month we drop off a bag for one of the dorms to have a monthly birthday celebration of all the birthdays that month. There are about 20 girls in the dorm and we include four boxes of cake mix, four containers of frosting, plates, napkins, forks ( for 20), candy to decorate and paper decorations (like birthday banners and signs, streamers, birthday crowns and hats). We also make and sign cards for the birthday girls. We will put a box in the narthex marked birthday bags. If you would like to donate any of the above items throughout the year, just drop it in the box. Thank you!

We have also been looking through our book shelves for books to donate to Germaine Lawrence. They accept gently used books from picture books through young adult for the girls to read. We have made bookmarks to go in each donated book. If you’ve recently read a book that you’re ready to pass on and you think one of the girls might enjoy, you can drop that in the birthday bag box too. Thanks!

Middle school youth group

The middle school youth group meets during church. Here’s the schedule for January.

January 3—Communion Sunday, youth group stays in church for the worship service

January 10—learn about Jesus’ time in the desert

January 17—youth group stays in church for the worship service.  Youth group members are encouraged to participate in the MLK day of service with City Mission Society on either 1/16 or 1/18.

January 24—make a meal for the Community Supper in Somerville and talk about our church’s history and our church memories for the timeline.

January 31—assemble birthday bags and make birthday cards for Germaine Lawrence/Youth Villages

Small Talk

January 2016

What a glorious stretch of sunny, warm days blessed the end of 2015! The weather always generates discussion, no more so than when it’s unusually good. As wonderful as it is to have a white Christmas, I’m just as happy not shoveling or scraping.

Resolutions aside, a new year always offers a chance to start fresh without actually starting over. We are primed to look ahead and that’s a good thing. We also get to think about what has been. Both are part of the interim process. I’ve written in previous months about the process, and that it starts with looking back, reviewing history. We’ll be doing that in a hands-on way with a time-line posted in Fellowship Hall by Jan 10^th.

Annual meeting (January 24^th) will be a good time to take a few minutes during lunch to review, and perhaps add in, dates and events on that time-line. You can indicate a major event like a change in pastorate, or something that was meaningful perhaps only to you, like “Our wedding”. The time-line is meant to capture objective information. We also will be sharing impressions and feelings in the follow-up discussion; it’s also an opportunity to have some fun!

We’ll gather for Ice Cream Saturday on February 6^th at 6:30 p.m. Kids are welcome and we will provide child care so they can do their own thing as we talk about PACC’s history. We’ll finish at 8 o’clock, so there will be time for all of us to get home for a good night’s sleep before worship on Sunday.

Please R.S.V.P. to me (jhsmall@pacc-ucc.org) with the subject line “Ice Cream Saturday” and let me know if you’re bringing a child/children too.

As the light grows in the world around, may the light of God’s love continue to grow in our hearts.

Peace,

Jill

The Reverend Jill H. Small

Small Talk

I’m looking at the ocean. It’s showing me the wind on the water. It’s showing me a bottle-green-blue that I don’t think I’ve ever seen before. It’s the same ocean I’ve watched many times, but it’s a new ocean too.

What it shows me more than anything is that it’s big. Of course, I know that, but still I discover it again and again.

We live in a big world. It’s God’s world and it’s our world. We influence its beauty and its blemishes. Of course, I know that, but still I discover it again and again.

A week ago, one of our neighbors, First Parish Unitarian Universalist, had its “Black Lives Matter” banner vandalized. The word, ‘black’ was painted over with white paint and sign’s frame was bent. I was amazed and dismayed that such a thing happened here in Arlington.

Maybe I shouldn’t have been so surprised. Like the ocean, bigotry is big. It’s present not only in backwaters of ignorance; it exists in along shores that by all demographic measures are well-educated.

What did not surprise me is that this act was done at night, under cover of darkness. What does not surprise me is that the perpetrators of this ugliness are cowards: ones who hide who they are in shadow.

What does not surprise me is that First Parish is going to replace the sign. What does not surprise me is that this particular church, and the Church as a whole, is courageous, seeking to know who they are and strive to do the will of the One who dispels shadow.

First Parish has asked its neighbor congregations, including ours, to stand with them as people of faith by putting up our own “Black Lives Matter” banner. This is something I think, feel, and believe we should do for lots of reasons. What do you think, feel and believe?

What would it say to and about PACC if we make a public statement about this issue? What would it say to and about Arlington if we make a public statement about this issue? Heaven knows it’s not the only issue our church, our community, or our culture faces – but it’s the one on our doorsteps today. I’m under no illusion that we will all think, feel, or believe the same thing in the same way, and that’s what makes this a genuine, teachable moment for all of us.

Jesus didn’t shy away from controversy. Indeed, he often invited it, not for its own sake, but for the sake of the good news that God loves the world and the world matters. Black lives matter. It is at the heart of reflecting the image of God.

Jesus adjured his disciples to watch and pray. That’s always his call to those who claim to be his disciples. Watch and pray—for the wisdom and the courage to follow his message, his ministry, and his mission right here and right now.

Peace,

Jill
The Reverend Jill H. Small

 

Special Service and Discussion on Climate Change

Sunday, November 8, 2015

It is most exciting that on Sunday, November 8, Reverend Jim Antal, climate change expert and President of the Massachusetts Conference United Church of Christ since 2006 will be leading our 10 am service. We are honored that he is also making himself available for a follow-up discussion in the Fellowship Room. There will be time to grab a beverage and refreshment in the Parish Hall before we gather.

After teaching and leading two national peace organizations, Reverend Antal spent twenty years leading churches in Massachusetts and Ohio and providing a public voice on peace and justice issues. Reverend Antal, who is also a recognized national leader in the area of climate change, emphasizes that we need a much larger faith and hope that we can bring about change.

Reverend Antal shared this quote from our President: “We, the people, still believe that our obligations as Americans are not just to ourselves, but to all posterity. We will respond to the threat of climate change, knowing that the failure to do so would betray our children and future generations…. That is how we will preserve our planet, commanded to our care by God.” (From President Barack Obama’s Second Inauguration Speech, January 21, 2013.)

Mother’s Day

Reverend John Zehring

Good morning Park Avenue congregation!  This Sunday is Mother’s Day.  It is also Anniversary Sunday, where we will acknowledge and bless our silver and gold members who have been a part of our congregation (or Pleasant Street’s congregation) for 25+ and 50+ years.  Kate Lindheim will lead the Children’s Corner and Marianne McPherson will offer the Mother’s Day Morning Prayer.  Preview the scripture below from 1st Corinthians 13 as you prepare yourself to worship and encounter the Divine.  See you Sunday!  Rev. John

If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.  And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.  Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude.  It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth.  (1st Corinthians 13:1-6)

(The image “Clara’s Picture” is in the public domain on Wikipedia.)