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PACC Men

PACC Men

December 2017

The PACC Men will meet for our holiday celebration dinner at Via Lago Restaurant, in Lexington at 6:30 pm on Tues, Dec. 5. We usually have a big crowd for our December dinner. We hope you can join us. Please let Mike Rich know by mid-day on the 5th if you will be attending or if you would like help arranging transportation.

Mission and Justice

Mission and Justice Matters

December 2017

Join the Mission and Justice Working Group to discuss how to distribute our 2017 funds and to plan our 2018 efforts on Monday, December 4, at 7:00pm, in the Fireplace Room (upstairs) at PACC.

Spread Christmas Cheer!

  • Holiday Helpers – Town of Arlington
    • Sign up to provide gifts for a family in need by contacting Lauren Evans. Those who have signed up, bring your NEW, UNWRAPPED gifts to the Parish Hall by Dec. 3. Leave tags on and provide a gift receipt. Or contribute with a check made out to PACC (memo line: Arl Helpers) or by donating wrapping paper, tape, and gift bags.
  • Holiday Heros – Youth Villages (Germaine Lawrence)
    • We made Christmas brighter for our neighbors, the young women at Germaine Lawrence! This year we presented gifts to four young women on November 26.
  • Christmas Shop – City Mission Society
    • Provide Christmas gifts for Boston area families in need! Bring new, unwrapped gifts to PACC by Dec. 17; leave under the tree in the narthex. Suggested gifts: winter coats, sweaters, sweatshirts (large sizes needed); hats, mittens/gloves, scarves; socks, underwear; blankets; backpacks; toys, games, books for all ages; gift cards. Learn more at: https://citymissionboston.org/engage/christmas-shop

Local

  • NEAT (Neighbors Eating All Together) dinner – Saturday, Dec. 16, 5-6pm at St. John’s Church (74 Pleasant St).
    • NEAT is a monthly community dinner, free of charge and open to all, designed to fill hungry stomachs and create relationships among neighbors. To help set up, plate food, serve, or clean up, contact Kate Lindheim or look for a Chat email.
  • Arlington Food Pantry
    • Bring non-perishable food items & household goods to church by Sunday, Dec. 3. Find high need items here: arlingtonfoodpantry.org
  • Axuda small loan program – Massachusetts Coalition for the Homeless
    • Axuda crowd-funds small, short-term, interest-free loans to individuals and families who need a helping hand. With just $25 or $50, you can help support someone in a time of need; when it’s paid back, use your funds to support someone else! Learn more: www.axuda.org

National

  • UCC Christmas Fund – Christmas Eve
    • Many retired pastors in our denomination served at churches who couldn’t afford full pension payments. This special offering helps supplement their income and provides emergency assistance to clergy and church workers. Use the blue envelopes in the pews or write checks to PACC (memo line: “UCC Christmas Fund”) to help support those who have given their lives to serving the church! Learn more: https://www.pbucc.org/index.php/christmas-fund-home

Save the Dates

  • Jan. 13 – MLK Jr. Day of Learning, 9:30am to 3:30pm United Parish Church,
  • Jan. 15 – 30th Annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration, 7:00pm Arlington Town Hal

Christian Education

Christian Education

December 2017

Advent

Materials for celebrating Advent at home for adults and families are on the table in the narthex and will also be available during Advent Cheer at Hanging of the Greens.

Sunday school

Our curriculum continues this winter with stories of Advent and Christmas followed by stories about Jesus from the Gospel of Mark. Calendars with the stories we’re learning in Sunday school and ideas for activities and discussion will be sent home with Sunday school families and are also available in the narthex.

Our Christmas pageant is Sunday, December 10, during the worship service. Our one and only rehearsal will be on Saturday, December 9, from 9:30-11am in the sanctuary. Young children and kids without speaking parts can come for the first 30 minutes to try on costumes, sing the songs and run through the pageant.

We’ll have an art project with Gwen during Sunday school on December 17.

No Sunday school on December 24. Our morning worship will be family friendly!

We’ll have one multi-age class on December 31.

Youth Group

We’ll sort gifts for City Mission on Sunday, December 17, from 2-4pm at First Church in Winchester (21 Church St). We’ll meet at PACC at 1:45pm for hot chocolate and to pack up the items donated by PACC and carpool over.

We’ll have our Advent workshop on Sunday, November 26, during Sunday school. We’ll all gather together to talk about Advent, plant paperwhite bulbs to help us wait, and make some crafts.

Our Christmas pageant will be on December 10, during the worship service. Our one and only rehearsal will be on December 9 at 9:30am in the sanctuary.

Youth Choir

The Youth Choir is busy with preparations for the Christmas season! In addition to participating in the Christmas Concert and the Pageant, the group will once again lead Christmas Carols at ACMI, for the annual “First Lights” celebration in Arlington Heights (Dec. 2, around 6pm, see “Chat” for details). A Christmas Caroling event later in the month is also in the works. THANK YOU to Youth Choir singers and families for the joy you bring with your holiday singing

Greetings from Pastor Leah

Greetings from Pastor Leah

December 2017

Dear PACC members and friends,

Although Christmas decorations have been on sale since Halloween, in the church we see this festive season a little differently. We call this time Advent, from a Latin word meaning “coming,” and during it we celebrate not the coming of Jesus into the world, but the waiting for him to arrive.

Frederick Buechner’s words from Whistling in the Dark capture it well: In the silence of a midwinter dusk there is far off in the deeps of it somewhere a sound so faint that for all you can tell it may be only the sound of the silence itself. You hold your breath to listen… You are aware of the beating of your heart…. The extraordinary thing that is about to happen is matched only by the extraordinary moment…before it happens. Advent is the name of that moment.

What an odd idea, when you think about it – to celebrate not the thing itself, but the waiting for it!

Celebrating Advent as a season of waiting that comes before Christmas does not mean you need to RSVP no for Christmas parties occurring before Dec. 25, or keep the baby Jesus out of your manger, or even, as some of my friends do, abstain from listening to Christmas carols. (Don’t worry, they are church nerds who have found plenty of Advent hymns to get them in the spirit of the season!)

It does mean learning to celebrate the seasons in our lives when we are waiting, when we are not yet where we long and hope to be. It means that even as we wait for God to break into our lives in new and fresh ways, we trust that God is already with us – alongside us in that deep midwinter silence.

Where in your life are you waiting for something – longing for something? Is the “not yet” of waiting painful or uncomfortable? Is it making you feel anxious or just plain impatient? I invite you in this Advent season to let God transform your waiting into an experience of hope, love, joy – and ultimately, peace. May we each come to trust the God made known to us in the waiting!

Blessings,
Leah

PACC Men

PACC Men

November 2017

Our November meeting of PACC Men will be on Tuesday, November 7, at 7:30 pm in PACC’s Fellowship Room. Chris Lyman Waldron will be our guest speaker. He will present about his and Rev. Leah Lyman Waldron’s experiences searching for meaningful mission opportunities with Praxis, their new church plant in Atlanta. He will reflect on helping the church engage with the homeless community, which culminated in a computer ministry they started with Journey Shelter, a transitional housing program for men. Light refreshments will be served. Please let me know what you might be bringing, or if you would like help arranging transportation.

Our December dinner outing will be on December 5, at 6:30 pm. Restaurant to be determined. Let me know if you would prefer a return visit to Via Lago (Lexington), Jimmy’s Steak House (Arlington), Scutra (Arlington), Frank’s Steak House (Cambridge), or suggest a new festive location for Advent.

Sarah’s Circle

Sarah’s Circle

November 2017

Sarah’s Circle’s next meeting is on Saturday, November 18. We have selected The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov, a 20th-century masterpiece of satire and fantasy. How can the Devil make an impact in an atheist society? I’m sure we’ll find out! The book is available on Amazon, and in the Minute Man Library Network, in paperback as well as eBook and Audible.

Next month’s meeting is December 16, and we have chosen Dylan Thomas’ A Child’s Christmas in Wales, as a lighter hearted and nostalgic journey into childhood.