Park Avenue Congregational Church
50 Paul Revere Road, Arlington Heights, MA 02476 — (781)643-8680 — office@pacc-ucc.org
September 25, 2017
It’s our turn to provide the meal on Monday, September 25. This month the youth group will provide the main dish and the salad. We’ll still need 2 gallons (8 liters) of drinks (some sugar free), a quart of half and half, 25 pieces of bread or rolls and some fresh fruit. Let Kate Lindheim know if you’d like to donate any of those items. Thank you!
September 16, 2017
The first NEAT dinner at St. John’s Church served 95 people! NEAT will be a monthly dinner, on the third Saturday of every month from 5-6 pm at St. John’s Church (74 Pleasant St) in Arlington. These community dinners are free of charge and are open to everyone. The next dinner will be on September 16 and we’re looking for volunteers to help set up, plate food in the kitchen, serve people and help clean up. Look for an email with more details. If you have questions or would like to volunteer, please speak to Kate Lindheim. Thanks!
September 2017
Arlington Town Day is on Saturday, September 17th this year, and we need/would appreciate help covering our booth so that everyone can have the chance to look around at all the festivities before and after.
If you are able to volunteer for set-up or break down and/or for an hour or two to be at the booth during the day that would be fantastic.
Please call Betty Rich to secure a time slot – the earlier, the better. We will also have a clipboard in the narthex and in Parish Hall for the next few weeks and at Regathering Sunday if you would rather sign up in person.
Town Day is a great way to introduce ourselves and our activities to our neighbors in Arlington, and it is also a lot of fun! Please consider helping out!
Arlington Food Pantry and Arlington Eats merged on July 1st. See information about their programs at www.arlington-eats.org. We will be collecting non-perishable food items and household goods for the Arlington Food Pantry on Sunday, Sept. 3rd, and Sunday, October 1st. 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 Kate, Mike Rich or Jill Lewis.
Our drive to collect school supplies for homeless children in Massachusetts through the Massachusetts Coalition for the Homeless was very successful! We collected 31 backpacks and many bags loaded with supplies. Thank you to all who participated for your generosity in helping students struggling with homelessness have a better start to the school year!
Learn about the Coalition at MAHomeless.org
See the announcement for the next community supper at www.pacc-ucc.org/2017/09/
Thanks to your generosity, we collected enough for several coats for CMS’s Christmas in July kick off of their annual Coat Boston campaign – citymissionboston.org/engage/coat-boston
We expect to be working with First Parish UU of Arlington this fall as a neighborhood group assisting locally housed asylum seekers with Refugee Immigration Ministry www.r-i-m.net.
Neighbors in Need (NIN) is a special mission offering of the UCC that supports ministries of justice and compassion throughout the United States. One-third of NIN funds support the Council for American Indian Ministry(CAIM). Two-thirds of the offering is used by the UCC’s Justice and Witness Ministries (JWM) to support a variety of justice initiatives, advocacy efforts, and direct service projects through grants.
The 2017 theme for the NIN offering is “Protect the Sacred: In a Just World, Clean Water is Life.” PACC will receive the NIN offering on Sunday, October 1, 2017 as part of our World Communion Sunday observance.
There is a new UCC blog at newsacred.org, with titles such as WWJD? Put His Body on the Line for Racial Justice, Dismantling From Within, and I Won’t Worship Being Busy.
We Do Justice – Join Us!
In the United Church of Christ, we do justice. We started in the 60’s with the Civil Rights movement. We’ve been advocating for gay rights since the 70’s. We took on environmental racism in the 80’s. And in 2005, we were the first church in America to endorse marriage equality. We’re doing justice. Join us at www.ucc.org/justice
“What does God require of you but to do justice and to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God?”
Micah 6:8
The United Church of Christ: Our faith is 2000 years old. Our thinking is not. We believe in God’s Continuing Testament. We believe in Extravagant Welcome. We believe the church’s mission is to Change Lives.
The Mission and Justice Ministry asked the Council of Deacons to display the BLACK LIVES MATTER banner on the Paul Revere Road wall this month. It will stay up until the end of the first week of September. See www.pacc-ucc.org/black-lives-matter for PACC’s history on this issue and some explanations. Beginning on September 8th, the UCC’s BE THE CHURCH banner has replaced our BLACK LIVES MATTER banner.
Our mission partner, International Institute of New England, headed by Jeff Thielman of Arlington, is presenting another “Suitcase Stories” show on Sept. 14th. In an exciting twist, performers will be featured on WGBH’s new nationally syndicated “Stories from the Stage” television series – a partnership with http://www.massmouth.org/ For more information, including ticket access, see the Suitcase Stories page of the IINE website.
Suitcase Stories is a traveling live performance series that features foreign and U.S.-born residents sharing refugee and immigrant stories. The format of storytelling in a theatre-like setting is especially suited to these powerful tales of real-life experience.
About IINE Proceeds from this event support the mission of the International Institute of New England: To build vibrant, inclusive communities in New England by welcoming refugees and immigrants and providing education and guided pathways to careers and citizenship.
This event is hosted in partnership with: Stories from the Stage, Massmouth, TripAdvisor and WGBH, and will be held at its studios at 1 Guest St, Boston.
UCC Pastoral Letter condemns racist violence in Charlottesville, demands equality for all
August 15, 2017 as a response to the violent clashes between white supremacists and counter demonstrators in Charlottesville, Va., that left a woman dead and 19 injured, the national leadership of the United Church of Christ issued this Pastoral Letter:
Pastoral Letter Last weekend, a group of white supremacists came to Charlottesville, Virginia, and incited violence to protest the removal of a Confederate monument. Although protest is the bedrock of our nation’s democracy, coming in riot gear proves that they intended to do more than simply protest. We, the Council of Conference Ministers and Officers of the United Church of Christ, strongly condemn the acts of violent hatred expressed by these white supremacists, Neo-Nazis, and Ku
Klux Klan members. Their white robes and burning crosses were replaced with polo shirts, khakis, and tiki torches, while their lynching was replaced with a speeding car barreling through a group of peaceful protesters with the intention of harming and killing others, which it did. Their vitriolic hatred is the same. We confess that the events of Charlottesville are systemic and communal expressions of white privilege and racism that continues to pervade our nation’s spiritual ethos. And if we only condemn the acts of August 12, 2017, without condemning the roots of racism, which perpetuate discrimination in our American schools, justice system, business, and healthcare systems, then we have sinned as well. We must work toward the Kin-dom of Heaven here on earth now for the sake of a just world for all. We do this by committing to follow the ways of Jesus, who stood with the oppressed, spoke out against political and religious powers, and courageously embodied a just world for all as he sought to create it. Today, we must follow the ways of Jesus in addressing the hatred of white supremacists and racists among us. Our local UCC churches must be true solidarity partners with those who march in the streets. Our UCC churches are encouraged to move from the sanctuary and walk alongside other clergy and community leaders who seek to resist, agitate, inform, and comfort. We must resist hatred and violence. We must also agitate ourselves, and our neighbors to acknowledge any racism within or among us. We must inform ourselves and our neighbors what our sacred stories reveal to us of a just world for all. We must lament and grieve with those who are injured or murdered during violent confrontations with those who mean us harm. And we must comfort those who have been discriminated against with the transformative love of God. As we go forward, let us model the legacy of activism through our sacred call given to us by our UCC ancestors: May we be prophetic truth-tellers like our Congregational Christian forebears, who marched in public squares demanding equality for all. May we serve others, and remain faithful witnesses like our Evangelical and Reformed forebears, who tended to the needs of the forgotten. And may we be courageous like our non-UCC forebears, who left their spiritual home and joined the UCC in order to fully live out who God created them to be. In the days to come, may God’s truth, mission, and courage be our guide to embodying the Kin-dom of Heaven here on earth.
More at www.ucc.org/news_ucc_pastoral_letter_condemns_racist_violence_in_charlottesville_demands_equality_for_all_08152017
September 2017
Welcome back to Sunday school! We’re looking forward to seeing everyone and hearing about your summer adventures! Look for an email in early September letting you know who your Sunday school teacher will be and where your group will be meeting. We’ll continue to use the Shine story-based curriculum. This fall’s theme is Being God’s People. We’ll learn stories of God’s people from the early church and from the book of Genesis. Calendars with all of our lessons and ideas for activities and discussion at home will be available in the narthex on Regathering Sunday.
Middle schoolers will continue to meet during the worship service.
Seventh grade and up will also meet on Sunday, September 24 from 7-8:30 to make the main dish for the Somerville community supper and do some planning for the year ahead!
Greetings to all Youth Choir singers – I can’t wait to see you in September! We will have our first brief meeting on SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, at about 11:45 (after you have had a chance to join your family and friends at the Regathering Sunday luncheon). Further scheduling details will follow via the Youth Choir email list!
Newcomers are always welcome! If you would like to sing in this fun and lively group, come give it a try! (3rd grade and older)
The Youth Choir generally rehearses on the 1st and 2nd Sundays of each month, in the Nicoll Room, after Church/Sunday School (usually around 11:15-12:00). On the 3rd Sunday, we have an early rehearsal at 9:20am, and on that Sunday, we sing in the church service during All Ages time. This schedule is from September through June, and we prepare also for the Pageant, Christmas Concert, and other special events. We sing all kinds of beautiful things: contemporary and classical music, songs from other countries, folk songs, rounds, and spirituals, in unison and harmony.
Further details will follow — we may be adjusting our rehearsal time slightly in future weeks, and I will keep choir families posted! If you have a young singer in your family who is thinking about joining, please contact Andy Hart (hartandrea@comcast.net). Thank you very much, and see you in September!!
September 2017
Hello Park Avenue!
It’s truly a delight to be writing this first newsletter note as your new pastor.
First, I have a word of thanks. My husband Chris, daughter Davie and I moved in towards the end of August and have felt so welcomed by everyone at PACC. From the property committee who made sure the parsonage was in tip-top shape, to the search committee who stocked the fridge with delicious food, to the people who cheerfully volunteered to help unload our moving truck, we have felt so uplifted by your thoughtfulness and care. Chris and I joked that if you have to move, you should move with PACC on the receiving end – what a great experience! I’m looking forward to seeing you all in the next few weeks to say “thanks” in person.
Next, I want to let you all know that after leading worship on August 27, I will be out of town the first weekend of September (Labor Day weekend) for the wedding of close friends. Then I’ll be in the office full time starting on Tuesday, September 5 and will be leading worship regularly starting on Sunday, September 10 for Regathering Sunday. As we prepare to enter the new church year, I want to invite all of you to come celebrate being back together after our various summer adventures! We’ll share a potluck lunch after worship. I already know how well PACC does food, so don’t hesitate to invite a friend or a neighbor who’d like to enjoy worship and a delicious meal!
Finally, I want to ask you to watch for some news this fall. The church council and I will be working to organize ways for me to spend some quality time with you, the members of PACC, to hear what’s important to you; to listen to what excites you about the church’s future, and to start to dream together about where God is calling us.
With gratitude and excitement,
Leah
PastorLeah@PACC-UCC.org
It is our joy to introduce The Reverend Leah Lyman Waldron as our next settled pastor. We believe that Lean demonstrates the qualities the members and friends of PACC want in a pastor: an excellent preacher, a caring and devoted minister to provide pastoral care, and a pastor who challenges us to care both for ourselves and for those beyond our walls. As she states in her ministerial profile, her priorities in ministry are pastoral care that helps people feel God’s loving presence, preaching that makes scripture come alive and illustrates how we might live out God’s call in our daily lives, and equipping the faith community she serves to discern how the Spirit is calling us to make God’s love tangible in this world.
Leah is a Midwesterner from Illinois who lived in the Boston area when she attended Wellesley College, graduating in 2006. She has lived in the South for the last ten years and currently lives in Atlanta with her family. She graduated from Candler School of Theology at Emory University with a Master of Divinity in 2012 and was ordained by the UCC in 2013.
Leah’s ministerial and vocational experiences are varied. After college, she worked for the UCC Partners in Ministry–Back Bay mission, helping organize short-term mission trips to New Orleans after hurricane Katrina. She has served in an immigration clinic and women’s support group, and she created and ran a day program for people experiencing homelessness as a member of AmeriCorps in Mississippi. She was also a pediatric chaplain resident at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. In 2010, Leah and her husband, Chris Lyman Waldron, who is also an ordained UCC minister, founded Praxis UCC, a creative, welcoming worship community committed to service and justice. In 2015, Praxis UCC merged with Decatur UCC, where Leah and Chris continue to preach and provide pastoral care. She has been the executive administrator for the past four years at Trinity Presbyterian Church in Atlanta.
A lover of books and thrift shopping, Leah is also a runner and can’t wait to go running on the Minuteman Bikeway.
Leah’s husband Chris is a native New Englander and Red Sox fan. His current work is in information technology support for non-profits. He loves to play guitar and is hoping to brush up on his auto “do-it-yourself” skills in the pit in the parsonage garage. He is looking forward to living in the Boston area again and is excited to get to know PACC. Their daughter, Davie, named for a David in the family, is three years old. Leah tells us that Davie is curious, silly, smart, and spunky. She can be shy, but once she’s gotten to know you, she will talk your ear off. She thinks church is a place filled with fun people where she gets to eat leftover Communion bread. The whole family loves to hike and go on walks together.
June 2017
Monday, June 26, is our turn to provide the meal for the Somerville Homeless Coalition’s community supper. We provide an entire meal for approximately 25 people on the fourth Sunday of every month. Look for an email on chat with the details or talk to Kate.
June 2017
Bring your handcrafts and join us on Tuesday, June 13, from 7:30-9p.m. in the Fellowship room! Ask Kate if you have any questions!
June 2017
The PACC Men will gather for dinner at Not Your Average Joe’s, 645 Mass. Ave., Arlington, at 6:30 p.m., on Tuesday, June 6. I have made a reservation already so please let me know as soon as possible if you will be attending. Also let me know if you would like help arranging transportation.
June 2017
For June, Sarah’s Circle has chosen a very simple children’s book that has a timeless message: The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. Sarah’s Circle June Meeting will be Saturday, June 10, from 10 a.m. until 12 noon at the home of Margaret Bell-Berman. Again, those who wish to meditate may come at 9:30 a.m.
Here is what Amazon has to say about this book:
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry first published The Little Prince in 1943, only a year before his Lockheed P-38 vanished over the Mediterranean during a reconnaissance mission. More than a half century later, this fable of love and loneliness has lost none of its power. The narrator is a downed pilot in the Sahara Desert, frantically trying to repair his wrecked plane. His efforts are interrupted one day by the apparition of a little, well, prince, who asks him to draw a sheep. “In the face of an overpowering mystery, you don’t dare disobey,” the narrator recalls. “Absurd as it seemed, a thousand miles from all inhabited regions and in danger of death, I took a scrap of paper and a pen out of my pocket.” And so begins their dialogue, which stretches the narrator’s imagination in all sorts of surprising, childlike directions.
There are several translations available, and this link to the book on Amazon also has some discussion about the various translations. It might be interesting to hear some selections from the various translations in our meeting. Several different translations are listed in the MinuteMan Library Network as well.
If you are interested in attending, for more information contact Merrith Sabo-Jones.