Category Archives: 2011

Pastor’s Note for May/June 2011

Dear Members and Friends of Sharon Congregational Church UCC,

We are in the midst of the fifty day Easter Season of the church calendar and it is SPRINGTIME in Vermont at last. I am very grateful and want to thank our SCC Deacons as well as each one of you who helped to make our Lenten Season Holy Week services, and Easter worship so meaningful this year. Everyone worked very hard and I know that the whole congregation is appreciative of our efforts.

Now, after taking a deep breath and laughing a lot on the Sunday after Easter, we re-turn our attention to the many ministries of the church and our preparations for your next pastor who we hope will be in place soon. Your Pastoral Search Committee continues to work very hard to find the right person to be your next called, longer time pastor. Meanwhile, there is much we can do together at SCC including some short term special projects and “spring cleaning” tasks. (See elsewhere in this newsletter for some ideas.)

Your Trustees and Deacons continue to meet regularly to take up the tasks of church finances and building/grounds upkeep as well as plans for worship and the spiritual health of the congregation. I expect that your Mission Committee and your Christian Education Committee will meet with me very soon to clarify priorities regarding how we serve others in the community/world as well as how we teach/reach our congregation’s children and grandchildren. I was thrilled to have the opportunity to welcome new church members as well as to baptize some young children this spring – and I look forward to other opportunities to welcome folks to SCC and offer the blessings of the church.

In the stories of Easter in the Bible, the Risen Christ appears to his followers to let them know that he is alive again among them. Most of these accounts include times when Jesus ate with his friends – just regular around-the-table times of sharing together. So too, we gather at coffee hour, at Communion on 1st Sundays, and at community meals – the next of which is a Ham and Bean Supper on Memorial Day Weekend, Saturday, May 28th beginning at 5 PM at Sharon Elementary School. The SCC Supper Committee appreciates all the help it can gather for each supper and all those who attend and appreciate the great suppers they prepare.

See you there – or when we work together on special projects – or “see you at church” as one of my pastor friends always says. Memorial Day Sunday is May 29th, Communion Sunday is June 5th, Pentecost (the celebration of the Holy Spirit) is June 12th, Father’s Day on June 19th. You are always welcome – and welcome to bring friends and family. Blessings all, Pastor Marjorie

Volunteers Night Out

Sixteen volunteers of the food shelf gathered for a pot luck supper and business meeting on January 20th. This was a postponement from January 18th because of inclement weather.

Carol Sheldon gave updates on some new events at the food shelf that have happened over the past month. Peter Lowes has built more shelving in the closet that adjoins the customer service area. Leon Sheldon and Ken Wright are placing new shelving in the distribution room. These shelves are deeper and can safely hold the cases of food that are delivered monthly in the Vermont Foodbank order. There is a produce area with four shelves instead of one single pallet on the floor.

It has been a problem for volunteers that are assigned each night to know where the stock supplies are kept. The new shelves are labeled in product categories making it easy for our clients to find items. The neat shelves of overstock are cosmetically pleasing to see in the meeting room area off the kitchen. Volunteers can easily find items for restocking each evening. We told those in attendance at the volunteer night where to find various supplies.

With the approval of the Board of Directors of the Food Shelf, we are financing the following project with alloted renovation funds that have been donated this year. We met with Dayco, Inc., a local insulation company. They will be blowing 18 inches of insulation into the attic and roof slopes of the Lighthouse building. The hot air pipes in the basement will be covered with insulation fabric (hopefully by willing volunteers). The day to do this will be in the next month. If you have some time to help us on this project, please contact Leon or Carol.

A guest speaker, David Thornton, a grant writing specialist from the Vermont Food Bank, told us how they can help local food shelves apply for grants to improve their facilities. He named donors and organizations that can help us secure these funds in the future.

The Vermont Food Bank has means for providing refrigeration unit to food shelves
either free or at reduced prices. We became aware of many ways to renovate our shelf in future years.

An updated guidebook to the Sharon Food Shelf was given to each volunteer. Great people make up our volunteers at the Sharon Food Shelf! Thank you all for your effort in serving the community of Sharon and surrounding towns.

Highlighting Other UCC Congregations

Each Sunday morning at worship I highlight and ask the congregation to pray for a congregation of the United Church of Christ (UCC) across the nation and invite us to worship with them “as sisters and brothers in faith”. The United Church of Christ became a denomination in 1957 as a uniting of the Congregational-Christian Church and the German Evangelical and Reformed Church (E&R). Most New England UCC churches have a Congregational background as does Sharon Congregational UCC, but those of you who have lived in the middle Atlantic states or the mid-west might know of E&R congregations as well which are now part of our denomination,the United Church of Christ (UCC) whose headquarters is in Cleveland, Ohio. We have found it interesting to hear throughout the past year about UCC churches of many types. Sometimes I choose churches very much like our own. Often I choose congregations which differ in size, ethnicity, history, building type, or missions/ministries which are unusual or especially timely. Sometimes I choose to tell about a congregation which has been the subject of an on-line article on the national UCC website. Sometimes I choose a congregation which has responded in some way to a natural disaster nationwide or worldwide – or which has experienced such difficulty itself. Sometimes I find an interesting UCC church described on Facebook and decide to share its activities with you. Sometimes there is a funny story- or a courageous one – about the pastor of a UCC church somewhere. Sometimes the church is one you, yourself, have visited or to which you used to belong. Sometimes I tell about a church I have visited. It’s pretty likely that in the next two weeks I’ll be discovering interesting UCC churches located somewhere near Green Bay (in Wisconsin) and near Pittsburgh, PA. 🙂 Throughout the year we have highlighted several UCC churches with a German E&R history – churches which have brought a rich heritage into our denomination including, especially, some lovely traditions around the celebration of Christmas. (Old Pilgrim/Congregation churches in New England did not celebrate Christmas at worship for many years.) We have also heard about new UCC churches begun by Asian or Hispanic communities,old downtown UCC churches which have changed their mission as city neighborhoods changed, churches with a history as old as ours and churches started on the western frontier in the 19th century by missionary societies from New England. We’ve heard about churches which keep to traditional ways of worship and those who try new music and forms of worship. Many pay attention to the changing needs of their community and reach out in mission in interesting and creative ways. In a few weeks when we are vacationing in Arizona, Carole and I hope to visit the congregation which I highlighted recently – Casa Adobes Congregational UCC in the northwest suburbs of Tucson which has an interesting 50+ year history of taking shape on land which was once a western ranch, a very progressive way of reaching out in mission and ministry, but especially in recent weeks has been challenged to respond in faithful witness and by hope-giving to the awful shooting violence which occurred at a shopping mall just around the corner. Please continue to keep UCC churches in Tucson and their pastors in your prayers. More to come in our next newsletter about some other interesting UCC churches. If you’re on-line and like to “google”and explore, try looking for the web-sites of United Church of Christ (UCC) churches in places that have meaning to you and let us know what you discover.

Blessings, Pastor Marjorie

Pastor’s Note for February, 2011

: Pastor Marjorie

Dear Members and Friends of Sharon Congregational Church, UCC,

It continues to be a joy to walk with you during this “interim time” at Sharon Congregational Church even though the commuting from my home in Shelburne,VT, (near Burlington) has been a bit more difficult this winter than last- more changeable weather and “wicked” driving, as they say here in New England. You are a most resilient congregation with a strong sense of faith and mission. I know that you await your next long-term called pastor and that there is just the right pastor out there for you, but the calling process has taken a little longer than we had hoped and we remain in ministry together this winter/spring. Together we will use our time well to reflect on our mission and ministry as a church as well as to prepare – all the more – for the future of SCC.

I continue to be prayerful and hopeful about your future at Sharon Congregational and I appreciate of the faithful, patient work of your Pastor Search Committee as I’m sure you do as well. I appreciated your understanding and flexibility when I took a long-awaited two week Continuing Education “sabbatical”in early January, taking two classes (Theology of Small Church Ministry and Church History) at my seminary in Cambridge, MA. In February I will again be away for two weeks on vacation in Arizona where we like to soak up sunshine each winter. (After all, who wants to leave Vermont in the summer?). Your Deacons have been very helpful arranging for pastoral coverage for worship when I’m away and I am grateful.

The Lenten season and Easter are much later this year than usual – beginning with Ash Wednesday on March 9th and ending with the celebration of Easter on Sunday, April 24th. Your Deacons are already pondering topics for Lenten Wednesday evening programs as well as considering resuming Sunday evening Bible study during Lent, if not sooner. Stay tuned for a detailed schedule. Maybe, just maybe, it will actually be spring like at Easter! Or not. 🙂 In any case, the spirit of the congregation seems very positive to me. I stood in the doorway of Steele Chapel this past Sunday during coffee hour and smiled broadly at the fellowship and good cheer that was so apparent among you. 🙂

What’s new? The Prayer Shawl group which meets on Friday mornings at 10 AM at the Lighthouse has been having fun getting together while knitting or crocheting comforting shawls for others. Some new folks have joined the group and others are always welcome. Some folks who are not available to meet on Friday mornings have gotten instructions for the shawls and have been working at home on a project. We blessed several shawls before Christmas and look forward to blessings/gifting more soon.

Annual Meeting was held in mid-January with election of officers of the church and some new committee members,too. I’m especially pleased to see that a couple of new Deacons have agreed to serve, the Mission Board has become more official, and the Christian Education Board increased. Many of us are especially eager to make new, expanded,and creative plans in order to best welcome and teach the children and grandchildren of our congregation. Meanwhile several people have expressed interest in official membership at Sharon Congregational, we have plans for at least one Baptism this spring, and a wedding is scheduled for early June. Especially during Lent I would be very open to meeting with anyone who seeks these rites and sacraments of the church. Others who want to join or explore what it would mean to join? Other baptisms of children, teens, or adults? Teens who would like to attend some Confirmation classes and make a decision to join Sharon Congregational? More weddings? You may contact me thorough the church office by email.

Blessings all, Pastor Marjorie