The Newsletter of the East Corinth Congregational Church, United Church of Christ

Sunday Worship Service – 10:00 a.m. Coffee Hour – 11:00 a.m.

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Mission Statement As the East Corinth Congregational Church, United Church of Christ our mission is: ·        To worship and celebrate life in ways that glorify God, inviting others to share in our weekly worship services and special events. ·        To provide an environment where people of the community feel welcome and nurtured, and where individual talents are recognized and appreciated. ·        To nurture and reinforce individuals’ spiritual lives, providing educational opportunities to study the Bible (and other religions) as we grow in our relationship with God and others.  ·        To live out our faith in Jesus Christ by reaching out and serving the physical, social and spiritual needs of our community and the world

Independence Day Celebration

July 5th

 

The annual parade, chicken barbeque and all the other activities that are usually on July 4^th will take place on the Monday the 5^th this year.  The Trustees would like everyone think about what you can contribute or donate to the “silent auction”.  The following are some ideas we discussed at our last meeting:  baked goods, maple syrup, handmade items, babysitting and pet-sitting services, computer services, other services such as gardening, yard work and chopping wood.  We hope you can be creative and come up with more ideas to give.  Also, we are looking for all kinds of items in good condition you think may be of interest.  Antiques always add to the variety of offerings.  Auction items may be left at any time in the back of the church sanctuary.  We thank you for your donations and your support.

Judy Barton for the Trustees 

 

 

The barbeque is a major fund-raiser for the church and requires the time of many people.  Please see Nancy Frost or any of the Trustees to volunteer to help in any way you can.  From set-up and takedown to working in the serving line, many hands will help the celebration go well and be enjoyable for all.

 

Sunday Morning Live!!!

Two Months of Sundays with Lectionary verses

 

Sixth Sunday after Pentecost
July 4, 2010

2 Kings 5:1-14

Psalm 30

Galatians 6:(1-6), 7-16

Luke 10:1-11, 16-20

 

Seventh Sunday after Pentecost
July 11, 2010

Sacrament of Holy Communion

Celebrating the 100^th anniversary of our Communion set.

Amos 7:7-17

Psalm 82

Luke 10:25-37

 

Eighth Sunday after Pentecost
July 18, 2010

Amos 8:1-12

Psalm 52

Luke 10:38-42

 

Ninth Sunday after Pentecost
July 25, 2010

Hosea 1:2-10

Psalm 85

Colossians 2:6-15, (16-19)

Luke 11:1-13

 

Tenth Sunday after Pentecost
August 1, 2010

Hosea 11:1-11

Psalm 107:1-9, 43

Colossians 3:1-11

Luke 12:13-21

Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost
August 8, 2010

Sacrament of Holy Communion

Isaiah 1:1, 10-20

Psalm 50:1-8, 22-23

Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16

Luke 12:32-40

 

Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost
August 15, 2010

Isaiah 5:1-7

Psalm 80:1-2, 8-19

Psalm 82

Hebrews 11:29-12:2

Luke 12:49-56

 

Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost
August 22, 2010

Jeremiah 1:4-10

Psalm 71:1-6

Hebrews 12:18-29

Luke 13:10-17

 

Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost
August 29, 2010

Heritage Sunday

Jeremiah 2:4-13

Psalm 81:1, 10-16

Hebrews 13:1-8, 15-16

Luke 14:1, 7-14

 

 

 

 

Looking Ahead

Communion Set Centennial Sunday: July 11

            Join us to celebrate and commemorate one hundred years of our Communion set – one hundred years plus of faithfulness over the generations.  Bring a friend.  Please see our Judy Drury’s comments about the communion set on the following page.  

 

Strengthen the Church Offering: July 11

            Our church is so generous already with mission and outreach.  Why another special offering?

            All giving to our church and its mission is an “opportunity.” We give not out of obligation or guilt, but out of the joy of specific opportunities to help here and there.  Further, we “give what we can and not what we can’t” so we can relax about it.

            The Vermont Conference, United Church of Christ, encourages its congregations to be “5 for 5” in their giving. In addition to OCWM (Our Church’s Wider Mission) basic support, four opportunities for special support are available. We do three already: One Great Hour of Sharing in the spring, Neighbors in Need in the fall, and the Christmas Fund at Christmas.

            “Strengthen the Church” is one that our Mission Interpretation Committee and Deacons have planned for a summer special offering.  Bulletin inserts in worship bulletins leading to July 11 will list the many ways it helps.

            Now, we’ll be 5 for 5! … And more in faithful covenant with our sister churches in the Vermont Conference.

Sunday Evening Vespers with the Seminarios

            From Sunday, July 4 through Sunday, August 29, each Sunday at 5 PM, Steve and Marilyn Seminario invite us to join them for Vespers (evening) services at the United Methodist Church of East Haverhill, NH.

            Rev. Michael plans to go Sunday July 18. Shall we make it a field trip

Heritage Sunday at Henry White’s: August 29

            Second annual Heritage Sunday will be held outdoors in Henry’s yard with its pulpits chainsaw-sculpted from Sugar Maple stumps!

            This is like an “old home day” of sorts. Invite your whole extended family. We will celebrate our heritage as congregation and community together.

            Fellowship hour to follow based in the garage and dooryard of the parsonage next door. We especially invite residents of the village who are close neighbors to join us.

            If it’s light rain, bring an umbrella. Heavy rain: church sanctuary.

 

Commemorating our Communion Service

Remembering Our History

Please join us Sunday, July 11 for a Special Service of Communion

The newer pieces of our communion service (trays with individual glasses) were used for the first time 100 years ago, July 1910.

·         100 years ago, our building belonged to the Union Meeting House Society.  (The Union Meeting House was deeded to the East Corinth Congregational Church in 1955.)

·         100 years ago there was no East Corinth Congregational Church.  John Franklin Owens was Congregational pastor, conducting services Sunday mornings in the Union Meeting House in East Corinth and Sunday afternoons in church in Corinth Center.  (East Corinth Congregational Church was founded in 1918)

·         100 years ago, the Universalist Parish Society shared the East Corinth Union Meeting House with the Congregationalists.  Universalists held services Sunday afternoons. Rev. William Ruthvan Rowland was their pastor.  (Support for the Universalist Parish Society died out in 1917)

·         100 years ago our women’s group (now named East Corinth Women’s Fellowship) was 33 years old.  They were then called the Ladies Aid, and they were preparing to change their name and constitution to become the Women’s Missionary Union.  The Ladies Aid gave the new pieces of the communion service to the Congregationalists.

·         100 years ago our communion service was stored in the home of one of the Deacons, brought to the church before Communion Service and removed after the service.  The wooden box used to transport the service is on display in the back of the sanctuary.

Pastor’s Message: Honor the Sabbath

If our testimonies are cut off from our direct experience of God’s presence,

they lose their power and authority.                                                                                        Gene Hillman, Quaker writer

 

            What “vacation” awaits you this Summer?

            When will you find time for deep Sabbath-keeping?

            The Latin origin of “vacation” is “vacare” –  “to empty.” When will we be “empty” enough for God to be able to fill us with the Spirit of love which we long for but find difficult to receive?

            One of the reasons we doubt God, doubt faith, lose faith, or fail to find faith is that we lose our direct connection to the Sacred, the Divine. We lose it when we allow worldly concerns and anxieties to take over our lives, crowding out the Spirit’s power, inspiration, and joy.

            “Honor the Sabbath and keep it holy” is the fourth of the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20) because our ancient Hebrew forbears learned the hard way that perceiving the presence of God – and living with God’s power and light – requires emptying ourselves, regularly, of worldly cares. Only then, honoring the Sabbath by resting and keeping a holy dimension to our lives will God be able to touch us, move us, and imbue our lives with divine light and guidance.

            The irony is it’s not about effort! God’s grace coming to us is pure gift, given especially through the unique reflection of God which our Lord Jesus embodies for us. He was pressed by the crowds over and over again in gospel stories, but he never failed to get the distance he needed to rest and to pray. He’s our example, first, but also our Savior in the sense that he saves us from ourselves and our tendency to rely on our own efforts, our egos, our attachments to worldly comforts.

            As I take four weeks away this Summer I pray for deep rest, so that when I come back, my testimony with you as your pastor and preacher and confidant will have regained its power.

            I pray for you that you and your loved ones take time off (take off from time?!) during this season of brief warm relaxing weather – once a week and also in an extended way whenever you can, at home or away.

            Firewood’s not all in? Take Sabbath.

            Anxious about money? Take Sabbath.

            Worried about how much you have to do? Take Sabbath.

            You’ll come back with power and energy that you thought was unimaginable before you took the time and obeyed the commandment.

            Grace and peace.

Celebrations

Weddings

            Claire Porter’s daughter Zabby Porter will be married to Sam McGrane on July 10 in Warren, VT. Rev. Michael will officiate.

            Josie Chelton’s daughter Susan Spoonire will be married to Preston Nicholas on July 7 in Greensboro, VT. Rev. Michael will officiate.

            Brenda Egbert and Cass Poulos will be married in Fairlee, VT on September 4.

Baptism

            Laura Thurston Kendall was baptized with joy in worship on Sunday, June 6. Her husband Richard is her sponsor. Laura is proud to announce she turns 70 on July 20, also the day of their anniversary!

Graduations

Special thanks to Lois Sherwood and Rev. Michael who provided the following information.

Congratulations to the following area young people who are graduating from the 8^th grade at WRVS on June 16th: Walter Cobb, Ross Davidson and Trevor LaPierre are attending Thetford Academy, Cody O’Connell, Drew Pierson, Kodie Pittman and Molly Thompson will attend Oxbow High School, and Malynda Fulford will attend Blue Mountain Union School.

Another 8^th grade graduate is  Maia Lavoy, from Wellspring Waldorf School in Chelsea.  She will be attending Thetford Academy.

Former East Corinth residents who are graduating this week: Kelly Clements from Oxbow is attending UVM School of Dietetics, Linnet Walker is graduating from the Mid-Vermont Christian School and will attend Gordon College with a major in Communications, Erik Steingas, graduating from Thetford Academy and attending Endicott College with a major in Sports Medicine, Jonathan Fenton, graduating from Hanover High School also attending Endicott College with a major in Physical Education, Jonathan Calhoun is graduating from Oxbow and enlisting in the Air Force.

Tyler Fellows graduated from Oxbow and River Bend. He is working at the Newbury Garage as his River Bend assignment and plans to work in the future.

Rev. Michael’s grandson Alex Caldwell graduated from Burlington High School June 18.  He plans on continuing his education at UVM.

Shannon Warburton graduated from Granite State College of New Hampshire with a Bachelor of Arts in Biochemistry.

Assignments

Hal Drury represents Vermont on the national UCC Local Ministries Board.  He has accepted an appointment to the search committee for a new executive minister for the board.

Changes - to remain the same.

 

Keeping an old building “new” without ruining the “old” is always a challenge.  Recently the Trustees have been meeting this challenge with some electrical work and maintenance.  New outside lights and sanctuary florescent lighting were recently installed. 

 

From the Trustees:

We are trying to maintain the sense of history as the older fixtures are replaced with safer, more energy efficient ones with up-to-date wiring. Shannon Young Electrical from Newbury, VT is doing the job.

 

Improvements were made to the Church door by Chris Kirk of Kirkules Construction on Pike Hill. A commercial grade and more easily grasped door handle was installed, the door itself was painted and a new strike plate was installed. These changes will make it so the door will catch and close completely thereby making our Church more energy efficient.

 

If funds allow we would like to design a door threshold with a lower profile which will facilitate wheel chair access, patch holes in the concrete walkway and paint the casing of the three windows above the door.  

Kathy Smith, Chair, Board of Trustees

 

Another Opportunity!

Renewing our PINS Partnership

Every year the Hartford office of the Vermont Department for Children and Families, Family Service Division comes together with local churches to collect school supplies for foster families.  School supplies are handed out at the annual foster parent picnic, or while social workers visit children in their homes. 

This year the Foster Family Picnic is on August 19 and the PINS people are trying to collect supplies by August 5.  Having brand new school supplies of their own gives many children the confidence they need to do well during the school year. 

Some of the items needed are:

Pencils/Pens, Binders, Notebooks, Loose leaf paper, Erasers, Glue, Crayons, Backpacks, Rulers, Colored pencils, and Markers.  This request meshes very nicely with the back-to-school sales at some of the local big box stores (Staples, Wal-Mart, etc.)

There will be a box in the back of the sanctuary for your donations.  Please be generous with your contributions. 

 

Help for our Military Families

I am involved in the Military Family Readiness Group. People wonder what they can do to help our soldiers. One suggestion I have is if you know of a military family who has their soldier deployed overseas, look around. Maybe their grass could use mowing. Maybe you could offer to babysit their children so they can grocery shop or have some alone time. Maybe just a card written to tell them they are in your prayers. Telling these people to "just call" if you need something isn't the best way to approach them. Reach out with acts of kindness and not just words. These are just a few suggestions on how to support our troops.                                                                                                                                                    Barb Clark

Food Shelf Ideas

The food pantry is a wonderful service to this community. We have been reaching out to those in need. A request has come from various people wanting to know what types of items are needed. My comment is to shop as if you were going to eat that item or use it yourself. For instance, soups, canned vegetables, canned fruits, tuna fish, toilet paper, toothpaste, laundry soap, fabric softener, cereals, coffee, tea. People who are having a difficult time need to know they are cared about. Shop thoughtfully. We accept donations any time. Drop them off in the Narthex of the church. Thank you to all who contribute.                                                                                                                      Barb Clark

News from the Pews

The following are some of the updates for services in June, provided by our church Clerk, Sarah Polli.

June 13 - Nancy announced that we will have “two” grand marshals for this year’s parade.  One being our own Josephine Bruleigh, and the other being Lt. Bergan Flannigan.  In an update on Bergan’s progress, she is now home in Tupper Lake, NY and is doing much better following her serious injury in Afghanistan, after which her leg was amputated.  We thank her for her service and her sacrifice.  The 4^th of July (5^th of July in this case) committee is pleased that there will be a band, “Wall-Stiles”, at the festivities this year.

Rev. Michael was thankful for last week’s picnic at the parsonage where parents gathered to address the issue of Christian Education for the coming year.  He indicated that some break-throughs have been made of which we will be hearing more at a later date.

Following the recent Annual Meeting of the Vermont Conference, our own delegates, Rev. Michael, Hal Drury, Brenda Egbert and Barbara Clark, each gave a synopsis of their experience at this enriching event.  Rev. Michael finds this gathering to be very inspiring and informational and encourages members, other than our delegates, to also attend.  He would be very happy if just one person other than the delegates, were to attend each year.  After attending a seminar on the subject, Barbara Clark gave particular attention to our local military and the families they have left behind.  Her suggestion was that we not simply ask what we can do for them, but to just go ahead and be of assistance – show up with a lawn mower, bring an unexpected dinner, offer to babysit while they shop, etc.  Rev. Michael also spoke of the conference’s concerns with dwindling church membership throughout our state and Our Church’s Wider Mission.

Rev. Michael made mention of a special event at our library.  The library will be hosting speaker Dawood Yasin on Thursday, June 24^th at 7 pm.  He is the Muslim chaplain at Dartmouth College and director of Muslim student life.  Taken from our bulletin, he plans to interpret the many faces of Islam and this will give us the opportunity to learn about our “cousins” in faith through our common ancestor, Abraham.

Laura Kendall is asking for prayers for her daughter, Tina, who will be undergoing surgery on Tuesday and her other daughter, Ellen, who is struggling with COPD.  Also she stated that her grandson, Michael, is home and recuperating from clinical depression, so please keep this family in your prayers.

Lois Sherwood recounted a joy that her grandson, Ty, recently graduated from Bozeman, Montana high school.  Ty was left severely brain damaged earlier in his life when he contracted viral encephalitis.  Another joy was that this was the first year in the high school’s history where special education students graduated at the same ceremony as all the other seniors.  Ty is a warm and loving individual with many friends as evidenced by the fact that he was voted King of his high school prom.  Our congratulations to him on his accomplishments.

Kathy Smith reported that her daughter, Kelsey, is spending the summer in Washington, DC as an intern at C-Span, and she loves it.

Brenda Egbert spoke of her joy that her oldest daughter was married yesterday!

June 6               Barbara Clark presented the Moment for Mission and focused on the establishment of our Food Pantry several years ago.  The Food Pantry has been used by many in our area and Barbara made a point to thank Nancy Frost for her part in seeing that this worthy outreach came to fruition.  Barbara also reminded us that the need is still great and our donations of food items are appreciated.  She also mentioned that other items such as soap, shampoo, paper towels, coffee, etc. are always welcomed as well.

Our foremost joy today was the confirmation and baptism of our new member, Laura Thurston Kendall, as we welcomed her into our membership.

Last week we learned that Mike Stever is doing much better and that he will be returning to work this week.  His Dad, Bruce Stever, is doing much better following cardiac surgery, but remains in our prayers.

Rev. Michael asked for continued prayers for the family of Randy Huntington, who took his own life last week. 

Rev. Michael reported that although she sounds well, Louise Young is still struggling with pneumonia and she appreciates our prayers for her recovery.

Janet Olsen has received word about Celia Cone.  Celia is not doing at all well and can no longer speak, nor does she recognize her children.  Please keep her in your prayers.

Sue Parmenter asked for prayers for their friend, Harry Newman.  Harry, who is from Sedona, AZ, has been on our prayer list for some time, recently had more surgery related to his brain tumor.  Unfortunately, Harry is not expected to recover and may he and his family remain in our prayers.

Rev. Michael asked for prayers for his daughter, Hanna, who is currently in Istanbul and will be flying to Cairo today.  It is her plan to climb Mt. Sinai and may we all wish her well in her travels.

 

Christian Education Opportunities

Sunday School

Our Sunday school will have a new look in the fall as the Christian Ed. Committee is working on a new look.  See the September - October Echo for details.

 

Adult Christian Education

We are reviewing materials and formats for study and discussion sessions in the autumn.  The book, A People's History of Christianity: The Other Side of the Story by Diana Butler Bass was recommended by Cass Poulos and Brenda Egbert.  A review on the Amazon website also recommends it highly. 

“...Down to earth, full of her own people's history of the church, the book reads like a conversation piece rather than the usual tome which veils the rich and complex stories of Christianity's history. At the time, I was hoping to move from a survey class on the Bible to a survey of church history. This book, so very accessible to non-professional readers, provides a framework for what to most seems a muddy and sullied tale.

Butler Bass turns this history into a treasure chest of memory by challenging the normative narrative of history which she short-hands as "Christ, Constantine, Calvin and Christian America," into the generative story of flawed, but predominantly faithful people. Through early church, medieval, Reformation, modern and post-modern periods, she follows a thread of people who love God and their neighbors, often doing so in amazingly remarkable ways. ...

The thirteen chapter book is a great resource for a small group or an adult Sunday School class. Echoing what Augustine heard at the moment of his conversion, church people would do well to "pick it up and read." -- Rev. David Milam, Pastor, St. Andrew Presbyterian Church, Purcellville, VA