Read through to discover:
- Lent Invitations from around our Conference
- A Letter from our District Superintendent re: 100% Mission Share Payment 2021
- Info about a new fundraiser
- A New picture from Rainbow’s End
March 5, 2022
Beautiful Beloveds,
This Sunday is the first Sunday of Lent. We’ll hear the classic story of Jesus’ forty days in the wilderness where he was tested and tempted. Temptation…what kind of decadence has your number: ooey-gooey chocolate cake, a day in bed, a shopping spree, a bit (just a bite) of juicy gossip. What about the temptation to judge or compare? Or conversely the temptation to check out or ignore your present reality? (Denial is one of my favorite tools for handling big changes.)
How did Jesus handle temptation? With vulnerability, humility, and scripture. Come and hear the story again and be reminded, “Ordinary Lives Can Be Holy.” How is God inviting you to acknowledge and wrestle with temptation? Come and practice a gentle Lent as God invites you to see you are “Good Enough,” loved as you are.
Peace,
Heather
Mark Your Calendars
Sunday, March 6 First Sunday of Lent:
Please register here and receive an emailed copy of the order of worship.
8:30 am: Drive-in Worship Park in front of the church, radio tuned to 91.5.
10:30 am: Worship in our sanctuary (masks required)
10:30 am: Livestream available on our YouTube channel
We also offer FM transmission to your car radio in our parking lot. Tune to 91.5
4:00 pm: Youth Group (Zoom link is below)
Monday, March 7:
9:00 am: Lend-a-Hand
7:00 pm: Men’s Study Group (via Zoom)
Tuesday, March 8:
9:00 am: Yoga
7:00 pm: Trustees meeting
12:00 pm: Deadline for “A Word on Wednesday,” AND Saturday Tidings
Wednesday, March 9:
10:30 am: Rainbow’s End Opens (Donations accepted 11 am – 2 pm)
6:15 pm Esprit
7: 00 pm SPRC meeting
Thursday, March 10:
9:00 am Yoga
10:00 am: Good Enough: Lent Study via Zoom (link below)
10:30 am: Rainbow’s End Open (donations accepted 11 am – 2 pm)
2:00 pm Chair Yoga (New participants welcome. Join us in the solarium.)
5:00 pm: Big Book Step Group
Friday, March 11:
10:00 am: Al-anon Meeting
Saturday, March 12:
10:00 am Yoga
Sunday, March 13 Second Sunday of Lent: (Daylight Savings Time Begins)
Please register here for Worship in March
8:30 am: Drive-in Worship Park in front of the church, radio tuned to 91.5.
10:30 am: Worship in our sanctuary (masks required.)
10:30 am: Livestream available on our YouTube channel
4:00 pm Youth Group (Zoom link is below)
** All who attend our indoor worship and other activities should be fully vaccinated. Let’s continue to work together to keep one another healthy. Let’s show our love for one another by continuing to practice distancing, wearing our masks, and staying home when we can, and particularly when unwell.
Together in Christ—We Pray
Please pray for the people of Ukraine and Russian and world leaders.
Please pray for the global denomination. General Conference 2020, delayed by the pandemic, has been postponed again and is now scheduled for 2024. Click the link to learn more: General Conference further postponed to 2024
Please pray for the people of Ireland; the United Kingdom: England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales.
-From the World Council of Churches Ecumenical Prayer Cycle. Learn more here.
Please submit prayer requests here or call Pastor Heather, (774) 994-3645 or MaryAnne Farley (774) 487-0719.
How to assist the Ukrainian people
United Methodists and others wishing to provide humanitarian assistance to the Ukrainian people in the wake of the Russian invasion of their country may contribute to Advance #982450, UMCOR International Disaster Response and Recovery. This fund will provide direct assistance to those in Ukraine as well as assistance to Ukrainians fleeing to neighboring countries. Learn more
Together in Christ—We Observe a Holy Lent
March 6—First Sunday in Lent
March 10—Good Enough Lent Study via Zoom, Buy and read the book, or just join us for a good conversation of faith, life, and Lent.
Our Lent Study, “Good Enough,” is based on the book of the same name by Kate Bowler and Jessica Richie. You can use the book to go deeper with the worship themes.
Still Looking for Lent Practices and Experiences Consider these options from our Conference.
New For Lent–The Story for All Ages in All Kinds of Places
Saturdays in Lent, check our YouTube Channel for a message for children of all ages. The video will preview the theme for Sunday and offer a prayer, affirmation, and ways parents and guardians can continue the conversation. You can see this week’s here, The Story for All Ages – Lent 1.
Lenten Journey with Rolling Ridge
On this Ash Wednesday, Rolling Ridge invites you to join us for our Sunday evening Lenten Prayer Journey. Beginning this Sunday, March 6, through Easter Sunday, April 17, we will gather ONLINE during the Vesper Hour, from 6-7 pm, for a time of Taizé music and contemplative reflection. Richard Rohr’s Wondrous Encounters: Scripture for Lent will be our guide. Lenten Prayer Journey 2022
2022 online Lenten Bible study
First Community UMC in Medford, MA, Belmont-Watertown UMC, and West Chelmsford UMC are collaborating to create a Lenten Bible study to ponder the themes of justice, poverty, freedom, and love through the book The Grace of Les Miserables. Sessions will be held at 7:30 pm on Wednesdays or Thursdays. Sessions will run from March 9 to April 13 or March 10 to April 14, 2022. All are welcome to participate.
Register
Flyer
NEJ Prayer Advocates, UMM offer prayers for Lent
Rich Hughen, New England Conference Prayer Advocate, shares: The Northeastern Jurisdiction Prayer Advocates invite you to join with them and United Methodist Men from around the Jurisdiction as they pray for situations each day during Lent. Follow the link on the calendar and read the devotion or prayer each day as we join together lifting our petitions and praise to the Creator.
Committed to Serve—You are Making a Difference!
Care for Creation
Green Tip
Feeling overwhelmed? Jesus reminded us that all we need is 2 or 3 gathered in his name. Find a partner who also cares about the environmental issues we face. Look in your church. Use networking skills. Browse for an organization. Invite others. Choose something to do. Action leads to hope—and change.
The United Methodist Creation Justice Movement is providing these Tips
Hello Church Artists,
I’m sure during the Pandemic you have been in a creative mood every day! If you read the last UMC Osterville newsletter, you know a few artworks were kept up for months and months! We pass thru the Solarium after worship……so let’s put up a NEW exhibit! OKAY?
Pastor Heather has kept LOVE alive in February. Her topic beginning in LENT (Ash Wednesday, March 2) has to do with “Good Enough”. She says, “We come to a Lent offering a faith in which we are blessed, regardless, and where we can lean into embracing our “good enough” lives.
Jane Gray will hold your artwork in the office until it is hung by me, and she is praised for helping all of us. Please make your artwork labeled on the back with your name, media, and title. And ready to be hung, of course. Am I asking too much or too many? It’s a very broad topic. How will you interpret it?
Blessings & Love, Lois
March 2022 Collection for UMCO Food Pantry ~ Many thanks Generous Church Family for Blessing our local neighbors with Breakfast Foods plus Individual Toiletry Items in JAN & FEB! The Salvation Army and The Cape & Islands Veterans’ Outreach Center were extremely grateful for your donations! For March we are collecting Spring Cleaning Supplies such as dishwashing liquid, sponges, laundry powder or liquid, dryer sheets, Clorox wipes, paper towels, cleaning brushes, whisk brooms & dustpans, buckets, Bon Ami powder cleanser, baking soda, Windex, rubber gloves, and multi-surface cleaners.
Committed to Serve—Giving Generously
Shoes, Fabulous Shoes! There is a new Trash/Treasure Barrel out front ready for your gently used shoes. Men’s, women’s, and children’s are all excepted. Please leave all those shoes in your closet that are collecting dust and they will be given to those in need. This collection will be a great fundraiser for the church.
Giving Envelopes are in. Call Jane Gray, at 508.428.2811 to set a time to pick them up.
Rainbow’s End, our church thrift boutique, is open this week. Come and see what’s new!
To volunteer, donate or consign items, or find out other ways to support our store, please call shop manager, Pamela Turner, at 508-548-2245.
Wanted: New, Gently worn Resalable Shoes: Men’s, Women’s & Children’s. Drop off Today inside our collection barrel outside the solarium. For more information call, text or e-mail. Linda @ Lmck1084@aol.com | 774 521-6792
Worship with Us
Outside, inside, or online
If you are feeling unwell, tested positive for COVID-19, or been exposed to someone with COVID-19 in the last 14 days, please stay home.
Please register here for March Worship.
If you prefer not to register online, please leave a message at the church at 508.428.2811
If you’d like to see the statistics we’re tracking, you can find them here.
8:30 am Drive-in Worship (Outdoor Worship):
- We are now inviting congregational singing outdoors.
- If you register, you will receive an order of worship for the day, including links to scripture, hymn lyrics, our online-giving portal, and a music playlist to compliment the day’s themes. Registering also helps us with contact tracing if that becomes necessary.
- Please stay home if you are feeling unwell, tested positive for COVID-19, or been exposed to someone with COVID-19 in the last 14 days.
- Masks are optional. Please honor the choices that others have made to mask or not.
- Please continue to practice risk-reducing distancing, staying about 6 feet apart.
- If, after worshiping with us, you test positive for COVID-19 or have been exposed, it is important to the health of our congregation that you let us know so we can notify others who may have been exposed. This will be treated carefully and confidentially so that we can care for another. Please call Pastor Heather directly, at 774.994.3645.
- Worship will feature pre-recorded music, and we encourage you to stay in your cars when it is wet and/or cold.
10:30 am In Our Sanctuary
- We strongly encourage all who attend indoor worship and activities at our church to be fully vaccinated.
- If you register, you will receive an order of worship for the day, including links to scripture, hymn lyrics, our online-giving portal, and a music playlist to compliment the day’s themes. Registering also helps us with contact tracing if that becomes necessary.
- Please stay home if you are feeling unwell, tested positive for COVID-19, or been exposed to someone with COVID-19 in the last 14 days.
- Please wear a mask. If you forget, we’ll have plenty available.
- Sanctuary Shepherds will be there to greet and guide you, as you enter and exit our building
- Please enter through the main sanctuary doors, where you will be “checked-in,” and invited to use hand sanitizer. Communion Elements, in pre-packaged containers, will be available. You can also grab a mask if you need one and pick up a Bible if you choose. Currently, we are not using paper bulletins.
- After you are “checked in” you will be led to a seat by a sanctuary shepherd. We will be seating individuals and families at least six feet apart from one another from the front of the sanctuary to the back. Please sit as close to the colorful dot as possible.
- We will have one or two singers, but not congregational singing at this time.
- The ionizers will be on, and at least one window will have a fan running, and other windows will be open. Additionally, all doors will be open. Please dress warmly and feel free to bring a lap blanket.
- Please exit through our solarium as directed by our shepherds.
- An offering plate will be available as you enter, as we will not be “passing the plate.” Don’t worry if you forget, or are moved to give more, there will be another place to give on your way out.
- We will be live streaming our sanctuary worship, so you catch it on YouTube, or if we need more seating at the church, in Fred Curtis Hall.
- If, after worshiping with us, you test positive for COVID-19 or have been exposed, it is important to the health of our congregation that you let us know so we can notify others who may have been exposed. This will be treated carefully and confidentially so that we can care for another. Please call Pastor Heather directly, at 774.994.3645.
Youth Group Zoom Link
Topic: Youth Group
Time: 4pm, Sundays
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89016033879?pwd=bnpjYUVqc1Rkc0RRRWtjeG0yTXV2Zz09
Meeting ID: 890 1603 3879
Passcode: 312727
One tap mobile
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+13126266799,,89016033879#,,,,*312727# US (Chicago)
Dial by your location
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+1 669 900 9128 US (San Jose)
Meeting ID: 890 1603 3879
Passcode: 312727
Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kcxf8khiGN
10 am Thursday, Good Enough: Lent Study
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88206195080?pwd=MU05U3Z1VUtKbW93MjFsUWxrYzRaUT09
Meeting ID: 882 0619 5080
Passcode: 103388
One tap mobile
+13126266799,,88206195080#,,,,*103388# US (Chicago)
+16465588656,,88206195080#,,,,*103388# US (New York)
Dial by your location
+1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)
+1 646 558 8656 US (New York)
+1 301 715 8592 US (Washington DC)
+1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)
+1 669 900 9128 US (San Jose)
+1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma)
Meeting ID: 882 0619 5080
Passcode: 103388
Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/k30Qp4zD3