May 28, 2022
Beautiful Beloveds,
I’m still struggling with the events in Uvalde, Texas this week. I’ll be struggling for a while. In between my railing at God and our country’s gun idolatry, I wonder, what can I do? What can I do about violence in schools and Ukraine? What can I do about fires in Senegal and California? What can I do?
I can choose. I can choose to crawl into bed and pull the covers over my head. I can choose to rail at the heavens and the politicians. Or I can listen to the prophets who ask the same questions I do, “What does the Lord require of you? Do justice. Love kindness. Walk humbly with your God.”
I can use my voice and my vote to advocate for justice. I can show up at vigils and protests. I can practice kindness to myself, my family, my neighbors. I can be kinder than is necessary. I can hold open a door, speak a kind word, say please, and thank you. I can say “I love you,” “I’m sorry,” “I forgive you,” and “You matter.” I can hug my children, a choice not to be taken for granted. I can choose acts of love repeatedly, not giving into hatred, violence, or despair. I can choose to follow Jesus, who always, always offers love.
Tomorrow, we’ll observe Ascension Sunday, as we remember Jesus’ departure from his disciples. We’ll remember together how he said goodbye. He knew pain and suffering in this life. He was executed. And still, when it came time to leave, he told his disciples to bear witness to his life and love, rather than seek vengeance. He knew who and whose he was, held in love. We’ll find ways to remind each other, “God is holding your Life.” In this way, in the midst of grief, anger, and uncertainty we can choose to offer a “Whole Heart Hallelujah.” We remain Together in Christ…Committed to Serve.
Peace,
Heather
Mark Your Calendars
Saturday, May 28:
10:00 am: Yoga
5:00 pm: A Vigil of Prayer, Hope, and Intention In the Wake of Gun Violence
This outdoor event will be held at our church, 57 Pond Street with the people of St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, Osterville. Masks are optional.
Sunday, May 29:
Please register here for Worship in May
8:30 am: Drive-in/Outdoor Worship
Bring your own chair, or we can provide one.
Or if the weather is iffy, 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
Monday, May 30 Memorial Day Office Closed:
9:00 am: Lend-a-Hand
7:00 pm: Men’s Study Group (via Zoom)
Tuesday, May 31:
9:00 am: Yoga
12:00 pm: Deadline for “A Word on Wednesday,” AND Saturday Tidings
12:00 pm: Prayer Group
Wednesday, June 1:
10:30 am: Rainbow’s End Opens (Donations accepted 11 am – 2 pm)
Thursday, June 2:
9:00 am: Yoga
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
6:30 pm: COVID-19 Leadership Task Force
Friday, June 3:
10:00 am: Al-anon Meeting
6:15 pm: Esprit
Saturday, June 4:
10:00 am: Yoga
Sunday, June 5: Pentecost
Please register here for Worship in June
8:30 am: Outdoor/Drive-in Worship
Bring your own chair, or 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
3:30 pm: Esprit
4:00 pm: Faith Family Fun
COVID-19 Update: We are now in the red, or high-risk level.
That means:
- Masks are required indoors.
- All seating will be distanced seating.
- All indoor in-person meetings/gatherings are discouraged. Please meet outdoors or via zoom.
- There will be no congregational singing or coffee hour.
- All doors and at least two windows in the sanctuary will be open.
Remember you can choose to join us for outdoor worship at 8:30, in your car or on the lawn. Masks are not required, and you’re welcome to sing outdoors. Or join our livestream at 10:30am from the comfort of your home.
Please register here to worship with us in June.
Together in Christ—We Worship
Mark your Calendars: June 12, 19, 26, and July 3, one worship is offered at 9:30 am.
June 12: Pride Sunday and Pastor Heather’s farewell. Weather permitting, we will gather outdoors, in front of the church. Wear your rainbows!! Bring your comfy chair or blanket to sit on. We’ll also have chairs available. And of course, you can stay in your car with your radio tuned to 91.5. We will also offer live-streamed worship on our YouTube Channel.
June 19 and 26: Rev. Ed Farrell-Starbuck will be preaching
July 3: Rev. John Taylor’s first Sunday
Blaine Taylor Memorial Chapel Update: Our trustees and Lend-a-Hands are working hard to make the outdoor chapel accessible and usable again. You can help. Willing workers welcomed Monday mornings to dig out the benches so they can re-stabilized.
Together in Christ—We Move Through Transition Together
Let’s help Rev. Taylor get to know us! The Transition Team is soliciting one-page “biographies” from our church family. These introductions will be placed in a binder so that Rev. Taylor can refer to them to help him become familiar with his new church family. You may include any information you wish. There will be a display board in the solarium of the Transition Team’s bios if you need ideas. Please include a photo or photos. These bios may be emailed to Heather Wolfe at capecodwolfe@aol.com or dropped off in hard copy at the church office any day, Monday through Thursday between 9 and 1. You may use PDF or Microsoft Word or a handwritten 8 1/2 x 11 paper. If you include a photo that you wish to have returned to you, we will scan it and return the photo. We hope to have a bio sheet from each person or family by Father’s Day, June 19th. We will prepare the book for Rev. Taylor by July 1st. Thanks!
Together in Christ—We Pray
Please pray for all the victims, survivors, and loved ones of those in the Uvalde shooting. Please pray for all elected officials who can make a difference for gun safety and school safety.
Please pray for all high school, tech and trade school, college, and graduate school graduates.
**Please contact Jane Gray, office@umcchurches.org, or 508.428.2811 to let us know if someone in your family is graduating from High School, Trade School, or College this year. Please tell us the name of your student, and any details you care to share. From where they are graduating, are they receiving any special honors, and do they know what’s next in their journey.
In this time of transition, please pray for Rev. John Taylor, the people of the First United Methodist Church of Westborough, MA, our District Superintendent Rev. David Calhoun, Rev. Wanda Santos-Perez, our incoming District Superintendent, our Bishop, Sudarsharna Devadhar, Pastor Heather and her family. Please pray for all churches who still have not heard who will be appointed to their church.
Please pray for the people of Angola and Mozambique-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.
Together in Christ—We learn and play!
Family Fun Day!
4-5 pm, June 5
Our youth group invites children up to 5th grade to come learn and play together. Families are encouraged to stay and play. Our youth will offer a Bible story, fun and games, and different special activity each week (craft, drama, music, etc.). Our youth will provide guided activities from 4:00-4:30, and then offer 30 minutes of supervised free play on our church playground (weather permitting).
Together in Christ—Our United Methodist Connection
United Methodist Women: New Name
Just like our foremothers, today United Methodist Women — now United Women in Faith — listen, asks, and change. Change is hard, but it is holy. In response, the magazine for women in mission, May/June 2022, we heard from Ainase ‘Issama’u. She is President of United Women in Faith. She said, “We’ve got people talking! Word is spreading and women are signing up to inspire, influence and impact their churches and communities. UMW has been many names. For the past 50 years, we’ve been UMW. This isn’t saying a name is unimportant. The work we do and the Christian sisterhood we want to be, a name change is part of how we answer God’s call to grow, change, lead, include and uplift.”
“I’m excited to celebrate with you this month and begin our future together.”
2022 Annual Conference
The 2022 Annual Conference session, June 9-11, will be a hybrid event; members will have the option to attend in person in Manchester, NH, or via Zoom. The theme for this year’s session is Envisioning the Beloved Community and our guiding scripture is Philippians 3:12-14, The Message.
Read more about the hybrid session from the Sessions Team
District Superintendent David Calhoun’s Farewell Gathering
Saturday, June 18, 6 pm
Wesley UMC (55 Woodland ST., Lincoln, RI 02865
(More details to come).
Committed to Serve—You are Making a Difference!
May 2022 Collection for UMCO Pantry ~ In honor of Mother’s Day and everyone who loves and supports children, we hope to flood A Baby Center with disposable diapers! Please leave your donations in the church solarium near the food pantry cupboard or put them in the Treasure Can outside the front door. If you are not able to get out and shop for diapers, you can make a check out to the church for any amount and in the memo, section please write “Diapers.” Diapers will be purchased for you. Happy Mother’s Day!
Committed to Serve—We Care for Creation
Green Tip: It’s Memorial Day Weekend. As you head outdoors, gather with friends. It’s a party—lots of people, including kids, having a good time! Go ahead and use those plastic cups if you have some on hand. No worries about broken glass, just put out a bin, labeled Cups Only. Afterward, wash the cups for reuse on another occasion. “This really works!” (From Jane Gray who has done this for years using the heavy Solo cups.)
Spring Plant Sale – Still Plants are Available back by the Choir Room entrance and are $5 each. You may leave your payment in the church mailbox outside the Solarium doors or drop it by the office Mon. – Thurs. between 9 am and 1 pm. You can also use your credit card and give through our online giving portal. 
Committed to Serve—Giving Generously
What a Wonderful Gift for Ukraine – We collected $1,469.50 which is being forwarded to UMCOR this week.
Please join the Barnstable Ally Group in our 2nd Annual Book Drive!
Please help us reach our 2022 goal of donating 500 books in the next 20 days to students of color in our community! While we hope to eventually put books into backpacks in every school in Barnstable, we focusing on the 4th graders at Barnstable United Elementary School.
It is our hope that with your donation, by reading about characters of similar backgrounds and experiences and seeing their own identities in literature, students of color will become engaged in reading and have an increased self-esteem and positive cultural identity. While we will gladly accept book donations at any time, we kindly ask that donations arrive by Friday, June 3, 2022. This will allow us to go through the donations, create bundles and have them ready to go into backpacks in our schools in time for summer break!
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Sign up with smile.amazon.com and most purchases will support our church without costing you an extra cent. Be sure to go to smile.amazon.com, rather than just amazon.com, whenever you shop, so our church earns every time! So far, our church has earned $218.92 in this way. Sign up today and select Osterville United Methodist Church as the charity to support and help us earn more.
Rainbow’s End, our church-owned, and operated Thrift Boutique is Open. You can shop Wednesday and Thursdays 10:30 am-3 pm
You can also support the shop by donating items Wednesday and Thursday from 11 am – to 2 pm. Please do not leave any items in or outside the shop when our volunteers and employees are not there to receive them. They need to be able to sort and store the items carefully, sometimes in the annex. If you cannot donate during these specific hours, please contact the store manager, Pamela Turner, at 508.428.5304. Thank you for your kindness and generosity. Thank you for supporting our staff, volunteers, and the missions and ministries of our church.
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 to worship with us in June.
If you prefer not to register online, please register here to worship with us in Junee leave a message at the church at 508.428.2811
See the statistics we’re tracking here.
8:30 am Drive-In/Outdoor Worship, in our parking lot and on the front lawn
- If you register, you will receive an order of worship for the day, including links to scripture, hymn lyrics, and our online-giving portal. 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.
- A bright green offering box will be available, as we will not be “passing the plate.” You can also give through our online giving portal.
- 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.
- Musical leadership will be provided by Daniel Shinabarger and other willing musicians. You are welcome to bring a chair and sit on the lawn or stay in your cars when it is wet and/or cold.
- You are welcome to sing!
10:30 am In Our Sanctuary
- We strongly encourage all who attend indoor worship and activities at our church and who are able and eligible to be fully vaccinated.
- If you register, you will receive an order of worship for the day, including links to scripture, hymn lyrics, and our online-giving portal. 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 required.
- There will be no congregational singing.
- 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. Currently, we are not using paper bulletins.
- After you are “checked in” you will be led to a seat by a sanctuary shepherd, and we are practicing distanced seating.
- The ionizers will be on, and two windows will be open with a fan running. 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. You can also give through our online giving portal.
- 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.