First News For  MARCH/APRIL 2024

WORDS FROM THE AREA CONFERENCE MINISTER

Dear Friends,

During this Season of Lent, remember you are Holy!

You are holy and sacred
And utterly unique.
There are gifts you were born to give.
Songs you were born to sing.
Stories you were born to tell.
And if you do not give it,
The world will simply lose it.
It is yours alone to offer,
No one can give it for you.
And Dearest,
Listen, because this is important,
This wounded world
Needs all the songs we can pull from the air,
Every story that helps us to remember.
It needs every single gift, large and small.
And yes, Dearest,
This grateful world does rejoice
Every courageous time
We are true to ourselves and to our gifts.
And so it is, Dear Heart,
We embrace the song and the story
And all our gifts
Because the world has such great need
And because the world exceedingly rejoices
And because there is no sadder thing
Than to leave this world
Having never really shown up.

—Carrie Newcomer, A Permeable Life: Poems & Essays

Holy Week services begin with our Palm Sunday Worship Service on Sunday, March 24th at 10:00 AM, when Palms will be distributed. Our Maundy Thursday Worship Service will be at 7:00 pm, on Thursday, March 28^th.

This is a stirring and powerfully dramatic service your family will long remember. We also invite all of you to join us on Easter Sunday, March 31^st at 10:00 am, to celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus. Rejoice and sing as we proclaim how Jesus still changes lives today.

REMEMBER IN PRAYER THOSE WHO ARE HOMEBOUND OR IN ASSISTED LIVING FACILITIES

especially Dorothy Brundige, at home and Dianne Marcus, at Windrose at Weymouth, 670 Main Street, Room #108, S. Weymouth, MA 02190.

UPCOMING MISSION EVENTS

1. Food Pantry Drive up collection
2. Rummage Sale on Saturday, May 4^th
Please Volunteer
to help plan events.

We also continue to support MainSpring. Any donations to the sandwich program are appreciated. Please make your envelopes “MainSpring”, if contributing to this worthy cause.

WHITMAN FOOD PANTRY: Items most needed at this time are: cans of baked beans and chili, 2 lb. bags of flour, instant oatmeal, Dinty Moore Beef Stew, cookie mix, Hamburger Helper, pancake mix, facial tissues and napkins.

Thank you for the wonderful response members and friends of FCC Whitman always show!

One Great Hour of Sharing (OGHS) special mission offering of the United Church of Christ involves you in disaster, refugee/immigration, and development ministries throughout the world. When a disaster strikes or people are displaced or made refugees by violence or extreme poverty, you are part of the immediate response and of the long-term recovery.

Through OGHS you engage in holistic development programs including health care, education, agriculture, food sustainability, micro-financing and women’s empowerment. Because the UCC relates in mutual partnership to churches and organizations through Global Ministries and worldwide response & recovery networks, your contributions to One Great Hour of Sharing put you in the right place at the right time for the relief, accompaniment and recovery of the most vulnerable. You meet immediate needs and you address the underlying causes that create those needs in the first place. This Special Offering will be taken up on Sunday, March 17^th. Please be as generous as possible. Thank you.

TRUSTEES

During the last month or so, the Trustees have made repairs to the toilet in the men’s room and also have repaired all the burned-out bulbs in the church office, making it much brighter.

Also, we are looking for more people who would like to be a trustee. We should have seven and now are down to two. If you are interested in becoming a Trustee, let Margaret in the church office know, or see Mark Iverson or Mark Hall.

Lastly, the Trustee of the month for March is Mark Iverson, and Mark Hall is the Trustee for April.

Confirmation classes have started- four young adults will be taking the classes and learning about faith. There will be mission programs and perhaps a fund raiser along the way with special guests attending classes. Please support Casey Coots, James Travis, Josh Osbourne and Colleen Lewis, as they attend classes and become an integral part of the church.

Deacons

The deacons have been hard at work transitioning from Christmas to Easter. We can certainly use some help!