During the meetings participants will explore child development, anger, conflict resolution, discipline, reducing exposure to violence in the media and community, and coping with challenging behaviors. Those of us who have gone through the workshop have all learned something regardless of our training or our experience. It is fun and interesting and supportive.

If you are interested in attending this workshop, the meetings are scheduled for six consecutive Mondays beginning September 20th and ending October 25th this fall. Contact Kelly Champion for more information or to sign up.

This is a really unique project and we would love all the help we can get. There are so many ways you can help: You can be a face from our church. You can help us to advertise and recruit parents. You can help provide snacks or just pitch in.

To learn more about the project, you can view the ACT television announcement at http://actagainstviolence.apa.org/materials/index.html.

You can also watch this YouTube video which demonstrates a young child’s view of the world and shows the importance of social and emotional learning in the early years: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbSp88PBe9E.

The Casa San Jose Orphanage has been one of First Church’s mission partners for several years. We as a church regularly support them through our time and money, including bi-annual mission trips. We are
truly blessed to be honored by a visit from these two amazing women who have positively changed the lives of hundreds of children.

This is an excellent opportunity to hear more about Lupita and Dr. Ana’s work at the Casa and how our support assists them in their work. If you have any questions regarding this visit or First Church’s support of the Casa San Jose, please contact Erica Edwards.

Our Easter was pretty amazing, eh? Through Holy Week’s Palm Sunday’s parade and cantata, our daily morning prayers, Rest and Bread on Holy Wednesday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday; and our fabulous Easter service last week, we got to be together a lot, to walk that hard road in community. We survived the tragedy and found ourselves gloriously alive!

So what do you do after the ecstasy?

You bring a child of the congregation to the baptismal font, entrust her to the care of the congregation, dedicate her to God through the act of baptism, and seal her as Christ’s own forever. Tomorrow, the second Sunday of Easter, we will welcome and baptize Nora Joy Davenny. Our service of worship and baptism begins at 10 AM. I’ll preach, Ian will be the liturgist, the choir will sing, Thom will lead the congregation in singing, Joe will play, Molly will read scripture and pray with us. We pray you’ll join us.

Just after the service, the children’s choir will rehearse and Casa San Jose Pilgrims will meet.

See you tomorrow!

Love,
Laura Ruth

Bloom with us. Join us for Holy Week worship at First Church Somerville. For kids, young adults, men and women Of A Certain Age, elders; for singles, marrieds; spiritual-but-not-religious and committed disciples of Jesus Christ, alike.

Sunday March 28:

Multichurch, Family-friendly Donkey Walk, 9a: We march, chanting 1st century slogans along with our marching band, from Powderhouse to Davis. We sing and wave greenery. We pray for the city. We pet donkeys and watch Jesus, in effigy, rise higher than Mayor Joe, Deval Patrick, Obama, high above College Ave. Starting from Powderhouse Park, College Ave and Broadway.

Gospel Palm Sunday Cantata, 10a: Under the direction of the amazing Thom Whittemore, a blowout that will take us from praising Jesus as king to the edge of the cross, the place where all looks dark, but from which we can still choose whether or not we will praise God for all that is. Homemade hot-cross buns follow at coffee hour!

Wednesday March 31:

Rest and Bread, worship service of communion and reflection, 6:30p in our chapel, with music for meditation at 6:15p.

Holy Thursday, April 1:

Beloved Disciples Last Supper, 6:30p: We’ll gather round the feast-table in the sanctuary, to eat middle eastern finger foods and feel in our bones the fellowship, joy, confusion and edge of fear that other long-ago disciples felt on the eve of their friend’s death.

Falls the Shadow Service of Worship, 7p: Immediately following supper, we’ll hear readings from the last 24 hours of the life of Jesus, we’ll sing songs, we’ll keep watch, and pray.

Good Friday, April 2:

Lenten Morning Prayer, 7a: The last of our everyday Lenten Morning Prayer services starts us off at 7a in the chapel.

Good Friday Vigil, 7:30a-6p: The Sanctuary will open for meditation, healing prayer with our deacons and ministers, and  interactive prayer stations as we sit vigil with our dying God. At 2:15p, we will listen to the haunting Macmillan’s Seven Last Words from the Cross. At 3p, we will commemorate the death-moment of Jesus, our brother and the one who saves us every day.

Easter Sunday, April 4:
Multichurch Sunrise Service, 6a: We’ll meet on the peak of Powderhouse Park as the shadows shorten, as the sun rises, and we feel the truth:  God has conquered death itself, and Jesus is risen! Children most welcome. Dress warmly!!

Easter Soul Sunday Celebration, 10a: A standing-room-only worship service for all! Home-grown brass and percussion, bells, electric guitar, Handel’s Messiah as you’ve never heard it.  Nursery care will be available for young ones ages 0-3. Easter egg hunt to follow worship. Rumor has it there may even be a petting zoo—touch that new life! Wear frilly bonnets, or come as you are, and receive new life in the form of Beloved Community.

Each Sunday morning at 10 AM.
Each Wednesday evening at 6:30 PM, Rest and Bread, a service of prayer and communion.
Every weekday morning at 7 AM, a service of morning prayers.

Our Christmas Cantata will be on Sunday Morning, December 20 at 10 AM
Christmas Eve Services will be on Thursday, December 24 at 7 PM

Each Sunday morning at 10 AM.
Each Wednesday evening at 6:30 PM, Rest and Bread, a service of prayer and communion.
Every weekday morning at 7 AM, a service of morning prayers.

Our Christmas Cantata will be on Sunday Morning, December 20 at 10 AM
Christmas Eve Services will be on Thursday, December 24 at 7 PM

Our choir, let by Thom Whittemore and accompanied by Joe Turbessi, will sing Cecil Frances Alexander’s setting of “All Creatures Great and Small.”

Here are the musical notes for this Sunday’s service music:

“We are blessed to have flautist Elke Jahns with us today.

The prelude and postlude today are from La Flute de Pan, sonatas for flute and orchestra by Jules Mouquet (1867-1946). Like many other French composers at the turn of the century, Mouquet favored subjects from Greek mythology, as a sort of neoclassical reaction against the fervent treatments of Norse legend in Wagner’s operas. In Greek mythology, Pan is the god of shepherds and flocks, of mountain wilds, hunting and rustic music. He is recognized as the god of fields, groves, and wooded glens; because of this, Pan is connected to fertility and the season of spring.

The Native Americans believe that their flutes, being made of wood, have a spirit, and with their breath they are breathing life into that spirit.

The ocarina, or vessel flute, is one of the oldest known musical instruments. It has been dated back to 3000 BC, and found in cultures around the world, including the Mayans, Egyptians, Chinese, Italians, Sub-Saharan Africans, Javanese, and Pakistani. It has been played in Buddhist ceremonies, rain forest hunting rituals, and Ocarina Orchestras. It comes in many shapes and sizes, but it is always made of clay – its sound literally the music of the earth.

“I Greet You, Sure Redeemer” is a well-known Reformation Hymn often attributed to John Calvin, a major player in the Protestant Reformation. The original French text, “Je te salue, mon certain Redempteur”, was published in the 1545 Strasbourg Psalter during Calvin’s ministry in Strasbourg, France. Though Calvin edited the psalter, his authorship of the hymn is not likely.

Today’s anthem is a setting of the familiar hymn “All Things Bright and Beautiful” by Cecil Frances Alexander. The hymn was first published in Alexander’s Hymns for Little Child­ren in 1848. The modern arrangement sung by the choir today is by noted English composer and conductor John Rutter.”

This week we finish up our sermon series on the Bible.

This is what I’m preaching – when we pick up our Bibles and read them, we often find ourselves connecting with the most poignant, powerful, basic, golden, loving, divine movement. This movement, whose name is “I Am,” a verb, is so compelling that we will do whatever we can to remove all that dis-connects us from this power source. This connection propels us into action, for example, climate change action.

This weekend, across the globe, we are being called into action, to connect with the earth. Our scripture for Sunday from Romans says that God’s eternal power and divine nature is invisible, but can be understood and seen through the things that God has made. Connecting with creation, connects us with God. We are also called by scripture to care for the least of these, and so we can act on behalf of those who bear the brunt and pollution of our desires and even entitlement to cheap oil resources, precious metals, and inexpensive labor.

Tomorrow, you can participate in the International Day of Climate Action. With Somerville Climate Change Action, an group with whom Andrea has been working, you can join the underwater activities at Christopher Columbus Park, http://groups.google.com/group/somervilleclimateaction/browse_thread/thread/f52b8d6fd99e0e32/0ef117a153f0af0d?lnk=raot&pli=1.

On Sunday night, with Massachusetts Power Shift, you can join the Sleep Out, www.masspowershift.org/events/boston-common-sleep-out, a move to catch our Senator John Kerry’s attention as he prepares to negotiate at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in December, http://en.cop15.dk/.

You can join Somerville’s Transition Town, http://group.google.com/group/transitionsomerville. Our own Althea, who is a part of Transition Town, is working specifically on how to make the Climate Change movement work across race and class.

Our connection to God often happens in nature, when we are alone, this is true. But our Christian practice also calls us to community. Come, let’s be community to each other this Sunday morning. Oh, and also come for a musical surprise.

Jason, our newest Ph.D., is our liturgist. Molly will read our scripture and lead our prayers. Our Stewardship season begins as well.

And come for BRUNCH and bid in the Goods and Services auction – to fund our missionary action in Mexico, just after services.

Love,
Laura Ruth

–
Rev. Laura Ruth Jarrett
Minister of Outreach
First Congregational Church of Somerville, UCC
An Open and Affirming Congregation
W. 12-9, Th. 2-8, Su. 8:30-2

Well, we’ve made it back home, all of us! The summer is over, our new school year has begun, we lived through the first two weeks! Praise be to God!

We will linger together twice this Sunday – Sunday Service and Block Party.

Our service on Sunday at 10AM includes welcoming five new members, Mariah Hout, Chris Levins, Jackie Kerstner, April Evans and David Douglas.

Where is your Bible? Can you find? Dust it off? Open it without six holy cards and a four leafed clover falling out? Will you bring your Bible, please on Sunday? Molly and I are starting a sermon series, five glorious weeks on the Bible – what is it, how did we get it, what are we supposed to do with it, how to use it. I begin tomorrow with a sermon, “The ABC and 123 of the B.I.B.L.E.” There will be no Bible banging.

Our first time liturgist is the lovely Michael Molla, please will you pray for him as he prepares? Our choir will sing – you can join the choir by showing up at 8:55 on Sunday in the chapel for rehearsal. Molly will pray and welcome our new members. Ian will do the sound system. Liz Danner is the greeter. In the nursery is Jeff Banks and Emily Deckenback. Hugh Gallaher is the shepherd. Erin Iwanusa will teach the little ones. Missy Sturveyant will teach the 7-11 year olds – they’ve named themselves the Flyer Hedgehogs. Welcome Missy!

Our Block Party is also on Sunday, 4-6. Please bring a covered dish to share with our neighbors. Pete and Ben will play with other musicians sitting in. The Marching Band will begin at 3:45 – up Francesca and back. We need children to march with us. And we march rain or shine.

If it rains, we’ll have the block party inside.

Between on Sunday, we have the Music Committee and Compassionate Caregivers at 11:30, and from 12:30-2, the New Old Fashioned Bible Study led by Althea, on the book of Romans. Althea does a wonderful job, and no kidding, makes the study of Romans fascinating.

Tomorrow, on Saturday, a bunch of us are going first to the Duhamel Educational Initiative Fund Raising Dinner at church, 6-8 PM. Mayor Curtone and the Somerville Board of Aldermen (sic) are cooking! Proceeds go to Somerville Public Schools to help keep kids excited about learning and being in school.

After that at 8PM, we’re going to see John Olson (as Clergyman and one of the Very Merry Men), and hear the music of Thom Whittemore and Joe Turbessi at the Somerville Theatre in the production “Never After.” (Never After is the story of Princess Lesley Ann, destined by a conniving fairy to be a lesbian. Ill-suited to her role as a fairytale princess, Les leaves the kingdom of Generica to search for adventure. Along the way, she makes friends in unlikely places, fights dragons, finds her true love, and discovers her own indomitable strength. from the website: http://www.theatreatfirst.org/shows/never_after/never_after.shtml)

Whew, lastly, First Church Twitters. Go to www.twitter.com, make an account for yourself. Then in the search field on the right hand side of the home page, search for FCSomerville – and voila, you are twittering.

Peace to you folks.

Love,
Laura Ruth

–
Rev. Laura Ruth Jarrett
Minister of Outreach
First Congregational Church of Somerville, UCC
An Open and Affirming Congregation
W. 12-9, Th. 2-8, Su. 8:30-2