Dear Beloved Community of First Church,
Are you surviving snow-mageddon 01/2011? What a mess on the streets and sidewalks, but it’s great for children with snow days and sleds in hand! We had about 20 inches of the white stuff fall on my home in Westford. I was glad of the horsepower of a Craftsman snow blower, but when a computer mouse is the largest weight I lift on a regular basis, it was a lot of work. My back protested – “what are you doing!” So I am especially grateful for the willing hands and stout backs of the folks that shoveled the sidewalks outside the church this week. Thank you, thank you Jason Donnelly and all the folks that came to help him. The paths are clear on College and Francesca, and the way is clear for everyone and anyone to get to our doors on Sunday morning. Except for that whole thing about the Protestant Reformation, and that guy Martin Luther who had a little argument with a Pope, I would love to grant a few plenary indulgences to the gang who served the church so wonderfully with their shovel ministry.
We will have Ian Tosh and his FCS companions in our prayers tomorrow, as they serve the wider community as part of an MLK day-of-service project in Dorchester. The Boston City Mission Society is an organization founded by local UCC churches and partially funded by our contributions to the wider UCC church mission, and they have been organizing the MLK day projects for many years now. Tomorrow, hundreds of UCC’ers and others will spread out across the Metro Boston area helping their neighbors and making a difference. Peace and grace be with them all.
I am looking forward to the All Church Retreat in February 4,5. Betsy Mariere and Liz Davenny are getting all the details together. Please let them know asap about your plans to attend. Join us in Rekindling Joy – bring your singing voices, jokes, laughs and giggles, yourselves and lets invite God to rest a while with us as we celebrate our community, and the future ahead. This will be a great opportunity to get to know each other over meals, fun, prayer, and song.
This Sunday, Thom will lead us in exploring some new music and in singing the Psalms. Over the past few weeks we have been treated to a wonderful blend of the very new and the very old of the music of our tradition. This will continue to be part of our worship services in the weeks and months to come.
Gianna Marzilli Ericson will be our liturgist this Sunday. Ian Tosh will tell us all the important news of the parish. I will preach on vocation and call – as long as the Holy Spirit shows up with the words – or else I will be leading a long period of prayerful, silent, meditation. There is also a training class for our Sunday school volunteers and teachers in “Godly Play” being held after the service. Also, pick up a copy of our draft 2011 church budget during coffee hour. It will be the featured topic of discussion during our Church Annual Meeting on the 23rd.
Lastly, but perhaps most importantly, I invite you to pay special attention to the people in the pews beside you and around you. If you do not know them, please introduce yourselves, and invite each other to share some cookies and chat over coffee after the service.
And may God bless us all.
—- Ian
Dear Beloved Community,
Happy New Year and blessings to one and all for 2011. It is amazing to me how much the church has accomplished given all that FCS has been through in the past year. God is good indeed. We enter the New Year together with the grace, strength, and love of a community who loves kindness and loves God. What a blessing!
I am writing from West Virginia where the Holland family has spent a short but calorie-filled, joy-filled few days with my wife’s family. For the past nine years, we have made the Christmas drive south and have been pretty lucky getting in, over, and out through the mountains of this rugged state. We delayed our trip this year because of the snow storms earlier this week, but the ride back tomorrow looks clear and snow-free. We have our audio-book ready and the car is gassed up. I am looking forward to arriving back home in MA after the long drive, and then celebrating communion with everyone on Sunday.
I am also looking forward to leading worship with Rev. Suzanne Woolston Bossert who will be our preacher on Sunday. Suzanne recently completed an 8-year pastorate at United Parish in Brookline and is happily immersed in her current dual call of full-time parenting and writing, with a special interest in the evolving future of the 21st century church. Jen Purves will be our liturgist, and Thom is going to teach us some new music as we start a season of Psalm singing as part of our Sunday worship. Thom recently completed an innovative course in congregational singing, and we are also going to explore and learn some new hymns in the coming weeks.
So, pray for clear roads, and for the grace of God to lead us through the next year, as we sing Psalms, share communion, and break open the Word of God.
… and may God bless us all…
— Ian
Dear Beloved Community,
It’s almost here. Are you ready? Is it all done? Have you been stressed out about making everything perfect, just right, magical, the best ever Christmas, or have you been a bit mad at the world for pushing those impossible expectations on you? A very wise woman who lives next door once said (Ok, it was just yesterday), “the Christmas story is beautiful all by itself. That’s all we need.” So let’s take a deep breath, and let it all go. We will gather for that wonderful story tomorrow at 7pm. We will sing beautiful familiar carols. Children will be transformed into angels and shepherds and wise men. A little boy will smile and make all kinds of noise as Jesus. His parents will laugh (and perhaps cry), as Mary and Joseph. Candles will be lit, and a new light will be brought into the world. And it will be lovely, lovely, lovely. Emmanuel, God is with us. Do we really need anything else? (well … apart from those wool socks from LL Bean.)
Bring yourselves. Bring your friends and family. There will be costumes for children set out in the pews. We will have many guests and newcomers, so please be hospitable and greet them warmly in fine First Church style, and help them where needed.
We will have a lovely service on Sunday the 26th too. We will welcome returning son Rev. James Matarazzo as our liturgist that day. There will be a well-staffed nursery and will welcome all the other children upstairs for a jubilee service. There will be more familiar carols to sing, and a children-friendly “message for all ages” instead of a sermon (wait … was that a cheer I just heard?).
Weather permitting; I will be away next week until Jan. 1, but will be available by phone. Please contact our senior deacons Kim Ardolino or Betsy Mariere if you need prayerful support in the days ahead. Our (super) administrator Jamie Thompson is also away next week, but Tara J. Tresner-Kirsch will be providing some coverage for her.
Wow. It is amazing that it is Christmas. There is so much to be thankful for. But the most important thing to do is to celebrate that this is just the beginning of something really wonderful, a new light of love and faith lit by the spark of the Holy Spirit shining in the hearts of each one of us.
And May God Bless Us All.
Happy Christmas and a Blessed New Year to one and all.
— Ian
Support Pastor,
First Church Somerville.
Dear Beloved Community,
The Christmas Cantata service and snow seem to go together in First Church lore. Historically, each year at this service in the period Thom Whittemore’s music leadership, some number of the choir and congregation have warmed up lungs and vocal chords by moving the terrible white stuff from the sidewalks. But (unless I am about to jinx the whole thing!) it looks like the snow will arrive well after the service is over this year. Hurray!
But unfortunately, the City of Somerville will provide a different obstacle for our faithful on Sunday. The City is closing roads all around our church in support of the Jingle Bell road race (http://www.ward5online.com/2010/12/street-closures-for-jingle-bell-road.html). Some roads will be closed starting at 9am, and the road closing will continue along the race route, through to 1pm. Our church is right in the middle of the circuit. So, dear people, it would be great if we were all in church a little early for a change. Try it. It will avoid lots of problems. So come early, and stay late for the First Church Christmas party after the service, you will be glad you did!
Thom, Hugh, the Choir, and the Bell Choir have been working really hard to prepare for the Cantata. Thom has designed a really beautiful service of readings and music to open us up to an experience of the sacred, and the presence of God in our midst. Appropriately, Brian and Melissa Smothers will light our fourth Advent candle – the candle of Love. It will be a very different Sunday service. It will be a very different Sunday – thanks be to God – as we approach the Nativity on Friday’s Christmas Eve.
Baby-watch 2010 is still an active and ongoing project for our Christmas Eve service. Storks have been seen flying over the North Pole, but I am not sure if they are planning to drop a baby in my lap or in our manger by Friday night. But, one never knows. Everything else is coming together nicely for our 7pm service of carols and candles, of love and of light. Are you ready to encounter Christ again, or perhaps meet him for the very first time? The birth of Christ is an invitation from God to be reborn ourselves; to become new and renewed; to release the past to history, and walk with the Holy Spirit into the future. This is the time.
As we approach the end of the year, and the plans for 2011 develop, I want to tell you that the congregation of First Church continues to demonstrate your awesome commitment to the mission of the church. So far, you have increased your total pledge amount 27% more than last year, and you are not yet done. Something important is happening in our midst; something big, something beautiful, something amazing has happened in the life of this church over the past number of years, and continues to this day. Thanks be to the Holy Sprit working through us all. Where is she leading First Church next?
… and may God bless us all.
— Ian
Dear Beloved People of First Church,
I want a baby! … No really. I want a baby … but not one to raise. I have two of those already. And my two children are now in their teenage years – so I am not that keen to repeat the experience. But a baby would be great … for Christmas Eve. In years past, First Church has been blessed by parents and babies who participated in our Christmas Eve ‘un-pageant.’ But this year, I wonder. While many of us on the Christian path of discipleship long for a closer relationship with Jesus, right now my need is much less complicated. I need a baby to be Jesus in the manger on Christmas Eve. So, are you a parent of a little one? Is somebody in your immediate family visiting for the holidays, and they have a little one? Do you have a good friend who is a new parent who would just love the idea of their little one as Jesus in the manger on Christmas Eve? We have the perfect opportunity for them. (Aside: you may be surprised that they do not teach us about this stuff in seminary. There is no “Christmas Eve services 101” class, with a find-a-baby mid-term exam … just saying.)
This brings a whole new understanding of Advent for me – a time of waiting and expectation – a time of hope – a time of anticipation – a time of preparation.
We are in the second week of Advent. Ben Davenny is our liturgist. Bill and Ellie Manning will light our candle for Peace. It will join the candle of Hope lit last week. And with the news filled with talk of violence in our neighborhoods, our world, and our political speech, it is so important that we speak of peace, we pray for peace, we act as peace keepers in our daily lives.
This Sunday, we will be blessed by the preaching of Rev. Laura Tuach, a member of our congregation. We will share Communion together. We will share the grace of bread and vine that will nourish us for the peace making and peace keeping work ahead. I look forward to hearing the Holy Spirit speak through Laura’s words, and to being with her in breaking bread, and blessing the cup of Communion.
It is so good to think about Communion, because this week I now know much more about steam boilers than I could possibly have imagined. First Church now has a brand new feeder pump installed. It will move water from the thing, and push it into the other thing where it gets really hot, and the water turns into steam which goes up the thing, to the other thing, and then that gets really hot and everything is just right. See! It’s really technical, and expensive. Again, “Boilers for beginners” is not an offering at Andover Newton Theological School either … may be at Harvard though? But heat should be more reliable for us all going into the winter.
We shall see.
We hope. We wait. We pray .. for babies, peace, boilers, ourselves, our world, for Christ and grace … so many things.
… may God bless us all….
— Ian
Dear Beloved Community of First Church,
Peace, peace and good digestion to you all. I have greatly enjoyed the past few days in the company of my wife, children, the New England Patriots (they won! .. I am such a fair weather fan), and some great meals. I also indulged in one of my favorite pastimes – losing myself between the covers of a silly book. Today, we managed to take a family walk around the neighborhood, and it was good to know that my lower limbs still functioned after being in a mostly sedentary position for many, many hours. I have so much to be thankful for. I give thanks to God for all the blessings in my life. I even like our cats these days.
I am especially thankful for this time of ministry with all of you in this wonderful community. As we say at the beginning of every service – “God is good!” Last week, we gathered and dedicated pledges to the church in our service. (If you were not with us last week, then you are welcome to add yours to the offering this Sunday, or leave it in our collector’s – Liz Davenny – mail-slot in the office.) Liz and the Finance Committee have a lot of work ahead of them, but the feedback from Liz is that this community has once again responded out of your deep faith, hope and love of this church and the Gospel.
This week, we begin our journey of faith towards Bethlehem with the first Sunday of Advent. This is a time of expectant waiting and preparation for the celebration of the birth of Jesus. Ignore the encouragement from all around to celebrate too early, and take the time to understand, and sink into this time of faith. Appropriately, next week begins the five-mornings a week offering of 7am morning-prayer in the chapel.
Our theme for Advent is the title of the hymn “My Soul in Stillness Waits.” This will feature in the opening of each of our coming services. Thom has helpfully provided the following YouTube link http://il.youtube.com/watch?v=jtAOqi28GQ4 if you want to hear it. He tells me we will do it a little faster than the gent in the video. Thom will be busy on Sunday with the service, the children’s choir rehearsal (who were really great last week), music committee meeting, and bell choir rehearsal (they were fantastic too!).
Pam Greene, Jill Bogosian, and their children will light our first Advent candle … the candle for hope. Toni Snow will serve as liturgist. Jen Brown will offer our announcements. And you dear people of First Church will continue your work as the beautiful, fun, and always surprising – Body of Christ.
Enjoy your leftovers, but don’t let the Tryptophan stupor (or equivalent tofu-induced effect) keep you from church on Sunday!
And may God bless us all….
— Ian
Dear Beloved Community,
It’s pie time! Thanksgiving is right around the corner, with pumpkin pie and all that whipped cream. But Black Friday waits with its ominous name and consumer frenzied madness. Its marketing machine is warming up, getting ready to scream at us, “buy now, buy quickly, you _deserve_ it, rush to the stores for 5am specials.” To which we say … NO! That’s not what we are about. We refuse to get sucked in by that craziness. We First Churchers are about pie, and not just pumpkin pie, or the whoopie pies we enjoyed a few weeks ago (hmmm, mmm good), but the pie of blessing that God has baked for us in our lives. Our stewardship theme is “God’s Pie” and we were served super-sized pieces of grace and generosity by our stewardship witnesses these past four weeks. On Sunday it is our time to return the favor. We will share a portion of the pie that God has given us with God herself through the pledges that we will dedicate during our Sunday service. So bring your filled-out pledge card, your smile, your joy, and your prayers for the church. Pass the pie.
For an extra helping of motivational whipped cream, take a look at the video which started us on this pie-saga a few months back. (It’s a funny skit, even if it has a stereo-typical white-haired white guy image for God.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YiTcW3AAa64
The theme for Sunday is “Thanksgiving.” (Big surprise!) So it all fits together. Lindsay Baber is our liturgist. I hope to have a sermon (right now it’s a pile of oatmeal.) Jen Brown will offer our announcements, and Marc Lefebvre will do his level best to make us sound really good (even if that means turning off our microphones).
There is a lot happening after service Sunday: Casa Pen Pals, Mission and Justice team, Children’s Choir, and I know that the Children’s Ministry team is meeting as well. The following is the link to our calendar page with all the details.
http://www.calendarwiz.com/calendars/week.php?crd=firstchurchsomerville&week=1290758400&month=11&day=26&year=2010.
You might find it interesting to browse back and forth through a few weeks to see all that happens during a week in the life of our church and our building. This week has been particularly busy. That’s a lot of pie!
One last word about pie… If you have not participated as a coffee hour host recently, would you like to give our regular folks a present by volunteering for Dec. 26?
God is Good … All the time.
And may God bless us all.
—- Ian
p.s. If you drive to church, can you take care not to block our neighbors drive ways.
Dear Beloved Community of First Church,
Is it Friday already? How can that be? It seems like it was just Sunday. Last week, I got to say “Whoopie Pies” out loud in church … twice! It was great. The pies from Lyndell’s were better. I did not have those growing up in Ireland. Now, I am a fan (I ate two.) I also want to give a special shout out to Jason Donnelly, Andrea Ranger, and Zach Bly who organized our crew of more than 25 people on the work day. We accomplished so much inside and out. “Thank you” to all the happy, hearty, and productive people who scrubbed, dug, lifted and shifted in support of the entire church community.
Last Sunday, our day was blessed by the sharing of Holy Communion with each other, and with Christ among us. Over the past month, our services have focused on the person and mystery of Jesus Christ. Who was he, who is he? This Sunday, we will linger with Christ as the one who brings healing and wholeness into our broken world. We will take time this Sunday to pray for healing for the ill, and the wounded, for those in our families, for those in our pews, and for ourselves. Our community has been through so much in this past year, and individual members of our church family (including our Pastor Molly) still deal with significant health issues. We need some healing prayer. This Sunday we will have a healing service that includes an anointing with oil for all who seek a prayer for health and wholeness in their lives. I will be joined by Rev. Laura Tuach, an ordained minister in the UCC, and a member of our church. Our deacons will also be on hand to pray with and for people one on one.
Chelsea Clarke will be our liturgist, and Elizabeth Field will be our Stewardship witness. Our stewardship moments have been really powerful these past weeks. As one of my favorite hymns goes:”surely the presence of God is in this place.” We handed out pledge cards last Sunday, and this week Jamie and I were busy getting the stewardship mailing ready and in the US mail. You should get them in your mail box today, tomorrow, or Monday. Next week (Sunday Nov. 21), please bring your pledge cards to church and we will gather them as part of our celebration that day. In case you can’t wait for the mail man, email me for a copy of the pledge card and our Spiritual Budget narrative (essential bed-time reading.)
Even as we seek the grace and comfort of Christ to support us through the trials of our lives today, it is exciting to think about the future ahead for the beloved community of First Church Somerville. Your finance committee, your church council, and other lay leaders are immersed in the planning, preparations, and budgeting for the coming year. Can you feel God’s call to mission and service in this place? Your pledge, your prayers, and your willing, helping, and loving hands will make all manner of things possible.
And may God bless us all.
— Ian
Dear Beloved Community of First Church,
We have a new sign. Hurray. You will be pleased. It is So First Church! It joins our beautiful prayer garden, and a still productive urban garden with its bright blooms and a few hardy tomatoes. The transformation of our outdoor space continues to draw comments from passersby. And they are all good. Our church speaks to the community in so many ways. These physical changes declare the Gospel of love for the earth, love for all people, and love for God.
God is good. Heat is good too. All this week, the beast in the basement continued to groan, sigh, and clang its way to life as the temperature dropped outside. Radiators and pipes responded appropriately with warmth, and an occasional rude creak or two.
There was more warmth shared last night when many of our 11 new members gathered one more time to share stories of life, love and faith. We were invited to the home of Pam Greene, Jill Bogosian and their two children. We savored good cheese, bubbly champagne, sweet treats, and many helpings of pure grace. It is hard to express how special the new-member’s process has been over these past few weeks. I look forward to doing it again sometime in Jan/Feb. If you are thinking about joining the church, let’s talk. Let’s do coffee. Let’s have lunch. Have your people call my people. …. Do you have people?
This Sunday we have another important event in the life of the church. We will baptize young Jonah Weyant. Jonah is the son of our fantastic deacon Ellen O’Donnell and her husband Eric Weyant (who has shoveled, hammered, and painted many surfaces of the church as former chair, and member of the buildings and grounds committee.)
If you would like to follow Eric’s example, we will have an all-church work-day on Nov. 7 after the service. We will need all hands on deck as we clean, shovel, repair, tighten, straighten, move and paint the nooks and crannies of the building that we hold in trust for our children, and the future members of this beloved community. Now that we have spruced up aspects of the exterior, it is time to spruce up the interior. Please come ready to spruce!
This Sunday I will be continuing the sermon series on the mystery and person of Jesus Christ, with a little help from Zacchaeus. I will try not to be too scary. Keith M Marzilli Ericson is liturgist, Lindsay Barber will speak about stewardship, and John Olson will give our announcements. There are many others who will serve the community that day too. Bell choir and Children’s choir are meeting after the service.
Happy Halloween, save some chocolate for the pastor,
May God bless us all.
— Ian
Dear Beloved Community of First Church,
You are holy folk. And, you are a hole-ly folk. There are now two holes in our College Ave. front lawn where the posts for our new sign will go (with rock and dirt piles). Jason and Andy from “Signs by Tomorrow” fought with rock and slate for a number of hours today to prepare for our new sign that was ordered and ‘nearly finished’ many, many yesterdays ago. The sign itself is awesome and makes a statement with its colors and overall design. It waits in a closet with eager anticipation for its unveiling next week. I was promised that Andy and Jason will return on Monday to finish the job. I think we should pray for them over this weekend so that they will show up.
We also may be warmed by more than the Holy Spirit, our cheerful dispositions, and the company of our pew neighbors in worship this week. Our plumber came on Thursday and berated our boiler back into operation. After his visit, the boiler came on today – all by itself! – when it got cold in the building this afternoon. So we live in hope and trust in the fierceness of our plumber’s demeanor that our boiler is too frightened of him to ever fail again. Just in case there is some lingering reluctance on the boiler’s part, Ian Tosh has agreed to put on his best plumbing attitude, and his worst-fitting pair of jeans, to intimidate the sleepy beast into a warm awaking early Sunday morning. This is another option for your evening prayers tonight.
But the most important, the most heart-warming, the most Spirit-filling, the most awesome (with hooping and hollering – dancing in aisles (no back flips please)) reason to pray this weekend, and to come to worship this Sunday is to give thanks to God for the 11 people who will join our church on Sunday. Our church community is a place where people find spiritual homes for the very first time. They discover in you all a family of love. They see in our life together a living witness to the God of love, mercy, and forgiveness. In the rite of membership, we will be reminded once more of this mission of our life together on the corner of Francesca and College. We preach the really Good News of Jesus Christ, inviting everyone to join with us in his transformative work of love, justice, and faith. This is good work, holy work, work we are called by God to do as progressive Christians.
This Sunday is also the start of our stewardship program. We will begin to talk and listen to each other about the choices we make about our money, and about the impacts of our faith and church life on those choices. Money can be such a taboo subject in church, but First Church is a place that we say “Boo!” to such taboo, just in time for Halloween. This Sunday, Keith and Gianna Marzilli Ericson will be the first of the witnessing stewards to tell us of their journey of faith, money, church, and giving.
Jen Purves will be our liturgist. John Olson will give our announcements. Many others will play different roles to serve us all in different ways this Sunday. Thanks be to God for every one of them.
May God bless us all
— Ian
PS. The Haitian Holy Bible Baptist Church are having a joyful dedication of their new building as part of their Sunday service at 11. All are invited to participate in this important milestone for this congregation. Parking will be restricted on College Ave. south of Francesca.
