Holy Week on God’s Acre

Outdoor Tenebrae Service on Thursday, 4/1: 8:00pm

Outdoor Easter Sunrise Service, 4/4: 6:30am

Outdoor Easter Sunday Traditional Service, 4/4: 8:00am, 10:00am

Virtual Services will be available throughout the week including a livestream Wednesday Worship Service featuring Antonio Abate @ www.godsacre.org/worship.

All are welcome to join us for in-person Holy Week services. No RSVP is needed because we will be outside and have plenty of room to distance. Please remember masks are still required for all in-person worship. We hope to see you on God’s Acre this week!

Daily Meds Podcast

 

Years ago a friend of Chapin’s started sending his daily scriptural meditations to people under the heading “Daily Meds” — a playful way of suggesting that a regular dose of scripture, meditation, and prayer can heal all kinds of ills.

As we enter a season when there is global concern about our health and well being, Chapin has decided to launch an audio podcast to share these biblical reflections with our community. We encourage you to take these daily meds…and feel free to dispense them to others.

Click here to enjoy today’s episode.

 

YG Spring Schedule

March

Sunday, Mar. 21 – MISSION TRIP REVEAL – 6:00-7:00pm
Seniors meet at 3:00pm for their reveal and Extravaboxaganza stuffing!
Sunday, Mar. 28 – Create in Me – 7:00-8:00pm

 

April

Sunday, Apr. 4 – Easter Sunday Sunrise Service – 6:30am
Sunday, Apr. 11 – NO YG – NCPS BREAK
Sunday, Apr. 18 – YG Fish Commissioning 10:00am – Noon
Sunday, Apr. 25 – Team Night 7:00-8:30pm

 

May

Sunday, May 2 – Games at Waveny
Sunday, May 9 – NO YG – Mother’s day
Sunday, May 16 – Climbing in the trees! The Adventure Park at the Discovery Museum 5:00-9:00pm
Saturday, May 22 – Filling in the Blanks 1:00pm
Sunday, May 23 – S’more & Vesper
Sunday, May 30 – NO YG Memorial Day

 

June

Thursday, June 3 – Beacon of Light
Sunday, June 6 – Picnic and Movie Outdoor
Tuesday, June 8 – Filling in the Blanks 3:00pm
Sunday, June 13 – YG Pilgrimage Prep – 7:00pm
Sunday, June 20-27 – YG Mission Trip

 

*Covenant Events for Mission Trip Travel in Bold*

Our Lenten Mission – with World Vision

Our Lenten Mission – World Vision

No travel required

Usually, we are packing our bags this time of year for our annual OG Mission Trip but not this year. Fear not! We have found a novel way to travel. Kicking off March 14, we are partnering with World Vision to sponsor children in a Honduran community. In a new twist, rather than picking a child, our pictures will “fly” to Honduras, and the children will choose us. We hope that these children become, in essence, part of our youth group and that we will build relationships with the community in Honduras and travel there in the future. Contact Marianna Kilbride, marianna@godsacre.org.

Take the Matthew 25 Challenge and begin your Lenten Journey to child sponsorship with World Vision.

for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.” Then the righteous will answer him, “Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?” And the king will answer them, “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.”  Matthew 25:35-40

What is the Matthew 25 Challenge?

The Matthew 25 Challenge is a week-long challenge that will help you and your family step out of your comfort zones and engage in God’s love for “the least of these brothers and sisters” who Jesus calls us to care for in Matthew 25:35-40. Sign up, and you’ll get a text a day beginning March 14, with your daily challenge, impactful stories, and ways to pray and talk about Matthew 25 with your family.

How can I be “Chosen” by a child in Honduras?

Become a sponsor for just $39 per month and allow a child from Honduras to choose you! On March 21, after completing the challenge our congregation will be invited to become a sponsor and if you are able to commit by 9:00pm that day you will be able to “meet” your child at our in-person Palm Sunday services on March 28. Many more details will follow so keep an eye on your inbox and social media. Here are a few important dates to be sure you can fully engage in this amazing Lenten Journey!

March 14 Sign up for the Matthew 25 Challenge,   Text ‘Canaan’ to 56170. If you prefer to participate by email go to www.worldvision.org/M25 and select March 15 as your challenge start date.

March 21 Sponsor a child in Honduras,   Text ‘Canaan’ to 56170 or visit www.worldvision.org/canaan to upload your photo and become a sponsor.

March 28 Reveal Sunday, Come to our outdoor services  at 8:00 & 10:00am to “meet” the child who chose you!

Wednesday Worship

Come worship with us!

Watch the livestream service on Wednesdays at 12:00pm at
//godsacredev.wpengine.com/worship/.

Enjoy music, scripture, sermon, and prayers followed by more music offered by our section leaders and Director of Music Ministries, Dr. Jo Deen Blaine Davis.

February 24 Dimitrie Lazich, baritone
March 3 Anne Maguire, mezzo-soprano
March 10 EmmaRae Carroll, soprano
March 17 Anush Avetisyan, soprano
March 24 Aram Tchobanian, tenor
March 31 Antonio Abate, tenor

Music for Wednesday, February 24 

Here in This Place
Marty Haugen
Teach Me to Pray
Jessie Mae Jewitt
Amazing Grace
John Newton

Let My Heart Be Pure
Johann Sebastian Bach
Simple Gifts 
arr. Aaron Copland
Abide with Me
arr. Neil Jenkins

Variations on St. Flavian (Lord, Who Throughout These Forty Days) 
arr. Healey Willan

Daily Meds Podcast

 

Years ago a friend of Chapin’s started sending his daily scriptural meditations to people under the heading “Daily Meds” — a playful way of suggesting that a regular dose of scripture, meditation, and prayer can heal all kinds of ills.

As we enter a season when there is global concern about our health and well being, Chapin has decided to launch an audio podcast to share these biblical reflections with our community. We encourage you to take these daily meds…and feel free to dispense them to others.

Click here to enjoy today’s episode.

 

A Message from the Pastor

The Rev. Kathryn Kibbie Laird, Associate Minister of Children, Youth, and Families

February 17, 2021

Dear Friends,

Stephen Ministry is a nationwide program used in thousands of churches since 1975. At the Congregational Church of New Canaan, we have benefitted and used the Stephen Ministry program since 2006.  Each month when we meet with the Stephen Ministers, I thank God for all of these faithful folks who care so deeply and have committed themselves year after year to helping others. When I arrived last fall, Stephen Leader Beth Baker said to me, “it is time to train another class of Stephen Ministers,” and we began to hope folks would hear the call to serve and sign up.

On February 7, we began a new Stephen Ministry training class. We have 27 people in the class, including 19 caregivers from our church, and 5 caregivers from the First Congregational Church of Stamford who are partnering with us to begin Stephen Ministry in their church (this is an awesome and wonderful thing!), and 3 Stephen Leaders. To say that the Stephen Leaders teaching the class (Beth Baker, Marianne Perry, and I) are excited by the response we got would be an understatement. We are overjoyed. I keep pondering why now? Why such an enthusiastic response? What about Covid has made this possible? Thanks be to God.

A few years ago, as I was driving by God’s Acre, long before I was a minister in this church, I saw a big banner on the front of the Congregational Church which said, Connect@God’s Acre. That is the heart of the matter, isn’t it?  We all want to feel connected to God, to each other, to a community of faith. Covid has made connections more difficult. We now talk to people we used to see face-to-face on the phone or Face time. We keep a distance; we stand 6 feet apart. But through it all, we have realized that being connected is a basic human need. We need to feel connected, heard, understood. Connecting is Stephen Ministry in a nutshell. A Stephen Minister is a Christian spiritual companion who walks with us weekly and makes sure we are not alone (it may be for a few months, it may be a year) until things get easier.

In the coming months, Beth and I will begin matching our new Stephen Ministers to folks who could use extra care and support. If you would like a Stephen Minister or know someone you think might benefit from weekly care, a listening ear, a Christian caregiver during a difficult or lonely time, please let Beth Baker, Marianne Perry, or me know.

I’ll close with a story about a little boy who climbed out of bed and came to his mother long after bedtime, “I know God is with me no matter what, even in the dark, but sometimes it is nice to have someone to talk to with skin on.”  When the world feels like a dark place, even adults think it is nice to have someone to talk to. Knowing we are not alone can make all the difference.

Blessings and peace,

Kibbie

A Conversation with Nathaniel Philbrick

Author of The Mayflower and the Pilgrims’ New World
Sunday, February 28, 5:00pm on Zoom

Join Zoom Meeting
//us02web.zoom.us/j/88541488488?pwd=QnRpMnI3OTd1TzZsNWpPbzF3ak11QT09
Meeting ID: 885 4148 8488
Passcode: 928560

Join Nathaniel Philbrick for an evening of conversation and discussion on our all church read The Mayflower and Pilgrims’ New World. Come with questions or just come to listen and enjoy!

After a dangerous journey across the Atlantic, the Mayflower’s passengers were saved from certain destruction with the help of the Natives of the Plymouth region. For fifty years a fragile peace was maintained as Pilgrims and Native Americans learned to work together. But when that trust was broken by the next generation of leaders, a conflict erupted that nearly wiped out Pilgrims and Natives alike. Adapted from the New York Times bestseller Mayflower, this edition includes additional maps, artwork, and archival photos.

Prayer Request for Roxie

Prayer Request for Roxie

Send a prayer to your friend Roxie and we will include it in our weekly Bedtime Bible Story!

 

 

 

*Any prayers submitted after Thursday @ 12:00pm will be included in the following week’s story time!*

Read, Reflect, Transform

Read, Reflect, Transform

Book Study

You are warmly invited to join Fatou Niang and Mike Rodgers in conversation with fellow congregants in reading Ibram X. Kendi’s memoir, How to Be an Antiracist, for 5 weeks beginning Wednesday, February 24 at 7:00pm.

Knowing we are all made in God’s image and called to be one people, it is in the spirit of hope that we seek not only an understanding of racism and its causes, but to be part of the formation of a just and equitable church and society.
What better way to mark the Lenten season than to reflect with one another on the injustice of racism and envision together a more Godly way.

Books are available to be ordered at Elm Street Books online. Contact Marianna Kilbride, marianna@godsacredev.wpengine.com for a Zoom invite.