November Southwick Congregational Church UCC. United Church of Christ. The Good Newsletter of the. Southwick Congregational Church

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1 Buildings & Grounds: Christian Education: Craig Perras Dan Warriner Ashley Greco Deacons: Rob Lempke Finance: Elaina Lempke Flowers: Roxanne Cook Fundraising: / Nominating: Patti Wood pattiperusse@yahoo.com Library: Joyce Arnold Memorial Gifts: Missions: Karen Brzezinski Roxanne Cook Donna Sullivan rbcook1014@aol.com djsullivan135@hotmail.com Music: Melanie Nitsch emnitsch@gmail.com Pastoral Relations: COMMITTEE CHAIRS Roxanne Cook rbcook1014@aol.com November 2017 Southwick Congregational Church 488 College Highway P.O. Box 260 Southwick, MA Return Service Requested Church Office Hours: Monday through Friday 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM Pastor s Office Hours: Tuesday through Friday 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM Church Office Phone: ; Pastor s Study: Website: Office Facebook: www. southwickucc.org southwickucc@gmail.com Southwick Congregational Church UCC Staff: Minister Reverend Bart Cochran Choir Director/Organist Roberta Kowal Bell Choir Director Patti P. Wood Office Administrator Lyn Casey Custodians Matthew Kowal & Maria Lempke Southwick Congregational Church United Church of Christ 488 College Highway; P.O. Box 260 Southwick, MA VOLUME MMXVII No. 11 Minister: The Rev. Bart Cochran Please join us Sundays for Worship Service 10:00 AM Mid-Week Service Thursdays 6:30 PM Website: www. SouthwickUCC.org The Good Newsletter of the Southwick Congregational Church United Church of Christ Southwick, MA DATED MATERIAL PAID Permit No. 309 Southwick, MA US Postage

2 The Pastor s Pages Say Yes! The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. See Matthew 9:35-10:23 What do you think of this gospel passage? How does it relate to Southwick Congregational Church UCC, and the wider church? What is the stewardship here? I think that it focuses on the importance of making as clear a choice as possible in using resources in favor of the Kingdom of God. Our congregation becomes clearer and deeper in stewardship commitment when we say a deliberate Yes! So, what am I asking you to say yes to? By making a strong pledge of time, talent, money, and other resources, we reinforce others who have already done so, and we encourage those who have not done as much to do the same. We let our lives speak! Another virtue of the passage is that it underscores the fact that our choices have long-term consequences. Now, I don t believe that failure to give to the church is going to keep any of us out of heaven! But I do know that investing money in the work of ministry and mission on behalf of others improves the quality 2 3 of life in our church and our broader community. It also directly benefits the people who do give - with a sense of purpose, overall well-being, and being a part of something that is larger than ourselves. It is good for all of us! To accept the command of Jesus to engage in bringing wholeness to a fragmented world is to be on a mission that matters. Say Yes to our church make a strong pledge this month. Act as if the entire mission of the church is upon your own shoulders; who knows, it might be. Merciful God, give to us a generous spirit. In giving we receive so much. In the blessed name of Christ Jesus. Amen Yours in Christ, Pastor Bart ADVENT BIBLE STUDY: Sundays 7 PM & Tuesdays 11 AM beginning November 26. Call for Pastoral Care: If anyone in our church has a family member who is ill, hospitalized, grieving or moving to a senior living facility, please be sure to advise the church office. We want to respond with caring support. Call the church office at or at southwickucc@gmail.com Don t forget, you can read the weekly sermon on our website: on the page: From the Pastor

3 Ministry and Outreach 4 5 Stewardship Thoughts Worship Schedule Sunday Worship service at 10:00 AM Thursdays Midweek Service with communion continue at 6:30 PM Ecumenical Service at The American Inn on the third Tuesday of the month at 6:30 PM Office Hours The Church office is open Monday thru Friday from 9:00 AM ~ 1:00 PM Pastor Bart s Study is open Tuesday thru Friday from 10:00 AM ~ 2:00 PM All Church Meeting Thursday, November 9, at 8:00 PM All Church Committee Refreshment Schedule November Finance Committee December Buildings & Grounds Committee January & February Open Adopt A Family Let's begin to think about Adopt A Family which will again be part of our Christmas outreach. This is an opportunity to provide assistance to some local and needy families for the holiday season. As a participant, you'd be given a family's wish list to aid with some shopping for them. It is a wonderful opportunity to give back as we count our own blessings. If you, as an individual, a family, or a committee would like to participate, please contact me for details. - djsullivan135@hotmail.com; Phone Mark Your Calendars November 11 ~ 21 ~ 27 ~ December ~ 2 ~ 16 ~ 2nd Annual Turkey Dinner Open Pantry Collection Pizza & Pine Party Adopt-A-Family Holly Bazaar Cookie Sale 8:30-1:00 1 Peter 4:10 - As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as faithful Stewards of God's grace. As we age, how will the value of our life be measured? Living a life that matters is not a matter of circumstance but of choice where each act of compassion or sacrifice enriches or encourages others. November is Stewardship month; a time to review the passing year and prepare for the year ahead. Treasure the opportunity before you. Consider your pledge relative to the data below. If 80 Stewardship pledges are received for 2018, each would need to average $1,875 to sustain a zero based budget next year. ~ Virgil $104,078 Expenses through September $83,720 Income through September $150, Budget 166 Members 78 Stewardship Pledges 54 Average Sunday Attendance $1016 Avg Pledge Open Pantry Food Collection The youth group needs to collect 150 boxes of stuffing and 150 reusable shopping bags for the Food Pantry to be given out in Thanksgiving dinner baskets. There are boxes in the Narthex and by the office to collect donations before November 21.

4 From the Library Thanksgiving Time ~Elisabeth Weaver Winstead Cherish today. ~Joyce Arnold November leaves come tumbling down, To Sweep the cloudgray sky. And from the empty cornfield rows, The bronze-tipped pheasants fly. Gold pears adorn the orchard trees, And squash reflects the gold days. Ripe apples gleam in shining bowls, Near hearth fires all ablaze. Large pumpkins line the roadside patch, The barn holds fragrant hay. We thank God for nature s gifts, Given to us this day. This treasured harvest feast we share With those we cherish best; With happy hearts, we bow our heads In gratitude expressed. 6 7 NOVEMBER 2nd Annual Turkey Dinner Saturday, November 11th, :00 PM Call for Reservations: Menu: Turkey & Gravy Stuffing Mashed Potatoes Green Peas & Butternut Squash Cranberry Sauce, Rolls Apple & Pumpkin Pie Adults: $14.00 Kids 12 and under: $7.00 Music Notes HYMNS How do we pick them? I thought it might be interesting for some of you to learn how I pick the hymns for Sunday morning worship. The Sundays in each Lectionary Year run from the first Sunday in Advent through Christ the King, which is the Sunday after Thanksgiving. There are three Lectionary Years A, B, and C. We are presently in Year A. Lectionary Year B will begin with Advent. The Scripture readings each week include one reading from the Old Testament, a Psalm, one reading from the New Testament, and one reading from the Gospel. If you were to attend church every Sunday for three years, you would hear much of the bible read. These readings are ecumenical and are read each Sunday at Our Lady of the Lake. We sing three hymns each week, with a fourth on Communion Sunday. The first hymn follows the Call to Worship. It is usually a hymn of praise and reflects the word set forth by that morning s Call to Worship. For Instance, on Oct.22 nd we heard, We Advent Bible Study Please join Pastor Bart for an exciting 4 week Advent Bible study. Classes begin November 26 and end December 19. Sundays at 7 PM, Tuesdays at 11 AM November 10 November 27 November 28 Pizza & Pine Party Monday November 27, 6:00 PM. Come join us as we make log boxes for the Holly Bazaar. Enjoy pizza and fellowship! HAPPY BIRTHDAY Karen Brzezinski Sabine Prather Julie Chase If we ve missed a birthday, please let the church office know! Continued on p. 11

5 COMING MONTHS Holly Bazaar! December 2, :30-3:00 The Annual Holly Bazaar will be taking place on Saturday, December 2 from 8:30-3:00 PM. Come shop and enjoy local crafters, candy, baked goods, wreaths, cemetery boxes and more! We need baked goods to be sold at the Church Tables. Please contact Roxanne Cook if you can help: Holiday Cookie Sale December 16, :30-1:30 We Need Cookies, Hundreds of healthy, hardy and even gluten -free cookies! Bakers; dust off your cookie recipes, gather up your flour, sugar, butter, mixing bowls and cookie scoops, warm up your ovens; it ll soon be time for another mouth-watering holiday Cookie Sale. Check Costco for the best price on supplies; a 25 lb bag of King Arthur flour is $ You say you can t possibly use all 25 lbs, why not split a bag with another cookie baker? Plan Ahead! Nab butter at a great price and freeze it til needed. Note that Big-Y offers seniors a 10% grocery discount every Tuesday through late December. For questions, see Robin or Virgil. Patti Wood is collecting recipes for cookies - in case you don't think you are a "baker." She also has recipes for fudge, other candies, bark, peanut butter balls, and the like... Feel free to contact her if you want to expand your culinary expertise are summoned by One who is just and merciful. The Ruler of all worlds expects us to respond. The following hymn was O Worship the King. From vs 5 we sang your mercies, how tender, how firm to the end, Our Maker, Defender, Redeemer and Friend. The second hymn follows the Scripture Readings. In our church there are usually two readings chosen by Pastor Bart from the Lectionary for that particular Sunday. This hymn reinforces those Scripture messages and invokes our response. Forinstance, on Oct.22 nd we heard from Paul, Sylvanus, and Timothy s letter to the Thessalonians, People tell us about what sort of welcome we had from you and how you turned to God from idols. As a result, you are serving the living and true God, and you are waiting for his Son from heaven. Our hymn was Take My Life. From vs.1 we sang Take my Life and let it be consecrated Lord to thee, and from vs. 5 we sang Take my will and make it Thine; it shall be no longer mine, and finally from vs. 6 we sang Take myself, and I will be ever, only, all for thee. On Communion Sunday the hymn following the Offertory Dedication and before the Service of Communion helps us to settle down and open our hearts to the invitation of Christ our Lord. For instance, Be known to us in breaking bread, but do not then depart; Savior, abide with us, and spread thy table in our heart. The final hymn is our response to the message of the Gospel and to Rev. Bart s sermon. It is a reaffirmation of the faith we share and an acknowledgement that we are nurtured and strengthened by God as we accept His commission to go forth into the world loving and serving in the name of Jesus. Next month we will learn about the resources the Church provides for picking hymns, and how the internet has also become a useful tool. We ll talk about why sometimes only the words are printed in the bulletin and why occasionally we don t sing all of the verses of every hymn on a given Sunday. We will learn what those small letters and numbers at the bottom right of every hymn in the hymnal mean. And finally, I will try to answer any questions you may have about the hymns between now and then. ~Roberta Music Notes continued from page 6...

6 Moderator David Breton called the meeting to order at 8:10 pm followed by an opening prayer by Pastor Bart. A motion was made to accept the minutes of September s All-Church Meeting which was seconded and passed unanimously. Minister s Report Pastor Bart met with the Church & Ministry Committee of the United Church of Christ as they interviewed him for his annual review. October 21 st is Super Saturday and three of our members will be attending workshops that day at the UCC office in Framingham. More of our members are encouraged to attend as this is open to all UCC members. The church office has been informed that a former interim minister of this church, Rev. Tim Carlton, is now in a nursing facility and the church office has his contact information. The church office now has information available for the Boar s Head Festival held each year at Trinity Methodist Church in Springfield each January. Please contact the church office for ticket information. Buildings and Grounds Dan Warriner reported 2 members present. They replaced light bulbs around the building. The church recently had a MassSave Energy Audit completed and a report is forthcoming on our lighting issues and how MassSave can help out with upgrades for the church hopefully free of charge. Christian Education Ashley Halacoglu reported 3 members present. The Youth Group is holding a Harvest Bake Sale on Oct. 22 with proceeds to go towards hurricane relief aid. The annual Pumpkin Carving/Spaghetti Supper will be on Oct. 28. Please contact Ashley or the church office for reservations. The committee also discussed their Christmas program to be held in December. Deacons Lee Zinnack reported 4 members present. The newly purchased Communion set will be blessed on the first Sunday in November. The committee discussed Advent season plans. Finance Committee Elaina Lempke reported 7 members present. The committee discussed the Pastoral Survey handed out by the Pastoral Relations Committee. They also discussed the letter for the stewardship campaign. Treasurer s Report Ted Orson reported our expenses are currently on the low side now and our income is about $12,000 less than budgeted at this point. Higher monthly expenses are coming with the heating season and snowplowing. Flower Committee Roxanne Cook reported that the flowers are all set for the month of October. All Church Committee Meeting October 12, 2017 Fundraising Committee: No report. Memorial Gifts Karen Brzezinski reported that the stonemason finished etching 3 stones that will be picked up this weekend. Funds have been coming in for the three recent funerals. Mission-Outreach Roxanne Cook reported 3 members present. The committee is working on the Adopt-a-Family program for the holidays. If you know of a family to be considered please contact the church office or a committee member. The mitten tree and sock box once again will be out for the holiday season. Music Committee Melanie Nitsch reported 5 members present. The October Calendar Raffle fundraiser is in process and going very well thanks to all the hard work by the committee members especially Brittany Perras and Lynn Coach. Lyn Casey in the church office has been supporting the raffle immensely and working hard notifying winners and we wish to thank her very much! The fundraiser has raised a little over $1,600 for the church s general fund. Roberta Kowal, our organist/choir director, will be back playing and leading the choir Sunday, 10/15, after her recent surgery. A big thank you to Sean Uliasz for filling in on the keyboards in Roberta s absence and for the bell choir and Mike & Steve Pitoniak for playing during this time when the choir was off. Pastoral Relations Committee Roxanne Cook reported the committee met last Tuesday, 10/3, and discussed Pastor Bart s 3 year contract renewal negotiations. The committee has passed out a questionnaire/comment sheet to each committee to fill out and also a short questionnaire will be in the Sunday bulletin for two weeks in a row. They are asking everyone to fill them out and place them in the boxes that are displayed by the end of October. Nominating Committee: No report. Library Committee: No report. New Business Roxanne Cook reported that the Town of Southwick s Historical Society has requested that their annual meeting/dinner be hosted by our church next year on April 19, Patty Banasik has volunteered to organize this.* The Holly Bazaar spaces/tables are now for sale at $30 each or $25 if you bring your own table. It is the 1 st Saturday in December (12/2/17) and baked goodies are needed for the church s bake sale table. The Holly Inn will again be organized by Roberta Kowal and friends. Ted Orson spoke about the United Church of Christ newsletter that he has been receiving by lately and his concerns about the UCC s political tendencies. He is asking church members to do some research on the NACCC (National Association of Congregational Christian Churches) and check out their website (naccc.org) and perhaps the All-Church members could have a discussion on this at a future date. After a motion was made, seconded, and passed unanimously to forego the Executive Board Meeting, the All-Church meeting was adjourned at 8:35 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Melanie Nitsch, Clerk *Note: the date for the Historical Supper will be April 26, LCasey

7 Hello fellow church members! #11 Forgive this short article this month but I am coming to you from Disney World! I wanted to set the stage for my next article which will be based on the present church building. This article I'll be doing a short tour of the Southwick center in It was a bit different than it looks today! The Southwick Inn was in the same spot as it is currently but in a different building which burned down in The inn was owned by Charles Bingham. The Southwick library was on the south west corner of the center and the house was owned by Mr. Thaddeus Foote. He lived with the brother to Mr. Enos Foote. The building that is now the colonial gift shop was another residential home and lawyer's office. From that house there was an open field that went all the way past where the church parsonage currently stands. The open land was all owned by Enos Foote. All the owners that I have just discussed plus one other resident gave 1/2 an acre of land to the church for a total cost of $1660. I will talk about the building of the meeting house in my next article. ~Martha Johnson Southwick Historical Corner Thank You Thank you to the Music Committee members for putting together the October Calendar Raffle, it was a big success. And a big thank you to all those that bought tickets, and to all the businesses & people that donated prizes! ~Brittany The Church offices will be closed Thursday and Friday, November 23 and 24, for Thanksgiving The Southwick This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. ~Psalm 118:24 Some days I find it very difficult to be glad; how, Lord, do I turn my attitude around? What about the days when I am simply not in a good mood? I was taught that when I am not feeling blessed, to write a gratitude list. Yet, when I am not feeling blessed, I am besieged by the yabuts (yeah, buts). Yabuts are the nasty critters that tag on to the gratitudes and eat at them to turn them into complaints. Let me give you an example: I am grateful for my home; yabut I have to pay the mortgage, fix the roof, mow the lawn, what if the furnace goes, woodpeckers are ruining the siding, it needs a new roof etc. Get the idea? I have tried to not listen to the yabuts, but they have a way of getting themselves noticed. So, I came up with a method to list my gratitudes, let the yabuts have their voice, and still end up feeling blessed. Let me show you. On a blank piece of paper I draw a line down the middle. On one side of the line I write what I am grateful for, on the other I write the yabut. When I am finished I can fold the paper over and look only at my gratitude list! My whiny little voice has had her chance to be heard, and I feel satisfied. In this month of thanks giving, I dare you to try it and see if you don t feel better. I used this last month when I celebrated my 20 year anniversary with my husband. My yabuts went right into niggling me about what HE wasn t going to do for me and all the things wrong with HIM. I stopped and started to write down all the things about him that I loved. For our anniversary gift, I gave him a deck of cards with 1 thing I loved about him stuck on the face of each card. (Honesty forces me to admit I found the idea on Pinterest.) Creating a list of 52 reasons I loved my husband was the best thing I have done in a long time; and it makes me much nicer to be around. ~Evelyn Dean Casey

8 Sun Mon Tue Wed Don t forget to bring stuffing and bags for the Open Pantry Food Collection due by November 21! 5 Communion Service 10 AM Coffee Hour 10:30 OA 3:30 PM 6 Office open 9-1 Music Together 10 7 Bell Choir 6:30 Boy Scouts 6:30 OA Step Study Thu Fri Sat 2 Midweek Service 6:30 PM 9 Midweek Service 6:30 PM All Church Mtg 8:00 (Finance) 3 OA Meeting 6-7 AA Meeting 7:30 10 Veteran s Day OA Meeting 6-7 AA Meeting 7: Wedding Rehearsal 2nd Annual Turkey Dinner 12 Worship Service 10 AM Youth Group 10:15 AM Coffee Hour 11 Durocher Wedding OA 3:30 PM 13 Office open 9-1 Music Together Bell Choir 6:30 Boy Scouts 6:30 Girl Scouts 7:00 OA Step Study Midweek Service 6:30 PM 17 GOLD DOME ARTICLES DUE OA Meeting 6-7 AA Meeting 7: Worship Service 10 AM Coffee Hour 11 OA 3:30 PM 20 Office open 9-1 Music Together Open Pantry due American Inn 6:30 Bell Choir 6:30 Boy Scouts 6: THANKSGIVING Office Closed 24 Office Closed OA Gratitude Gathering 6 NFH AA Meeting 7: Worship Service 10 AM Youth Group 10:15 AM Coffee Hour 11 OA 3:30 PM Advent Bible Study 7 27 Office open 9-1 Music Together 10 Pizza & Pine Party 6 28 Advent Bible Study 11 Bell Choir 6:30 Boy Scouts 6: Fair Share Co-op Midweek Service 6:30 PM