First Congregational Church of Plainfield

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1 First Congregational Church of Plainfield Pastor s Message Fall 2010 Newsletter As St. Paul wrote, Let me say first that I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you. i Time does pass quickly doesn t it? It is hard to comprehend that it has been over a year since I responded to your call for a pastor. I must confess, that I was overwhelmed at first with the newness and challenge of it all; getting to know all of you, understanding the history of this family, and wanting to do my best to bring God s purpose for this church to fruition. Thank you all for being so supportive and patient with me. God is good; we have come a long way and we will continue to put one foot in front of the other and pursue God s plan for our church. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. ii We have such wonderful plans for the upcoming months; you have only to look at our calendar of events to see the beauty and aliveness of our church family. I look forward to exploring and discovering God s plan for each of us and all of us. God bless all of you. Pastor Terry i Romans 1:8a (New Living Translation) ii Hebrews 12:1b (New Living Translation) XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX VOLUNTEERS NEEDED Fall Cleaning HELP NEEDED Oct. 6 th or 7 th CLEAN the Kitchen, Bathroom, and Downstairs Floor Sunday School Help Needed The annual holiday bazaar will be held November 13th from 10:00am- 2:00pm. Volunteers are needed to help the day of the bazaar - please look for a sign up sheet at coffee hour. Also, to help offset the cost of our grinder sale, we ask the congregation to donate deli meats, cheeses, paper products, etc. The sign up sheet will be posted at coffee hour. If you have any questions, please see Dawn Bates or Donna Paradis. Also, the Sunday School is looking for volunteers that could relieve a teacher once a month so that they can attend service. We are also in need of a

2 youth coordinator. If you would like to help in any way, please see Pastor Terry, Dawn Bates or Donna Paradis. Scripture Readers Pastor Terry needs some volunteers to read scriptures. Bell Choir and Singing Choirs The Diaconate is asking for additional Choir members and bell choir members Church Dinner Helpers We are having a family style dinner at the Church on Dec. 4th and will need help on that day for set up, serving and clean up. Rummage Sale Helpers The Rummage Sale is the first weekend in Oct. They need help setting up the week before and clean up the Sat of the sale. XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX "Be sure to check us out on the web at XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX Cabinet Meeting Minutes Sept. 13, 2010 First Congregational Church Plainfield Attendees: Amy Vaughan, (diaconate), Pastor Terry, Chelle Wright (Missions),David Young (Trustees), Tom Shippee (Pastoral Relations), Cathie Beausoleil (Church Clerk). Absent: (Christian Education), Opening Prayer was given by Pastor Terry. Minutes from the August meeting were reviewed and approved. Pastor's Report Stewardship planning: The Stewardship letter will be sent out by Oct. 10 th and a presentation will be given for four Sunday s (Oct.17 th -Nov. 7 th ) before Stewardship Sunday by: Missions (Chelle), Diaconate (Amy), Financial Secretary (Tom) and Trustees (David/John). Cathie will

3 introduce this approach at the Congregational meeting Sunday and on Oct. 10 th. A planning meeting will be set up for the speakers. Bereavement group may have four participants. Sat. Service will begin Nov. 6 th ; an ad will be placed in the Turnpike buyer for this new monthly service. PACEM group will meet this week to plan Thanksgiving services. Youth group will be meeting on Sunday nights once a month led by Pastor Terry. Diaconate Update: Diaconate will be meeting in Sept. Choir practice time will begin at 8:30 the morning the choir sings. The Congregation will be asked to vote on a proposed change to our Church Service time: 10 am at the meeting Sunday. Christian Education Update: Rally Day went really well. A calendar of events has been created and includes: A Dylan Memorial field trip to Mystic Aquarium Sept. 26 th, Pumpkin painting contest Oct. 24 th, Christmas Bazaar Nov. 13 th, Christmas pageant Dec. 19 th, Valentine s Day party Feb. 13 th, Easter egg hunt on Easter Sunday, and conduct the Church service on June 5 th. Missions Update: Angel food has one box ordered but expect more orders before Friday. There have been some menu changes this month. Pastor Joe from Angel Food will be having a meeting in CT. We hope to be on our own soon. Heifer Project continues to collect funds to buy the 2 nd goat. Trustees: Tickets are being sold for the Oct. 9th Gospel night and we hope to have a big crowd. David is planning to work on the parking to create some handicapped parking and increase our parking capacity. We are meeting with an engineer to evaluate the ground water issues we have. We need more volunteers for our two clean up dates: Sept. 25 th outside clean up day and Oct. 6-7 th Church inside cleaning. No work has begun on the outside window painting project. Parsonage update: Because the Parsonage is empty our current insurance carrier won t cover the parsonage any longer. We are searching for a new insurance company; we will need a separate policy for this and it most likely will cost more. Trustees are exploring an option to find someone to live in the Parsonage who won t have to pay rent but will pay the utilities and hopefully do some improvements to the property. If this is feasible, it will be presented to the Congregation at our meeting Sunday. Pastoral Relations plans to meet Sept. 29 th. The group planned for the Congregational Meeting: reports will be given by each committee/board. The Cabinet will provide refreshments for coffee hour and special recognition of Pastor Terry s first year of service will be included. New business: Dianne McBroome has agreed to do a quarterly newsletter. She will send the newsletter by and by regular mail (only to those without computers). Dianne will be included on the Cabinet minutes distribution. Cathie will request that Dianne include a Current Events section where we can advertize our projects and fund raisers. We will also ask for a Volunteer section where we can ask for member help with projects etc. XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

4 Upcoming Events Sept. 25 outside church yard clean up day and Oct. 6-7 church inside cleaning. Sunday School Events: A Dylan Memorial field trip to Mystic Aquarium Sept. 26, Pumpkin painting contest Oct. 24, Christmas Bazaar Nov. 13, Christmas pageant Dec. 19, Valentine s Day party Feb. 13, Easter egg hunt on Easter Sunday, and the children will conduct the Church service on June 5 Pastoral Relations plans to meet Sept. 29. Rummage Sale the first weekend in October. Fri. Oct. 1, Sat., Oct. 2 Oct. 9 Gospel music night Sunday Church Service time change to 10:00am begins November 7. This time will stay the same year around. Choir practice time will begin at 8:30 the morning the choir sings We are planning on serving a family style dinner December 4 XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

5 Sunday School Happenings Sunday school started off with a Rally Day Sundae Party the children celebrated with a Moon bounce, popcorn and a hula hoop contest. Aiden was our champion contestant. The children will be collecting non perishable items for project PIN. It is part of what we are incorporating in our lesson for the world food share. They will continue to collect items through October. We hope to take a trip to the food bank to stock and deliver our donations. On Sunday 09/26/10 the children enjoyed a trip to the mystic aquarium. We had pizza and icecream before leaving for the afternoon. We had great weather! They all enjoyed the stingray pool, where they had a chance to pet the stingrays as they circled the pool. The seal show was another favorite. On October 24 th the children will be celebrating the fall season with a pumpkin decorating contest. We will be asking the congregation to judge the pumpkins. Also in October we will be collecting an item for the movie basket raffle for the Sunday School Christmas Bazaar on 11/13/10. XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX