The Federated Church of East Arlington

The Federated Church of East Arlington Meditation, Meanderings and Musings from Pastor Kathy email: ksclark58@yahoo.com Cell 733-2162 Parsonage phone: 375-2427 As I write these words, a cold rain is doing its best to wash away the snow that arrived a week ago just when we hoped winter was over. The shoveling and boot wearing and iffy driving conditions have gotten old and the tease we experienced a few weeks ago of spring-like conditions whetted our appetite for the real thing. It s clear that many of the already-budding trees and returning robins are as confused as we humans are. And so we approach Holy Week and Easter balancing great anticipation with the knowledge that there is still some hard darkness to experience before we get to the grand reveal. The journey into Jerusalem with Jesus, complete with waving palms and glad Hosannas, that then becomes increasingly tense with a shared meal eaten under a cloud and through a Friday of immense suffering is one of those trips where we desperately yearn to click our heels and find ourselves early morning, peering into the tomb of new life. This Lent we have been focusing on having more than enough. The Holy Week story has the ability to fill us up with the range of emotions, from joy through sadness and despair and then returns us to a permeating joy that etches all matter of possibility through and with God. Our Palm/ Passion Sunday service at 10:00 a.m. on April 9 will engage us in the story and take us to the edge and no further. Then on Maundy Thursday, April 13 we will gather for soup and bread and foot and hand washing at 6:00 p.m. in Bailey Hall and then move into the church sanctuary for a remembrance of the Last Supper with Communion received beginning at 7:00 p.m. The evening ends with the Tenebrae service of sacred words and ever-diminishing candle light. On Good Friday a time for prayer, special readings and silence is carved out from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. when the church will welcome all who would like a time apart. The laughter and joy of children will fill the church property on Saturday, April 15 at 9:00 a.m. for the Easter Egg Hunt that is open to the wider community. We will then welcome Easter s first light with the Sunrise Service at 6:00 a.m. on the eastfacing hill at the Mack Headquarters and follow this with a continental breakfast in Bailey Hall. The joy of resurrection will be lifted up and celebrated at the 10:00 a.m. Easter Service of Worship with special music amid the vivid Easter flowers. At the fellowship time that follows, we are encouraged to bring goodies to share. Let us gather throughout the days, bookended by Holy Week and Easter, taking with us the ups and downs of inner experiences. We will move through the words and emotions, finding our way from gladness through death to new life. There is a place for each of us in this sacred time and space as well as the greatest of hopes in this story our story. May we embrace and be filled by it. Peace and blessings, Kathy April 2017 Inside This Issue Financial Secretary s Report Church Attendance Church Council Birthdays & Anniversaries Helping Hands Fellowship/Coffee hour Sunday School Teachers Lectionary Readings Holy Week Schedule Easter Plants Adventures in Reding Scholarships Grange Breakfast Bishop Sudarshana Devadhar Prayer Shawl Ministry Electronic Giving Website News From the Office Bible Study Clipboards Need Names Calendar Page Why Nobody Wants to Go to. T Continued from page 10 Lent/Holy Week/Easter Please submit your articles for the May 2017 issue of the newsletter by April 20th Thank you for your anticipated cooperation! 2 2 2 3 3 3 3 3 4 4 5 5 5 6 7 8 8 8 8 8 9 10 11 12

Page 2 The Federated Church of East Arlington Report of the Financial Secretary, Sandra Grover 2017 Congregational Giving Budgeted: $ 65,000.00 Congregational Giving Received 2/1-3/31 $ 19,035.56 Fundraising 1/1-3/31 $ 0.00 Methodist Bathroom Project $16,785.99 Thank You! Church attendance (including children) 3/5 42 4 Children 3/12 45 5 Children 3/19 32 1 Child 3/26 39 7Children Church Council Report The Church Council is working hard on many fronts; Building and Grounds, Education, Finance, Worship & Ministry and Missions. We welcome Olavi Wirkki to chair Finance. Even if it looks like nothing is happening with the Methodist bathroom much is being accomplished behind the scenes. We are waiting for our engineer to finish and get approval from the State for the septic system. This is possibly the most time consuming part of the puzzle. The building and grounds has everything else in place once approved. There have been a few more meetings taking place in the space and hopefully the community will be able to use the space and expand the use once the Methodist Building is complete. The Church will have to put about $26,000 from our annual budget into the bathroom even with donation of $15,000. Any donations will be gratefully appreciated. How exciting it will be when done! The Men s group is no longer meeting and they supplied coffee FOREVER! Now we will be taking donations to support our wonderful habit (Regular or Decaf). The snow is melting and April looks bright and wonderful with spring on the way. The annual Easter Egg Hunt is April 15 th and then celebration of Easter. Sunday School and Youth Group are going strong but we need your help with teachers and helpers, just one week would help sooo much. They are really a lot of fun and you never know what they will say - it will make you smile and even laugh. Feel free to contact me with any questions. Peace & Love, Sue Congdon Chair Sue Congdon Treasurer Alyson Grzyb Clerk Sandy Grover Ex Officio Pastor Kathy Clark Building & Grounds Charlie Jenks 1. John Davies 2. Olavi Wirrki Education - Anne Marie Webber 1. Bernice Gaudette 2. Fred Kerner Finance - Olavi Wirkki 1. Herb Taylor 2. Raebeth Hitchcock Worship & Ministry Karen Tibbetts 1. Fred Kerner 2. Phyllis Warren Missions Joel Tibbetts 1. Wendy Bahan 2. Jen Rosenthal

April 2017 Page 3 April Birthdays 6 Al Clayton 9 Raymond Grover 13 Phyllis Warren 15 Christopher Daniels 20 Annie Howard 21 Ward Wilson 25 Arianna Barrios April Anniversaries 2 Virginia & Francis Wilkins 5 Ginny & John Mehle 27 Anne Marie and Robert Webber Fellowship/Coffee Hour April 2: April 9: April 16: Bring goodies to share April 23: April 30: April Helping Hands Lay Reader: Joel Tibbetts Council Member: Sandy Grover April 2: Usher: Karen Underhill Communion Servers: Karen Underhill, Kathy & John Frost Greeter: Michelanne Sylvester Sunday School Teacher: Anne Marie Webber April 9: Ushers: Sonja Mattison and Lillian Wood Greeter: Karen Underhill April 13:(Maundy Thursday) April 16: Usher: Greeter: Ginny Wilkins April 23: Usher: Alyson Grzyb Greeter: Fred Kerner April 30: Usher: Greeter: April 2: April 9: Sunday School No Sunday School-Palm Sunday Passion Play April 16: Easter Sunday, no Sunday School April 23: April 30: Southwest Association, UCC Prays for their Churches Each week one of the churches in the Southwest Association, UCC, will be prayed for by the other churches in the association. April 2: April 9: April 16: April 23: April 30: First Congregational Church of Wallingford United Church of West Rutland Second Congregational Church of Bennington United Church of Benson Brandon Congregational Church Lectionary Readings for April April 2: Ezekiel 37:1-14; Psalm 130 Romans 8:6-11; John 11:1-45 April 9: Matthew 21:11; Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29 Matthew 26:14-27:66 April 16: Acts 10:34-43; Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24 John 20:1-18 April 23: Acts 2:14a, 22-32; Psalm 16 John 20:19-31 April 30: Acts 2:14a, 36-41; Psalm 116:1-4, 12-19 Luke 24:13-35

Page 4 The Federated Church of East Arlington LENT, HOLY WEEK and EASTER 2017 Sundays at 10:00 a.m. Sunday Service of Worship. Lenten theme: More Than Enough: Living Abundantly in a Culture of Excess. Each week different items will be gathered to support the folks served by the Bennington County Coalition for the Homeless through their new shelter and Thatcher House. The schedule is as follows: 4/2 Toilet Paper 4/9 Shampoo 4/16 Children s books April 9 10:00 a.m. Palm/Passion Sunday Service will be celebrated in the form of an intergenerational Passion Play with palms for everyone. April 13 6:00 p.m. Maundy Thursday Simple Soup Supper 7:00 p.m. Maundy Thursday Tenebrae Service of Worship with Holy Communion and ending with Tenebrae extinguishing of candles. April 14 9 a.m. - 3 p.m. Church Sanctuary open for Good Friday prayer and reflection April 15 9 a.m. sharp Easter Egg Hunt for children ages 1-8 years old who are encouraged to bring a basket or bag for gathering eggs. April 16 6:00 a.m. Easter Sunrise Service at Mack Headquarter followed by continen tal breakfast in Bailey Hall 10:00 a.m. Easter Sunday Service of Worship followed by fellowship time in Bailey Hall. All are invited to bring a goodie to share. (Cut and return to church office) Easter Flowers We all have the opportunity to make our sanctuary beautiful to celebrate the Risen Christ! I will bring a potted flowering plant. In memory of Given by I will give $ for flowers to be purchased for Easter Sunday (checks to The Federated Church, suggested $10 per plant) I will make a donation to Summer Lunch: In memory of or in honor of Given by (Checks to be made out to Summer Lunch Program) The plants can be brought to Bailey Hall on Friday, April 14 th or Saturday, April 15 th, 9 a.m. 3 p.m.

April 2017 Page 5 Adventures in Reading June 1st is the date this year to submit your reading results for the 2016-2017 READING YEAR. You may hand the report to me or mail it to me. (My address is P.O. Box 479, Arlington, VT 05250-0479). I shall put all your results together and have that report to you by the end of June. To be a Qualified Reader is your goal. This means reading at least one book from the list in each of the categories (I, II, III, and IV) listed in your yellow pamphlet. You have been supplied with a reading report (white sheet). You would be extremely helpful if you supplied numerous suggested books for the next year s reading list. When filling out the suggested books for next year be sure to include the author s name, a brief statement about the content of the book (without telling the ending) and which of the 4 reading categories (I, II, III, IV) the book should be placed in. Most of the Readers are knowledgeable about the reports. I have spelled it out for the new Readers to the group. If any of you have questions, do not hesitate to call me (802-375-9020). On another matter, thanks to our Church Secretary, Sandy Grover, for the highlighting of all reports in our monthly church Newsletter with appropriate little pictures. HAPPY EASTER Janet Wilson, Coordinator Grange Breakfast Sunday, April 23th 7:30 to 9:30 a.m. The Federated Church of East Arlington Scholarships Available to Arlington, Sandgate and Sunderland Students The Federated Church of East Arlington will once again be offering "Bentley Family Scholarships." The Bentley Scholarship Fund was established by the Trust of June A. Bentley who taught both music and business in Arlington schools and who believed in developing the potential that each of us has within us. Anyone who lives in Arlington, Sandgate or Sunderland, or who went to Arlington Memorial High School, and will be attending college or graduate school in the Fall of 2017 is welcome to apply. Scholarship applications (different for college and graduate school) can be found on the Federated Church's website, www.federatedchurchofeastarlington.org, under the scholarship info tab. Scholarship applications are due to the church office by April 15th, 2017, at which time they will be reviewed by the scholarship panel. The scholarship panel will contact potential recipients to schedule face-to-face interviews. Scholarships funds will be awarded after transcripts depicting a successful semester have been submitted to the church office. Any and all who meet the requirements should apply!

Page 6 The Federated Church of East Arlington My Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ: March 1, 2017 Greetings in the precious name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. This past Saturday was painful. I received a message from a relative in India containing a recording of Sunayana Dumala, the wife of Srinivas Kuchibhotla, who was shot and killed on Feb. 22, 2017 allegedly by Adam W. Purinton, who yelled at Kuchibhotla and his friend, "Get out of my country. It was also painful to read in the press that the father of Kuchibhotla's friend and co-worker Alok Madasani, who was also shot, said: "I appeal to all the parents in India not to send their children to the United States in the present circumstances." When I was growing up in India, it was a dream of most parents to send their children to the United States. Countless numbers of Indians were touched by the food given by the U.S. government and other agencies during the hunger crisis in the 1960s. We watched with excitement the first Americans landing on the moon, and heard with hope the I Have a Dream speech. People in India cried when President John F. Kennedy and Dr. Martin King Luther, Jr. were assassinated. As an Indian who is now a proud U.S. citizen, it hurts me, as it does many others, when innocent people are killed because of their skin color, accent, religion, or immigration status. I am saddened and sickened by the fear and xenophobic behavior rising inside and outside the United States. What should our Christian response be to incidents like this one that are happening not only in the U.S., but in other parts of the world as well? What does it mean for us as baptized Christians, particularly today as we receive ashes on our foreheads and begin our Lenten discipline? It is my hope and prayer that we engage in reflection on our own Christian baptisms, and ask the question: What can I do when I hear of a hate crime or when a colleague, friend, or relative makes hateful statements? Contemplating this, my attention was drawn to a conversation one of the great missionaries of the last century, Dr. E. Stanley Jones, had with Mahatma Gandhi when they met nearly one hundred years ago. Jones asked Gandhi how Christianity could become naturalized, a part of the national life, contributing more fully to the national spirit? Gandhi suggested four things: "(1) All Christians, Missionaries and all, must live more like Jesus Christ. (2) You should practise your religion without adulterating it or toning it down. (3) You should emphasise the love side of Christianity more, for love is central in Christianity. (4) You must study more sympathetically the non-christian religions to find the good in them and to have a more sympathetic approach to them." (Stephen A. Graham, The Life and Works of E. Stanley Jones: Extraordinary Man, Extraordinary Mission. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2005, p. 141) It is my hope and prayer that we take Gandhi's advice seriously and ask prayerful questions as a part of this Lenten season and beyond. How would it look and what difference would it make in our communities, nation, and world if all of us lived more like Jesus? How different would our churches be? How different would our churches be if everyone was involved in a deeper study of the Bible and the traditions and history of Christianity? What would it be like if we knew how to be prophets, sages, priests, teachers, moreover missionaries, evangelists, and apostles within our own settings? How is genuine Christian love different from the love that's portrayed in theaters? Can we make an honest attempt to share this love every day during the Lenten season and beyond? How would we and our churches be changed if we interacted with people of other faiths living in our communities? Suppose we invited them to potluck suppers or hosted conversations in our churches or their temples, synagogues, mosques, or gurdwaras to get to know them better. After all, they, too, are children of God. (Continued on page 7)

April 2017 Page 7 (continued from page 6) Beloved brothers and sisters in Christ, we live in a turbulent world where every Christian witness makes a difference. May I share with you the words of Pastor Martin Niemöller, who lived in Nazi Germany and expressed regret about Germans' silence in the face of persecution in this now famous confession: First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out Because I was not a Socialist. Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out Because I was not a Trade Unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out Because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak for me. (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum website.) The names Sunayana Dumala and Srinivas Kuchibhotla may be unfamiliar to us, but we live in a world where every day we hear stories like theirs. As we traverse in this modern-day wilderness and face our own temptations, may God grant us direction, and the strength, courage, and discernment to explore what our Christian baptism challenges us to do in this life. May we also remember this verse from the gospel passage for this first Sunday of Lent, "Then the devil left him, and suddenly angels came and waited on him." (Matthew 4:11) Yes, many times you or I may be the lone voice standing up for those who are oppressed or marginalized, but if we remain faithful to our Christian calling, God's angels will come and wait on us. May we be bold enough in those moments to do what we are called to do. In Christ's love, Bishop Sudarshana Devadhar Prayer Shawl Ministry On Saturday, March 18 there were 14 ladies present to celebrate the 10 th Anniversary of the Prayer Shawl Ministry. What a blessing these years have been. Shawls have been presented to 423 people! Awesome, to say the least. We shared a potluck lunch topped off with a delicious homemade cake served with vanilla ice cream. Great food and good fellowship. We were able to reminisce a little about the start of our ministry and the first gathering on March 17, 2007. My how we have grown since then! This is a wonderful group focused on bringing comfort and love through the shawls created. On April 1, the group will be traveling to Granville, New York to The Village Yarn Shop. The owner of the shop is sponsoring a presentation that day at 2 p.m. at the Slate Valley Museum which we will attend. Carolyn Webb, a life-long knitter and lover of all things textile, will be speaking on the History of Knitting in America. In between our visits to the yarn shop and museum, we ll enjoy lunch. Looking forward to fun and fellowship and learning. The April 1 outing will be our gathering for the month of April. We ask God s continued blessing on this ministry. We ARE blessed! Questions? Speak with Sue Wirkki or Kathie VanBenschoten

Page 8 The Federated Church of East Arlington We, the members of the Federated Church of East Arlington, declare ourselves to be an Open and Affirming and Reconciling congregation. With God s help, we include all persons in our fellowship, embracing and celebrating differences of gender identity, marital status, age, mental and physical ability, and sexual orientation, as well as racial, ethnic and socio-economic background. We welcome into our community everyone who seeks to share in the work and worship of the church of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Consider automating your regular donations with our new electronic giving program. The Federated Church of East Arlington relies on the financial support of the congregation and donations electronic giving offers an easy way to give on a recurring basis. Visit the church office for more information or go to our webpage at www.federatedchurchofeastarlington.org or scan the qr code. Thank you! FROM THE OFFICE If you know of a prayer request to add or change in the bulletin, please let the office know by Thursday. THURSDAY MORNINGS Join us from 9 to 10:30 a.m. in Bailey Hall as we read and discuss the books of the Bible. If you have any questions, speak with Joel Tibbetts or call the church office. WEBSITE NEWS federatedchurchofeastarlington.org If you would like to add anything (pictures, articles) to the website or have suggestions, contact Sue Wirkki, 375-9471; sue@wirkki.org Like the Federated Church of East Arlington on Facebook. CLIPBOARDS NEED NAMES Choir Ushers Communion Servers Fellowship/Coffee Hour Altar Sunshine Flowers Ride Share Sunday School Share the Love We are a family, we love each other, we need each other, we are loved by God.

April 2017 Page 9 Calendar page

Page 10 The Federated Church of East Arlington Submitted by Sandy Barnes Why Nobody Wants to Go to Church Anymore by Steve McSwain That s the title of a new book written by Joani Schultz and Thom Schultz. And it s a question those leaving are more than ready to answer. The problem is, few insiders are listening. And, of course, that IS the problem. In a recent issue of Christianity Today, for example, Ed Stetzer wrote an article entitled, The State of the Church in America: Hint: It s Not Dying. He states: The church is not dying... yes... in a transition... but transitioning is not the same as dying. Really? What cartoons have you been watching? Clearly, the Church is dying. Do your research, Mr. Stetzer. According to the Hartford Institute of Religion Research, more than 40 percent of Americans say they go to church weekly. As it turns out, however, less than 20 percent are actually in church. In other words, more than 80 percent of Americans are finding more fulfilling things to do on weekends. Furthermore, somewhere between 4,000 and 7,000 churches close their doors every year. Southern Baptist researcher, Thom Rainer, in a recent article entitled 13 Issues for Churches in 2013 puts the estimate higher. He says between 8,000 and 10,000 churches will likely close this year. Between the years 2010 and 2012, more than half of all churches in America added not one new member. Each year, nearly 3 million more previous churchgoers enter the ranks of the religiously unaffiliated. Churches aren t dying? No, of course not. Churches will always be here. But you can be sure, churches are going through more than a mere transition. I study these things carefully. I counsel church leaders within every denomination in America, having crisscrossed this country for nearly two decades counseling congregations as small as two hundred in attendance to churches averaging nearly 20,000 in weekly attendance. As I see it, there are 7 changing trends impacting church-going in America. In this first of two articles, I ll address the 7 trends impacting church-going. In the second part, I ll offer several best practices that, as I see it, might reverse the trends contributing to the decline. Trends Impacting Church Decline: 1. The demographic remapping of America. Whites are the majority today at 64 percent. In 30 to 40 years, they will be the minority. One in every three people you meet on the street in three to four decades will be of Hispanic origin. In other words, if you are not reaching Hispanics today, your church s shelf life is already in question. Furthermore, America is aging. Go into almost any traditional, mainline church in America, observe the attendees and you ll quickly see a disproportionate number of gray-headed folks in comparison to all the others. According to Pew Research, every day for the next 16 years, 10,000 new baby boomers will enter retirement. If you cannot see where this is headed, my friend, there is not much you can see. 2. Technology. Technology is changing everything we do, including how we do church. Yet, there are scores of churches that are still operating in the age of the Industrial Revolution. Instead of embracing the technology and adapting their worship experiences to include the technology, scores of traditional churches, mainline Protestant, and almost all Catholic churches do not utilize the very instruments that, without which, few Millennials would know how to communicate or interact. However, when I suggest to pastors and priests, as I frequently do, that they should use social media and, even in worship, they should, for example, right smack in the middle of a sermon, ask the youth and young adults to text their questions about the sermon s topic... that you ll retrieve them on your smartphone... and, before dismissing, answer the three best questions about today s sermon, most of the ministers look at me as if I ve lost my mind. What they should be more concerned about is why the Millennials have little or no interest in what they have to say. 3. Leadership Crisis Enough has been written about this in the past. But you can be sure, clergy abuse, the cover-up by the Church, and fundamentalist preachers and congregations have been driving people away from the Church, and continue to drive people away, faster than any other causes combined. 4. Competition People have more choices on weekends than simply going to church. Further, the feelings of shame and guilt many people used to feel and church leaders used to promote for not attending church every week is gone. There are still those, however, who want to categorize Christians as an explanation for the church s decline in attendance in a futile effort to make things not look so bad. But this, too, is the illusion that many church leaders and denominational executives are perpetrating but nobody is paying attention. They are just too blind to see that. For example, in the very same article I referenced above, Ed Stetzer has concocted three different categories of Christians he conveniently thinks explains the dire situation faced by the church. He says there is a kind of classification system between those who profess Christianity as their faith choice. First, he says there are cultural Christians or those who believe themselves to be Christians simply because their culture says they are. But, clearly, he implies they are not. Second, he classifies a group of congregational Christians which he says are not much better off than the first misguided group, except that these are loosely connected to the church. (continued on page 11)

April 2017 Page 11 (continued from page 10) Third, he notes the third group, which no doubt he ranks as his group, that he calls the convictional Christians. These are the true Christians who are actually living their faith, according to Ed Stetzer. I ve got news for you, Mr. Stetzer, there are scores of people who have left the church, not because they possess some phony or inferior faith, as you would like to believe, but precisely because they do not want to be around judgmental people like you. They have left, not to abandon their faith, but precisely because they wish to preserve it. You would be much better off to leave the judgment-making to Someone infinitely more qualified to do so (Matt. 7:1). 5. Religious Pluralism Speaking of competition, there is a fifth trend impacting the decline of the church in America. People have more choices today. Credit this to the social changes in the 60s, to the Internet, to the influx of immigrants and minorities, to whatever you d like, but the fact is, people today meet other people today of entirely different faith traditions and, if they are discovering anything at all, it is that there are scores of people who live as much, if not more, like Christ than many of the Christians they used to sit beside in church. The diversity of this nation is only going to expand. Which is why, you might debate some of Diana Eck s conclusions, the Harvard scholar and researcher, but her basic premise in correctly stated in the title of her book, A New Religious America: How a Christian Country Has Become the World s Most Religiously Diverse Nation. 6. The Contemporary Worship Experience This, too, has contributed to the decline of the church. It s been the trend in the last couple of decades for traditional, mainline churches to pretend to be something they re not. Many of them have experimented with praise bands, the installation of screens, praise music, leisure dress on the platform, and... well... you know how well that s been received. Frankly, it has largely proven to be a fatal mistake. Of course, there are exceptions to this everywhere and especially in those churches where there is an un-traditional look already, staging, an amphitheater-style seating, as well as the budget to hire the finest musicians to perform for worship. In traditional, mainline churches, however, trying to make a stained-glass atmosphere pass as the contemporary worship place has met with about as much success as a karaoke singer auditioning for The X Factor. 7. Phony Advertising There s one more trend I ll mention I believe is having devastating impact on the Church and most certainly contributing to its decline. You cannot tell Millennials that your church welcomes everybody that all can come to Jesus and then, when they come, what they find are few mixed races or no mixed couples. You cannot say, Everybody is welcome here if, by that, you really mean, so long as you re like the rest of us, straight and in a traditional family. In the words of Rachel Evans, a millennial herself and a blogger for CNN, Having been advertised to our whole lives, we millennials have highly sensitive BS meters. In other words, cut the bull. If everyone is not really equally welcomed to the table at your church, stop advertising that you are open to anyone. That is not only a lie, but Millennials can see through the phony façade as clearly as an astronomer, looking through the Hubble telescope, can see the infinity of space. There are other trends. These are just a few of them. In Part Two, I ll offer some best practices I think the Church should seriously consider if it ever plans to get real and honest about its future and its influence on culture and society. FREE VCIL Workshop Series FREE April 5, 1:00-3:00 Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Bennington, 108 School Street, Bennington Reiki for All Events are free, but registration is required to ensure enough materials and seating. Participation is open to people with disabilities, their caregivers and allies. Light refreshments provided. Have you ever wanted to learn about reiki, an ancient gentle hands-on healing technique? Reiki helps to calm & relax us while also giving us much-needed energy to get through our day. It works on many levels: physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual. You'll learn how to do reiki on yourself and also receive a free notebook with lots of information so you can do reiki on yourself and your loved ones, including your pets! Sign up today to make sure you get a spot in this great class taught by two reiki masters Mary Ann Carlson and Everley St. Peter who are both reiki volunteers at our local hospital. Lynn Mazza, VCIL,601 Main St. Bennington, 802-442-1876, lmazza@vcil.org

The Federated Church of East Arlington 102 Ice Pond Arlington, Vermont 05250 802-375-2548 federatedchurch05250@gmail.com www.federatedchurchofeastarlington.org Visit us on Facebook The mission of The Federated Church of East Arlington is to welcome all, follow Jesus Christ together, and live God s Word with compassionate service. April 2017 Newsletter LENT, HOLY WEEK and EASTER 2017 Sundays at 10:00 a.m. Sunday Service of Worship. Lenten theme: More Than Enough: Living Abundantly in a Culture of Excess. Each week different items will be gathered to support the folks served by the Bennington County Coalition for the Homeless through their new shelter and Thatcher House. The schedule is as follows: 4/2 Toilet Paper 4/9 Shampoo 4/16 Children s books April 9 10:00 a.m. Palm/Passion Sunday Service will be celebrated in the form of an intergenerational Passion Play with palms for everyone. April 13 6:00 p.m. Maundy Thursday Simple Soup Supper 7:00 p.m. Maundy Thursday Tenebrae Service of Worship with Holy Communion and ending with Tenebrae extinguishing of candles. April 14 9 a.m. - 3 p.m. Church Sanctuary open for Good Friday prayer and reflection April 15 9 a.m. sharp Easter Egg Hunt for children ages 1-8 years old who are encouraged to bring a basket or bag for gathering eggs. April 16 6:00 a.m. Easter Sunrise Service at Mack Headquarter followed by con tinental breakfast in Bailey Hall 10:00 a.m. Easter Sunday Service of Worship followed by fellowship time in Bailey Hall. All are invited to bring a goodie to share.