VOICES Newsletter
February 2017
Message from the Pastor
Dear friends –
Those of you who were in church on January 22nd saw our “only at
United” worship team ~ me with my broken ankle, Andrew (our guest
pianist) with his broken foot, and Sue Tarantino (our liturgist) with her
pre-knee-replacement cane: [picture below]
...and we did JUST FINE! I have a new appreciation for accessibility
(and gratitude for our “easy to maneuver around” worship space),
and a deeper humility after what I hope will not be any longer than 4 ½ weeks of
depending on others for rides and all the other things I take for granted…it
is rarely easy to be on the receiving end of kindness and help with even the simplest things.
My thanks to all who have helped and offered help!
This was a frustrating month to be so limited, as so much has been happening at United in
response to events in our country and world. Please read the following article on “Faith and
Response” to learn more about the conversations and actions United and United members
have been engaged in lately, and some of our intentions going forward.
Blessings,
Nancy
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FAITH AND RESPONSE
The following announcement has been in our weekly bulletin:
How does our faith inform our response to events in our country and world? What basic
beliefs do we draw upon, what scripture do we turn to, who are the spiritual leaders and
prophets who inspire us as we try to be faithful Christians in this time and place?
In the UCC Affirmation of Faith, we proclaim:
God calls us into the church to accept the cost and joy of discipleship, to be servants in the
service of the whole human family, to proclaim the gospel to all the world and resist the
powers of evil...
Many people have been expressing concern and fear about what has been happing in our
country since the election, and what the coming days will bring. As a community of faith,
we want to understand how we are to live and respond as Christians to what happens in our
country and world....
On January 22, 29 and February 5, many of us gathered after church to talk about what we
believed our faith is asking of us today: how are we called, in the words of the prophet
Micah, to “do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God”? How do we live out the
command of Jesus to love one another as he loves us, and to feed the hungry, clothe the
naked and free those who are imprisoned? Jesus tells us that we are the “salt of the earth
and the light of the world”; what does that look like?
We are being bombarded with so many changes and so much information that it is difficult
to keep up with what is truth and what is misleading. To that end, we identified nine key
concerns at this time for which people have offered to be “point people”: keeping up with
information and actions we can take if this is an issue that concerns us. If you have
questions about these issues, please contact the point person to be kept up date:
Gun control: Joanna Pickering
Supreme Court nominations: Tom McMilllan
Freedom of the press: Gretchen Switzer; Elizabeth Brooks
Immigrant issues/sanctuary: Rebecca Williams, Mary Flynn (Elise Kreiger, Jo-an Bott, Helen
Bross, Darrell and Elisabeth Hyder)
Separation of Church and State: Joy Hennig
LGBT concerns: Debra Cottis
Refugee issues: Helen Bross; Sandra Johnson; D.A. Droser
Climate change/respect for science: Carolyn Dzaugis
Heath care: Katherine Orcutt; Dorista Goldsberry
Education: Gretchen Switzer
We have been sharing articles and updates via email; if you would like to be included in the
“Faith and Response” emails, please let me know and I will add you to the list. We will
continue to gather once a month to discuss how our faith informs our response to current
issues. Our next meeting will be March 5 immediately after church – please join us!
Faith and Response: Beyond Our Doors
Jesus tells us that we are light for the world – and that no one lights a lamp and hides it
under a bushel! We come together for worship, and then carry the light of our faith beyond
our doors into the world ~ which (as I often say!) has such great need of it! United members
have been at three recent events, shining their light:
On January 21st at least seven United folks marched at Women’s Marches in either Boston or
DC, saying in response to the marches:
I loved the diversity of the crowd (what was it? 75,000? 90,000? 105,000?) and the variety of
colorful signs kept me entertained for hours, literally! The number grew as we stood for more
than 2 hours on the Common, often shoulder to shoulder, in a crowd that, at one point I
thought could easily trample us all in no time. The mood on the ground was light and
hopeful even though this "March" was serious business.
On January 27th, my partner and I joined the 150K people for the “Boston Women’s March for
America.” It was amazing to be with such a peaceful, loving crowd gathered together for
mutual support and political change. We stood with the UCC section on the Commons and
what a thrill it was to sing “America the Beautiful” and “Amazing Grace” together with all of
those beautiful voices...
With God's amazing grace, America will continue to be beautiful!
I had the privilege of attending the Women's March in Boston two weeks ago. In all of the
many speeches I listened to that day, I heard no hatred, no invective, no incitement to
violence, no arrogance, no call to build - in the words of Elizabeth Warren -"stupid walls." This
event was not about doing it my way, it was about doing it OUR way. All of us. As I said in
one of very first ever postings on Facebook-This is what America looks like. THIS is what my
America looks like.
On January 31st, a number of United folks were at the rally on City Hall to protest the recently
enacted travel ban and in opposition to a resolution stating that Worcester is not a
sanctuary city. Worcester Interfaith was one of the organizing bodies, and speakers
included people of all ages, ethnicities and from all faith traditions. Signs carried by United
members identified our church as a welcoming and inclusive church.
On February 1st, five United folks attended an informational meeting hosted by Worcester
Interfaith and the Worcester Latino Ministers Alliance about what it means to be a
“sanctuary church”. As with the other events this past month, this one was interfaith and
multi-ethnic, with about 60 people in attendance. Participants learned there are three
ways of supporting immigrants through the sanctuary movement:
1. As a Sanctuary Congregation: willing to house families and provide enough space for a
safe place to sleep, kitchen, refrigerator, bathroom, bathing, etc. as well as participate in
advanced training regarding needs and logistics.
2. As a Sanctuary Supporter Congregation: willing to stand together with other
congregations as part of a sanctuary network across the state as well as provide such
necessities as toiletries, food, clothing, transportation, etc.
3. As an Individual Supporter: willing to stand together with others as part of the sanctuary
network across the state as well as money or other needs.
Our hope is to build a strong, informed and faithful foundation so that we can be responsive
– not reactive – to events taking place in our country. I am heartened by the commitment I
have heard again and again to ground our actions in Jesus’ word and example, and
heartened by conversations about how we are called to serve God and serve God’s
people, to love God and love God’s people in these days. Our conversations about our
response as individuals and as a congregation will continue!
Nancy
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SUNDAY WORSHIP
IN CASE OF SNOW CANCELLATIONS:
A message will be placed on the Church’s phone. Call 508-752-3785 and the
opening message will direct you to extension 152 for inclement weather
information. (Let it ring/does not pick up right away). The message should be on the phone
by 7:30 am for Sunday Worship.
ASH WEDNESDAY SERVICE: MARCH 1ST
We begin the holy season of Lent with a simple, contemplative service on Ash Wednesday,
March 1st, at 7:00 pm. The service will include the distribution of ashes, a sign of our
repentance and human frailty. Please join us as we journey through Lent together.
_____________________________________________________
UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST: A CHURCH OF MANY FIRSTS
~ Shared by Gretchen Switzer
Following Christ’s example, we in the United Church of Christ are proud of our history of leading the way
towards the creation of a more inclusive, welcoming, and just world. We and the denominations which
bonded together to create the United Church of Christ were first to accomplish the following:
Inspired by the principle of religious freedom, the Pilgrims and Puritans traveled to this land to establish
their own churches. They also founded the nation’s first public schools . The oldest continuously operated
public school in America was founded in 1635.
Prevented by King James from publishing their materials, the Pilgrims brought their press to the new world
and published the first book on the North American continent, The Bay Psalms Book, in 1640. Today, the
UCC's Pilgrim Press is the oldest continuously operating press on the continent and freedom of the press
is a hallmark of US democracy.
Early New England Congregationalists began forming colleges – the first was Harvard in 1636, which was
founded out of a desire to provide training for ministerial candidates on the same level as that received by
immigrant ministers from England.
Today, The United Church of Christ continues its emphasis on education. In 2001, General Synod called on
people at all settings of the church to advocate for and support excellent, universal public education,
calling it “one of the foremost civil rights issues in the twenty-first century.” Today, the UCC is the only
Christian church in the U.S. with a national staff member devoted full-time to public education .
Congregationalist opposition to slavery began in 1700 when Puritan Samuel Sewall, Chief Justice of the
Massachusetts Superior Court, wrote the first anti-slavery tract published in America . Throughout the
north, many future UCC churches were active in the abolitionist movement, and some served as stops on
the Underground Railroad.
"No tax on tea!" was first heard in the Old South Meeting House (a Congregational church) which became
the staging area for the Boston Tea Party, led by Old South deacon (and brew master!) Sam Adams.
In 1773, Congregationalist Phillis Wheatley was the first Black woman whose writings (poetry) were
published.
The all-white Congregational church in Granville , Massachusetts called the Rev. Lemuel Haynes as
minister. He was the first African-American ordained to Christian ministry in a mainline tradition (1785).
And in 1839, Congregationalist John Quincy Adams argued before the Supreme Court for the freedom of
the Amistad captives –Africans who mutinied aboard the schooner Amistad after having been kidnapped
and illegally sold into slavery. This was the first human rights case that was successfully argued before the
US Supreme Court. Congregationalists also led the effort to form the Amistad Committee to educate and
care for the captives – a committee that later evolved into the American Missionary Association. After the
Civil War, the AMA worked with freed African-Americans to found hundreds of schools and churches all
over the south to educate freed slaves and their children. These became the first inter-racial schools in the
country, as white New Englanders traveled to the south to teach in the schools attended by both the
children of freed slaves and the teachers' own children.
Continuing the legacy begun in the 1700's, the United Church of Christ was in 1989 the first Christian
denomination to name racism as a sin.
Oberlin College , founded by Congregationalists in 1833 in Ohio , was the first U.S. college to award fouryear college degrees to women.
In 1853 Antoinette Brown was ordained as minister of a Congregational Church in New York , making her
the first American woman ordained into Christian ministry.
In 1806, five Williams College undergraduates felt a calling to dedicate their lives to foreign mission. This
resulted in the establishment of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. In 1812, the
Board sent out America ’s first foreign missionaries to Bombay . Today, the United Church of Christ has
100 missionaries around the world.
In a Congregational church in Massachusetts in 1943, Reinhold Niebuhr introduced and first prayed the
Serenity Prayer: "God, give us the grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, courage
to change the things that should be changed, and the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other."
In the early 1960’s the UCC Office of Communications brought suit against the Federal Communications
Commission for systemic racial discrimination. The landmark decision first opened our federal airwaves to
people of color.
A United Church of Christ ordained minister, Benjamin Chavis, working in the UCC Office of Racial and
Justice Ministries, first coined the phrase, "environmental racism" to describe the practice of placing toxic
and waste facilities near poor, ethnic communities, targeting Native Americans, African Americans and
Hispanics.
The United Church of Christ was the first denomination to ordain an openly gay person. The San Francisco
Association ordained Bill Johnson in 1972.
Massachusetts Conference Annual Meeting delegates led the way in the Open and Affirming movement,
which invites congregations to pray and study whether they are called to fully welcome gay, lesbian,
bisexual and transgender people into their lives and ministries. The 185th Annual Meeting adopted the first
ONA resolution within the UCC in 1984, and General Synod followed the next year.
On May 17, 2004 it became legal in Massachusetts for same-gender couples to marry. United Church of
Christ clergy were probably the first Christian clergy to officiate at these legal unions. Not all UCC clergy
and churches are in favor of same-gender marriage. UCC clergy are not required to officiate at these
unions; neither are they prevented from doing so by bishops or church doctrine.
ST PATRICK’S MONTH BEGINS MARCH 5TH WITH THE JOLLY BEGGARS!!
Why limit St Patrick to just one day!??! Let’s give him an extra day ~ Sunday
March 5th ~ when the Jolly Beggars will join us for a special worship service
featuring a wee bit of the Celtic spirit! Wear green, wear orange ~ we’re all Irish
on March 5th! This is a wonderful Sunday to bring your friends, your
acquaintances, your neighbors ~ anyone you’d like to share United with! How
better to celebrate the almost-end-of-this-long-winter than with a little “jolly”?
So put March 5th on your calendar, and plan to bring your friends with you to
church that day!
United Calendar
Feb 26
Feb 26
Feb 27
March 1
March 5
Community & Fellowship Ministry Meeting
Annual Financial Meeting (snow date of 3/5)
Carty Cupboard Volunteer Day/Wesley United Methodist Church
Ash Wednesday Service, 7:00pm
Guest Musicians: The Jolly Beggars (wear green!)
~ Faith and Response Gathering after church ~
March 12 Spiritual Life and Diaconate Ministry Meeting
March 27 Carty Cupboard Volunteer Day/Wesley United Methodist Church
Resources
UCC Lectionary Information (http://www.macucc.org/pages/detail/220)
United Congregational Church (http://www.ucc-worcester.org)
UCC Mass Conference (http://macucc.org/)
National UCC Web Page (http://www.ucc.org/)
Kansas lesbian pastor finding a home in the UCC
February 01, 2017
Written by Anthony Moujaes
One year ago in January, the Rev. Cynthia Meyer preached a sermon in which she came out to her
Kansas congregation with the hope that her denomination, the United Methodist Church, would
change its position and welcome LGBT people. Placed on a leave of absence as a result, Meyer
now finds herself experiencing the hospitality of the United Church of Christ — welcomed here for
who she is.
Meyer began serving as interim pastor at Central UCC in Topeka on Nov. 21.
"My first Sunday coincided with the first Sunday of Advent," she said. "The congregation is Open
and Affirming for more than 20 years and has welcomed me warmly. I appreciate being in a
congregation and denomination in which I can serve openly and authentically."
In January 2016, Meyer told her then-congregation in a Kansas City suburb she was called to "be
open and honest" about who she is as a same-gender loving woman in a committed relationship.
After a formal complaint by UMC leaders against her, Meyer, ordained 25 years, reluctantly
agreed to give up her duties as a UMC pastor.
Numerous UCC clergy from around the country contacted Meyer after her story became public.
She had conversations with Kansas City pastors, and the Kansas-Oklahoma Conference Minister,
Edith Guffey also reached out to her. "Many assured me that the UCC would welcome me and
offer an affirming place for ministry as my authentic self," Meyer said.
"I initially reached out to her simply as support, that you are not alone, that people are with you in
spirit," Guffey said. "From all reports, she was a fine pastor doing good work where she was. I'm
always on the lookout for good leaders who are deeply committed to ministry."
Meyer doesn't feel like the situation has been resolved with the Methodist church. She remains on
an involuntary leave of absence, which began in August and could last until the denomination's
next worldwide conference in 2020. And the charge filed against her by judicatory leaders — a
"self-avowed practicing" gay clergy member — still remains.
In the UCC, Meyer realizes the same authenticity, but is fully supported in her ministry. "It's been
wonderfully freeing to be fully open about myself and my relationship, now in every setting and
with the support of a denomination that recognizes me as compatible, beloved, and able to serve
as clergy, able to offer the full services of the church, including officiating weddings for any adult
couple," she said.