The Superintendent
of Sunday School and the Board of Christian Education wish to thank all those
who donated time, articles, money or gift cards toward the start of our new
Sunday School program.
We deeply appreciate your kindness.
The program is going wee and we are very
excited about it.
On Sunday,
November 2rd, after worship service,
there will be an Open House. Coffee will
be served in Fellowship Hall with
refreshments. We wil
show you the finished classrooms t hat the children and teachers use. They came out beautifully. We thank Joanne and Jillian Morganelli, and Ricky Martin for the murals. Come and see!
PARISH GUILD
– Monday, November 3rd
at
Buy a sweet for your favorite sweet!
– or
Yourself!
J.O.Y. – just older youth (formerly the M & M Club), will meet Saturday,
November 8th at
followed by Glenn Warren teaching both line
dancing and ballroom. All ‘older youth’
are invited to attend. Please call Edith
Bridges (781-337-9845) to make a reservation.
IN SYMPATHY – We extend our sincere sympathy to
the family of Marion Edwards (102 years old) on her passing; to the family of
Kay McWilliams (104 years old) on her passing; and to Lucille Olson and family
on the passing of her mother.
FINE ARTS CHORALE presents We The People, Sunday, November23rd,
NOMINATING COMMITTEE – will be seeking your help in
filling positions on the various boards and committees of the church. A flyer will be put in the November 2nd
bulletin for you to volunteer your talents.
If you would like to volunteer, please see one of the members of the
committee. In order to fill a position
you must be a member of Old South.
SAVE THE DATE! The
Parish Guild is planning a luncheon to honor our past
members who now find it difficult to attend evening meetings. The luncheon is
scheduled for Tuesday, December 16th. Watch for more details.
MAILING LIST
If you would like to be removed from the
church mailing list so that you will no longer receive the Spire and other church mailings, please contact the church office:
781-335-2545.
NEW
MEMBERS
New members will be joining our church
family on Sunday, November 2nd at the
CHRISTMAS
GIFTS AUCTION
The Youth Group is preparing for their 28th
CHRISTMAS GIFTS AUCTION to be held on Saturday evening, December 6th.
We welcome your donation. Please see all the details on the Youth Page of this Spire.
“ADULT
COMNFIRMATION” SERMONS
Copies of the 11 sermons preached from
Pentecost through the end of July are available in the church office. This
sermon series covers the basic beliefs of our faith.
THANKSGIVING
EVE
Our service of Thanksgiving will be on
Sunday, November 23rd at
THANKSGIVING
OUTREACH
If you know families or individuals who
might benefit from “holiday help” from our Board of Deacons, please contact one
of the deacons or pastors. The names that you share are kept in confidence.
PLEDGE
DEDICATION SUNDAY
We encourage you to bring your pledge card
to the service of worship on “Pledge Dedication Sunday” – November 23rd.
A copy of the stewardship sermon is on the website: www.oldsouthunion.org
MACUCC
MEETING
Old South will be well represented at the
annual meeting of The Massachusetts Conference of the United Church of Christ
on Saturday, November 1st in Worchester. Attending from Old South
will be: both pastors, Roger Goodson, Phyllis Adams,
Sam Walkama, Cynthia Hyland, Patti Sieve, Bob Meaney,
and Marilyn Drews.
PASTORAL
VISITS
To request a home visit from one of the
pastors please call the church office – 781-335-2545.
MEMORIAL
CONCERT
Join us at
GREETERS FOR
NOVEMBER
2 Barbara and Al Marcou
9 Raj and Judy Saraf
16 Ron and Joanna Morganelli, Jillian.
William and Aliyah
23 Wendy and Steve
Joyce
30 George and Marilyn
Strauss-Watson
ALTAR
FLOWERS FOR NOVEMBER
2 R. Johnson/Ewing
9 Lothrop/Manupelli
16 MacLennan/
23 Gourley/E. Edwards, Pat
Riddle
30 Drews/Rivers
TOWN OF
HOLLY FAIR – Saturday, November 8th
at the
CRAFT FAIR AND LUNCHEON - Unitarian-
THE OLD
They
have been working on many items for the holiday season. Be sure to check it out!!
I write down
everything I want to remember. That way,
instead of spending a lot of time trying to remember what it is I wrote down, I
spend the time looking for the paper I wrote it down on!
Beryl Pfizer
The next Spire will be mailed Tuesday, November
25th. All items should be in
the church office by Thursday, November 20th.
PASTOR’S PAGE
NOVEMBER 2008
“JOY COMES FROM KNOWING AND TRUSTING GOD.”
That was the theme of one of my October sermons – “Joy comes from knowing and trusting God.” I talked about the differences between joy and happiness and I said, “If we are willing to give up the search for happiness, we may find joy.”
The sermon generated an unusual number of requests for copies*, and it also prompted a question or two. I was asked, “How does one get to know and trust God?”
Several responses to the question come to mind, but I think the best way to get to know and trust God is through prayer. In a recent issue of Ministry magazine, a publication of the Seventh Day Adventist Church, Ruthie Jacobsen published a list titled How To Grow Strong In Prayer. These were some of her suggestions:
¨ Make time for prayer.
¨ Find a quiet place for prayer and Bible study.
¨ Recognize God for who God is.
¨ Confess your failures and your emptiness.
¨ Acknowledge your needs.
¨ Bring to God in prayer your needs and petitions.
¨ Thank God for what God has already done… for your blessings.
¨ Don’t give up.
¨ Sing a new song.
¨ Pray often for others.
¨ Focus your prayers.
¨ Plan your prayer time.
¨ Find a prayer partner.
To Ruthie’s suggestions, I would add:
¨ Invite God into your life…
¨ Pray for the spirit of the Living God to fill you…
¨ Sit quietly in God’s presence to allow God to speak to you…
During Advent, Jennie will be leading a class that will explore ten different types of prayer. In addition to the Tuesday evening meeting (7:00 P.M.) and the Thursday morning meeting (10:00 A.M.) Jennie is adding a gathering that will meet following worship on Sunday mornings. This is an opportunity to explore our prayer lives and to get to know and trust God. As we share experiences like this with others, our faith comes alive. (Please see the details elsewhere in the Spire.)
Especially during this season of Thanksgiving, let your prayers be filled with praise for the blessings that you enjoy.
T.O.M.
* The sermon titled “ALWAYS” can be found on the church web page: www.oldsouthunion.org
As Terry mentioned on the “Pastor’s Page,” prayer is
a wonderful way for us to get to know and trust God. But often times we feel like our prayer
lives aren’t deep enough or rich enough or regular enough. So where do we start? The Way
of Prayer invites us to embark on a journey into
the heart of prayer. The Way of Prayer is designed to
help us explore and experience the great variety of prayer paths available
to us in the Christian tradition.
This resource will expand our minds and hearts in relation to perhaps
the most central of all spiritual disciples. We’ll examine our personal history with
prayer and our ideas about God, and then we’ll experiment with a broad
array of practices to help us integrate prayer into the whole of our
lives. The forms of prayer we’ll
experience are: praying by heart, praying with music, praying by gaze,
praying with our bodies, scriptural prayer, contemplative prayer, praying
with and for others, and prayer as social transformation. Scripture will be central to our study, but
this isn’t a “traditional” Bible study—instead of focusing on the history
behind a passage, we’ll be looking at how the passage connects to our lives
today. We’ll focus on experience, not
just information. If you want to get to know and trust God—if you’re
ready to deepen your experience of prayer—please consider joining us for
this journey. The Way of Prayer will meet at three different times each week: · Tuesday evenings
from 7:00 to 8:30 P.M. · Thursday mornings
from 10:00 to 11:30 A.M. · Sundays after
worship from 11:30 A.M. to 1:00 P.M. Classes will begin on Tuesday, 11/18; Thursday,
11/20; and Sunday, 11/23 so that you can use this study as your Advent
spiritual disciple. The class will
continue for ten weeks following the introductory sessions, with breaks for
Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s.
This promises to be a wonderful experience as we open our hearts to
God and grow in faith together. If you’re interested in joining The Way of Prayer, it would be helpful for you to pre-register
by sending an e-mail to jennie@osuchurch.org or by speaking with Jennie
after worship on 11/2 or 11/9. Each year during the holiday season, the Board of
Missions works with local social service organizations to coordinate OSU’s
Christmas outreach efforts. The
Board of Missions works throughout the year to support local, national, and
global initiatives, but during the holiday season the Board focuses on
providing aid to people in need in the Weymouth area and surrounding
communities. Again this year, the
Board is working with the Baird Center and the Department of Youth and
Family Services to provide Christmas gifts to children and families who
can’t afford to buy gifts on their own. You can
sign up to participate in the Christmas gifts collection by visiting the
Welcome Center after worship. Please join us in sharing the light of
God’s love with those in need during this holiday season. Many thanks to all of you who so generously supported
the Neighbors in Need offering that we collected in worship on October 19th. We received
$868 that we will pass along to the national offices of the United Church
of Christ. Much of the Neighbors in
Need offering is used by the UCC’s Justice and Witness Ministries to fund a
wide array of local and national justice initiatives, advocacy efforts, and
direct service projects. A portion
of the offering also supports our American Indian neighbors in the
UCC. The NIN offering is an
important way that we lend our support to the wider church. Thank you for your generosity! Genesis Youth Group provides an opportunity for fun
and fellowship in a faith-filled environment. The group is open to all 4th, 5th, and 6th
graders whose families are part of the OSU community. We gather on the second and fourth
Thursdays of the month from 4:00-5:30 P.M. in Fellowship Hall. (Please
note that we will not meet on Thanksgiving, November 27th.) We’re
always ready to welcome new members to the group! If you’d like more information about
Genesis, please contact Jennie in the church office or at
jennie@osuchurch.org.
On September 9th,
the United Church of Christ issued an appeal for 1001 Emergency Clean Up Buckets to support emergency and long term relief and
rebuilding efforts necessitated by the destructive 2008 Atlantic Hurricane
Season. Hurricanes Fay, Gustav, and
Ike, as well as Tropical Storm Hanna left a trail of death and destruction
across the nations of the Caribbean, throughout Florida, and across the
Gulf Coast of the United States. In
response to these disasters, Church World Service has provided countless
emergency kits to people who have been displaced from their homes. Emergency Clean Up Buckets
are especially helpful to hurricane victims as they begin the overwhelming
job of cleaning up after they return to their homes. As the recovery process continues, CWS
needs to be able to meet the demand for Emergency Clean Up
Buckets. Because the Board of
Missions is committed to serving not only our own community but also our
nation and the world, we hope that Old South can contribute five Clean Up Buckets in response to the UCC’s appeal. The OSU Preschool and the OSU Youth Group
will also join us for this mission project.
Working together, we expect that we’ll surpass our five bucket
goal! For each
Emergency Clean-up Bucket that we provide, the Board of Missions needs to
collect: · Five scouring
pads · Seven sponges,
assorted sizes · One
