WOMEN’S FELLOWSHIP: We are planning an INTERGENERATIONAL EVENT for women and younger women (all ages) to get to learn about each other & have some fun together. The date is Saturday, January 14, the time is 10:30 a.m., the place is the church! This is a wonderful opportunity for working women to bring their daughters & sons & participate in a fun & educational way. Call Ruth Stevenson, 860-928-7822 if you have any questions. Refreshments will be served by Women’s Fellowship. Barbara Child will offer Worship. Bring your grand daughters & friends if you don’t have a daughter available!
Church Wide Fund Raiser for Jan Arcand!
“Without cost you have received, without cost you are to give.” (Matthew 10:8)
As many of you know, Jan Arcand underwent surgery for a brain tumor this past fall and is now recovering at home in Putnam. Jan has been a long-time member of our church and was deeply involved in the Youth Ministry Team while serving as a mentor for many of our young people over the years. We now have the opportunity to help Jan get through this difficult time by offering our prayers and financial support. Jan is self-employed as a mental health therapist and we know she would appreciate any assistance until she is well enough to return to work.
Please join us for an evening of fellowship on Saturday, January 28, at 5:00 p.m. at the Hill Church for a simple dinner, silent auction (themed baskets), and entertainment. A free will offering will be taken at dinner and you will be able to purchase tickets for the baskets. You may also choose to give a donation by writing a check to Jan’s daughter, Rachael Arcand.
We are inviting church members and friends (individually or as a family) to put together a basket in a theme of your choice to donate for our Silent Auction. You will find more information on this and ideas for baskets in Harrison Hall.
Members of the E. Woodstock church will also be joining us as well as friends and colleagues of Jan and Rachael. Please mark your calendar for January 28 (snow date on January 29) and you may call the church office (928-7405) to let us know you are coming. We hope to see you there!
Thanks so much for your generous support and blessings of the season,
Debbie Pallatto-Fontaine
Please contact the following church members if you would like to help in any way:
- Food preparation and serving: Jim Nowak, Sam Lyman, Ruth Stevenson
- Baskets: Diane Peterson and Debbie Pallatto-Fontaine
- Entertainment/Music: Deb Kirk
- Setting up tables: Ted Bradley
SUNDAY SCHOOL NEWS
The nursery volunteer today is Emily John.
Today is the first of three Sundays in our David, The Boy unit:
Preschoolers, Kindergartners, and Grade 1 enjoy the video rotation with Ellie Donahue;
Grades 2, 3, 4 and 5 play games with Kate Murdock; and
Grades 6, 7, & 8 conduct science experiments with Laurie Trudeau.
Next Sunday, we will continue collecting canned goods for Daily Bread, so please remember to bring items to contribute.
DAVID, THE BOY
David was young and small in stature but great in courage and faith. God used this brave-hearted youth’s gifts to accomplish mighty deeds, and God can use our gifts to do the same. In this unit, we will study the boyhood stories of David from the Book of First Samuel to realize that God saw in David what others missed, to learn what childhood traits later made David a great king, and to study how God accomplishes vital work through ordinary people.
RETREAT: Debby Kirk and Olivia Arsenault (from EW) are attending the TAWFG Retreat at Silver Lake this weekend. Thinking About Working For God is one of the signature programs of the CT Conference to help our young people discern God’s call and think about vocation. Please keep Olivia and all of our teens in your prayers as they listen for direction in their lives.
DAY OF INTERFAITH SERVICE will be sponsored by Cooperative Metropolitan Ministries on Monday, January 16. Youth and adults are invited to gather at Brandeis University to put faith in action with an afternoon of service work in Boston. Rev. Liz Walker (WCVB––Boston) will be the featured speaker at the closing celebration. Register online at www.coopmet.org to reserve your spot. We will meet at the East Woodstock Church at noon to carpool. Friends and college kids are welcome to join us as we honor the ML King holiday with a ‘day on, not a day off.’ Speak to Debby Kirk if you would like to participate and pick up an informational flyer by her office door today. If you would like to help out, but can’t attend, we will be collecting gently used children’s winter wear and boots to take to the work site, Cradles to Crayons. “Everybody can be great because everybody can serve.” ~Martin Luther King, Jr.
AS MOST OF YOU ARE AWARE, the Somers Congregational Church burned to the ground on New Years Day.
How You Can Help
1. Pray for the leaders, members, and friends of the Somers Congregational United Church of Christ.
2. The church is fully insured. To assist with those financial burdens that are beyond their coverage, click here to make your gift securely online; enter the amount on the line for "Somers CC Fire Fund."
JR. CHOIR!!! We are having our first rehearsal of 2012 today!!! Please come meet in the downstairs area so that we can go over our schedule for the new year! We will meet after church school. If you wish to get a snack upstairs before choir, make sure you do so quickly! I hope to see all of you there! ~Miss Emily
NAME TAGS: There is a sign up sheet for new Name Tags in Harrison Hall. If you don't have a name tag or need to replace one please let us know so we can get you one.
2012 OFFERING ENVELOPES are available in the Narthex for those who have requested them. Please pick up yours today.
CALL TO THE ANNUAL MEETING OF THE FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH
The Annual meeting of the First Congregational Church of Woodstock is called for Sunday January 22, 2012 in the meetinghouse of the church with roll call at 11:15am and the following agenda:
- To accept the reports of the Pastor, Clerk, Boards and Committees and the Treasurer for the year 2011;
- To act upon the report of the Nominating Committee;
- To receive and act upon Budgets for Local and Wider for 2012
- To remember those of our membership who have died since our last annual meeting;
- To hear the report of the Church Historian;
- To act upon any other business proper to come before the meeting. Diane K. Miller, clerk
DEACONS SPONSORING RETREAT: Happy New Year everyone! The deacons invite all who might be interested to a spiritual retreat to be held in Harrison Hall. In our journey toward securing a 'settled' minister, we have been urged to pray. So many of us have difficulty in knowing how to start praying and listening for God's word that we, as deacons, thought this type of day would be beneficial for us all.
We will join together in 'holy work': centering prayer and quiet to settle ourselves for a day of introspection and prayer, getting to know each other as friends in spirit, and in meditation and listening. We will break into small groups as well as a larger discussion group. We are hoping this will be a fruitful day of inspiration, of learning, and listening to each other and to the Holy Spirit. At the end, as the Spirit moves, we will go out strengthened with a renewed sense of God's presence and leading light.
We will be led The Reverend Dr. Deborah Pallatto-Fontaine who has done many retreats for other churches over the years. Deb is well remembered here for all her work with Global Missions and was instrumental in bringing our Bosnian families to this country. She has spent several summers in China teaching ministers there and was also in Korea. Deb is a full professor at Becker College and also teaches a course at the Mercy Center in Southern Ct. We are so very fortunate to have her available for us.
On January 21,weather permitting, or January 28 if we get snowed out, we will start with coffee, juice and goodies at 8:30 in Harrison Hall; at 9 we will begin our work. We will break for a 'working' lunch around noon and finish by 3. If you cannot stay the entire time, we welcome you when you can be there. We are so excited to be able to do this for all of our church members and friends.
There will be a sign up sheet in Harrison Hall on January 8. This will help us plan for space and materials. Thank you.
CALENDAR OF THE WEEK
Today
11:15 a.m. Junior Choir
Monday Community Kitchen
7:00 p.m. AA
Tuesday
7:00 p.m. Council
Wednesday
7:00 p.m. Boy Scouts
7:00 p.m. Search Comm.
7:00 p.m. Deacons
7:30 p,m. Giv2
Saturday
10:30 a.m. Women’s Fellowship Intergenerational Event
