Category Archives: Congregational Happenings
Annual Report 2012-2013
Featured
Prepare yourself for the Annual Meeting this Sunday by reading the 2012-2013 Annual Report.
RSVP What You are Bringing for Potluck for Julia Terry on Saturday
If you plan on attending the farewell potluck for our wonderful administrator Julia Terry, which will be held at church this Saturday 5:30 – 7:30 PM, would you please RSVP Rev.Terry Burke what you plan on bringing? That way we won’t have all quinoa, or, hemp ice cream. Email Terry at BerryTurke@gmail.com what you are bringing, and please try to join us in thanking Julia!
Open Prayer Group Starts April 28th for Seven Sundays
Group prayer before church, 9:15 – 10:30, in the large room upstairs from the parish hall. Four Sundays beginning May 19th and going through June 2nd. Beginners welcome. Follow the signs!
In the wake of the recent tragedies in our city and in the world, and as you carry your own personal heartaches, perhaps you find yourself wrestling with God, in anger or in doubt. questioning your relationship with the higher power you thought you knew. In this 7 week peer-led prayer group, we’ll provide one another with support and encouragement in discovering, recovering, and strengthening our connection to the god of our own understanding.
Come to one session, or come to all seven. All are welcome, no experience necessary, and no particular faith tradition or beliefs required.
Contact Sarah Hawkins with questions.
First Church Jamaica Plain: Staff Transitions
***Goodbye!***
Julia Terry – Outgoing Congregational Administrator
Julia Terry, the congregational administrator, will have her final office day on May 23rd, after which she begins a 6 week roadtrip back home to Alaska.
***Hello to Jennifer Waddell!***
Jennifer Waddell, our incoming Congregational Administrator, has lived in (and loved) Jamaica Plain since 1989. She worked for a publishing company downtown in many capacities for fifteen years but now prefers the freedom of being self-employed.
She graduated with Honors in Photography from SUNY Purchase and she has her own small portrait photography business.
Jennifer enjoys the challenges and triumphs of raising her seven year old twins on her own; thrift shopping; novice gardening and hanging out with friends. She looks forward to meeting everyone at the First Church JP and becoming part of the community.
Healing Our City Interfaith Prayer Service Link
Sunday, April 21st: Gather Together
This Sunday our congregation will gather at 11 a.m. to grieve, support one another, and seek sources of hope in light of the ongoing tragedy of the Boston Marathon bombings. Rick Yoder’s important sermon on climate change will be rescheduled later in the Spring, as will the showing of the 350.org “Do the Math” tour film. The scheduled potluck on climate change following the Sunday service will simply be a time for us all to be together. Please join us on Sunday when we as a church family will reflect, pray, and share our hearts.
Gathering as Beloved Community this Sunday in the Wake of Tragedy
This Sunday our congregation will gather to grieve, support one another, and seek sources of hope in light of the ongoing tragedy of the Boston Marathon bombings. Rick Yoder’s important sermon on climate change will be rescheduled later in the Spring, as will the showing of the 350.org “Do the Math” tour film. The scheduled potluck on climate change following the Sunday service will simply be a time for us all to be together. Please join us on Sunday when we as a church family will reflect, pray, and share our hearts.
Adult RE: Focus
Rev. Terry Burke will lead an adult religious education group called “Focus” on the first three Wednesdays of May, starting May 1st at 7PM. The group will draw upon Arthur Boers’ book ”Living into Focus: Choosing What Matters in an Age of Distractions.”
Boers talks about “focal activities,” things we do, whether “spiritual practices” or activities like gardening or playing sports or writing, that engage and connect and focus us at a deeper level, and take us out of our distracted, wired, digital, virtual world. Please sign up by emailing the church at firstchjp@aol.com.
Church Open in Response to the Bombings
The church will be Monday, April 15th, from 6-7PM for those who want to meditate, prayer, light a candle, or simply be with others in this time of tragedy.
Fellowship Dinner Remarks by Andrea Fleck Clardy
We often speak of First Church as a kind of extended, chosen family. There is no time in the year when that feels to me more apt than at our annual Fellowship Dinner. Here we all are, enjoying the reliably wonderful food that George Wardle prepares with scout-like precision, experiencing tomato aspic, breaking bread with friends, laughing together, and singing good-night to Irene. Continue reading
Easter Services
