NORWICH CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST 15 Church Street PO Box 236 Norwich, VT 05055-0236 Tel: (802) 649-1433

3 Fax (802) 649-2805 Email: . . . . . . . . . . . .nccucc2@myfairpoint.net Website: . . . . . www.norwichcongregational.org Pastor: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Rev. Mary Brownlow
AN OPEN AND AFFIRMING CONGREGATION WORSHIPING ON SUNDAYS AT 10 AM LIFELINE Coordinator / Editor / Photographer: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Linda Himadi Designer: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Douglas Lufkin Send articles to: . . . .nccucc2@myfairpoint.net Deadline for next issue: December 15, 2011

Non-profit Organization US Postage PAID Norwich, VT Permit No. 1

the Lifeline
NORWICH CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH
U NI T ED CH U RCH OF CHR IS T

D E C E M B E R 2011

God Bless Us,

Every One!

E-MAIL ADDRESSES If the church does not have your e-mail address, and you would like to be kept abreast of announcements and events at church by this no cost/no waste option please send an email to the church ofce at nccucc2@myfairpoint.net.

The Season of Advent is Here!

Please join us at church for the following family holiday activities:

Opportunities for Giving on Christmas Eve

The collection taken on Christmas Eve supports the Pastors Discretionary Fund, which is used for local assistance. We will also be collecting childrens books to give to the Upper Valley Haven. There will be a basket to receive these books at the 6 and 9 pm services on December 24.

Sunday December 4 10:00 am Second Sunday in Advent: Communion Sunday Sunday December 11 10:00 am *Third Sunday in Advent: Youth Christmas Musical Sunday December 18 10:00 am Fourth Sunday in Advent Saturday December 24 6:00 pm Family Service of Carols and Readings, Junior Choir Sings 9:00 pm Traditional Service of Carols and Readings Sunday December 25 10:00 am *Christmas Day Service Sunday January 1 10:00 am *New Years Day Service Communion Sunday * These services will be family friendly and meant for all to enjoy. There will be no Sunday School offered on these 3 dates as we encourage all to participate in worship. On December 11, nursery care will be provided, but there will be no nursery staff on Dec 25th or Jan 1. Special activities and 'fidgets' will be placed in the child activity pouches found in the back of the sanctuary and in the pews for busy little fingers to play with during these worship services.

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NORWICH CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH

Mary Brownlow. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Pastor Kathleen Sherlock-Green. . . Choir Director Jane Chase Helms . . . . . . Organist Emerita Tacy Colaiacomo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Organist Danielle Taylor . . . . Sunday School Coord. Carol Jackson . . . . . . . . . . Office Manager Joni Latuch-Lyman . . . . . . . . . Bookkeeper Dan Goulet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Sexton

2011 LEADERSHIP
CHURCH OFFICERS Church Council Chair . . Dick Broussard Church Council Vice-chair . Susan White Moderator . . . . . . . . . . . . .Brooke Mohr Vice Moderator . . John Severinghaus Clerk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Joanne Egner Ass't Clerk . . . . . . . . . . . . Katy Gerke Treasurer . . . . . . . . .Christopher Ashley Ass't Treasurer. . . James Hourdequin Collector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Judy Pond Ass't Collector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Auditor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . BOARD OF DEACONS Senior Deacons . . . . . Willemien Miller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Gary Brooks Paul Gerke, Sharon Corrigan Christopher Ashley Rita Severinghaus BOARD OF TRUSTEES Chair . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Tom Evans Carolyn Mertz, Doug James Stan Williams, Daniel Van Dorn Brooke Mohr BOARD OF MISSION Chairs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jenny Williams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Mary Brown Deborah Berryman, Jeff Nielsen Doug Britton, Kathy Grant BOARD OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION Chair . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Laura Beliveau Harry Higgs, Marty James Mary Sachsse, Ann Beams COMMITTEES Flowers Tilda White, Ryan Adams Deborah Van Arman Hospitality Evelyn Gick, Anne Egner Joan Wanner, Susan McGrew Stephanie Smith Investment Mark Beliveau, Peter Mertz Music Anne Broussard Sarah Reeves
Stan Williams adds origami decorations to the Parish Hall tree at the First Sunday in Advent Pot Luck Supper.

Mark your Calendars:

To celebrate the 2012 United Nations Interfaith Harmony Week January 29 at 4:30 pm

One Light, Many Candles

The Ryan-O'Flaherty family has been photographed for the church directory. How about you? We are taking these photos after worship on Sundays.

A Multi-faith Program in Word and Song Presented by Reverend Betty Stookey and Noel Paul Stookey A program of readings and music reflecting the diversity and integrity of individual faith seeking a global spiritual community The Stookeys write: For some of us, perhaps many of us, there is a spiritual hunger that is no longer being fed by our loving and comfortable places of worship. As it becomes more evident that all living creatures are connected to each other, living, breathing, sharing this wonderful world, we need a language with which to reach beyond our doctrinal, liturgical and often polarizing expressions of belief; a way to overcome our differences and see our commonality without fear of losing our spiritual integrity. If we can trust the Love that sustains and inspires us all, then that trust will enable us to reach out to each other, to find that spark of the Divine which lives in each of us, despite, or perhaps because of our belief systems.

Board of Mission Offering for November & December

The Christmas Fund

Remembering Those Who Serve Our Church
The Christmas Fund Offering, Special Mission Offering of the United Church of Christ (UCC), is an important way of sharing our joy at God's renewing and life-giving grace. The Offering, which is administered by the United Church Board for Ministerial Assistance of the Pension Boards on behalf of the UCC, is an expression of joy and gratitude to, and for, those who serve the church. Gifts to the Christmas Fund are used to provide financial aid to retired and active ministers and their surviving spouses and children, who face overwhelming financial demands. It provides pension and health premium supplementation to low-income retirees, emergency assistance to the families of clergy and lay employees and Christmas gift checks to hundreds of retired clergy receiving annuities. Your gifts are needed more than ever to help the growing number of retirees whose low income annuities make it difficult to meet increasing living costs. This is an opportunity to participate in God's promise of renewal, by enabling this ministry of compassion and care. Please use the yellow Mission envelopes in the pews to make donations to the Christmas Fund during November & December, 2011
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Adult Education
Bible Study continues from 9-10 am on Wednesdays. We meet in classroom #2 upstairs. Join us!

Nominating Vicky Fish, Barbara Duncan Ann Waterfall Stewardship Gretchen Maynard, Priscilla Vincent Woodworth Fund Avery Post, Doug James, Judy Hobbs Mimi Simpson, Kenneth Cracknell Other At-Large Church Council . . .Bob Miller Head Usher: . . . . . . Marianne Spalding Historian: . . . . . . . . . . . . . Susan White Delegates: . . . . . . . . . . . . . Susan White . . . . . . . . . . . Kenneth Cracknell Alt. Delegates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

IF YOU WANT TO DONATE FLOWERS FOR WORSHIP...

please contact Tilda White at (802) 649-1654 for help, information, or to sign up. You may also sign up on the Flowers sheet posted at the back of the church.
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Party Hats and Fierce Mercy

by Susan White December 25th is just around the corner, and I am thinking, prayerfully, of all those pastors in all those churches who are struggling to find something to say that will give their congregations a sense of the majesty and mystery and deep, resonant meaning of Christmas. Our expectations are particularly high this year, this year of flood and bloodshed, of scandal and incivility. In a world that seems so often sad and shallow and careless of human life, we need to know that, somehow, Christmas matters. There are very few times I can remember having walked out of a church because of something a pastor has done or said. But on a cold Christmas Day about ten years ago I did just that. Admittedly, my demands on that service were high on that particular Christmas morning. The Twin Towers had fallen just three months before, I had had a frightening diagnosis, and we had begun to realize that my mother was in the early stages of dementia. I needed to know that somehow Christmas mattered to all of that. Kenneth and I were gathered with our English family for the holidays in a little town north of London, and we decided to venture out to attend the morning service at a nearby church. We walked in to the unfamiliar space, occupied a back pew, and waited for the proceedings to begin. Within a few minutes the pastor walked out in a cone-shaped paper party hat, stood in front of the congregation, opened her arms wide, smiled broadly and proclaimed, Today is Gods birthday! Lets all sing Happy Birthday to God! Kenneth and I looked at each other and, as the organist launched into the familiar Happy
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Birthday motif, we stood up and left. Certainly, any reasonable theologian would have a field-day with this pastors interpretation of Christmas. (E.g., If the Christmas story is the story of the birth of God, then where was God before this? Can God, the Eternal One, the beginning and end of all things, the Alpha and Omega, even have a birthday? and so on). But it was not primarily the dodgy theology that forced me to walk away from that church that Christmas morning. Rather, it was the sheer banality of it all; the sheer banality of Happy birthday to you! and party hats that managed to suck every single bit of the majesty and mystery and deep resonant meaning out of the Christmas story. I love Christmas festivity, but on that Christmas Day I needed something more. I needed a word of hope. But it couldnt be unrealistic hope. Not on that Christmas Day. My personal circumstances wouldnt tolerate unrealistic hope, or simple platitudes, or superficial messages. I wanted to face the facts about Christmas. A baby is born, but the shadow of death falls across his manger; a baby is born, but the powerful and the ruthless are already gathering to hunt him down; a baby is born, hungry and cold and crying in the night. Yes, I needed to hear these hard truths. But I also needed to hear other truths about the Christmas story as well. A baby is born, and as I thought about my mother I needed to hear that things that seem weak and fragile and insignificant can be the very things that matter most. A baby is born, and as

I thought about my health I needed to hear that no matter how far we are pushed into the edges of life, Gods love and mercy are there to meet us long before we even arrive. A baby is born, and as I thought about the deaths of all those men and women on 9/11 I needed to hear that Gods will for peace is permanently woven into the fabric of the world in Jesus Christ. For better or worse, I needed the Christmas story to shine a light onto the hard realities of my life and the life of the world, and on the reality of Gods fierce and merciful love. And so it is each and every year at Christmas, at the darkest time of the year. We all long for light to dispel the darkness, not just for party hats and irrelevant songs that simply allow us to pretend for a time that the darkness is not really there. And it is that longing for light, at the darkest time of the year and in the midst of the struggle between hope and fear, that moves us to sing another song at Christmas this year. Instead of Happy Birthday we will sing a quiet lullaby to the sleeping baby and to the world into which he is born: O little town of Bethlehem How still we see thee lie, Above thy deep and dreamless sleep The silent stars go by. Yet in thy dark streets shineth The everlasting Light, The hopes and fears of all the years Are met in thee tonight. May the light of Gods fierce mercy shine wherever hope and fear are met, this Christmas and throughout the new year to come. Amen.

From the Minister

See, I am making all things new.
Revelation 21:5

I am the Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.

Revelation 22:13

The Church year does not line up with the calendar year: the first Sunday in Advent heralds a new liturgical cycle. So, as you read this, you have already passed this milestone, perhaps without knowing it. We are at the start of a new year. Even though it is a pagan symbol, I think of the double-headed Janus, looking back and looking forward. Because that is what we do as we prepare for Christmas. We tell old stories, we remember old traditions, and we anticipate new life. Even though Advent tends to be such a busy time, it is full of opportunities for reflection, both nostalgic and hopeful. We have one foot in Bethlehem 2,000 years ago, and one foot ready to walk into a new year. As the new church year begins, I find that I value creativity in the retelling and re-singing of our tradition. Once in a while, people will send me a link to an online video of a flash mob. One of my favorites is a choral group launching into Handels Hallelujah Chorus from the Messiah in the middle of a shopping mall food court during the busy holiday season: www.youtube.com/ watch?v=SXh7JR9oKVE

Another is a flash mob dance sequence to the Sound of Musics Do-Re-Mi in the Antwerp train station: www.youtube.com/ watch?v=7EYAUazLI9k I shared these with our former pastor, Doug Moore, recently. In his reply, he wrote, So, why are we capable of such joy and happiness and capable of losing it so quickly? We could ask ourselves this question at every holiday season. The moments of good will and generosity seem all too fleeting. Maybe we humans are not designed to experience joy and wonder every day. But we can turn to our Source, our Beginning and our Ending, the One who makes all things new, and tap into the energy we need to hold on to joy. And, we hope, allow that joy to spread to others, as viral as a flash mob video, as surprising as a dance in a train station, as wonderful as a song in a food court. I pray that you will be surprised and renewed by Joy this Advent and all year long. Mary

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Church Council Minutes:

Present: Susan White (Acting Chair), Stan Williams (Trustees), Willemien Miller (Deacons), Laura Beliveau (Christian Ed), Bob Miller (At large), Deb Berryman (Mission), Joanne Egner (Clerk), Rev. Mary Brownlow (Pastor) Advent Sunday will be November 27th and there will be a potluck dinner that evening a fun event for the whole family!
Pastoral Relations Committee:

October 26, 2011

Trustees:

Annual Norwich Community Christmas Day Buffet

1:00 pm Parish Hall All ages welcome
In order to help anticipate numbers, please RSVP to Carolyn Frye at 802-649-1528. Donations of side dishes, desserts, beverages or your favorite holiday specialty are welcome. No one should feel obligated to bring donations there will be plenty to share.

Opening prayer led by Mary Brownlow. The minutes of the September 28, 2011 Church Council meeting were approved as amended. Unanimous (B. Miller moved; S. Williams 2nd)
Pastors Report:

Susan reported that the Committee consisting of Laura Beliveau, Chipper Ashley and herself was functioning well and meeting with Mary about every quarter. Susan wanted to remind the Council and the Congregation that the Pastoral Relations Committee was another avenue for addressing concerns or questions.
Deacons:

Stan reported that the Trustees were happily discussing issues related to space rental. Rental space is relatively full and it is nice to have the community making use of the building.
Christian Ed:

by members would be very helpful! Susan asked that a Stewardship report with comparisons to last year be prepared for the November Council meeting.
Annual Meeting:

Ballad for Christmas Its time to welcome Christmas, now. Off to the woods for wintry vine, For white and scarlet-berried bough And patterned fir and frosty pine, For logs to make the broad hearth shine Stout oak, and hickory, dry and hale, To send a glow across the snow! The light of Christmas shall not fail. Under the old and arching skies Clear carols call, by street and hill; The stars that saw the great Star rise Are shining still, are shining still. In all the long years, come what will, There's nothing new and nothing strange In one old night of song and light The heart of Christmas cannot change!
Nancy Byrd Turner (1880-1971) Treasures of Inspiration & Joy (New York, N. Y.: The Spencer Press, Inc., 1948)

Laura reported that they are looking to hire a Nursery Coordinator. The nursery is currently staffed by youth that arent necessarily trained to care for infants. Danielle wrote a job description and posted it on the Norwich list-serv. Childrens birthdays will now be printed in the bulletin each week.
Mission:

Stan Williams moved to have the Annual Meeting on Sunday, February 5th, 2012. Bob Miller seconded. Agreed by unanimous vote.
Board Meetings:

Mary asked the Council what they would like her to report on at monthly meetings. It was agreed that she should provide an overall sense of how things were going and to point out any specific activities and/or concerns that the Council should be made aware of. There was also interest in knowing how Church attendance was doing relative to previous years. Mary reported that she has been handing out New Members packets to several people and anticipates receiving new members. She has been coordinating the Interfaith Thanksgiving Eve service that will take place at St. Francis Church. The Confirmation Class is going well and plans for the upcoming Womens retreat are progressing. There was a baptism last Sunday and a memorial service for Don Goss will be held at Rollins Chapel.

Willemien reported that informal cottage meetings for new people or those unable to attend previously are still being planned by the Deacons and will take place before the end of the year. Recent requests for the Church to sponsor events advocating health care reform and death with dignity have raised questions about the Church policy for sponsoring events related to political issues. The Council agreed that the Church should encourage public theology discussions. However, we should not host events advocating political positions. Non-profit advocacy groups are welcome to rent space at the already reduced rate. As a Church we should encourage events that bring people from the community together. Perhaps a series focused on large life issues would be something that Christian Ed could help spearhead.

Deb reported that the remainder of their budget allocation will go to High Horses, a therapeutic riding school.
Old Business:

Council members were reminded that each board needs to write a blurb for the web site. A question about staff job descriptions was raised and Mary agreed to send updated job descriptions to Council members.
2012 Budget:

Susan suggested that each Board think about extending their first meeting in February/March to include a discussion of larger issues and to think about what they will be doing over the course of the year and why. This is something that the Deacons have been doing for a while and it has been very helpful. All agreed that this was a great idea and there was value in setting a big picture context before Boards set out to do their work.
Upcoming Meetings:

Wednesday, November 30th at 7:00 PM Wednesday, January 4th, 2012 at 7:00 PM The meeting was adjourned at 8:18 PM. Joanne Egner, Clerk

Stan reported that the boards had submitted their budget requests but the biggest issues in determining a budget were on the revenue side. Until pledges are received it is difficult to know what to budget for revenue. 100% pledge participation

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