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Weekly Update
Friday, March 14, 2025
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The Second Sunday in Lent
March 16 at 10:00 a.m.
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Our Lenten season worship, making space for the gifts of our faith, continues this Sunday with a lesson from Luke’s Gospel about humility.
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Meeting ID: 826 8730 1128
Passcode: 386028
Dial in: 1 646 558 8656
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The bulletin is available HERE
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Congregational Meeting
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This Sunday! Following Worship
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Please mark your calendars for our next Congregational gathering on Sunday, March 16th immediately following worship. Lunch will be served, and we'll share in a conversation about how our gifts power our community led by the Co-Moderators, Finance Team, Stewardship, and Nominating.
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Youth Mission Bake Sale
This Sunday! March 16 (Prep on 15th)
9:30 a.m. in Waban Center
11:00 a.m. at UCW Reception!
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The Youth Mission Bake Sale has been rescheduled to Sunday, March 16 with preparation on the 15th from 5-7:00 p.m.
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We are grateful for donations of nut-free goodies to sell! St. Patrick's Day theme if you are looking for inspiration. Please include a list of ingredients with your donations. Contact Pastor Amy to arrange drop-off ([email protected]), or bring to the church Saturday evening or Sunday morning.
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Lenten Sunday School Series Continues this Sunday
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Throughout Lent, Pastor Amy will be leading a Lenten Sunday School Series on Making Space for God, based on the book "What God is Like" by Rachel Held Evans and Matthew Paul Turner. Each week we'll explore a new way to experience some aspect of God's joy, courage, serving-spirit, love, hope. We hope your kids will join us!
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This Sunday younger kids will also help support the Youth Mission Bake Sale by doing a small service project of their own!
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We are almost beginning the second week of our Lenten journey, walking in the wilderness together. It is always amazing to me how the liturgical seasons map onto the events and seasons in our world and lives. What wisdom and support we have in these deep traditions of our faith! This year it does indeed feel like Lenten wilderness times - each day with new revelations, challenges, news, and worries. Yet God provides for us, just as God provided for Jesus during his 40 days in the wilderness, as the forces and temptations of fear, scarcity, uncertainty, even evil itself, swirled around him.
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We invite you to lean in to Lent this year; to know that in the wilderness and uncertainty our faith provides. The invitation this season is to let go of that which does not give you life, hope, love, strength, guidance; and, in that space, to cultivate the growth and fruits of a life-giving faith. This Sunday, the prayer station the kids worked on last week will be up. You are invited to pick up a Lenten Devotional, and to add your Lenten intentions of letting go and cultivating to our prayer tree. If you are at home, and would like a PDF of our Devotional, you can find it HERE. It is formatted for printing as a booklet, so please follow along with the headers and page numbers. May this wilderness time be one of growth, spaciousness, fortification, and life for you and our beloved community.
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Live the Love & Justice Jesus Taught
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If you’re seeking ways to live out God’s love and justice at this moment in history, I invite you to look through the Southern New England Conference of the UCC’s new “Take Action” page on their website.
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Loving God, hear the prayers
of your people gathered in this community.
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- God, bless the UCW community in this season of Lent. May we fast from all that keeps us distant from you, and dwell in the gifts you offer for a life in your grace and mercy.
- We pray for our country and our whole world, that in every place of need and every hall of power, your wisdom would reign. Change hearts and minds, O God, so that all might see your work and heed your calls: to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly; to feed the hungry, welcome the stranger, clothe the naked, and visit the sick and imprisoned. In the midst of our fears for ourselves, do not let us lose sight of those who are most vulnerable and most in need of care.
- We pray for continued, long-term healing for Soo and Anna following surgery. God, give them strength for the road ahead, and the blessing of your healing at every step.
- We offer gratitude for the healing Jean Wellington and Betty O’Beirne have both experienced, and pray for that healing to continue.
- For all in our UCW community who are ill, or who are caring for loved ones. For all who grieve, God, we ask for the comfort of your presence, especially in this tender season.
- We pray for peace for your people all throughout the world. Teach us to beat our swords into plowshares, O God, and to sow wisdom and reap peace, justice, and joy.
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We pray to you, grateful for your accompaniment with us in all things. Amen.
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If you have other prayers of concern or celebration you
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would like lifted up in community, please email
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Connecting as Intergenerational Community
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Youth Mission Trip (Puerto Rico - June 21-28)
Planning Meeting
Tomorrow, Saturday,March 15
(During Bake Sale prep 5:00-7:00 p.m.)
View Orientation Presentation HERE
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Youth, rising 9th graders and older, including college students, are strongly encouraged to join us on this meaningful trip! We'll be partnered with a local church in the mountains, helping to run a week-long program for local children, and helping to provide much-needed repairs and companionship to elders. We also need two more adult chaperones! We will meet again on March 15 (5pm) and ask for RSVP decisions by the Bake Sale.
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Save the Dates !
Lenten Bible Study
Mondays, March 24, 31, and April 7, from 7:00 - 8:30 p.m.
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Bible study, led by Jeannie Martin and Pastor Megan, will be back for a three-week session during Lent studying Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians.
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We’ll meet in person at the church on Monday, March 24, March 31, and April 7 from 7-8:30 p.m. in Littlehale. Look for more information soon, or email Pastor Megan to get the readings schedule!
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Caregiver Group
Sunday, April 6, at 11:30 a.m.
Meets every Communion Sunday after Worship
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This group is a warm and welcoming space of support for anyone serving as a caregiver for a loved one (near or far). If you are caring for a parent, spouse, sibling, adult child or other loved one, please come by, or contact Pastor Amy with questions ([email protected]).
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Join one of GBIO’s Spring Training Sessions!
Organizing Power: Foundation for Justice is a training for leaders who want to organize their congregations, organizations, and communities to make change in a time of great uncertainty and increasing isolation. Trainers will provide a framework for power and tools to build it that leaders can use to organize institutionally, locally and beyond for this moment and for generations to come.
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If we are serious about justice, we need power. And if we want power, we need to make time to organize. There are four options for training this spring, and all who are interested should register to attend.
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Saturday, April 5, 2025 2:00 PM - 8:00 PM ET
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Bethel AME Church, 38 Walk Hill St, Jamaica Plain, MA 02130
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Register HERE (Registration Deadline 3/28)
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Sunday, April 6, 2025 1:30 PM - 7:30 PM ET
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Bethel AME Church, 38 Walk Hill St, Jamaica Plain, MA 02130
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Register HERE (Registration Deadline 3/28)
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Saturday, April 26, 2025 2:00 PM - 8:00 PM ET
Register HERE (Registration Deadline 4/18)
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Sunday, April 27, 2025 1:30 PM - 7:30 PM ET
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Hyde Park Seventh Day Adventist Church, 6 Webster St, Hyde Park, MA 02136
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Register HERE (Registration Deadline 4 /18)
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The Jenny Fund Update
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Nicaragua
Two scholarship winners (shown here with UCW Nica Team members David Spertner and Rev. Amy Clark Feldman) have begun receiving support from the Jenny Fund. David and Amy spent significant time with both of them, hearing their stories, and sharing stories about Jenny. Sarahi Mendoza is a young woman who has shown exceptional resilience in the face of significant life challenges, and who has now found a home with a young family in San Juan del Sur. Her previously difficult family situation led her to suspend her university studies to find a job, in order to cover basic expenses. Thanks to the Jenny Fund, Sarahi is now in university, studying pharmacy, and planning to pursue an additional degree in psychology.
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José Ismael Nuñez's family has also faced and overcome challenges, and the Jenny Fund is grateful to join José Ismael's inspiring journey. José Ismael's father studied medicine with the dream of becoming a doctor, but had to leave his studies to care for a severely mentally ill brother, whom he still cares for. José Ismael wants to complete his father’s dream and become a physician. In 2024, he was honored as the Best Student in San Juan del Sur, based on academic excellence, and he works in programs that bring food to the elderly. Many thanks to the A. Jean Brugger Education Project for identifying these fine students and coordinating their awards.
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United States
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The priority deadline for 2025 Jenny Fund applications was March 2, set by our scholarship partner 10,000 Degrees. Nine students have applied, four from UCW, three from the Elmore Boling Initiative (in Alabama), and two from LakeFarm Learning (in California). Application review has begun for these seven, but other applications can still be considered. So, if you know of deserving students who need support, please share this link with them: https://10000degrees.org/students-alumni/jenny-scholarship-fund/
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FamilyAid Diaper and Wipes Drive
New neighbors start to move in at FamilyAid’s Navigation Center this week!
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They have identified the need for diapers and wipes. We will be working with them to identify specific sizes, so please stay tuned, but we welcome initial donations for arriving infants.
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We will be collecting donations in the chapel at church, and sharing more as we learn more. Please contact Alison McCarty with questions.
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Coffee Hosts Needed
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Thank you to the UCW Council for hosting reception this Sunday!
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Please consider volunteering!
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Reception Sign-up: HERE
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Hosting a reception is a thoughtful expression of our hospitality, and it’s easier than you think! If you’re new to hosting, help is always available. Please consider volunteering for two dates this year.
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If you have questions, Kathy Malone is the point of contact : 617-365- 4960; [email protected].
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Sharing the Stories of Our Faith
Reading Scripture in Worship
For generations the stories and wisdom of our faith were only shared orally, and reading scripture out loud is still a central part of our worship and community. Please consider sharing your voice in worship this spring.
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Scripture Reader Sign-up: HERE
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Pastoral Care Connections
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Please don't hesitate to reach out to Senior Pastor, Rev. Megan Berkowitz, or Associate Pastor for Youth & Families, Rev. Amy Clark Feldman for prayer or pastoral support.
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and her phone is 617-965-3893
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Most weeks, Friday is a day of Sabbath for Pastor Megan; Monday is Pastor Amy's day of Sabbath. With a pastoral emergency, please don't hesitate to reach out.
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We, the members of The Union Church in Waban, true to our founding principle of being an inclusive church, covenant together to nourish and to sustain in our common life and practice a fully welcoming and affirming church for all persons. Welcoming all persons who seek to join with us in a commitment to love God and our neighbors, affirming the inclusive love of Jesus, we are open to all, without regard to race, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, nationality, ability or economic circumstance. We invite all to full participation in our worship, membership, leadership and life of this church.
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