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Weekly Update
Friday, November 21, 2025
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Thanksgiving Sunday
November 23 at 10:00 a.m. (In-Person and Online)
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This Sunday, we’ll close our worship series on leaders, prophets, and apostles from our faith tradition by celebrating Reign of Christ Sunday and reflecting on Jesus as the head of the church. We’ll also dwell in gratitude as we approach Thanksgiving.
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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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In the professional development training where I spent the last week, the core curriculum for my cohort this year was about faith-based, relational community organizing for congregations. This congregation has plenty of experience with this community organizing model thanks to GBIO, but I learned a ton and, as always, deepened in relationship with my colleagues and returned refreshed and excited for this next season.
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The foundational building block of this type of community organizing is telling our own stories, the stories of our communities, and the story of the world as it and and might become. All throughout the fall, we have been telling stories of our ancestors in faith. Fueled by those stories, we can think of how we want to tell our own stories, individually and as a congregation. We can decide how we will let our stories from scripture and our own lives teach us and propel us to remake the world on earth as it is in heaven.
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I look forward to sharing more about my time away in the days and weeks to come. For now, I am grateful to have returned home and returned to you all!
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Loving God, hear the prayers
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of your people gathered in this community.
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- Prayers for strength and healing for Betty O’Beirne as she navigates medical challenges, and prayers for Jay, Karen, Aden, Buz, and the rest of their family as they support her.
- As the weather turns cold and the light fades in the evenings, we pray for all our siblings who are unhoused and sleeping rough. Protect and shelter them, O God, and may we be part of a great effort of providing shelter and safety this fall and winter.
- God, we ask that you would strengthen and care for our immigrant neighbors of all legal statuses who continue to live in fear and uncertainty amidst current immigration policies.
- 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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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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Our Advent Season Preparations Have Begun
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Christmas Poinsettias & Dedications
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Our Advent season preparations have begun! Our annual Hanging of the Greens service will be on Sunday, November 30, when we will decorate our Sanctuary with live plants. We are also preparing our annual Family and Friends Dedications list for inclusion in our Advent Sunday bulletins on December 14 and 21.
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Please submit by Sunday, November 30
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- Each donation of $25.00 will be used to purchase an 8" Poinsettia.
- You will have the option to take the poinsettias you have dedicated home with you after the Christmas Eve evening service.
- Payment can be made online when submitting your order or by mailing or
dropping off a check at the church office (payable to The Union Church in Waban, memo: Poinsettias).
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Thanksgiving Activities
& Community Meals
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As you might have heard we are doing a different Thanksgiving tradition, partly due to the reduction in Snap benefits and partly due to the fact that I thought I was going to be away for Bria's soccer games but alas, they lost in penalty kicks last weekend.
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Anyway, here are some opportunities to help out around Thanksgiving:
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- Bring groceries to the Newton Freedge, the community refrigerator and pantry, located at 420 Watertown street in Nonantum. Here are some guidelines about what to donate. Gavin and I have been delivering groceries there in the last few weeks, and there are usually five people or so lined up to shop, much busier than in past years. The pantry side of the Freedge has been well stocked with canned goods, but the refrigerator side is often empty. Folks have really appreciated fresh fruit and vegetables, milk, eggs, and olive oil! If you are willing to deliver groceries there any time in the next couple of weeks, I am happy to do the shopping.
- Join me in the UCW Big Kitchen on Tomorrow, Saturday 11/22 from 10:00am-12:00pm to prepare a simple meal for the residents at Newton Corner place. Four to five people should do it!
- Join me in the UCW Big Kitchen next Tuesday, 11/25 from 2:00-4:00pm to heat up and package a handful of Thanksgiving dinners for Newton seniors who reached out to ask if they could pick up a dinner again this year! Three to four people would be great. We will move to a Plan B location if Riverside is using the kitchen that day.
Lastly, if you know of anyone who would appreciate a meal or groceries, please let me know.
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Please email me if you are interested in helping.
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Mission Team Update
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Stand Out at Burlington Ice Detention Center
Join us on Wednesday, December 10, from 11:30 - 1:00 p.m.
Recently, Brita Gill-Austern, Alison McCarty and Nancy Zollers joined almost 500 Faith leaders and concerned citizens for a Stand Out in front of the Burlington Ice Detention Center. The purpose of the Stand Out is to support the disappeared and detained incarcerated there and to decry the ICE actions in our communities. We heard about the treatment of the immigrants inside this facility, how we can support families, and we were read the rights we are entitled to as declared in our Constitution.
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If you would like to learn more or join UCW folks at the next stand out on
December 10, see Brita Gill- Austern.
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(left to right) Adraya Martin, Iyanis Wallace & Sherly Ariasosé
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José Ismael Núñez Rivera (center left) and Sarahí Franchesca Mendoza Altamirano (center right) with David Spertner and Amy Clark Feldman
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Many many thanks to all of you who have contributed to the Jenny Fund! In celebration of Jenny’s November birthday, and your generosity, I am writing (together with daughters Dawn and Alli) to provide an update on the 2025 scholarship recipients. This report includes the name, referral organization and a personal statement written by each of the seven students selected to receive a Jenny Fund Scholarship for the current- academic year. All students have received their 2025 award, have enrolled in college, and have begun classes. Support is being provided by the Jenny Fund through the Fundacion A. Jean Brugger in Nicaragua and through 10,000 Degrees in the U.S. Both organizations generously provide academic and social support as well as supplemental funding, as needed, to ensure that the students have what they need to stay in school and succeed. Our plan is to continue to support Jenny Fund students who stay on track academically through all four years of college.
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....continue reading HERE
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Reading Scripture in Worship
Sharing the Stories of Our Faith
Scripture Reader Sign-up: HERE
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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 fall.
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Coffee Host Needed
Please consider volunteering!
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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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Making Space - Stewardship Campaign
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This year’s Stewardship theme is Making Space. Read the full letter from Chair Kent Wittler and the Stewardship Committee here .
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Submit Your Pledge HERE - Thank You!
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Pastoral Care Connections
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Please don't hesitate to reach out to Senior Pastor, Rev. Megan Berkowitz for prayer or pastoral support.
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and her office phone is 617-965-3893
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Most weeks, Friday is a day of Sabbath for Pastor Megan. With a pastoral emergency, please don't hesitate to reach out.
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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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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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