eChurchlight, February 2010
Upcoming Events
Feb 7: All church lunch following the service, Social Hall
Feb 11: Coffee Circle, 10:30am, parlor
Feb 17: Ash Wednesday Service, 7:00pm
Feb 25: Women's Book Group, 7:30pm, parlor
The submission deadline for the next edition of the Churchlight is
Sunday February 21
through the looking glass
L.L.Wimmer
In The Soul of Christianity, the author, Huston Smith splices together a number of Christian teachings and comes up with the following statement:
We become ourselves by dying to ourselves. We gain only what we give up, and if we give up everything we gain everything. We cannot find ourselves within ourselves, but only in others; yet at the same time, before we can go out to others we must first find ourselves. We must forget ourselves in order to become truly conscious of who we are. The best way to love ourselves is to love others; yet we cannot love others unless we love ourselves, since it is written: “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” But if we love ourselves in the wrong way, we become incapable of loving anybody else. And indeed when we love ourselves wrongly we hate ourselves, and if we hate ourselves we cannot help hating others. Yet there is a sense in which we must hate others and leave them in order to find God: Jesus said, “If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother . . . yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.” As for this “finding” of God, we cannot even look for him unless we have already found him, and we cannot find him unless he has first found us. We cannot begin to seek him without a special gift of his grace, yet if we wait for grace to move us before beginning to seek him, we will probably never begin.
And you thought it would be easy? How do we deal with the paradoxes that surround the heart of the truth we need to know? It has been written that laughter is where the opposites of life come together. Perhaps we could also add tears as a place they meet. Buechner once said that laughter and tears come from the same place anyway. It may not surprise you to know that this all makes sense to me because my experience and I suspect any experience of love itself is fraught with paradox and contradiction and complexity while at the same time being as simple as saying yes. Sometimes in this real life we really don’t know whether to laugh or to cry. My goals for this year are to be happy and to practice holiness. In Lent this year I hope to give up sadness for gladness not because I have any particular evidence that I can measure that gladness is merited but because in my longing for God I have this feeling that that is where God is to be found even if, and especially because, it also includes a broken heart, broken by love and humility, setting us free from hardness of heart and holding us captive in the everlasting arms of God.
Bless your hearts,
Larry
From Barbara…
What’s Happening?
All-church lunch Sunday February 7th – Everyone is welcome to come and share a simple meal and fellowship together, after worship. The food is prepared by our volunteers who cook and serve a monthly meal for Bristol Kitchen in Waltham the first Saturday of every month. Donations toward the cost of the Bristol Kitchen ministry are always gratefully accepted. Reminder: on Sundays when we have an all-church lunch, the elementary Sunday School class meets at its regular time (during the second part of the worship service) but the youth and adult classes do not meet. Our next lunch, March 7th will feature our annual Hoop Shoot-Out fundraiser for Nothing But Nets. Stay tuned for details!
Coffee Circle – February 11th – We meet in the Parlor on the second Thursday of the month at 10:30 a.m, for an informal get together. It usually lasts about an hour, but everyone is welcome to come and go as needed.
Ash Wednesday Service – 7:00 p.m. on February 17th in the Sanctuary. Our traditional service, with ashes, will take the place of that week’s Vespers service.
Lenten Devotional Books – will be available in the Narthex and at Coffee Hour. We have ordered enough books for every family to have a copy, so please help yourselves!
Women’s Book Group Thursday February 25th – This month the group is reading The Help by Kathryn Stockett. Join us in the parlor at 7:30 p.m. for a lively discussion.
Reminder about snow cancellations – If we have to cancel church activities due to weather, the announcement will appear in the following places:
Please keep in mind that if the Town of Belmont declares a parking ban, there is limited parking only in the lot.
Check out the calendar section for regular meetings of committees and groups this month.
Missions News
BUMC encourages our members and friends to participate in mission.
Thanks for the Help
Thank you to everyone who has donated to Haiti Relief fund. We collected over $2000 to send UMCOR specifically to help with Haiti Relief. The Youth Group is also assembling relief packages which will be sent to Haiti soon. Please keep Haiti in your prayers.
A Future Mission
Save A Life - Hoop Shoot-out
In Africa a child dies every 30 seconds from malaria- one million each year. You can help!
The Save A Life Shoot-out event will be held in the gym on Sunday, March 7. Our third annual Hoop Shoot-out raises money for mosquito nets to be purchased and sent to Africa through the “Nothing But Nets” program of the United Nations Foundation. Consider being a “shooter” and find sponsors or be a sponsor to support this fine cause.
Continuing Missions
Bristol Kitchen - BUMC continues to provide a nutritious, evening meal to the men and women at Bristol Kitchen on the first Saturday of each month. Volunteers gather in the church kitchen at 1:30PM to prepare casserole, salad, bread, and dessert for the soup kitchen located in Waltham. Those transporting and serving the meal meet at 4:30. We provide a meal for approximately 50 men and women, and for some it is their only meal of the day. Upcoming meal dates are, February 6th, March 6th and April 3rd. If you would like to volunteer, please talk to Terri Kolenbrander.
Belmont Food Pantry – We continue to collect boxed and canned foods for the Belmont food Pantry. Please place donations in the cart in the Narthex. (Please check the dates to be sure the food has not expired. The food pantry can not distribute expired items.)
Here some missions you can perform at home during your daily routine.
Do you use a computer? Go to http://www.freerice.com – There you can practice vocabulary, art identification, geography… And more. At the same time you are feeding the poor through the United Nations World Food Program. Take a look and explore the web site.
Do you shop at Amazon? Go to http://www.umcbelmont.org – (our website) and link to Amazon from the Amazon icon. The church receives a percentage of sales when you link through our site.
Submitted by Louise Halstead, Mission’s Chair
Coffee Hour Schedule for February 2010
February 7 Group ABC, coordinated by Carolyn Backus
February 14 Group DEFG, coordinated by Terry Grimm
February 21 Group HIJKL, coordinated by Terry Grimm
February 28 Group MNOPQ, coordinated by Linda Rodi
Lectionary for February 2010
February 7 Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany
Isaiah 6:1-8 (9-13)
Psalm 138 (UMH 853)
1 Corinthians 15:1-11
Luke 5:1-11
February 14 Transfiguration Sunday
Exodus 34:29-35
Psalm 99 (UMH 819)
2 Corinthians 3:12–4:2
Luke 9:28-36 (37-43)
February 17 Ash Wednesday
Joel 2:1-2, 12-17
Psalm 51:1-17 (UMH 785)
2 Corinthians 5:20b–6:10
Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21
February 21 First Sunday in Lent
Deuteronomy 26:1-11
Psalm 91:1-2, 9-16 (UMH 810)
Romans 10:8b-13
Luke 4:1-13
February 28 Second Sunday in Lent
Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18
Psalm 27 (UMH 758)
Philippians 3:17–4:1
Luke 13:31-35
February Sunshine Page
Please contact the church office with any additions or corrections. Thank you!
Birthdays
2: Caitlin Marchetta
4: Carolyn Backus
Alicia Tardiff
David Bourque
5: Ellen Canepa
6: Morrie Bailey
7: Louise Halstead
Ted Barton
8: Dorthea Hansen
9: Joanna Schaffhausen
11: Evelyn Murray
12: Ruth Wells
Linda Keltner
Jessica Pohlman
13: Carole Brown
15: Ed Sanford
Judy Wilson
Terry Skelton
16: Henry Hansen
18: Julie Carey
Patrick Vershbow
19: Christine Marchetta
Judi LeCount
24: Amanda Gore
Jonathan Bailey
Beverley Phillips
25: Mike Bent
Sarah Wilson
28: Olive Woodland
