News

UCC offers two opportunities for observing Lent in your life

Looking for a way to observe Lent that goes beyond giving up chocolate for the season?  Two opportunities are availabe through the United Church of Christ. One is the Ecumenical Lenten Carbon Fast developed by the six New England Conferences of the UCC.  Beginning on Ash Wednesday (Wednesday, Feb. 22) and lasting throughout Lent, participants will receive a daily email with the day's suggested carbon-reducing activity. Each daily email will also have a section suggesting...

Conference 2011 income below expectations

By Tiffany Vail Associate for Communication Church contributions to Our Church's Wider Mission Basic Support and Fellowship Dues came in at about $29,000 below expectations in 2011. Contributions to OCWM Basic Support - one of the Massachusetts Conference's two main sources of income - were down 5 percent in 2011 compared to 2010. A total of $1,736,916 was contributed, down $99,356 from the previous year. Of that, the Conference retained 47 percent and remitted the other...

Growing in Community: The Promise of the Sustaining Pastoral Excellence Campaign

The Rev. Angela Menke Ballou is settling into her new call as the pastor of the Federated Church, Cotuit. Prior to receiving her new call in November, Rev. Ballou served as Associate Pastor at the Second Church of Beverly, MA.    When asked about her path into the ministry, she reflected on the near-fatal car accident she had suffered while a freshman in college, which demonstrated to her the power of faith and having a spiritual home.   “Ninety people from...

Disaster Recovery: The Unprecedented Year Proceeds

An update from the Rev. Don Remick, co-chair, Disaster Resource Team of the MA Conference, UCC For many of us this seems like old news. Tornado damage, snow laden trees and flooded homes are almost a distant memory. For others this is a new daily norm as they continue to try to find stability in a new world where home and possessions have been blown or swept away. The scar of the tornado track is still visible as you drive through parts of western Massachusettts. If you travel...

Thibeault hired as new Associate for Youth and Young Adult Ministries

The Rev. Kelly Thibeault, pastor of the First Congregational Church in North Attleborough, has been hired as the Massachusetts Conference’s part-time interim Associate for Youth and Young Adult Ministries. Thibeault will be working 10 hours a week, taking over from Kris Lofrumento. Lofrumento has moved out of state for family reasons, and Friday, Jan. 13, was her last day with the Conference after more than seven years. Thibeault will fill the role on an interim basis until September,...

An Unprecedented Year for Disasters

An update from the Rev. Don Remick, co-chair, Disaster Resource Team of the MA Conference, UCC This has been an unprecedented year of disasters. There have been three federally declared disasters since last winter's snow melted. With families displaced, homes destroyed, power outages, roads washed out it has been challenging to try to even begin the long road to recovery. And each disaster has added a cumulative impact to the recovery efforts, in many cases setting them back...

UCC Reporting forms now online

The United Church of Christ Research Services office collects and maintains data pertaining to all UCC churches and clergy, and each year asks churches to fill out a variety of forms.   By completing these forms, you enable the United Church of Christ to maintain accurate and current information on UCC churches and ministerial staff, as well as provide information that will assist Conferences, Associations and the national ministries of the denomination to identify and understand...

David Shumway sees future of church in Sustaining Pastoral Excellence Campaign

David Shumway moved to Newton with his wife in 1966. As members of the United Church of Christ faith community, they joined the church around the corner, Central Congregational Church in Newtonville. Shumway and his wife became very active in the church until its closure, serving as the church’s treasurer for eight years in the 70’s and 80’s. He recalls, “On a fluke, my wife decided to volunteer us to take someone’s place at the MACUCC Annual Meeting. I...

Pilgrim Association Women urged to help youth experiencing homelessness

The Pilgrim District Women's Association recently had an eye-opening discussion about the issue of unaccompanied youth experiencing homelessness, thanks to a presentation by the Massachusetts Coalition for the Homeless (MCH) at their fall meeting. “We learned so much. I don’t think anyone fully understood the extent of the difficulties unaccompanied youth who are homeless now face in their daily struggle to survive. Especially surprising was the impact on the youth who...

Court ruling allows for modifications of restrictions on gifts

The state Supreme Judicial Court has issued a rule allowing for the modification of restrictions on small funds where the restriction has become unlawful, impracticable, impossible to achieve or wasteful, according to Andrew Gustafson, Associate Conference Minister for Stewardship and Financial Devlopment. The restrictions may be modified administratively with the consent of the Massachusetts Attorney General. "This will be particularly helpful for churches with small, permanently...

MACUCC's Edwards House receives facelift - physically and virtually

Visitors to the Massachusetts Conference’s Edwards House – both those coming in person and online – have been seeing a lot of changes lately. Changes to the physical property include the addition of a stone and brick labyrinth on the front lawn of the house, new furnishings in the bedrooms, cloth table covers in the dining room – and even some new faces in the kitchen during weekday meetings. In the virtual world, Edwards House has a brand new website at...

UCC Pension Boards announce 2012 health and dental plan rates

The United Church of Christ Pension Boards has announced the health and dental plan rates for 2012. Download the 2012 Pension Board rates (PDF) ...

Disaster Response Team outlines concerns in aftermath of storm

  We know some of you won't receive this message for a while - either because of no power, no Internet or both.  But we want to reach out to our pastors and churches.   With the heavy snow and high winds that came with this last storm, many areas have no power.  Entire towns are out.  And in some cases it may be 4 - 5 days before power is restored.   This means many people have no heat for their homes, an inconvenience for some, a dangerous situation for...

Rev. Paul Shupe: Pastoral Excellence Program Helps Support Vibrant Ministries

Rev. Dr. Paul Shupe, Senior Pastor of Hancock United Church of Christ in historic Lexington, Massachusetts, has fully settled in to his new ministry. Shupe celebrates the completion of two full years at Hancock in August, having arrived from Madison, Wisconsin (and before that, Portland, Maine). Hancock is a large church, with 750 members and nearly 200 children, and the burgeoning church is also served by Associate Pastor Dana Allen Walsh. Shupe became involved in a Clergy Community of...

Laura Everett elected new Mass. Council of Churches Executive Director

The Rev. Laura Everett has been selected as the next Executive Director of the Massachusetts Council of Churches, effective Nov. 1. Everett, an ordained UCC minister who has served on the UCC's Council for Ecumenism, will succeed the Rev. Jack Johnson. Everett has served as associate director of the Council since 2004. She was nominated by a search commitee following several months of work, and her nomination was affirmed by the Council's Board of Directors. "The UCC is proud to...

Western Region welcomes Rev Barbara Schenk as the new Pastoral Visitor

The Rev. Barbara Schenk has been named the new pastoral visitor for the Western Region, making her the Conference's third pastoral visitor. Schenk will work closely and collaboratively with Associate Conference Ministers Jill Graham and Peter Wells to provide visitation and consultation with local pastors in the region. Between September and June, she will conduct 4 to 5 visits per month with local church pastors in the Berkshire, Franklin, Hampden and Hampshire Associations. Schenk...

Rev. Carole Baker: Pastoral Excellence Program is an opportunity for education, collegial support

Rev. Carole Baker, who has been pastor at the Central Congregational Church of Attleboro Falls for 23 years, said, “I was a member of one of the first Clergy Communities of Practice. I was one of the people in the Conference who pushed for this…and I feel that we all need to be engaged in honing our skills.” For Baker, the value of such communities is clear: “Being together with your peers, talking about issues that come up in the church, in the world…this is...

Churches threw open doors to help storm victims

During and after Tropical Storm Irene, a number of Massachusetts Conference churches threw open their doors to help their neighbors in need. While the storm raged, Charlemont Federated Church hosted 75 neighbors evacuated from low-lying areas. New Bedford's Pilgrim United Church of Christ took in 40 elderly and disabled people for about an hour when their housing complex was evacuated due to wind blowing out a window and ripping siding from the building. After the storm, the First...

Full phone service restored in Framingham

UPDATED September 7, 2011 Full phone service has been restored to the Massachusetts Conference's main office in Framingham. Please call the regular number, 508 875-5233, for general Conference business. Email servers went back online late in the afternoon of Tuesday, Aug. 30.  The Conference Center sign in Framingham and numerous trees on the property were damaged in the storm (see photo at right and in our Facebook album).    ...

Church World Service kits headed to Vermont, New Hampshire

Associate Conference Minister Peter Wells delivered about 20 Church World Service cleanup buckets that had been collected at Christ Church United in Brockton to Brattleboro, VT - in his Prius. Church World Service is readying shipments of cleanup buckets, hygiene kits and other supplies for delivery to locations in Vermont and New Hampshire next week, according to CWS New...