FIRST
CONGREGATIONAL
CHURCH
October 17, 2021
Worship, 10:00 am
(Please note that the links to our services are updated on Thursdays)
We have resumed the option of in-person worship! Masks required. We will continue to meet via Zoom and Facebook Live. We HIGHLY RECOMMEND that only vaccinated people attend indoor worship at this time.
Sunday Worship Gathering by Zoom (Computer & Phone)
Time: 10:00 AM Mountain Time (US and Canada)
To Join Zoom Meeting using your Telephone:
Dial 312-626-6799
If that number is busy, you can try one of these other access numbers:
301-715-8592; 253-215-8782; 646-558-8656
Meeting ID: 966 390 616
Join Zoom Meeting By Computer:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/966390616?pwd=eXBlRC9Kc0V6S3BxM3NBQzlDaHRTdz09
Meeting ID: 966 390 616; Password: 773088
Sunday Worship on Facebook Live
You DO NOT need a facebook account to watch our worship on Facebook Live
Click on this link: https://www.facebook.com/LovelandUCC
Instructions for In-Person Gathering
Re-Entry Team Update 7/27/21
The CDC issued new recommendations today for fully vaccinated people given new evidence on the Delta variant currently circulating in the United States. Included was the recommendation for fully vaccinated people to wear a mask in public indoor settings in areas of substantial or high transmission. “Substantial” means 50-99 cases per 100,000 people, “high” is 100 or greater. According to the CDC website, Larimer county is an area where there is a substantial level of community transmission of COVID-19. The county’s website indicated today (July 27th) that we were at 70 cases per 100,000.
As such, the Re-Entry Team will require all individuals, regardless of vaccination status, to resume wearing face masks during indoor worship, starting this Sunday, August 1st. (Remember, this is no different than how we first resumed worship on June 6th.) Masking will also be required for any memorial services or other church functions held indoors.
Please wear an appropriate face mask over your nose and mouth while you are in the building. Leave neck gators, face shields, and masks with exhalation valves at home. The church will provide you and/or your child with an appropriate, disposable mask if you do not have one. Per the CDC, the masking recommendations now include children 2 years old or older.
A SEASON OF BLESSING
Blessing, most simply, is the act of acknowledging
the presence of the divine in all things.
When we bless something, we see, name, and celebrate the sacredness within it. In so doing, we call forth the power of the divine already within all things. Sometimes we are casual about our blessings -- the kiss we give a loved one as they walk out the door or the song we sing in the shower. But when we are intentional about the act of blessing, we find that it is not simply words or a gesture. Instead, it is “a peace-making, earth-shaking, dead-waking, light-creating, dark-abating act”1 of love.
Blessing changes us. It binds us to the things we bless. After all, you don’t think that God would allow us to call forth divine power and then not use us to fulfill that blessing, do you? After all, “your blessing is your covenant. When you lift up your hands, when you extend your arms, when you call down the source-of-all-that-is power of God, you can be sure that you will be part of God’s plan.”2
So, this season, let us bless. Flash a smile to the grocery store teller. Serve someone in need. Share time with your beloved ones. Let someone else care for you. Consider how you use your time, talents and treasure. Notice and receive God’s gifts and offer gifts of your own in gratitude and joy.
Why? Because we were made to bless. Because calling forth the sacred already in the world helps us to see, experience and live it. And because the blessing “lives in the community that mediated the blessing and continues to hold it in memory and celebration; it lives in the hope that persists; it lives most of all in the love that called forth the blessing in the first place—the love that is... as strong as death” (Jan Richardson). So, this season, let us call forth blessings. Let us be blessed that we too might bless the world with a love that does not end, a love that is as strong as death.
1SALT Project video “Bless.”
2ibid.