FIRST
CONGREGATIONAL
CHURCH
June 20, 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! 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
Arrival to Church
• Only south (8th St.) and West (Lincoln Ave.) entrances will be open. Please arrive 10-15 minutes early. One party at a time will be allowed in.
• An appropriate face mask will be REQUIRED upon arrival and worn over the nose and mouth while you are in the building. Please leave neck gators, face shields (unless you wear a mask underneath), 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. Children 10 and under will not be required to wear a mask.
• A greeter will take the names and phone numbers of everyone in your party. You will have your temperature checked, and be asked COVID-19 health screening questions. Please sanitize your hands using the touch-less sanitizer stands at each entrance.
• Pick up a contained set of worship elements (juice and wafer) if you wish to partake in communion (first Sunday of the month only).
• An usher will greet you at the top of the stairs and give you a bulletin. You may take your name badge from the board if you want, and a set of headphones if you need them.
• Let the usher know if you wish to sit socially distanced. If so, you have the choice to either sit in the balcony, or in the west section of pews in the sanctuary. If in the balcony, sit distanced from other parties and the AV team. Distanced means at least 6 feet apart in all directions. 6 feet is approximately two arm-lengths. If in the west section of pews, sit where it has been marked by blue tape on the top of the pew. Please try to sit in a marked area where the length of tape is relative to the size of your party. The usher can assist you.
• The usher will otherwise ask you to sit in an area of your choosing within the sanctuary. We encourage you to spread out as much as possible.
During Worship Service
• Once seated, please stay in your area. However, you may use the upstairs bathroom near the narthex at any time. There will be no access to the downstairs area - bathrooms, fellowship hall, kitchen.
• Children will sit with their parents/guardian. However, during Children’s Time, if OK with their parents/guardian, children may come up and sit distanced from each other in the front, center pew.
• The nursery, and Sunday school for children/youth will not be open.
• Stay in your pew when passing the peace. Wave to those in the distance, or say hello to your immediate neighbors.
• You may speak the prayer of confession, the Lord’s Prayer, and all other recitations. Please refrain from singing. But do hum, tap your feet, clap, or sway to the music!
• You may drop your offering in the plate or basket provided at the top of each aisle either before or after service (an usher can show you). Contributions can continue to be made online, by text or by mail.
After Worship Service
• Please stay seated until an usher releases your section and row. This will be done row by row, starting in the back and moving toward the altar. Refrain from congregating in the narthex and leave the building promptly.
• Take your bulletin home or place it in a blue recycling bin.
• Take your used worship element container, tissues, etc. with you and dispose in the trash. Do not leave any of your items in the pews.
• If you’ve removed your name tag from the board, please take it home with you and remember to bring it each Sunday.
• Leave headphones with an usher for sanitizing.
• It’s good practice to sanitize your hands once more as you exit the building.
• Once outside, feel free to meet and greet according to yours, and others, comfort level!
Heart, Soul & Might
Summer 2021
Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart. Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise. Bind them as a sign on your hand, fix them as an emblem on your forehead, and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. ~ Deuteronomy 6:4-9
You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord. ~ Leviticus 19:18
As Christians, we are very familiar with the great commandment: to love God with all that we are and to love our neighbors as ourselves (Matthew 22, Mark 12, Luke 10). We are often less familiar with its origins: Judaism. Loving God with heart, soul and might and loving neighbor as self are Jewish teachings that would have been familiar to Jesus some 2,000 years ago just as they are familiar to Jewish people today.
This summer, we invite you to explore some of the Jewish roots of our Christian faith: to learn more about Jesus’s religion (after all he was Jewish, not Christian). We will move from learning some basics about Judaism, to delving more deeply into what it means to love God with all that we are and finally considering the call to love our neighbor as ourselves.
The summer worship is split into two halves. During the first half (June 13 to July 18), Diane and Dave Levy, a Jewish/Christian interfaith couple in our congregation, will teach us some of the Jewish prayers, practices and music that have been central to their family’s faith life. Dave will share his knowledge of Jewish religion, theology and practice with us. We seek not to appropriate Judaism but instead to deepen our understanding of our Christian roots, enrich our faith, and discover commonalities shared with our Jewish siblings.
The second half of summer worship will focus on the great commandment as found in Mark 12: loving God with heart, soul, mind and strength and loving our neighbor as ourselves. How do we love God with our whole selves? What does it look like to love ourselves? Who are our neighbors and how do we love them well?
As we experience changes “back” to pre-pandemic life, we invite you “back” to explore the Jewish roots of Christianity and to reflect on the foundational instruction to LOVE.