Join us for worship this Sunday morning at 10 am on our YouTube channel! https://youtu.be/aV-M9g53NNk The video will show as “private” until it becomes live at 10 am. See you soon! This Sunday at 10:00 a.m. you are invited to visit us to view a pre-recorded time of worship with Rev. Dominic in the Sanctuary. He will be sharing a Lenten reflection, a Children’s Sermon, Scripture Lessons for the fifth Sunday of Lent, Prayers and as well as a Sermon focused on the social restrictions we are living with as a result of the pandemic. Visit our homepage again Sunday morning to find the link that will bring you to our YouTube channel. Our video of worship will become public at 10 am. This is the first of what will be regular online Sunday worship services from FCC as we try different formats to discern the best way to navigate this new era. See you in church this Sunday at 10:00! March 25, 2020 Dear Members and Friends, This is to let you know that we are extending cancellation of Sunday worship services and all other church activities at First Congregational Church through Easter and until further notice. Scheduled Church Office hours will remain in place for the time being, but we ask that you restrict you communication with our Office Manager to email and phone until further notice. Our hope had been to return to our regular schedule of worship services and other activities following the two week suspension recommended by our Southern New England Conference, UCC and the City of Melrose. It is apparent, however, that the need to contain the coronavirus Covid-19 is ongoing and we intend to do our part. Updates will be given as needed but at the moment we are planning to use the Melrose Public Schools as our guide to returning to in-person worship and activities. When they return to regular operations, we hope to do the same. Right now we want to continue adherence to social distancing and the governor’s request that people stay at home as much as possible. That said, please see our website at http://www.fccmelrose.org (“Audio Messages” menu tab, audio recordings of music under “Worship & Music” tab) and our Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/FCCMelrose/) for news about ways you can help out. There will also be news there about new ways we will be communicating with everyone for worship and other things. Thank you for your understanding and patience. Know that I hold you all in prayer during this difficult time and ask for your continued prayers as well for our church, our city, our state and beyond. May you feel the light of Christ surrounding you each and every day. –Rev. Dominic 3/13/2020 Dear Members and Friends, I am writing to share with you the decision that has been made to cancel Sunday worship services and all other church activities at First Congregational Church for the next two weeks beginning today. Scheduled Church Office hours will remain in place for the time being, but we ask that you restrict your communication with our Office Manager to email and phone until further notice. This was a difficult decision made by our Senior Deacons, Worship Deacons, Church Staff and myself on the advice of our Southern New England Conference of the United Church of Christ and the City of Melrose. We are doing this in tandem with other Melrose churches. We do this in order to help stem the tide of the coronavirus Covid-19 in our community by limiting public gatherings. The hope is to aid health care services by preventing a sharp rise in coronavirus cases that may overwhelm these services. Church leadership will re-evaluate the situation prior to worship on Sunday, March 29th and communicate an update at that time regarding whether or not worship will resume. In the meantime, please add the church website and Facebook page to those online places that you check regularly. I will be posting further messages and interim updates there as we create new ways of strengthening our faith community during these challenging times. I invite you to keep our church, our local communities, our commonwealth, our country and our world in your prayers. As you navigate the many social changes that are upon us, be assured of Christ’s accompaniment with you each and every day. –Rev. Dominic Our General Minister and President of the United Church of Christ, Rev. John Dorhauer, has shared the following Pastoral Letter with our churches. His important words speak to the role of the church in reclaiming community and hope in these challenging times. See you in church, –Rev. Dominic Dear Partners in Christ: The vision of a body united – in purpose, in mission, in vision – is one that inspired the birth of our denomination. All of our spiritual impulses reverberate in an effort to call us into a more perfect union. Throughout our shared history as a people of faith and as a part of the Body of Christ, we have challenged ourselves to widen the circle of inclusion. Widening the circle has always come with growth pains as we shed old skins and welcome those whom we had previously thought unwelcome. And, with each new articulation of a more fully expressed Body of Christ we have realized new joy. Through it all we remain focused on the call to be one and committed to meeting the challenges inherent in that call. We are now living in and through a season when the threats to unity are legion. Talk of walls that mark refugees as threats, labels like ‘terrorist’ that attach too easily to Muslims, overt racial bias that normalizes fear and hatred, a pandemic of abuse to women with the trigger reflex to forgive the men who author that abuse have turned America into a land many of us no longer recognize and that too many of us are finding harder and harder to reconcile with our faith. Now more than ever, the Holy Spirit of the Living God and the Risen Christ is seeking to partner with anyone committed to unifying the human community. The gospel mandate to love our neighbor as we love ourselves resonates deep within us. It calls for the better angels among and within us to always resist impulses to hate, to condemn, to vilify, or to castigate. In such a time as this, the United Church of Christ’s call to fulfill the prayer of Jesus, that they may all be one, stands as an urgent mandate to disciples who envision a just world for all. United with you in God’s service, The Rev. Dr. John C. Dorhauer
General Minister and President, UCC
