May 31, 2019
May God bless you with a restless discomfort
about easy answers, half-truths, and superficial relationships,
so that you may seek truth boldly and love deep within your heart.
May God bless you with holy anger
at injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people,
so that you may tirelessly work for justice, freedom, and peace among all people.
May God bless you with the gift of tears
to shed for those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation, or the loss of all that they cherish,
so that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and transform their pain into joy.
May God bless you with enough foolishness
to believe that you really can make a difference in this world,
so that you are able, with God's grace, to do what others claim cannot be done.
A Franciscan Benediction
A friend recently posted this prayer on Facebook. Although I had seen it before it meant more to me this time given that the person who was posting is someone who I consider to be a living example of the "restless discomfort", "holy anger", "tears", and "foolishness" of which the Franciscan benediction speaks. She is a person who has a passion for environmental justice and who lives out that passion each day of her life. She has ridden her bicycle countless miles in order to bring greater awareness to environmental issues. She has also spent more than a few nights in jail after having allowed her holy anger to lead her to protest instances of environmental injustice. She has cried her share of tears and risked her share of foolishness to truly make a difference in our world as she has struggled to bring us to a place of earth stewardship. She is a saint who truly lives the Franciscan model of discipleship. I can only hope that my own passion for justice will be lived out in such a faithful manner and encourage you to seek to do likewise.
WORSHIP AHEAD
6/2 Ascension Sunday
Holy Communion
Choral Choir (10:30am service only)
Accompanists: Julie Oliver and Joyce Tagliaferro
Scripture: Acts 1:1-11
Theme: The Passing of the Mantle: One of the various meanings of the Ascension of our Lord is that it signifies that Jesus' mantle has been passed to the church which is now called upon to be the hands and feet of Jesus in the world. On this Sunday we will also celebrate the passing of the mantle from Joyce Tagliaferro to the many who will be taking on the tasks that she has done in the past as she moves to Ohio.
OPPORTUNITY OF THE WEEK
At a recent Church Council meeting we talked about how we might better highlight some of the opportunities for service that are available through the church. A suggestion was made that maybe we could have an "opportunity of the week". This will now be a new feature in the weekly e-mail blast so look for these wonderful opportunities and see if there is something that sounds inviting to you.
This week's opportunity is to volunteer to either be our Greeter Coordinator or Fellowship Coordinator. The greeter coordinator will be the go-to person for all of our greeters on Sunday morning. The Fellowship Coordinator will be the go-to person for the Sunday morning fellowship time volunteers. Neither are not expected to "do it all", but rather to make sure that people are in place to fulfill these important duties. If interested please speak to Pastor Rich. He can most easily be reached via e-mail at pastor@mainstreet-umc.org
CALLING ALL MUSICIANS!!!
We're looking for folks willing to share their musical talents with us during our summer services. Now's the time to get out that old trombone from high school and dust it off! There will be two available slots on each Sunday, sign up for one or both.
A sign up sheet is posted on the music/worship bulletin board located on the first floor ramp. If you can provide your own accompaniment (either live or "tracked") or can perform without, that would be great. If you do need someone to assist, please see Julie and she'll work at finding a match for you.
If you have any questions, please check in with Julie Oliver.
Thank you so much – we so look forward to you sharing your gifts with the congregation.
KRISTY BESADA'S COMMISSIONING SERVICE
The ordination/commissioning service for deacons and elders will be held on Friday, June 14th at 7:00pm at the Doubletree by Hilton Hotel in Manchester, NH. We are excited that one of our own members, Kristy Besada, will be commissioned as a deacon at this time. The service is open to all and we hope to have a good showing of Main Street UMC members there to cheer Kristy on. The service will also be live streamed and can be accessed by going to the New England Conference website, neumc.org
TREE STREETS BLOCK PARTY
The annual Tree Streets Block Party will take place on Saturday, June 15th from 2-6pm on Ash Street. Besides the usual festivities the Raggae Band, Mighty Mystic, will be playing. You need to have tickets in advance for the show though (they are free) and they can be obtained by going to the web site- downtownnashua.org/tsbp All are welcome to join in the festivities!
Church Wi-Fi Access
The password-free Wi-Fi access Main Street Church now has a usage agreement that you must accept each time you connect. It is disabled overnight. Church members may also use the Wi-Fi access point MSUMC Members with the password youareloved to avoid having to confirm the usage agreement every day. Contact Kelly Rose or Jerry Harrow with any questions.
CAR WASH
Date: Saturday, June 1st, 2019
Time: 9:00 am- 1:00 pm
Place: MSUMC Back Parking Lot
Sponsor: Youth Advisory Council
Contact: Karrie.lam@mainstreet-umc.org
Free donations are accepted to support Youth Mission Trip
Mother's Day/Blanket Sunday
Thank you for your generous gifts of $819 in support of Church World Service blankets. Somewhere in a refugee camp or a disaster area, a mother will be able to keep her children warm because you honored your mother with a gift on Blanket Sunday. Almost 10,000 blankets were sent to Syria last year, for example.
Food Pantry and Letter Carriers' Food Drive
Thank you to everyone who remembered to put out a bag for this year's "Stamping Out Hunger" Food Drive by the Postal Service Letter Carriers. If you forgot to put out food for the letter carriers, please leave a bag of food in the blue bins in the vestry or lobby, and Nashua Soup Kitchen/Main Street volunteers will get it to the Soup Kitchen. Needed items this month include canned baked beans, corn, canned meat, spaghetti sauce, and ramen noodles
JOYCE'S TEA PARTY
On Sunday, June 2 following the second service, please join us in the Vestry for Joyce's Tea Party. The menu will include appetizers, small sandwiches, and desserts, as well as assorted drinks.
THANK YOU TO EVERYONE
With the final ham and bean supper of the season behind us, and also my last one at Main Street, many "thank yous" are bestowed upon our congregation. Some of you may not realize that it takes forty or more volunteers each month in order for these suppers to happen, and to be successful.
There is a devoted group on Friday mornings who cook, peel and chop the potatoes, chop celery, onions, and slice the lemons. Without faithful women to sort and wash the beans, they(beans) would never make it to the roaster to soak overnight.
On Saturday morning the UMM is very devoted in setting up all of the table and chairs, while others join them to be sure that the tables are set for our loyal patrons. Also, at this time, the bean cookers have begun the day- long job of keeping the beans flavored and cooked, while the cabbage is chopped and the dressing is made for the cole slaw.
The hams are prepared for the oven in the afternoon, while iced tea and coffee is also made.
Later in the afternoon, the potato salad dressing is carefully made and tasted to ensure a delicious blend of ingredients for the popular salad.
The wait staff, kitchen help, and others arrive to set up the pie room, ticket area, and bread baskets, etc. Early Birds like to arrive shortly after 4 p.m., and are comfortable as they wait for the show to begin.
Several pies of many varieties have been donated and brought in at different times for the grand finale of the meal to the delight of everyone. The greeter and hostess seat the people in small and large groups, and there is always room for singles to mingle with others.
By the end of the meal it is wonderful to see those who begin the clean up process, and all of the dishes and roasting pans are being washed by a crew in the kitchen. The trash is collected, and the final items are carefully put away, and the vestry is restored for Sunday morning use.
Leftover food is sold on Sunday morning to the delight of several who didn't attend the supper, and this also helps the church budget.
Thank you to everyone who has supported every aspect of this important ministry including our administrative assistant, custodian and Pastor Rich who has been a faithful server since his arrival seven years ago. Your cooperation and attendance have been greatly appreciated, and I have really enjoyed being a part of this effort to reach our community and to help our church.
In Christian Love, Joyce Tagliaferro
Finance News
General Fund, Capital Fund, Endowment Giving
Hi, Joe from Finance and Stewardship – welcome to our summer column. Here is a handy guide on our various funds at Church and what they mean.
General Fund is for our operating expenses. This is the cost to run the church from week to week, and comes out to about $450,000 for 2019. Finance and Stewardship committee estimate what it will cost to run our various missions and ministries in advance of the upcoming year. Needless to say, we keep a very sharp pencil to our expenditures while meeting our ministries and missions. However, if we cut the budget too tight, we constrain our ability to serve our community. Your continued giving to this fund is very important as it's the bedrock of our local ministries and missions.
We have special campaigns such as Loaves and Fishes. This is to support our youth and family (intergenerational) positions to help us with this very key ministerial area. Not only do we need to pay more attention to this area, it also represents long-term growth for the church. Many folks understand this important need and contribute toward this fund over and above their general fund giving. Another special fund is our maintenance fund, which covers a variety of items beyond our budget.
Capital giving goes toward the big-ticket items that are beyond the ability of a general fund to support. Our recent building renovation is a good example. At a cost of roughly $2 Million, it required our HON (Heart of Nashua) Capital Campaign to support. Our HON giving is still open, as we still have a substantial (about $260,000) balance. Paying off this debt is very important as it detracts our attention from our ministries and missions. Many congregants understand this and have been putting extra contributions toward this goal.
We also have endowment giving options. Endowment sets the goal of an enduring (and large) amount of principal. Endowment has policies in place for investment (e.g. social conscious fund restrictions), withdrawal, and usage. For example, if we received a $100,000 gift (which would be nice!) specified for our endowment fund – that amount would be placed in our Endowment account. In general, we would use the income from that amount over time to pay for certain expenses. An income producing endowment fund could be handy during those lean years when funding is tight, or to help start a new community mission.
By the time you read this, you may have heard about "100 for $150" program which would encourage a slow but methodical buildup of our Endowment fund. This is messaged by our Permanent Endowment committee, of which a member attends our Finance and Stewardship committee meetings.
That's a summary of our funds. Please consider your active participation in these funds, and also consideration in your will or trust. In a future column(s), I will describe strategies for non-cash contributions to our church, which can be applied to any of these funds.
Thank you, Joe Dechene
