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This Lent we will be following the Full to the Brim theme from A Sanctified Art. Rather than a season focused on fasting and “giving up” we will explore what it means to live a full life. “Full to the Brim is an invitation – into a radically different Lent, into a full life. It’s an invitation to be authentically who you are, to counter scarcity and injustice at every turn, to pour out even more grace wherever it is needed. When we allow ourselves to be filled to the brim with God’s lavish love, that love spills over.” Shrove Tuesday Pancake Supper: Feb 13, 5:30 PM Ash Wednesday service: Feb. 14, 6:00 PM Contemplative Practice & Communion: Wednesdays at 6 PM through Lent. Ian, Bethany, & Karen will alternate teaching and leading a different contemplative practice each week, followed by communion. If you’d like, feel free to bring a journal each week. Feb 21: Writing contemplatively Feb 28: Visio divina Mar 6: Centering prayer (location TBD) Mar 13: Imaginative prayer (location TBD) Mar 20: Art Mar 27: Drumming/chanting Good Friday service: March 28, 6 PM Easter Sunday: March 31, 10 AM service followed by Easter Egg hunt for the kids

Our church will be hosting the women from PACEM (People and Congregations Engaged in Ministry) March 2-15. The women will be sleeping in our sanctuary and sharing a hot meal here in the evenings. During those two weeks, we will worship off-site (location TBD) on March 3 and March 10.

We will also need lots of volunteers to make this a smooth two weeks. Please click on the buttons below to sign-up to help.

We need your help to ensure that our guests receive dinner each night they stay with us. Plan on meal service for 20 individuals, including drinks. Meals should be delivered by 6:00pm on the night of your service and ready to serve by 6:15pm.

We need a few folks to meet with PACEM staff to help move in cots, set up sleeping area, set up eating area, and welcome guests. We also need a few folks to help move materials out and see off guests on Move Out Day.

We need folks to show up mornings to help make coffee and lay out snacks for guests, help PACEM staff see guests off for the day, and make sure the church is locked down afterwards.

We need folks to show up evenings to help PACEM staff setup, welcome guests, and serve dinner. This sign up is to help serve dinner, not make it. If you are making dinner and intend to stay and serve it, sign up here for that day.

We need folks to show up during the day to clean the bathrooms daily, take out trash to the dumpster, and generally straighten up the area for PACEM use. If you are an evening volunteer, this could be combined with that job.

We need someone to transport dirty linens to the PACEM-designated laundromat on Wednesday and Saturday mornings.

Thanks to everyone who donated and helped coordinate this project! We were able to assemble 40 menstrual hygiene kits. These will be added to kits collected from UCC churches all over the country at our UCC General Synod in July. You can read more about this mission on the UCC’s website.

This spring, the United Church of Christ is supporting Church World Service’s project
to provide “period packs” (menstrual hygiene kits) to support cleanliness and health
during the menstrual cycle, for those who have difficulty obtaining such supplies.
Sojourners’ goal is to assemble 40 of these kits.

Church World Service (CWS) will donate the kits to folks who are refugees, who live in
areas or situations where water use is curtailed, or who simply cannot afford or even
locate the necessary supplies. Many persons in these situations are forced to stay home
from work or school when they have their periods.

Over several years, CWS has figured out exactly what items have proven most useful.
CWS gave away 108,390 “period packs” in 2022 alone! We have created a Signup
Genius where you can read about each item that is in the kit, and you can sign up to
provide a designated quantity of the item(s). We need you to sign up so that we don’t
wind up with too many of one item and too few of something else!

Please sign up, purchase your items, and bring them to the church by
Sunday, June 4.

We will then assemble the supplies into 40 individual kits. Pastor Karen will bring our
contribution to the UCC General Synod in late June. Any extra supplies will be donated
to The Haven; any deficiencies will be remediated by SAM (Service and Missions). If
you have any questions, please email Bev Seng. Thanks so much for your support!

Join us throughout the season of Lent as we explore the questions of our faith and how we can find God in the midst of those questions.

We are hosting both the men and women of PACEM (People and Congregations Engaged in Ministry) for two weeks beginning February 25th. We need your help to make sure our guests are fed and cared for during their stay.

To sign up to provide main dish, side dish, or desert (or all three) for a
specific date, please follow this link to Sojourners’ own meal signup
genius: CLICK HERE

(Please DO NOT use the meal signup generated by PACEM itself, because that may
cause confusion. Service and Missions (SAM) will enter completed meals into the
PACEM-generated sign-up, so that we do not conflict with other churches that may help
out.)

To sign up to help in other ways (set up and take down, or helping in the
evenings), please CLICK HERE

Thanks for serving! ~~ SAM (Service and Missions)

While we are hosting PACEM we will not be able to gather in our sanctuary, so our Worship Ministry has come up with some creative ways for us to gather.

On Sunday, February 26th we will meet during our regular 10 AM service time at The Haven in their gorgeous sanctuary. There is street parking as well as a nearby garage for parking. Two-hour parking validation is available for the Water Street garage. Ocean Aiello and Anna Mendez from The Haven will be our speakers that day. We will also livestream this service on Zoom & Facebook.

On March 5th, if weather permits, we will gather in person only at Belmont Park during our regular 10 AM service time. We will decide the Sunday before based on the projected weather forecast. Street parking is available, but you may consider parking at the church and carpooling over to the park. Bring a chair or blanket to sit. If the weather is not conducive, we will be on Zoom and Facebook live only for that day, no in person gathering.

Our Service and Missions Ministry (SAM) is sponsoring a book drive to benefit Abundant Life Ministry, located in the Prospect Street area. They have been tutoring elementary aged students in reading for many years. Over the years, the books have become worn, so they are seeking new or gently used copies of a specific list of books. SAM has placed a box in the Narthex, along with the list of requested books. Books will be collected through February 19.

You can read more about Abundant Life Ministry on their website.

These are the requested books:

Books for younger children
Elephant and Piggie books – Mo Willems
Flat Stanley books – Jeff Brown
Splat the Cat books – Rob Scotton
Zoe and Sassafras series – Asia Citra
I Can Read series, particularly Level 2 books about superheroes
Popular Graphic Novels
Wings of Fire graphic novel series – Tui Sutherland
Magic Tree House graphic novels
Miles Morales series – Justin Reynolds
Bailey School Kids graphic novels
I Survived graphic novels – Laura Tarsis
Simon and Chester detective series -Cale Atkinson
Dragon Kingdom series – Jordan Quinn
Bad Guys series – Aaron Blabey
Cardboard Kingdom series – Chad Sell
The Okay Witch series – Emma Steinkeller
Pizza and Taco series – Stephen Shaskin
Swim Team – Johnnie Christmas
Allergic – Megan Wagner Lloyd
Antihero – Kate Karyus Quinn
Twins – Valerie Johnson
Chapter Books
Ellray Jakes series – Sally Warner
Dyamonde Daniel series – Nikki Grimes
Jada Jones series – Kelly Lyons
Nikki and Deja series – Karen English
The Dragon Thief series – Zetta Elliott
Mia Mayhem series – Kara West
Press Start series – Thomas Flintham

For many years, Sojourners has provided Christmas gifts–hygiene kits, greeting cards, stationery, stamps and pencils—for incarcerated women at Fluvanna Correctional Center for Women. This year, the Seeking and Sharing Group sponsored the project. Our goal was to provide 200 hygiene kits. Our final count was 287 kits plus 2 boxes of stationary!

This Christmas gift program started in 1998 when the correctional center opened. It is sponsored through GraceInside and supported entirely by donations.

WHY? Although indigent women are provided basic supplies, they are the size of hotel samples, must last 30 days, and are poor quality. Items that can be purchased on commissary are expensive and often of inferior quality, “bottom of the barrel”, said one chaplain. Many cannot afford to buy commissary items, Those who work are paid about 27 to 80 cents an hour, so most would have to work weeks to buy what our kit provides. So, these Christmas gifts are treasured by the residents, and it is our privilege to “visit those in prison” through this ministry.