​The word “advent,” meaning “coming" or "arrival,” itself is always forward-looking. Even as we remember the birth of Jesus, by definition we also are looking forward to the new things God is doing now; the new ways God’s love, justice, and compassion are being born among us; the new ways this old, old story is being shared with a new generation and folks who’ve never heard it before or never dared to believe God’s good news is for them, too. Our schedule throughout the holidays reflects this mix of traditional and new, as we remember “Our faith is over 2000 years old. Our thinking is not.”
Christmas Eve Pageant Worship
“Do Not Be Afraid”
Friday, 12/24 @ 4pm
Live! In-Person & via Zoom at http://zoom.us/j/907548568

Reservations for worship in the sanctuary are now closed. Please join us online.

For many years now, the Christmas Pageant has been the center of our worship on Christmas Eve. This year will be no different as we move into a new hybrid format. Families and children from our congregation will still share the familiar story of the birth of Jesus, “God with us.” We’ll even use some of the same hand-me-down costumes and props we all remember from pageants past. But with much gratitude, the Board of Deacons, the Christian Education Team, and the ministers have agreed that we should set aside the script we’ve used for the last 20+ years in order to tell that story a new way this year (though you may catch “Easter egg” or two in the script if you listen carefully!). We’re doing this not just to be novel but fresh and timely, so we can meet our members and guests and particularly our children, where they are today. So, appropriately, our pageant this year is entitled “Do Not Be Afraid.” Because, with all that’s going on in the world, that message isn’t just for shepherds anymore.

Christmas Eve worship will be 100% hybrid, with opportunities to participate fully both in-person in the sanctuary and via Zoom, allowing you to choose what’s best for you and your family. Given rising COVID infection rates, even in Massachusetts, and the likely further spread over the upcoming holiday travel season, our COVID Advisory Team recommends that we continue to abide by current CDC guidance on masking and social distancing in the sanctuary. That means we will have space for more than 175 folks in the sanctuary. And that means, if you’d like to attend in person, we need you to RSVP before 12/21 at the link here and let us know how many will be attending with you. (Of course we’ll hold back a few seats for folks who show up without RSVPing, but please don’t count on that.)

We’ll have a crew of live (masked) musicians, soloists and small groups, singing familiar carols for us to accompany the pageant, and we’ll all end singing “Silent Night,” holding our candles in the darkness, witnessing to God’s light that no darkness can ever overcome. The pageant scenes will be pre-recorded and shared on the screen and online. Turning this restriction into an inspiration, our “acting families” can choose to record in their homes, outdoors, or over Zoom, with costumes, props, and support from Rev. Maddie—and thanks to the tech, we can include families from beyond Needham once again this year. 

Friends, this particular pageant may be new to us, but the feeling we hope to share with everyone who attends, whether in-person or online, members, guests, family and friends, adults and children, remains just this: No matter who you are or where you are on life’s journey, we welcome you, God loves you, and there is a place for you in the story.
 Picture
​Advent Guest Preacher Series
"Love the Guest is on the Way"
Sundays 11/28, 12/5, 12/12, & 12,19 @ 10am EDT
In this Advent season of preparation and reflection, we’ll welcome four guest preachers who will walk with us to Christmas. They come to us from near and far, from our United Church of Christ denominational family and beyond, bearing gifts for the season:
  • Rev. Derek Terry is pastor of St. Peter’s UCC in Cincinnati, OH, coming from a background in the African Methodist Episcopal Church. He is a sought-after speaker, author of God Loves Me and So Do I, and currently serves as President of the leadership team of Open and Affirming Coalition of the UCC.
  • Rene Slataper is a member-in-discernment on the way toward ordination in the UCC. He attends Lexington Theological Seminary as a recipient of the UCC’s William R. Johnson scholarship for LGBTQ church leaders in training. He created a transgender and non-binary meditation group at the Congregational Church of Austin and currently serves as Minister for Outreach and Development with Labyrinth Progressive Student Ministry on the campus of the University of Texas at Austin.
  • Rev. Davida Foy Crabtree has been making “good trouble” for a long time. In the mid-1970s she co-founded the ground-breaking Prudence Crandall Center for Women in New Britain, CT, for which work she received the UCC’s Antoinette Brown Award, recognizing outstanding women in ministry. She spent decades leading Conferences across the UCC from Connecticut to California before retiring—sort of.
  • Rev. Holly Benzenhafer is ordained in the Baptist tradition and has served recently as Associate Pastor with First Baptist Church here in Needham. She is a spiritual director and contemplative Christian with a PhD in Practical Theology and Spirituality from Boston University School of Theology.
Our theme for the season is “Love the Guest is on the Way: Bringing Christmas to Life in Words & Music.” Each of our preachers will center their sermons around a favorite Christmas carol, which we’ll also sing together. 
Picture
​Ring in a Season of Hope
Comfort & Joy! Christmas Concert
12/5 @ 4pm, LIVE! In-Person & via Zoom
at http://zoom.us/j/907548568
 
Plan to ring in the Advent and Christmas seasons with the annual Christmas concert, “Comfort & Joy!” on Sunday, December 5 at 4pm.  The Chancel Choir and Friendly Chimers will bring us music to help us out of our isolation and into a season of hope. The concert will include familiar favorites designed to comfort and inspire, including arrangements of “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” and “On This Day Earth Shall Ring,” as well as beautiful contemporary settings of “Still, Still, Still” by Mark Shepherd and “There is Faint Music” by Dan Forrest, among others.

This will be a fully hybrid event. You will be able to attend in person in the sanctuary (where masking and social distancing will be required of all attendees) or live via Zoom. (The concert also will be available to share afterward at www.youtube.com/needhamucc.) While you must make the best choice for you and your family, we hope you’ll consider attending in person, as the physical experience of live music in a beautiful space can be healing, particularly in this season.

This is a free concert. The majority of the costs for the event have been underwritten by generous donors already. But your generous free will donation beyond that will go to our Supplemental Music Fund to support the church’s professional singer program in 2022. As you may know, this expense was removed from the church’s operating budget for 2021 and is not scheduled to be included in 2022. You can make your gift via cash or check (made out to the Congregational Church of Needham, memo: “Concert Donation”) at the event or send it in to the office at 1154 Great Plain Avenue. Also, you may give anytime on our website. Simply go to www.needhamucc.org, scroll down to the PayPal button, and select “Christmas Concert / Music Support” from the pulldown menu.
Picture
Holiday Giving for Good
The Giving Tree, donations welcome through 12/13
Family Promise Metrowest in Natick provides four core programs to families with children who are facing homelessness: a Shelter Program which is moving from having families sleep overnight in partner congregations’ buildings to opening an on-site shelter in downtown Natick; the SAIL Program to support families who have graduated from shelter to permanent housing; the LIFE program to help families avoid homelessness; and the Steps to Success Program which offers education and employment support. Our congregation has long supported the work of Family Promise, but the need now is greater than ever. In just the first 10 months of 2021, they have served 56 families which included 93 children.
​
For this year’s Giving Tree, we ask you to consider your own blessings and make a gift to support the families served by Family Promise Metrowest, to brighten their holiday season and help them far into the new year, as need arises. To make your donation via PayPal, go to www.NeedhamUCC.org and select “Giving Tree: Family Promise” from the drop-down menu. You also may send your check made out to “The Congregational Church of Needham” with the memo: “Giving Tree” to the church office at 1154 Great Plain Ave., Needham, MA 02492. Donations must be received by Monday, 12/13.