August 2025 Steeple Sounds

August always feels like Advent or Lent to me. It is the time when I find myself enjoying the summer, but I start thinking about the coming Fall and the start of the new school and church year. At the end of the last church year, we made some really big decisions about the structure and finances of our congregation. Over and over, I heard people say that they were willing to do whatever it took to help our church. So we developed a robust calendar of activities designed to not only help us raise funds for our operating budget, but to invite the community into our church, offering a soft way into our congregation. Church doesn’t only happen from 10 -11 on Sunday mornings.

We need your help to make these events happen. We need volunteers to help make arrangements for the events. We need help to set up and clean up. We need donations to make sure we have the supplies and materials we need. We need help advertising and promoting the events. As we start to prepare ourselves for the upcoming year, please consider how you can contribute.

Please look at the draft of the calendar below. If you have an idea to add or a suggestion to make, please do not hesitate to reach out. This is going to take the whole congregation, sharing our faith and our resources.

If you have questions, or comments, or want to volunteer to help with one or more events, please reach out to me or to the church office, or CLICK HERE.

Anne Malmquist
CSCC Moderator
amalmquist@comcast.net

PS - Please consider picking one event that you (and maybe your family) would be willing to help out with. Together, we can make a difference.

FREE piano concert with Bridgewater native

Aaron Wonson : August 1

Aaron is a gifted pianist with music degrees from Oberlin Conservatory and Indiana University. He is currently pursuing his PhD at Boston University.
There will be a meet and greet with the artist following the performance with light refreshments, as well as a gift basket raffle.

A free will offering will be accepted, but not required. The donations will benefit both the artist and the church.

For more details, CLICK HERE. See you there!

About Jeff Chu and "Good Soil"

Jeff Chu is a writer, reporter, and editor, including Editor-at-large at Travel+Leisure. He was a teacher in residence at Crosspointe Church in North Carolina, and a parish associate for storytelling and witness at the First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley in California.

Ph.D. student in theology at the University of Stellenbosch. Minister of Word and sacrament in the Reformed Church in America (RCA). Cook. Gardener. Author of “Does Jesus Really Love Me?: A Gay Christian’s Pilgrimage in Search of God in America”, and co-author, with the late Rachel Held Evans, of the New York Times best-seller “Wholehearted Faith” . He has also served as co-curator, with Sarah Bessey, of Evolving Faith. He is a resident of Grand Rapids, Michigan, where his husband and he moved in 2020.

Prior to that, while a seminarian at Princeton Theological Seminary, he worked as a farmhand at PTS’s Farminary. Don’t be deceived: when he got to the Farminary, a 21-acre experiment in sustainable agriculture that doubles as the world’s best classroom, he notes: “I didn’t know anything about farming and I had more experience killing plants than nurturing them. But my work there changed me. That land taught me about the story of life, death, and new life that God has written into creation.”

“Good Soil: The Education of an Accidental Farmhand,” is his memoir about his time at the Farminary, and was published earlier this year.

Central Closet Thrift Shop started last month off with a bang. July 2 was a record breaker in more ways then one — total sales for the day were over $474! This is the largest day we have had so far. But that's not the best part of our day, let me explain.

A customer spotted a stroller we had for sale. When she inquired about the price, she said it was way more than she could afford. She was looking for one with a cup holder and a place for her granddaughters backpack. She explained how she has to take the toddler into Boston often for doctor appointments and it would make her life so much easier.

While all of this is going on a young couple was checking out a small sewing machine. When we took the sewing machine up to the back and plugged it in, it worked perfectly. The husband tells us he would like to purchase the stroller for the woman with the toddler, and asked if we might be able to let the two items go for a few dollars less. So of course we told him absolutely. His only request was not to tell her he was the one who purchased it. He asked us just to tell her there had been an angel in the shop that day. There certainly was.

In other news, we now have a new sign out front. It was donated to the shop by Stephanie Holmgren. She also took the time to take a photo and post it on Facebook. New people have seen it and have stopped in, and said they never knew we were here! Thank you Stephanie! We appreciate any and all help from our friends. (This is also a great reminder that sharing Thrift Shop posts on Facebook works!)

So as you can see, the Central Closet Thrift Shop does more than raise money for the church. We help where we can, with what we have. And thanks to your donations we are able to do both.

August 13th is the last day to donate summer items, and the first day to donate fall merchandise. Again we ask everyone not to drop off your items when we are not open. (Yes, this means you!) Thank you thank you!
Connie, Sandy, Jane, Lynn and Gail

Have you ever thought about joining the choir?

Our senior choir consists of volunteer singers. We sing one anthem a week, in addition to an introit and a prayer response. We enjoy expressing our faith and spirituality through a variety of musical styles, from Renaissance to contemporary, spirituals to jazz. Our members have an inspiring love of music, often in addition to sight-reading and musicianship skills, but singers of all abilities are welcome. We rehearse on Sunday mornings before worship, performing in the worship service at 10am almost every week between Labor Day and Memorial Day. If you are interested in joining the choir, please contact the Minister of Music, Julia Scott Carey at juliascottcarey @ gmail.com or contact the church office.

SENIOR CHOIR STARTS UP AGAIN IN SEPTEMBER
(New choir members are welcome at any time!)

Recently the Community Engagement Team received an e-mail from Gabriela Pinto. She is a Community Sponsorship and Engagement Specialist in the Refugee and Immigrant Services Department at Catholic Charities Archdiocese of Boston. She reached out to our church to partner with them in supporting their efforts in welcoming refugees and immigrants. They have recently resettled a few families in our area.

These families have traveled a long way from Haiti and were being housed in the Boston area before being rehoused in Brockton. How can our congregation help? Their needs are diverse, from English practice, networking to getting a better job, to solutions for childcare. These families will benefit from our involvement in their community by helping provide these families with the care and resources they need on their path towards stability and self-sufficiency.

All of the families could use some practice in speaking English, and having someone check in on them occasionally.

More specifically in one family, a newborn needs diapers and Dad has a job, but would like to learn a technical skill. Another family is looking for day care. Another family just moved into an apartment and needs furniture. In another family, the mother is interested in doing home health aide/CNA classes.

The families do not need a lot of attention. They are doing fairly well but, are struggling in some areas. Many of their needs can be taken care of over the phone.

If you are interested in helping in some way or would just like more information please contact a member of the Community Engagement Team, or the church office.

Heather Ciaramitaro, Stephanie Holmgren,and Terry Reynolds

And he told them this parable: The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. He thought to himself, “What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.”
Then he said, “This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. And I’ll say to myself, ‘You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.’”
But God said to him, “You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?”
This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God. (Luke 12:16-21)

I’ve been thinking all week about this parable. Is God telling us here not to prepare for later? Is he telling us not to save anything? My answer is no, I don’t believe so. What God is telling us here is that if we hoard what we earn without thought of others’ needs we are not doing as God asks.

There’s a song by a musician named Joan Osborne. In it, she asks, “What if God was one of us?” Osborne continues, “Just a stranger on a bus, trying to make his way home….” Would you treat God the way you treat the strangers you see day to day?

Our values at Central Square Congregational Church, UCC, declare: “We are a Christian community of people who are reaching out to our neighbors, at home and abroad, sharing our faith and our resources.” What does that statement mean to you?

To me, that statement means that we are part of a larger community. A community with diverse people with diverse needs. As God’s people we are charged with helping that diverse community. Some of those people will be people we can relate to, like and even perhaps love. Others may be people who we may find hard to understand, people who offend us and even people that we may not like. God doesn’t make those distinctions when communicating with us about what his expectations are about how we are to interact with one another.

I think God is trying to teach us the importance of a generous heart in a community. It’s only with generous hearts that we humans will survive together. Generosity doesn’t always mean money or goods; sometimes making time for our sons and daughters to share their worlds, their perspectives and their fears whether we believe we have time or not is generosity. Other times it could be taking a little extra patience to understand why someone may have hurt you, intentionally or not. Stopping by to chat with a neighbor that you know is lonely or struggling can make a world of difference to them.

“There are different kinds of service but the same Lord” (1Corinthians 12:5). The important thing here is that we all have something to offer one another, and God wants us to offer what we have to those in need. So what do you have to offer?

Church Administration
Pastor: Rev. Elizabeth Stotts, csccpastor at hotmail.com

Office Manager: Jenne Foronjy, office@csccucc.com
Minister of Music: Julia Scott Carey

Director of Video Evangelism: Paul Holmes
Treasurer: David Sheibley

Communications Coordinator: Diane Sheibley

Kids Church Director: Eric Stotts

Office email: office@csccucc.com
Office telephone: (508) 697-6016
Website: www.csccucc.org
Facebook pages: facebook.com/csccuccbridgewaterma (main page), facebook.com/groups/801550253194149 (youth page)

Instagram: @centralsquarechurch

Venmo: @cscc-ucc

Steeple Sounds submissions deadline is the 15th of the month prior to publication.