Sunday, September 25, 2016
The Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost
 
Immunity to Change
Rev. Julie Avis Rogers, preaching
This Sunday at Covenant
10:30 Sunday Worship in the Sanctuary
  
Worship Participants: 
Preacher - Rev. Julie Avis Rogers
Liturgists - Arnold Rots & Rev. Rob Mark
Minister of Music - Tom Handel
Lector - Kathryn Barry
Moment for Generosity and Gratitude - Christine James
Ushers - Denice Thornhill, Ellice Miller, Kate Hall, & Caitlin Vest
Sexton - Fred Lopes

Scripture Readings: 
Hebrew Bible Reading: Psalm 146
Gospel Reading: Luke 16:19-31


This Upcoming Week at Covenant
 
COMMUNITY PRESERVATION ACT ADULT EDUCATION: Today after worship, the Mission and Advocacy Committee invites us all to an adult education program on the Community Preservation Act (CPA), an important initiative to increase affordable housing supported by our Greater Boston Interfaith Organization (GBIO) on the ballot in Boston this November. CPA is a 1% property surcharge, with exemptions for low-income homeowners and low-and-moderate income senior homeowners. If passed, CPA will cost the average home owner approximately $24 per year but will generate $20 million or more for affordable housing, historic preservation, and parks. This initiative will help our most vulnerable brothers and sisters access affordable housing. Please talk to a member of Covenant's CPA committee (Kathryn Barry, Anne Crane, Faith Perry, Caitlin Vest) for more info.
 
"A CITY SO GRAND": Join us on Saturday, October 1, 2016 from 4 pm - 6 pm in the sanctuary for "A City So Grand," a speaking engagement with historian Stephen Puleo on the history of Boston's Back Bay. This event is put on to celebrate our building's 150th anniversary and its part in the history of our neighborhood.
 
ALL AGES SUNDAY AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR CHILDREN AND FAMILIES:
  • Outing to Frog Pond after church today: We invite all families and children to join our Children and Youth Christian Education Committee after worship today for an outing to Frog Pond on the Boston Common! Please come to the nursery (downstairs in Bates Hall) after the service to join the excursion.
  • All Ages World Communion Sunday, October 2nd will be a multigenerational "All Ages Sunday" as we celebrate World Communion Sunday. Everyone is invited to help bake bread from around the world at 9:15 am in the kitchen off Bates Hall. Please invite the young and young-at-heart in your life to join you in church on October 2nd!
  • Parent Gathering on October 2: All parents are invited to join together after church on October 2 in Bates Hall. This will be an opportunity to build community and explore ways to support one another through the joys, struggles and questions of raising children of faith. For questions, please see Kathy Bull or Rev. Julie Avis Rogers (julie.rogers@cotcbos.org).
  • Ongoing offerings for children: Our engaging Godly Play Sunday School begins at 10:30 am downstairs in the nursery space off of Bates Hall. There is also childcare (for newborns on up!) provided by professional caregivers every Sunday starting at 9:15 until the conclusion of the morning's activities. For more information, please see the card about our ministry for children and families located in your pew or email children@cotcbos.org. 
HAMLET AT COTC: We are excited to announce that we will be hosting Actors' Shakespeare Project's fall 2016 production of Hamlet here at Covenant. ASP began their residence with us on Monday, September 19th; performances begin in early October. Please note that the J. Black Room will be reserved for ASP during their stay with us. On Sunday, October 16th at 4 pm (following the Sunday afternoon performance), our own Rev. Julie Avis Rogers will be co-leading a post-show talkback with the play's director, Doug Lockwood on exploring the impact of the church setting on the play and exploring the question "How does the church inform the play and the play inform the church?" For more information or to purchase tickets, please visit the Actors' Shakespeare Project website. If you'd like a sneak peek, check out the FREE open rehearsal this Saturday (TOMORROW!), September 24th at 11 am!


 
 
Every Sunday at Covenant
click on the links to learn more:  
  • CHOIR REHEARSAL: The choir resumes rehearsals on Sunday, September 11 at 9:15 am. 
  • NURSERY CARE FOR CHILDREN:  Nursery Care is provided by our wonderful caregivers each Sunday from 9:15 am onward. Please ask an usher for directions if you need help finding it. 
 
Upcoming Events

COTC 101 NEXT SUNDAY: AN INVITATION FOR NEWCOMERS AND THOSE WANTING TO LEARN MORE ABOUT OUR CHURCH: If you are fairly new to our community of faith, and would like to know more about who we are, our history, what our core mission in this world is all about, and what it means to become a member of our church, please join us after church on Sunday Oct. 2, from noon-1:30 pm for our special "COTC 101" class. This is a great chance to not only find out more about Church of the Covenant, but also a chance to meet some others who are fairly new to our community as well. If you have any questions, or would be willing to RSVP to help our planning, please send Rev. Rob an email at rob.mark@cotcbos.org, or call 617-266-7480, x203.

CONGREGATION UPDATE: At our 9/18/16 Congregational Meeting we voted to create an Associate Pastor position at Church of the Covenant to help continue the exciting momentum we are experiencing in our collective ministry. Our Council will be choosing another congregational conversation in the coming weeks (stay tuned!) for us to gather again to continue the visioning around this position and how to best support and sustain it. If you have any questions about this process, please feel free to get in touch with Rob or Trudi on behalf of Council.

SPEAKING OF FAITH GROUPS: Fall 2016. Church of the Covenant is forming some intentional "faith groups" (think "small groups") this fall for the purpose of gathering together on a monthly basis outside of Sunday morning worship with sisters and brothers in faith to talk together about what it means to be a Christian in these sometimes uncertain days. Thank you for all who signed up, stay tuned you will be hearing from us this coming week to begin setting up dates and times for meeting.

THE GREAT BIBLE EXPERIMENT: On September 27, 2016 at 7 pm at Harvard Divinity School, the Massachusetts Bible Society is holding an event on exploring the Bible in America's least Bible-minded cities. Rev. Liz Walker of Roxbury Presbyterian will be moderating. Sign up for free here.

SUPPERS FOR 8 ARE BACK: Would you like to get to know some people in the congregation better? Do you enjoy good food and conversation? Are you a bit shy and don't know where to start? Suppers for 8 may be just the opportunity for you. Here is how it will work.  Several members have graciously agreed to be hosts and have picked a date this summer on which they will host a dinner or lunch for a small group (6-10 people). All are invited to participate - email trudi.veldman@gmail.com to sign up.

COTC 150th ANNIVERSARY: SAVE THE DATE: On Saturday, October 29, 2016 10:30 am - 12:30 pm, join us for our first-ever Roots and Branches 150th Brunch Fest and Time and Talents Silent Auction in the sanctuary of COTC. We will gather for a very special brunch in the sanctuary to celebrate together the beauty of the building that we have inherited from those gone before, and steward on behalf of those who will come after us in faith. This event is part of our ongoing Roots and Branches 150th Anniversary Celebration. See for more detail: http://www.cotcbos.org/150th-anniversary-roots-and-branches.html (and stay tuned for a sign up for the time and talents silent auction!)
 
UCC SUPER SATURDAY: This year's UCC Super Saturday will be held on October 15, 2016 from 8 am - 3:45 pm in Framingham. Join our friend and head of the Massachusetts Council of Churches Rev. Laura Everett!

DELEGATION TO OUR SISTER COMMUNITY DULCE NOMBRE DE JESUS: The Nica Companions are excited to announce to the congregation that plans are afoot for sending a delegation down to visit our sister community in Dulce Nombre de Jesus, Nicaragua, this coming January! Tentative dates for the trip are for 10 days of travel around the 3 day Martin Luther King weekend - perhaps Jan 13 - 22. This includes some days in Managua, where the delegation will be well taken care of by the facilitating organization Entre Culturas/Between Cultures.  Entre Culturas, including interpreters for anyone who doesn't speak Spanish, accompanies the group to Dulce Nombre for homestays and worship and play and dialog together for several days.  Then the visit will end with a wrap-up in Managua again, before flying out.
 
If you have interest in coming along, please contact any of the following people:
Rev. Julie Avis Rogers: julie.rogers.covenant@gmail.com 


 
Race and Identity at Covenant

This fall, we will be focusing our attention as a church community on issues of race and identity. Inspired by the bold Black Lives Matter organizing in our city and by both our denominations' renewed efforts to combat racism in our congregations and in our nation, we will spend the next few months thinking, talking, and praying about how race impacts our lives and the life of our community. Through this work, we seek to more faithfully live out our call to see and honor the image of Christ in all people, especially in those who have experienced oppression or exclusion, and welcome all in the name of our boundary-breaking, hierarchy-shattering, liberating God.
 
Each month will have its own specific theme related to this topic and will be oriented around a specific Focus Event. Come to listen, share, pray, dream.
 
SEPTEMBER: Spiritual Autobiography Through the Lens of Race
Telling Our Stories I. Sunday, 9/11, 12 pm - 1 pm in Bates Hall.

We kicked off this series with a conversation about developing our own spiritual autobiographies, asking how race has mattered in our own personal faith stories. Four members of our Covenant community (Caitlin Vest, Holly Humphreys, Kathryn Barry and Christine James) have already written their spiritual autobiography through the lens of race as an example as we each consider our own stories. Click here to read their stories. 
 
OCTOBER: The Sin of Whiteness as Norm in our Churches & World
Book Discussion. Sunday, 10/30, 12 pm - 1:30 pm in Bates Hall.

In October, we will focus on thinking through the ways that whiteness structures the world we live in, including our faith communities. Our discussion will be on the books Between the World and Me andWaking Up White, which are available for borrowing in the Williams Library. Feel free to join even if you don't have time to read either book!
 
NOVEMBER: On Being An Accomplice
Racial Justice Training. Sunday, 11/20, 12 pm - 2 pm in Bates Hall

This month, we will learn about ways that we can be involved in the struggle for racial justice. A representative from the UCC will lead us through a workshop entitled "From Tolerance to Unity" which works to unmask racism and foster racial justice ministries.
 
DECEMBER: Spiritual Autobiography: Continuing the Story
Telling Our Stories II. Sunday, 12/4, 12 pm - 1 pm in Bates Hall.

We will close this fall by returning to our spiritual autobiographies, looking for moments of repentance, conversion, and hope in our own individual stories and in our collective story as a congregation.
Church of the Covenant, Boston, MA