Download the Worship Bulletin Here: Worship Outline 7-26-26.docx

Consider engaging in the PREPARE/ENRICH Process.

Rev. Burhans is trained and experienced in the relationship assessment process known as Prepare/Enrich. Over the course of his ministry, he has walked many engaged couples through conversations about their relationship leading up to their weddings and is offering to do the same for couples whether they are preparing for marriage or have been married many years.

Prepare/Enrich is an effective research-proven assessment that empowers couples to learn about their relationship, become conscious of areas of growth, and develop further relationship skills to foster meaningful positive change. The process involves between 4 to 8 hour-long conversations (either in person or on Zoom) and further engaging at-home worksheets for couples which offer deeper insight and understanding. To learn more about this offering from your Lead Pastor feel free to reach out to him at will@fcc-winchester.org

As they have grown, Youth Villages now assembles the backpacks at their Woburn office…and we can help them by providing supplies.  Here’s how it works.

• Youth Villages has supplied this link  https://a.co/0gTLVn0U to their wish list.  You can help a Youth Villages kid by purchasing some items on this list. Amazon will then send those directly to Youth Villages in Woburn.
• Alternatively, you can buy the same item somewhere else and deliver it to Youth Villages at 12 Gill St in Woburn.
• Items need to be to Youth Villages by August 3rd

Please reach out to Betsy Goodell (or call/text 781-389-8745) with any questions or if you need help with the drop off.

Thanks for making that first day of school happy for some kids who need a kind hand at their back.

Download the Bulletin Here: Worship Outline 7-19-26.docx

Join us on Sunday in Ripley Chapel for worship as Rev. Christiane Dutton leads us in reflecting on the Mary and Martha story. Martha offers the gift of hospitality. Mary offers the gift of her presence. Which gift is better? We’ll begin worship a little before 10am and have a “hymn sing” – you call out any of your favorite hymns and we’ll sing a couple of verses. We’ll either livestream the service or record it for viewing afterward. Keep your eye on your email for links.

We have one remaining spot for August 9 and we’d love for you to preach, Sign up here!!!

Halfway through our week here, we have already experienced extraordinary grace, beauty, suffering, and compassion.

The reservation — The Rez — is a hard place, by design. Centuries of genocide, oppression, and deprivation have made sure it is so, and continue to this day. This is one of the poorest places in the United States, where many people live without running water, heat, electric power, or adequate — let alone healthy — food. The people here are suffering economically, physically, mentally, and spiritually. There is every form of injustice. And yet we are hearing from our Lakota relatives that there is a renaissance unfolding. People are re-learning their heritage: their language, traditions, songs and ceremonies and prayers. As we offer our labor to build and deliver beds, safety ramps, and outhouses — outhouses! — they generously reciprocate with their life stories, both trauma and hope. It feels important to contribute, as Nancy put it, concrete interventions to problems that go way beyond the concrete. And it feels equally important to gratefully embrace our Lakota relatives as beloved family, to join with them in heartfelt prayer for peace, justice, and an end to White Supremacy.

As hard as it is, The Rez is also a profoundly beautiful and sacred place, as Branda captured in her poem, and as you can see in some of the numerous photographs we have taken. In our nightly closing session, we have reflected on how each day’s experiences have kindled our spirits with gratitude and wonder. There is so much more to share with you, much of which will take us time and discernment to fully process.

Thank you for sending us here with your love and support. Please continue to pray that God will work through all of us — those of us here in Pine Ridge this week and all of you at home — to re-member creation, to heal and make whole that which humans have broken.

In love —

Julianne, on behalf of Andrew, Branda, Henry, Jodie, Maggie, Michaela, Nancy, Petra, Sonia, and Rev. Will

Badlands by Branda Wilhoite

Painted desert,

desiccated to fading,

Crumbly underfoot,

Framed by wide, blue skies.

A ribbon of green, swaying grasses

Swathed at its feet

A dry creek bed- the memory of a river-

A trickle, a shrinking puddle,

In the hot afternoon sun.

Rock spindles stand like tall sentries

Guarding “The Bowl”

Unlikely life- sage, paintbrush, and thistle,

Breathe hope into this desolate,

Beautiful place.

Re-Member

To make whole that which is broken.

Join us in Ripley Chapel this Sunday, as we kick off our summer worship! Richard Carbone will preach on Genesis 18:1-15 through the theme of hospitality. Richard currently serves on the Diaconate. This past year, he retired from a fifty-year career in the Hotel and Restaurant Industry – you could say he knows a thing or two about hospitality! Scott Nicholas will join us on piano as our guest musician. If you are unable to worship with us in person, know that we will have a livestream option for this service.

We still have a few openings at the pulpit, you can sign yourself  up here

Download the Worship Bulletin Here: Worship Outline 6_28_26.docx