Join us on this special Sunday of Indigenous People’s Day Weekend for a worship service focused on what it means to remember. Remembering is a central spiritual practice of our Christian faith. Those of us who went on the Pine Ridge Service Learning Trip this past summer will remember with you what the experience was like and share our reflections of that remarkable, tragic, beautiful land, history, and people.  The choir will present a haunting and evocative arrangement of Joseph Renville’s 1842 Dakota Hymn, one of the few Native American songs included in hymnals globally, with voices, violin, cello, flute, djembe, and piano.

Download the Bulletin Here: OW 10-11-26 IPD.docx

You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love them as yourself.  Leviticus 19:34

Dear Members and Friends of First Congregational Church,

The Mission & Outreach Ministry is announcing the first of our three annual special offerings, with 100% of your donations going directly to a nonprofit organization. This year’s Just Peace offering will support the Haitian Support Center in Springfield, Ohio.

The Haitian Support Center was established in 2023 to help refugees and immigrants, particularly Haitian nationals, build new lives in Springfield, Ohio. The Center helps newcomers with housing applications, employment opportunities, legal matters, and language barriers, supporting them, as they become self-sufficient members of the community. For many, the Center is more than just a building. It is a vital piece of civic infrastructure, created by and for Haitian immigrants and other refugees at a time when public institutions often struggle to keep pace with community needs. When public systems become strained or unpredictable, trusted grassroots, immigrant-led organizations help hold communities together and become the place people turn to for support, guidance, and stability.

Following the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, more than 300,000 Haitians were granted Temporary Protected Status. When approximately 12,000 to 15,000 Haitians settled in Springfield, Ohio, the city was experiencing decades of population decline. They helped fill critical labor shortages in manufacturing, warehousing, and service industries. They opened grocery stores and restaurants, renovated buildings, and contributed to the local and state tax base, helping to revitalize the local economy. However, the current administration revoked Temporary Protected Status for Haitians living in the U.S. in July of this year. “The Supreme Court decision is not just a tragedy for Haitians; it’s a tragedy for Springfield, Ohio,” said Rev. Carl Ruby, pastor of Central Christian Church. “We went from being one of the fastest-shrinking cities to one of the fastest-growing cities in America. This undoes all that progress.”

In response, the Haitian Support Center must help community members navigate rapidly changing immigration policies as families increasingly turn to it for guidance and support. The Center also requires additional funding as it works alongside local faith-based and advocacy organizations to provide rent assistance, food and meal deliveries, transportation, and medical support for community members who have lost income and, in many cases, are afraid to leave their homes. At the same time, many residents have stepped forward to support their Haitian neighbors. Some are making plans to care for U.S. born children whose parents may face detention or deportation. In contrast, others have offered shelter and assistance to immigrants who remain in the community.

Our goal is to reach $8,000 to help sustain their urgent work. To contribute, please note “Haitian Support Center” in the memo line of your check or with your Venmo or electronic donation. You may also use the “JUST PEACE” envelopes available in the pews during church services or scan this QR code to donate through Pledgeling. For more information on this organization, please visit their website: https://haitiansupportcenter.org.

Thank you for your generosity and responding to the Gospel’s summons to help and care for strangers among us in such a tangible way. Your contribution is deeply appreciated.

In faith and solidarity, The Mission & Outreach team:  Karen Bellacosa, Rev. Will Burhans, Carrie Ehrbar, John Keeley, Marisa Lafferty, Petra Sansom & Jenny Uzdavinis.

This Sunday, October 4th, is World Communion Sunday in the church across the globe. As we gather together we’ll consider how the specificity and humbleness of the communion table connects us across borders and other lines of distinction to the heart of humanity. Our faith does not direct us above and beyond the earth and our place herein but rather situates us here more fully and helps us to become more fully human. The choir will sing a beautiful anthem called “Peace Between” which uses Hebrew, Arabic, and Latin statements of peace as a lyrical call for unity. We hope you’ll join us in person or online at 10am.

Download the Bulletin Here: OOW 10-04-26 World Communion.docx

Deadline, 9/13

If you haven’t already, please drop off Bibles you are no longer using in the clear donation bin in the church lobby. All of the donated Bibles will go towards Bibles4Kenya, a project that ships gently-used Bibles to congregations in Kenya that do not have access to new copies. We will close donations on Sunday, 9/13.

Summer Repair Café
Saturday, August 29 , 2026
9:00 AM-12:00 PM in Chidley Hall

Signups are open for our next Repair Café on August 29.

• sewing & knitting repairs
• knives or scissors sharpening
• electronics and lamp repair
• furniture fixing
• We also repair childrens toys including stuffies

Signup for a Repair Here

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

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.

As a prophetic preacher and activist, Howard Thurman chose the word “disinheritance” with great intention.  Consider that when one is denied an inheritance as an individual, they fail to receive what is rightfully theirs.  Yet when committed collectively, the consequence of disinheritance is graver: rights, property, benefits, protections, and blessings are unjustly denied to many.

When he wrote Jesus and the Disinherited, Thurman linked severe inequities to the heart of the Gospel. Addressing systemic racism against his people, Thurman showed that Jesus’ ministry focused on the ruthlessness the Roman occupation imposed on the vulnerable. The “religion of Jesus,” he said, should be a survival technique for the oppressed.  Thus, though first published nearly eighty years ago, the book is as relevant now as it was then, exposing the thin veneer that had constituted nativist Christian ideology then, as it does now.

So where does this leave us, as congregants of FCCW and as folk who identify as followers of Jesus?  As put forth by our ministerial leadership, the challenge is to live out the Gospel’s message in a society that all too often tragically celebrates power over mercy. We must ask: How do we practice survival for the oppressed when we ourselves are not the target of oppression?

While we do what we can to look after one another, I would suggest that being followers of Jesus calls us to be nothing less than ambassadors and vanguards for the least of these, including the earth itself. To courageously stand for and with those excluded from the benefits of healthcare; those who live in fear of deportation, those targeted for who they choose to be and love, and those denied the basic necessities of shelter, protection, and food. To fiercely protect the natural world and its creatures who need our voices against hoarding and misuse; while fearlessly advocating for all the world’s children, including the diseased, the infirm and the aged.

In this Season of Pentecost, may the Spirit boldly lead us to reclaim what has been disinherited from the Gospel’s message in our time.

Jessica McArdle

for the Justice Ministry