April 2020

Dear Good People of First Church in Middletown and beyond,

Greetings of peace to each of you. I pray you remain physically distant but socially and spiritually close with those you love. You each have been in my prayers and in my heart. Please do reach out if you feel sick or if you need help with anything, and we can pray for you or help connect you to resources.

I wanted to inform you that we have decided as a church, with help from CDC guidelines and local Connecticut government officials, to remain physically closed until April 30^th. As May grows closer we will reevaluate once again. This means we will celebrate our traditional Easter service whenever we return to worship together in the sanctuary. What a celebration of Resurrection it will be!

Weekly Worship:

For April 5^th, 12^th, 19^th & 26^th we will continue to offer a virtual bulletin and on Sunday a ZOOM prayer time from 10:30am- 11:30am. You can access this from your computer by clicking on the link or copying and pasting it into your browser, OR through your phone by dialing the number below and entering meeting ID and password.

https://zoom.us/j/169803097?pwd=b3dQVGpTZm02bzZpNjJNQ29qbUk0Zz09

Meeting ID: 169 803 097 Password: 699686

1-646-558-8656

Holy Week:

Sunday April 5^th is Palm Sunday and April 12^th is Easter proper. We will have prayer and communion over ZOOM at 10:30am on both of these Sundays and you can access that through the information listed above.

Note for Palm Sunday: You are invited to bring a branch or a stick from outside as a “palm” and to bring any food and drink of your choice for our at-home communion. Jesus and the disciples used whatever was at hand and we will do the same. Your elements don’t have to be perfect, but of course you may use wine/juice and bread if you have it. Coffee and cookies work too! Whatever you bring is holy and will be sanctified.

On Maundy Thursday and Good Friday April 9^th and 10^th you will receive a virtual worship bulletin with devotional and reflection. EKKLESIA Dance Company is offering a liturgy of movement, which we will share as well during Holy Week.

On Easter Sunday proper which is April 12^th we will gather at 10:30 for a ZOOM communion ritual and prayer time. I have been working with the Southern New England Conference of the UCC to provide a worship resource for the whole conference, to unify us and express our interconnectedness for Easter. Again, whenever we return to our sanctuary we will celebrate our traditional Easter.

Caring for One Another:

Thank you to those who have signed up for the buddy system. If you would like to like to stay connected to someone from our church throughout the week, reach out to our Member at Large, Dan Stefanski and let him know you are interested: Dstefanski6588@gmail.com

All pastoral care will be done remotely, so if you are looking to have a phone call or set up a meeting for pastoral care, please reach out to revjuliaburkey@yahoo.com or call our office 860-346-6657 and Kortney firstchurchucc@sbcglobal.net will contact me and the Care Team led by the Deacons along with Rev. Jim Silver.

Community Tea Time with Rev. Julia is every Wednesday from 10:30AM-11:30AM. We want to make sure we are not socially isolating, so swing by virtually with some literal tea or coffee in your hand from home to check in and share how you’re doing.

https://zoom.us/j/605442012?pwd=bHV3a3BjdnBXNkEra2lyMGNBaklEUT09

Meeting ID: 605 442 012 Password: 012399

+1 646 558 8656

Financial Care for One Another

If you are having financial hardship because of this pandemic, we may be able to help you or point you toward resources. Please do reach out.

Some have discussed gathering the checks we receive from the federal government to redistribute to those who need it more in our community. What a good idea! We have decided to create a fund for those in our church community who are facing hardship in this moment. If you are inclined to do this, please send a check to the church with the memo: Pandemic Discretionary and your funds will be made available to those with need. Thank you.

We appreciate and thank you deeply for any financial gifts, pledges and contributions during this time, as they are needed. Know that Kortney, Shari, Rev. Mahogany and Linda and I are working hard in this new normal and continue to receive full compensation for our work. We hope to remain financially strong and spiritually stronger during this pandemic.

Love and Blessings to you,

Rev. Julia Burkey

Connect with Us

Stay up-to-date

Download Tidings

Contact Us