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Weekly E-News
Each week, MCC sends an email newsletter with details about worship;
congregational events, activities and opportunities; information about
happenings in the community and wider church; and more. Email us at
info@themcc.net to subscribe to
this free e-letter!
MCC Adapted Indoor Worship
As we welcome you to join in worship in the Blessing
Room or Covenant Room on Sunday at 10:15, we remind you of a few important
aspects of our COVID-19 mitigation strategies for the time being:
* We are asking that all attendees are vaccinated, if eligible. (For
children age 5-11, that means one shot so far.)
* We invite you into the building for worship but ask that you do your
visiting outdoors before or after.
* If you have a KN-95 mask, please bring it. If you don’t, we will
have them available as you come in the upper entrance.
* You can expect a slightly shortened worship service without
congregational singing, but still with plenty of godly goodness and
neighborly connection.
* Livestreams remain available if you are unable or uncomfortable
participating in person.
To read the full communication from the Regathering Task Force, click
here.
Regathering Guidelines
Here are links to the Regathering Guidelines for meeting Inside at
the MCC and Outside at
the MCC. Based on recent revised guidelines from the CDC, the Task Force has
decided to amend the guidelines for outdoor gatherings to allow small groups
to gather without masks if all participants have been vaccinated. The
Regathering Task Force decided to postpone any decisions about indoor
worship. Please contact
the office if you'd like to get something on the calendar of if you have
questions.
Devotional Resources
Quick Family Advent Devotions
This colorful deck of cards is full of rituals, prayers and reflections.
Endlessly flexible for busy schedules, you can create a new after-meal
ritual, use them as decorations, or carry them on the go. Order
here or contact the
office.
Daily Booklets
The quarterly editions of “Christ in Our Home”
and “The Word in Season” are now available. Pick up in the Blessing Room or
contact
Kaisa or
Nick to get a copy of one or both.
UCC Daily Devotional
Click here to read a daily devotion.
Taize Weekday Morning Prayer & Sunday
Compline
These brief worship opportunities are ongoing, provided by the UCC Open and
Affirming Coalition. Join Mondays through Fridays at 8 am or 10:30 am (CT)
and Sundays at 8 pm (CT) for this ancient contemplative service with chant,
psalms, silence, and prayer.
This Zoom link works for all services
Give Away Advent Money!
The Advent Benevolence Allocation Subcommittee makes recommendations to
assign how 7.5% of Advent offerings will support work in our community and
around the world. If you’d like to be part of the conversation (it’s just
one Zoom meeting in the next month or so) contact Nick, Ann
Ward, or John Rowe.
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Boundary Waters Group 2019
Children & Family Ministry Schedule & Events
Faith Formation is offered
the 1st & 3rd Sundays each month
on Zoom from
9:30 am-9:50 am! For information, please contact Cheyenne.
Homeless Support from MCC
The MCC has been in conversations with the city about how to assist people
who are unhoused. One immediate request was to use some MCC parking spaces
for campers. Click
here to read more details from the Leadership Team.
Thursday Morning Women's Group
Thursdays at 8:00 am: Outside or Zoom
The Thursday morning group will have TWO meeting options during the
month of September. BOTH meetings will start at 8AM.
So, depending on where we are, how we are feeling, or whatever may be
affecting our schedules on a given Thursday, we will have TWO options to
stay in touch with one another.
1- Meet outside at church. Bring your own beverage and chair. Wooden benches
at MCC are also a seating option.
2 - Meet on Zoom, using the same
link and password we have been using in the past.
Sanctuary Team at God's Work, Our Hands
Sanctuary Teamsters will have the next Sanctuary Big Read books for sale
(Separated by Jacob Soboroff. MCC will host discussion in October; details
co ming soon). (The books are $9 - please make checks to the MCC.) They will
also have postcards to fill out encouraging our federal legislators to
support the pathway to citizenship provisions in the "Build Back Better"
House bill. We are so close to this pathway for at least 5 million
undocumented immigrant DACA recipients, people with Temporary Protected
Status, many of whom have lived and worked among us for 10-20 years, and
essential workers and farm workers. If you can't be there to fill out a
postcard, please take a minute to email your representatives about the
citizenship pathway. Here is an easy form to fill out from Voces de la
Frontera.
News from the Dane Sanctuary Coalition and MCC
Sanctuary Committee
Click here for events and opportunities from the Dane Sanctuary Coalition,
including Drivers Needed, Separated book groups, how to volunteer
at Fort McCoy, etc.
Click the headings below to find out more about the following:
Advocate for a Pathway to Citizenship NOW
11 million immigrant neighbors, who have contributed to this country for
years, are without a path forward to citizenship. They tell us NOW is the
time... click for suggested talking points on an information sheet from a
recent Dane Sanctuary Coalition Interfaith Rally that you
can find here.
Advocating for Afghans who were "left
behind"
Here is a link
from LIRS that makes it easy to email the Biden
administration to do the right thing by our sacred siblings in Afghanistan.
Help Refugees by Donating Miles
Two nonprofits have joined forces to secure enough airline miles to pay for
flights for about 70,000 Afghan refugees who need transportation to new
communities in the United States. Click
here to donate.
A Book with MCC
Back in 2013, the MCC was visited by a student from
Michigan working on a PhD. Cybelle Shattuck says that the MCC was among the
first places she visited while researching faith-based earth care, and we
became a key part of her dissertation, which is now a book. Besides a full
column of MCC in the index, you’ll also find Peter Bakken, Lisa Bauer, Kim
Eighmy, Sonja and David Keesey-Berg, Tom Matthews, and Jeff Wild. It will be
available in our library soon.
COH Women's Breakfast
Meet in person at Hubbard Street Diner on Mondays at 7:30 am, the 1st, 2nd,
4th and 5th Monday mornings. Zoom meet once a month on the 3rd Monday of the
month at 10:15. Please mark your calendar. Let’s enjoy a new normal.
BYOB-New Bible Study Invitation
Mondays
Through the pandemic, a group of various comers-and-goers has been meeting
on Zoom for weekly Bible study to discuss the readings for the coming
Sunday. The plan for summer is to gather around the Memorial Garden for the
BYOB Bible Study at 6:30 on Mondays. You’re welcome to join any time (and
welcome to bring your own Bible…or beer…or beverage…or picnic)!
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Epiphany Choir Concert 2018 Directed by Jen
Striet
Come help "Deck the Halls"!
We will be working on decorating the Shalom Room and both sanctuaries on
Tuesday, November 30th at 6pm!! Please join us if you can and we will be
following the current MCC indoor gathering guidelines - N95 masks and no
eating, drinking, or singing. (We'll find other ways to have fun and enjoy
community and celebrate the start of the Advent Season!). Everyone is
welcome and we would love to see you there! Contact Karen Kuhn (Advent -
608-609-4351) or Pat Eddings (Hope - 608-577-5599) with any questions.
MCC at Holden Village 2022?
Registration Opens Dec. 6
Would you like a retreat to Holden
Village? How about August 8-13? Perhaps best known as the location that
gave us “Holden Evening Prayer,” the Village is an old mining village deep
in the Cascade Mountains of central Washington now run by the Lutheran
Church. We tried to organize an MCC trip in 2020…but that year obviously got
cancelled. The Village is open again, and registration opens Dec. 6, so
let Nick know ASAP if you’re interested. (We’ll also look at Amtrak
tickets later, if you’re interested in that group travel option, and note
that Aug. 8-13 would just be the time in the Village, so also plan travel
time.)
Storywalk
Introducing the MCC StoryWalk! Enjoy the beautiful fall colors in the
peaceful prairie as you read Tina Hogle's The Place Where Love Lives. It's a
lovely children's story for everyone about light, love, and acceptance. Many
thanks to Lisa Johnsen for her literary guidance, Tina Hogle for donating
the books, University Houses Preschool for providing lamination, and Rob
Olson for installing the signs. Start at the entrance to the Memorial Garden
and follow the prayer path counter clockwise.
Friends of Tree Lane
Two new families are moving into Tree Lane in the next couple of weeks.
Friends of Tree Lane would like to provide each family a Welcome Basket. Use
this Sign
UP Genius link to sign up to donate, then bring the items to the MCC
office area and Jean Einerson will deliver them.
Invitation to Allyship
Freedom Inc is hosting a "Holiday Mutual Aid" event on Dec 12th and is
inviting allies to help by donating supplies of detergent, toilet paper,
paper towels, and soap. Drop off Dates are Nov 19 & 26 and Dec 3, each date
from 1-4 pm, at their office, 2110 Luann Lane, Madison.
Keep up with MOSES
To read the minutes of the November
meeting, click here
You can also find their Mission, Values,
and About Us statements here. MCC is a member of this interfaith
organization that advocates for criminal justice reform. All are welcome to
their monthly meetings, which typically fall on the first Sunday of the
month. The next will be Dec 5, 2:30-4:30 pm. They are currently meeting
virtually.
PURLS Helping Hats/Hats for Haiti
Our Hats for Haiti fundraiser is on hiatus for one more year, but we've
still been busy knitting. This month the MCC PURLS donated 129 warm,
handmade hats, scarves, and mittens to Fort McCoy, Porchlight, Mendota
Elementary, Freedom Inc., and the Lussier Center! Thank you for your yarn
donations! If you wish to support the people of Haiti, please consider
making a donation through Lutheran World Relief or United Church of Christ.
Thank you!
Remembering the Children
In the upper entryway, you will soon find a display of an orange t-shirt
that will be there for 225 days. It is connected to Indigenous People’s Day
on Monday and in honor and memory of the children of the First Nations who
never returned from residential boarding schools. Sunday School will be
learning about this and how to discuss it, and we encourage adults of the
MCC to do that as well. Why an orange t-shirt? To learn more, click
here.
Your Input is Needed!
Awaken Dane is a response to the deep conviction that God is in this place;
Dane County is a place where God is on the move. That means God is inviting
the MCC and other churches in Dane County to awaken to God’s presence and to
discern God’s call to mission. If you have not had a chance to take an
important congregational survey for Awaken Dane, please take a few minutes
to complete that here: [Your input is needed! Awaken Dane is a response to
the deep conviction that God is in this place; Dane County is a place where
God is on the move. That means God is inviting the MCC and other churches in
Dane County to awaken to God’s presence and to discern God’s call to
mission. If you have not had a chance to take an important congregational
survey for Awaken Dane, please take a few minutes to complete te survey,
click here.
Thanks for your help with this!
MCC Racial Justice
Racial Justice Task Force
How do you want to see MCC integrate racial justice into the fabric of our
life and ministries and essential to our sacred call to love our neighbor?
We invite you to participate in the Racial Justice Task Force. Next meeting
will be Monday, Nov 22, 6:30 pm, via
Zoom. All are welcome.
Faithfully Protecting Democracy
Pastor Sonja and other Interfaith Leaders participated in creating a brief
video to encourage people of faith to help protect voting rights that are
under attack, and which disproportionately affect communities of color. See
and share the video here.
Just Bakery Opportunity
Have you been missing the opportunity to buy breads, scones, pies and other
delicious baked goods from Just Bakery at MCC? If so, you may be interested
in an opportunity that Just Bakery has opened up f or faith communities. We
could have a chance to place orders for pick up at MCC. One or more folks
would be in charge of gathering orders and payments to be passed on to Just
Bakery, and then distributing / setting out the baked goods after they're
delivered to the MCC on scheduled Sundays. If you think you would like to
help make this happen, contact the office and let us know.
Just Bakery continues to offer online ordering for delivery in Dane County
(for a $5 fee) and curbside pick-up on Saturday mornings.
Click here for more info.
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