August 2020

The Spire

Inside this issue:

Activities/Calendar

Music

2

3

Children’s Ministry

Announcements

Musical Creations

Outreach

More

Announcements

4

5&6

7

8&9

10

A publication of the Original Congregational Church

To The Original Congregational Church

Dear Friends,

Grace and Peace to you! We hope you are staying cool during this heat

wave. Here at the OCC we have been enjoying weekly Sunday worship out-

side in the shade at 9:30am. We thank you for your cooperation which

makes this possible. We thank you for masking, social distancing, using sani-

tizer, and respecting other’s space. During hot days please remember to

bring your own water bottle.

Because we missed Easter earlier this year, we will be having Easter in Au-

gust, this Sunday August 2nd. We will sing our favorite Easter hymns, have an

Easter message, and share in a Prayer of Holy Communion, without using

elements but our imagination! The Spirit provides the unity and the sacred

words bring healing. Teddy has lovely music planned for the weeks ahead,

take a look at his Spire note.

Also, we are happy to announce that on August 4, our dear friend Esther

Cook will be celebrating her 98 birthday! Please take a moment to send

her a birthday card. It will be great to hear from church friends she loves so

much. Her address is within the Spire articles, page 10.

And, our Tuesday morning bible study class has been meeting on zoom eve-

ry week at 10-11am. If you would be interested in joining us, please contact

us and we will show you how to get online with us.

Lastly, we would like to offer an in-person out door church fellowship and

devotional hour on another day of the week. We would ask you to bring a

lawn chair (and we have plastic ones too) wear masks and sit in a large

circle beyond six feet. Would you be interested in attending this? Please

RSVP with your interest in Wednesday at 10am or Thursday at 10am and we

will announce the results.

Please stay encouraged, hopeful, and safe during these days.

God will show us the way to be the OCC during COVID-19!

May the Lord bless you and keep you.

Pastor Ken

If you need to contact the office to submit any-

thing for the bulletin or Spire, please e-mail us

at office@occhurch.net or call the office at 508-

384-3110. Every effort is made to accommo-

date your needs. The bulletin is printed by noon

Friday, so anything received after that will not be

printed until the next week.

Facebook is used for information purposes.

Messages are checked randomly and it is not a

recommended way to connect for

Highlight Dates

Worship Service outdoors

9:30am

Weather permitting

Page 2

Join Pastor Ken and friends for Bible Study Tuesday mornings, at

10am on ZOOM See our web site and

Facebook page as well until further notice .

The Ladies Breakfast Club will con-

tinue to meet at 9:00am, the second and

fourth Thursday’s of the month at

Goochie’s in Plainville, and the 5th

Thursday as well,. Please Join Us!!

All breakfast’s are cancelled at this time.

The Kitchen Elves, meet the first

Wednesday of each month to prepare and

deliver meals to members in need.

Preparers and drivers are always welcome.

Elves are cancelled until further notice.

Lunch Bunch meets at noon in Fellowship hall the 3rd Wednesday of

each month for a light lunch of soup,

sandwich, desserts and beverages.

There’s always an element of fun with friends. Lunch Bunch is cancelled until

further notice

Chancel Choir and Bells Are cancelled until further

notice.

Rehearsal for Chancel Choir is

Thursday at 7:30pm.

Rehearsal for Bells is

Monday at 7:15 pm.

All are

welcome!

The SPIRE is now available on our website!!

Go to the OCC page at www.occhurch.net.

“Todays flower’s are dedicated …..”

Any given Sunday you can dedicate the altar

flowers to anyone in your life. Notify the

office of your chosen day and you can make a

donation to the Flower Fund, or bring in an

arrangement yourself. For further infor-

mation contact Donna in the office.

NEWCOMERS WELCOME If you would like to become a member of our

church, which affirms your regular participation

in our worship life and support of our work and

service to the wider community, please be sure

to contact Pastor Ken or Donna in the office at

anytime. We have a few families and individuals

who are interested in being a part of our next

service of Reception of New Members.

See details at the worship hour and in the wor-

ship bulletin. We look forward to growing along

with you in your spirit journey!

The Spire Page 3 THE MUSIC MINISTRY

CONCERTS at the OCC

More information and links to listen to

samples of the music are on the website:

www.musicatocc.org.

Jack Radcliff & Sherman Lee Dillon

Rescheduled to September 25th

More info to come

Tom Paxton & the Don Juan's

Rescheduled to October 23th

Aztec Two-Step featuring:

Rex Fowler, Dodie Pettit & Friends

rescheduled to November 20th

VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES No prior experience needed . If you

think you might like to help, contact us

at occmusic99@gmail.com, or speak to

Ken Graves.

Tickets can be purchased from Donna in

the church office, Tuesday-Friday, on

Sundays, or online at

www.musicatocc.org

A BIG Thank You

to the Chancel Choir

Imagine being asked, week in and out, to

learn music, sing into a microphone and

put it out publicly. This is what some of

the Chancel Choir has been doing for the

OCC for the past twelve weeks. They

love to sing, but this is so much harder to

do than singing together. It’s a tyranny

that many of you have experienced re-

cently, the tyranny of the microphone.

Every week, your friends confront this ty-

rant and screw up their strength, all to

help make worship at home a possibil-

ity for you. During the summer, the

Chancel Choir goes on vacation. Please, if

you know any of them, send them an

email or a telephone call and thank them

for their service!

Here’s a reading of the roll:

Karen, Alison, Jeanie, Barbara, Rob, Kent &

Walter.

Thank You!

OCC GIVING DURING COVID-19

In these difficult times, when we are not able to worship and donate at church.

However, the church’s operating expenses and donations by the Outreach Team continue.

If you are able, please continue your support of our church by mailing checks to the church

at P. O. Box 657, Wrentham, MA 02093. Also, please visit the worship and prayers available

on the website and Facebook.

Page 4 CHILDREN’S MINISTRY The Spire

Hello OCC Families and Teachers,

I'm happy to report that we now have a plan moving

forward for the remainder of this calendar year. Unfortu-

nately, like most things since the pandemic began, our

Sunday School year will not begin in the same manner.

Through the rest of summer and into fall, Worship will

continue to be held outdoors. Pastor Ken will preach

outdoors for as long as the temperature remains comfortable for people to sit. After the fall

weather begins to get too cold for outdoor Worship, Pastor Ken will update us on how weekly

service will move forward. For as long as Worship continues outdoors, we will offer sanitized

activity bags for children to use during service and then take home. Families with children, as

well as all members of our congregation, will continue to sit together, socially distanced from

others.

However, beginning next Sunday, August 2nd, we will be offering OCC Church School

online. Each Friday or Saturday, families will receive an email from me that contains a link to an

animated Bible story, suitable for toddlers through Grade 2 students. The email will also

contain a video of me reading a picture book, and then doing an object lesson related to a

similar theme. This story and lesson will be suitable for all ages. In this email, there will be a

link to a Children's Chapel Check-In Zoom meeting. Then, every Sunday night, at a set time,

your children (and you, if you wish), may join this Zoom meeting, along with Pastor Ken, Mrs.

Boucher, and our Church School Teachers. This meeting will be a time to check in with each

other, briefly discuss our Church School lesson for the week, and take prayer requests and pray

with each other. These Zoom meetings will never last more than 30 minutes. Both the online

Church School and Children's Chapel Check-In Zoom meetings will be completely optional. Our hope is that families may use this time to stay connected to Pastor Ken and the OCC

Church School program, whether or not they wish to join the weekly outdoor Worship ser-

vices.

Thank you very much for your anticipated participation. We are so looking forward to

catching up with everyone. We've missed you all so much!

Melissa Boucher, Dir. of Children's Ministries

Page 5 ANNOUNCEMENTS The Spire

ShopWithScript program has a small change: the new app is “RaiseRight”

For those of you who are active in the fundraising program, you’ve probably already been emailed

about the changes. Nothing significant has changed, all your eGift cards, reloadable (hello CVS!)

cards and physical cards are still in your “wallet”. If you haven’t explored this simple way to raise

money for the church through your normal purchasing habits, please do. Some examples of how I

contribute through what I will spend anyway are: airline tickets. We don’t travel a lot but when

we do, I find the ticket/airline we will be on , then go to the Raise Right app, and buy a gift card to

cover the majority of the ticket, put in the gift card code on the website and

I get full value of the card purchase, and the church gets 4-6% of the value.

I have reloadable physical cards to CVS, and Shaw’s. I check the balance on

the app when I park and know what I am about to spend. I reload the card

right then to cover it. By the time I am at checkout, I have received an email

confirming the reloaded amount is ready to be used.

My child in school has a reloadable grocery card for a Midwest grocery

chain (it’s a nationwide program!) that I reload as well. I also use Shutter fly, BassPro/Cabela’s,

Walmart, Amazon, and Domino’s. Imagine capturing 3% of what you spend in a year on Amazon

as a contribution to the church? It adds up! Contact me if you want information and meanwhile,

check out the website! shopwithscript.com

WANTED: Inoperative small gasoline-powered engines (weedwackers, lawn mowers, chain saws, et al) for

teenager to hone his engine repair skills. Our young neighbor Tommy, a rising KP freshman, is

eager to help you get rid of any such machines currently cluttering up your

life.

Please contact the church at office@occhurch.net if you have such a piece

of equipment that you would like to be rid of. Thanks.

Hello to my church family. I hope you are all well.

The Outreach team is starting a new project. We will be collecting flip top

tabs from cans soda, seltzer, beer any tabs. We will donate them to

Shriners Children’s Hospital. They sell them and use the funds to buy

wheelchairs, crutches, and other supplies for the children. Please start collecting the tops and ask

your friends and relatives to save them. Feel free to call the church at 508-384-3110 if you have any

questions.

Thank you for your support. Stay safe. Blessings to you all.

MORE ANNOUNCEMENTS The Spire Page 6

Thank You Wrentham Food Pantry Staff

Feed my lambs…John 21:15 -

Food insecurity. Modern life poses many occasions for insecurity: some physical, like baldness or

a hairy back, some emotional, like loss or self-esteem, some existential like pandemics or politics.

The reasons for individual insecurities are plenteous. But food insecurity? That’s an anathema, a

curse, and must be abolished. Amidst jobs and sickness, democrats and republicans, I want the

next president to stand up, like JFK and his decade-timeline to the moon, and proclaim,

“By 2030, we will end hunger in this country.”

Why the hemming and hawing? Because I’ve never been hungry a day in my life. (Fasting doesn’t

count.) I picture Wrentham residents on Saturday morning, screwing up their strength, turning

into the OCC lot, shoulders hung, heads low, burdened. There, they are greeted by your smiles

and sustenance.

For humanity, to feed another is a holy act.

To the Wrentham Food Pantry Staff, thank you for your gifts of time, gestures of generosity and

warmth against life’s twists, and feeding our lambs. You are a sensitive hand during our neighbors’

dark nights, and, to us, a guide of what love looks like.

Teddy

Looking Ahead to August Worship… Here’s hoping more of you will come (with your lawn chair) and worship outside with us this

summer. Here are three good reasons to come… 1) It’s the SAFEST way we can be together, and God's cathedral is a lovely counterpoint to in-

side worship. One parishioner quipped about worship al fresco, “It’s so beautiful, we should

do it every summer!” (Luckily, she missed the Sunday morning WEED WHACKER incident.)

2) You can talk to your friends in-person (though six feet apart, and masked like a Kabuki ac-

tor). 3)

2) WE CAN SING! -Teddy Sunday, August 2nd, 9:30 AM Easter in August - Resurrection Hymns (that we missed) Accom-

panied by Brass Trio (two trumpets and trombone) from KP High School. Virtual Communion :

We reenact the Eucharistic offering without receiving bread and wine.

Sunday, August 7th, 9:30 AM Singing and Swinging Spirituals

Sunday, August 16th, 9:30 AM James Taylor Music with Lorri Cetto

Sunday, August 23th, 9:30 AM Pastor Elaine Gaetani, guest preacher

Sunday, August 30th, 9:30 AM NO WORSHIP OUTSIDE. Worship online only.

Sunday, September 5th, 9:30 AM Emma Newton, guest musician

MUSICAL ON-LINE CREATIONS The Spire Page 7

Inventing the Wheel - Online Worship

Way back when, in the middle of March, Ken and I quickly figured out, we’d need to put Sunday

services online. Though many churches have been streaming for years, the OCC reflected its

congregation: We were IN-PERSON worshippers. Nay, we were purists. Few of us had ever

plugged into Pat Robinson, or more unfortunate, Jimmy Swaggart, especially experts like myself,

who are always the worst zealots. I had a particular revulsion to TV Church. (My main exposure

being the Catholic Mass on television with elderly relatives. I dare say, that ancient, beautiful, but

staid rite did not translate well to the little screen.) So, Ken, Donna and I moved into the movie

business.

My charges were the moving parts: hymns, psalms and songs. The first two were easy. For the

hymns, all I needed to do was make a simple scrolling video of the hymn sheet that you could sing

with at home; then record the hymns of the week on THE GREAT OCC ORGAN. There you have

it, every film’s basic constitution: audio and video. And I knew the psalms were going to be easy,

too. Each line being wedded to one another by a different parishioner. The visual soliloquy, like a

solo prayer, was a striking container for the psalms’ ancient, myth-like verse. Ultimately, in their

simplicity, this was a quite elegant and effective format. And, perhaps more telling, the congrega-

tion saw their friends.

The challenge was the anthems, the songs, the tid-bits or moving parts. Not only did the choir

have to produce their voice part alone at home (not easy), but then they needed to be technologi-

cally reproduced on top of each other (not easy); and then, the visuals needed to be created (not

easy): a theme discovered - something lovely for the eye. (Every musician learns early on, the vis-

ual is king and the score secondary.) With a theme conceived, and completely inept, I waded into

the world-of-film, Teddy Scorsese - Neophyte - Old Man. Hundreds of photos melded into film:

the Church, children, nature, art masterpieces, even street signs. The selections done with the

Chancel Choir singing in their Brady Bunch Boxes were always the most intriguing and exciting.

But, it took ten times the time. The editing was something like this: once for each audio; once for

each visual; eight singers on four parts times eight videos equals sixty-four edits for a simple tune.

OMG!

And then, there’s our weekly ethic. Here’s that microcosm: Monday - Send the psalm to this

week’s participants; Tuesday - Record the hymns and send bulletin info to Donna; Wednesday -

Prepare next week’s music for the choir and send it off; Thursday - Collect psalms and all musical

items for this week; Friday - Send the lot to Eliana in California for compilation; Saturday - Final

edits to Donna for Sunday morning posting on the two OCC platforms: our website and Face-

book. Monday - Start all over again. (I’ve been a church musician for forty-five years, and this was

the first time I’ve ever had Sundays off...our queer, eccentric times.)

Thanks to Ken and Donna, who continue to create content for those at home.

I’m so happy to be LIVE and OUTSIDE, and with you all again in-person.

May the weather hold,

Teddy Scorsese-No-More

In the early morning of June 3rd, a three-alarm fire destroyed one of the Sober Living Houses in

North Attleboro. At least nine residents were displaced and the structure was deemed a total loss

to be torn down. Our church has supported the work of the Association for Sober Living over the

past years through Ingathering donations, food donations and Scholarship financing.

The Outreach Team unanimously voted to release our budgeted $1000 earmarked for Recovery

Program Support to be sent to the Association for support during recovery. Immediately the or-

ganization was able to reorganize at their sister house next door, which was undamaged by the fire

due to the quick response from the NA fire department. After speaking to the House manager

several times since the fire, he gratefully reports public response has been overwhelming and no

specific needs could be identified at this time. He did, however, say tall dressers are always needed

for the men’s rooms. Anyone interested in donating a gently used dresser.

Please contact Joan Mello or any Outreach Team member.

OUTREACH The Spire Page 8

On June 1st our contribution was driven up to Rochester NH, thanks to Gordon Wetmore’s

roomy truck. Nineteen boxes, 20 youth chairs and a rake were packed into the shipping crate

destined for Beira, a port in Mozambique, Africa. The crate is scheduled to arrive on Septem-

ber 9th with a mid-September clearance for Mutare, Zimbabwe. Our donations will then travel

to the Daisy Dube Children’s Home for distribution to that community. The chairs are going

to a local community school and the children will be excited about not having to sit on the

floor any longer.

The woman in the lime green is Connie Littlefield, our contact to Zimbabwe. She is an active

member of the Congregational Church in Wakefield, NH. She, along with other members of

her church have developed a strong long-term relationship with the people of Zimbabwe.

Through this link, the Friends of PKZ was established at the Congregational Church of Wake-

field, NH, (Connie’s church). Friends is the USA based partner of Project Kuchengetedza

Zviwanikwa, https://www.projectkz.org/. Friends of PKZ is a registered 501 (c) 3, dedicated to pro-

moting, assisting, supporting and advancing the work of our sister organization.

If you check out their web site, you can learn of the many projects through this connection. If

any of these projects interest you, we could offer this to our congregation as a project to take

on during these time of limited physical distancing.

Outreach is deeply grateful for your recent participation in the Zimbabwe Shipping Crate

Event and hope we could expand on our donations for future crates.

Any questions or interest, contact Pam Jennette or Joan Mello.

OUTREACH The Page 9

Page 10 ANNOUNCEMENTS The Spire

Church Yard Sale-Rain or Shine The church is having its annual inside Spring Yard sale on August 8, 2020 from 8 am to 2 pm.

The Spring Yard sale is being held in August because this isn’t a normal year. The yard sale won’t be

normal either. Face masks must be worn and distancing is required. Several isles will be “one way”

isles like the isles in the grocery stores. In addition there will be a questionnaire similar to the one

you may have seen at your doctor’s or dentist’s office. That form needs to be completed with your

contact information and your entry and exit times need to be recorded. Please

bring you own pen. And, only eleven shoppers may shop at the same

time.

Ideally, any donations for the spring yard sale should be received by Saturday

8/1. Some exceptions can be handled. After the spring yard sale, additional do-

nations are welcome and encouraged since there may be a fall yard sale.

The Church office is physically closed, but Donna will be in the office on

Tuesday’s and Thursday’s .E-mails and phone messages are being checked and

handled throughout the day.

Information about the OCC is posted on Facebook and the Webpage;

www.occhurch.net.. The Food Pantry is still in operation, with safety precau-

tions put in place.

We continue to communicate daily to bring you as much information as possible, using the two

sites and group email. Sunday services and Bible Study are posted weekly.. Please be assured, we

are doing everything we can to keep you connected.

2020 VBS As we continue to keep precautions in place for the health and safety of our children and seniors, we

are postponing our annual Vacation Bible School (VBS) until next summer.

Thank you for your continued support.

OUR BELOVED ESTHER COOK, will be turning 98 years young on August 4th.

Esther has now moved to her daughters home due to COVID –19.

Anyone wishing to send her a card, wishing her a Happy Birthday can send it to :

Esther Cook

c/o The Original Congregational Church

P.O. Box 657

Wrentham, MA 02093