During this Lenten season the Deacons would like to offer our congregation a chance to center ourselves with prayer. We will be holding a 24 hour prayer vigil in our sanctuary. We will have 30 minute increments in which you can sign up for silent prayer beginning on April 8th at 6pm to continue until April 9th at 6pm.
Enjoy the quiet peace of our sanctuary and help us create a 24-hour period of prayer and reflection. A basket with materials to guide your time will be provided. You may want to read devotionals or scripture, draw or color, create music, or simply rest in God’s presence. Invite a friend to join you if you’d rather have company during your shift! Sign up at uccmanhattan.org/sign-ups or contact the church office to reserve your space. Can't make it to the building? You can still participate. We are hoping to have a Zoom room open for a portion of the vigil (we'll set up the computer in the sanctuary so you can log in to Zoom and focus your prayer time while viewing a live feed of our sanctuary). If this is something you're interested in, please reach out to Nell so we can coordinate the best time to open the Zoom room. When Jesus's friend Lazarus died, he wept. Our faith compels us to mourn and bear witness to the pain that the COVID pandemic has caused. As the United States approaches one million deaths from COVID and the Deacons would like to invite you to join us in installing a temporary memorial on our church lawn. We have purchased 1,000 white utility flags (each flag represents 1,000 lives lost). When the U.S. reaches one million deaths - likely sometime in the next few weeks - we will invite people to stay after worship one Sunday to place the flags in the church yard, along with signs explaining the memorial. In doing so, we invite the community to join us as we remember, grieve, and bear witness to the image of God in every life lost.
Are you ready for some in-person socializing? Join Deacons for an Outdoor Fire Pit Event on Friday, March 25th at 7:00pm. We will provide s’mores and hot cider and all you need to do is bring a chair and enjoy socializing with friends. Thank you to the Maseberg-Tomlinson family for hosting us in their yard for this event! Please RSVP at uccmanhattan.org/sign-ups (or contact the church office) and you'll receive the Maseberg-Tomlinsons' address as an auto-response when you submit your RSVP online.
We all know that those who work in our local schools have been under an incredible amount of stress lately and we would like to show them some love. You are invited to join us for a School Staff Appreciation Week, March 7-10. We will be hand-delivering small gifts of appreciation to USD 383 middle and high schools and writing thank you notes to school staff.
Here’s how you can participate: 1. If you’d like to help offset the costs of purchasing items for the goodie baskets, please make a special donation no later than Feb. 27th. You can write a memo on your check OR put a note in the “special instructions” box if you donate via PayPal. Checks can be mailed, dropped off at the office, or put in the offering plate. 2. If you are interested in shopping for gifts or hand-delivering the gifts, please contact the church office no later than Feb. 27th. 3. We encourage EVERYONE to think of a teacher, staff member, former teacher, neighbor who works in the schools, etc. and commit to sending them an email or handwritten note during the week of Mar. 7-10. These notes mean more than you can know. 4. Please continue to stay informed about actions in our local school board and in the state legislature that affect our schools. Contact your elected officials and/or consider writing letters to the editor to speak up about how much we appreciate our local school staff and encouraging them to create policies that support all educators. We will gather immediately after worship on Sunday, Jan. 23 for our January Congregational Meeting. The meeting will be held via Zoom ONLY. We'll gather in the same Zoom room that we use for worship (http://www.uccmanhattan.org/online). All are welcome to attend and members will also be invited to vote. We will be receiving the annual report for 2021 and approving the final budget for 2022. Copies of the budget are available to preview. You can pick up a hard copy at church or e-mail the office to request an electronic copy. We will also be blessing our church leaders this Sunday during worship. Join us to help thank those who have been serving and to bless those who are beginning their service for 2022. Here are some actions you can take to help keep everyone safe as we gather for worship and other activities:
This list was created at the end of December 2021. If you're reading it at a later time, things have almost certainly changed. You can also read our full COVID policies here. Thank you for loving like Jesus and doing everything you can to care for your neighbor. All members of our boards and committees are invited to attend the 2022 Leadership Kick Off on Wednesday, Jan. 12th at 7:00 p.m. UPDATE: Due to rising COVID numbers, this event will now be happening via Zoom ONLY (no in-person gathering). We will use the same Zoom room that we use for Sunday Worship. Visit uccmanhattan.org/online for the link. The purpose of this gathering is to share tips and wisdom for the upcoming year and provide an opportunity for those who serve in leadership to meet one another and spend time connecting. For most boards and committees this will replace your regular January meeting (we will NOT be breaking into individual boards for meetings after as in previous years). We look forward to gathering with you! Please contact Craig Weston, incoming moderator, or the church office if you have questions. The official name of the final UCC Denominational offering of the year is The Christmas Fund for the Veterans of the Cross and the Emergency Fund. The Christmas Fund has been caring for active and retired clergy and lay employees of the United Church of Christ for over 100 years, providing emergency grants, supplementation of small annuities and health premiums, and Christmas “Thank You” gift checks each December to our lower-income retirees.
United Church of Christ congregations and members have blessed the Christmas Fund with their generosity for many years. This year, your care and compassion will be especially appreciated by those servants of the church who are facing a time of need. We will take the offering at our Christmas Eve Service on Dec. 24, but if you'll be out of town or otherwise occupied on Christmas Eve, you can send your offering donation to the church office. Thank you! Donate via PayPal "The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight." Inspired by a visit to Bethlehem, Phillips Brooks wrote these words for a children's Christmas pageant in 1868. All these years later, Advent is still a time of gathering our hopes and fears and sharing them with God. Please visit 700 Poyntz between Dec. 1st - 25th to share your Christmas prayer. Hopes, fears, and everything in-between are welcome. Paper and pens are available for you to write your prayer and add it to the growing prayer chain. Fall 2021 Voting Information for Manhattan, KS
Election dates: 8am October 13 - noon Nov 1 Advance voting in-person (link for location/days/times) or by mail October 26 - Last day to apply for advance ballots by mail (link to application for advance voting ballot, more details linked above) November 2 7am-7pm - General election polling locations Sample Ballot: https://myvoteinfo.voteks.org/VoterView (Registration Information Look Up) Candidate information: League of Women Voters' https://www.vote411.org/ballot has links to candidate pages and written responses to questions League of Women Voters also hosted candidate forums Sunday, recordings available: USD 383 School Board candidates City Commissioner candidates People's Forum: tomorrow 10/13 at 7pm in person at the Staley School of Leadership Studies Town Hall also on Facebook Live and KMAN (radio) More info on voting and elections: https://guides.lib.k-state.edu/breakingyournewsbubble/voting |
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