This past Sunday, there was something pretty exciting happening. I don’t mean when the fire alarm started blaring out in the sanctuary and everyone emptied out onto the church lawn to await the arrival of the police and the fire department. That was . . . interesting. Turns out, it was probably dust erupting from the organ after a summer of disuse that triggered the smoke alarm. Anyway . . . after the alarm was silenced and worship came to a close, the older children of the congregation gathered with Rev. Nancy Soukup back out on the lawn to head out on a new journey. They began an exploration of the history of their church and the core beliefs of their United Church of Christ, all as a basis for their multi-week Confirmation Class.
If your child is interested in joining this group, contact the Rev. Dr. Nancy H. Soukup at 401-253-7288.
This summer Bristol’s Stone Church Coffeehouse was honored for a seventh year in a row with a Best Local Music Venue recognition from Best in RI Awards. The event reception was held on July 25 at the Waterfire Arts Center in Providence with some 1,000-1,500 in attendance. This award has special meaning for the Coffeehouse because the people who attend the shows are the voters for this honor. In this newsletter, you will see the upcoming line-up for upcoming shows. Huge congratulations and thanks go to Roger and Donna who established the Coffeehouse and continue to organize it each year, as well as to all the volunteers who help make each show happen.
Each week, we have a faithful legion of techs who tape and livestream our Sunday services. If you were around for this summer’s services, you saw them out of their sanctuary balcony perch to tape our services in the DeWolf and Dimond Rooms.
One of these techs is Cristina Marino, who is a senior at Mt. Hope High School this year. Christina hopes to study film when she graduates in the spring. For her Mt. Hope senior project, she wants to put together a short video about our church, featuring interview clips with our members as well as a chronicle of some of our activities. This video can be something we can use on our website to lift up who we are as a faith community.
Some may want to participate in these taped interviews, which will not be long, and others may not. On Sunday, September 8, we will have permission releases available for people to indicate their preference about being interviewed or not.
We hope that interviews will start either Sunday, September 15, or Sunday, September 22, after church. We will update you. I know we all look forward to helping Cristina with her senior project and thank her for making our church its focus.
Sunday, September 8, will be FCC’s 2024 Rally Day—the opening of Church School. During the service, we will commission and bless our children and youth as they enter into another year of Christian education. Please join us for this annual service followed by fellowship with pizza, salad, and cake in the DeWolf Room. For this Sunday, children will remain in the Church for the whole service. Church School classes will start on Sunday, September 15.
AN IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT: A Call for Church School Teachers We very much are in need of church school teachers this year. We will be using a new curriculum this fall that follows along with the lectionary. Each week’s class will be spelled out with a lesson and an activity to follow. Because of our Safe Church practices, we need to have two teachers for each week. For those who have been teachers, we thank you and hope you will sign up again. For those who have not taught, we invite you to join in this amazing journey with our children and youth.
Participating in the faith formation of the youngest among us is the most vital part of our common life together. Rev. Nancy will have a sign-up sheet for fall Sundays in the DeWolf Room following each service. Thank you.
FCC Bristol works with two churches in Warren to prepare weekend meals for residents who, for a variety of reasons, need help securing nourishment. Every 3 months, our church takes on “a month” of Saturdays. Volunteer cooks, dessert makers and drivers work together to make 3-course meals for about a dozen individuals. The meals are cooked and delivered on Saturday mornings. The recipients are grateful and often express how thankful they are for these meals. Recently, one of our Ecumenical Meal recipients wrote a very loving note of thanks. We wanted to share it with you.
If you would like to sign up for one Saturday as a cook, dessert maker or driver, contact Lynne or Chuck Ramos. It’s easy. It’s fun.
And it makes a big difference for those who receive these meals.
Sometimes it seems as if everything is going wrong, as if it is all too challenging and things are not going to work out. But in the end, things do work out, and everything takes on a new meaning in this new situation and hearts are filled with a greater understanding. That is pretty much what happened this past Sunday. Plans were to hold the worship service in the sanctuary, just a day after the joyful, packed memorial service celebrating the life of one of our members. But when we arrived Sunday morning, the sanctuary was just too hot. Pivoting on a dime, the DeWolf Chapel, with its two new air conditioners and fans, was selected as the better choice. The chapel, however, was filled with the tables from the luncheon served the previous day. So the decision was made to just carry on with the Sunday worship service and let the congregation sit around the tables, each still decorated with its vase of delicate Queen Anne’s Lace.
With the AC going and the fans whirring, there was an air of informality for everyone waiting around their table for the service to begin. The children played in this new set up. People were able to wander from table to table and visit with friends. It felt good.
Then, in the middle of the welcoming announcements, we got the message that the Minister of Music was delayed and on his way. Acapella hymn singing was going to be the strategy until he arrived. The Old Testament and Gospel selections were read and the sermon began. Rev. Soukup focused on the growing tension between Jesus and his followers after the feeding of the 5,000. Jesus is giving them food. He is healing them. What will this Jesus do next, they wonder, to prove his superstar status? To give them what they need? Then, in the middle of this cliffhanger, in walks our Minister of Music to great applause — and the sermon resumes. The Israelites on their 40 year journey hungered for bread and water and wondered if they wouldn’t have been better off staying in Egyptian enslavement than starving in the desert, says Rev. Soukup. Like the Israelites, Jesus’ disciples and followers also hungered for bread. But Jesus told them to seek instead the bread of God, which was spiritual bread. It is hard, he said, to move from captivity to liberation. Jesus recognized that people really are hungry for simple food, clean water, shelter, healing. But He urged us to look further. How can we look beyond meeting those physical needs for the few, to understand how our hearts can be transformed so that we are able to meet the needs of all, to see what God is offering us spiritually to love and sustain ALL of our neighbors . . . as ourselves?
Somehow, in this new, informal situation, as we improvised our worship service and opened ourselves up to whatever might come next, we glimpsed the challenge that Rev. Soukup spoke to during her sermon. To view the rest of the sermon, see the worship video HERE.
And if you want to see something truly lovely, keep watching to the end of the service when Rev. Soukup invites 3-year old Raymond to join her at the Communion table to break the bread of Christ and offer it up to the congregation. It was beautiful to see.
As part of our 350 Fund goal of expanding community mission outreach, FCC Bristol inaugurated a new service project — the provision of bathrooms and free water to all comers before, during and after the Bristol July 4th Parade. It was a big hit. Between 450-500 parade watchers came to FCC Bristol for both hydration and dehydration.
Comments of “Bless you for doing this,” “This is awesome,” “This is so kind” validated the decision to try to meet some very basic needs in the community. This was one of the ideas that came out during the Congregational Gatherings this spring, as members brainstormed what their dreams were for FCC Bristol going forward. In addition to free water and bathroom usage, parade goers were offered soda and snacks for sale. Many thanks to the Evans family — yeah Sally, Robbie and Katie! — to Jack, the Morettinis, the Steere-Johnson family, the Ramos family, to Karen and to the Jacobus family for making it all happen. We had many wonderful conversations with all of the kind people who passed through FCC Bristol on July 4th.
FCC minister Rev. Nancy Hamlin Soukup marched the entire parade route with other Bristol religious leaders, walking from Colt State Park down to the Lobster Pot restaurant, around the corner and all the way up High Street to FCC Bristol. The parade ends at FCC Bristol in honor of our minister, the Rev. Henry Wight, starting this tradition back in 1785 — the first Patriotic Exercises honoring Independence Day in the nation. We’re already looking forward to next year!
Always set for the Saturday before July 4th, FCC Bristol’s Craft Fair provided a day to visit with old friends and a chance to make new ones. With all the vendors setting up their tents and wares, with Chris and his #2, Sara, providing the burgers and dogs and all the fixings, with all of the dedicated bakers bringing in their donated cakes, pies, and cookies, with the crafters bringing in their knitted sweaters, shawls, baby blankets and lots more, and with the gardeners bringing in their potted plants — WHEW! There was a lot going on. Many thanks to Jen and Ruth for spear-heading this big project and to all the church members who worked the church stalls and donated their time and products.
We had so many great vendors. Here are just some of the many terrific people who brought their wonderful products to the Craft Fair.
Be sure to put FCC’s Harvest Moon Bazaar on your calendar — the Saturday before Thanksgiving — if you want to catch even more crafters AND THE SILENT AUCTION!
It feels great to gather with friends and break bread! Almost 50 senior members came together on Wednesday, June 19, to share their latest news and enjoy a delicious meal at the annual Senior Luncheon prepared by CP Catering. We were especially happy to see some faces which have been missing for a bit, whether due to travels, health, conflicts or whatever. It was just great to hear what everyone had been up to.
We were so happy to see Pat Cory, Michael Oglo and Meriel Smith and hear what they have been up to. The Rev. Dr. Nancy Hamlin Soukup opened the event with prayer. Hosted by the Deacons, supported by church secretary Barbara Watts, the luncheon was enjoyed by everyone.
A special thanks to Doug Harrington, who chaired the event and devoted himself to making sure that everything was running smoothly so that everyone had a wonderful day. He even donated one of the two mobile air conditioners that cooled the chapel right down (Thanks, Jen, for contributing the twin AC). They were a blessing on this hot, sunny day. Looking forward to next year when we hope to see even more friends!
Friday, June 14, 2024 marked Bristol’s celebration of Flag Day, focusing on our community’s appreciation of the unity, liberty and justice to which our nation is dedicated. The celebration started at 5:00pm in the auditorium of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church where leaders of the Bristol community, including our minister, the Rev. Dr. Nancy Hamlin Soukup, along with Rei Battcher, Historian/Librarian, and Dr. Catherine Zipf, Executive Director, both of the Bristol Historical & Preservation Society, read the entire Declaration of Independence, first published on July 4, 1776. Written for multiple audiences and for a variety of goals, this document served “to declare the causes which impel them to the separation” from the colonies’ motherland, England.
The declaration sets forth the basic foundational beliefs which drove the American colonies to seek independence from the despotic government of Britain, among them: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” The document goes on to list the long train of injuries and usurpations, “all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States.”
At 6:00pm, the ceremonious raising of the flag on the Town Commons took place, followed by the recognition of Town leaders and Fourth of July Committee members back at Our Lady of Mount Carmel. FCC Bristol members Rev. Nancy, Bennett and Charlotte Burnham, State Senator Susan Donovan, and Caroline Jacobus were among the participants.
