News and Announcements
Special Thanks
• To Rev. Don Niederfrank for serving as our Interim Minister during the months of November and December.
• To Phil Stepanski and Tracy Bretl for changing our Sanctuary windows for Epiphany.
• To our faithful Christmas Tree Sale Committee for planning and running a smooth and successful sale: David Franks and Louise Mollinger, Angelo and Cindy Lopez, Joe Rychtik and Scott Symes.
• To the crew that took down the Christmas tree lot on December 19: Bill Bond, Mike Jaquet, Bradd Lemke, Angelo Lopez, Joe Rychtik, Matt Schlehlein and Scott Symes.
• To Peter Muehleis for putting the garbage bins at the curb each week.
• To Joe Mueller and Claude Zimmerman for conducting weekly walk-throughs of the church building and grounds.
Archives
January 6, 2021
December 30, 2020
December 22, 2020
November 1, 2020
October 21, 2020
October 14, 2020
A WARM WELCOME TO PASTOR SCOTT
We are thrilled to announce the arrival of our new settled pastor, Rev. Dr. Scott McLeod as of the first of the year! Pastor Scott conducted his first virtual church service on Sunday, January 3. Pastor Scott and his wife, Laura, recorded a virtual Meet and Greet during the Call Week in September. If you haven't viewed it yet, it is a great way to start to get to know Pastor Scott. We encourage you to email Pastor Scott a welcome message, his new email address is pastorscott@portucc.org.
WINTER CONGREGATIONAL MEETING
Our annual Winter Congregational Meeting has been scheduled for Sunday morning, January 31, at 11:00 via Zoom. Our two main items of business are an end-of-the-year financial report and the approval of a 2021 Church Budget. All members of the church are encouraged to attend. The Zoom link will be emailed out closer to the meeting.
THANK YOU FROM THE STEWARDSHIP COMMITEE
The Stewardship Committee would like to wholeheartedly thank the 105 individuals and families who responded generously to the Stewardship Campaign. Our incoming 2021 pledges are about $145,000 as of January 15.
Unfortunately, due to the pandemic, the passing of some of our members, and the loss of some pledging units, all during a year of pastoral transition, we have not met our goal of $215,000. Even though the campaign is complete, it is never too late to make a pledge, or increase your pledge! Please visit the Stewardship page on our website for more information and forms.
OUR CONFIRMATION PROGRAM
You might interested to know that Pastor Scott will be conducting our Confirmation program the second half of the program year (January to June) for our current 8th graders. If you would like your child to participate, please email Amy Gilhooly, our Communications Director, at amyg@portucc.org. The first meeting, an Orientation via Zoom, will take place this coming Sunday evening, January 17.
PLEDGE ENVELOPES READY FOR PICK UP
Those of you who have indicated that you would like to receive Pledge Envelopes can pick them up in the church. If you prefer, we can arrange to have them mailed or dropped off to you. Simply email Lorraine Halls, our Financial Administrator, at lorraine@portucc.org, to let her know.
OUR FINANCIAL ADMINISTRATOR
Lorraine Halls joined the Office Staff as our Financial Administrator this past fall. Lorraine is transitioning to this position after serving as Treasurer for almost four years. Lorraine can be contacted at lorraine@portucc.org.
"STAYING THE COURSE" - OUR STATUS
Our traditional in-person church services continue to be suspended at this time. First Congregational Church will continue to provide spiritual guidance and care. During this time, we welcome you to call or email if you have any pastoral needs or questions.
MAKING PLEDGE PAYMENTS
Since we are not currently conducting in-person church services, we wanted to let you know that you can drop off your pledge payments by using our mail slot to the right of our Webster Street entrance. Or you can simply mail it to the church. Thank you!
