News and Announcements


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Special Thanks

• To Pamela Marquardt for knitting over 200 hats for those in need! Thanks also to Eric Olson, Chair of our Community Outreach Team, for picking up the hats and distributing them to multiple service organizations.

• To Jim Clements, Chair of our Property Team, for painting the new wood frames around our exterior sanctuary windows, and for fixing a pin in the entryway doors.

• To Barb Olson for helping the Justice Team build a page on the church website.

• To Joe Mueller and Claude Zimmerman for conducting weekly walk-throughs of the church building and grounds.

In Our Prayers

Jane Schwacher underwent surgery. Please keep Jane in your prayers.

Jim Melichar continues to undergo treatment for glioblastoma (brain cancer). Please keep Jim and Sherri, and their family, in your prayers.

In Memoriam

 Lincoln Smith died on Thursday, October 1. Poole Funeral Home handled the arrangements.

Archives

November 1, 2020
October 21, 2020

October 14, 2020

September 30, 2020

September 23, 2020
September 16, 2020

September 9, 2020

September 2, 2020

August 26, 2020

August 18, 2020

August 5, 2020

July 22, 2020

July 8, 2020

July 1, 2020

2020 January-June

2019 July-December

2019 January-June

2018 July-December

2018 January-June

2017 July-December

2017 January-June

WE HAVE OFFICIALLY CALLED OUR NEXT MINISTER

Our church officially called a new settled minister to our church on Sunday morning, September 27, after a unanimous affirmative vote. Rev. Scott McLeod will begin serving our church on January 1, 2021. You can get to know Pastor Scott and his wife by watching a Virtual Meet and Greet. We also invite you to view the Call Sunday Church Service that Pastor Scott conducted back in September. A warm welcome to Pastor Scott!

DON NIEDERFRANK TO SERVE THROUGH END OF YEAR

Rev. Don Niederfrank (one of our church members and retired UCC minister) is serving as our Interim Minister during the months of November and December. Don will conduct our virtual church services, hold a meeting with our office staff weekly, and be available for pastoral care. We appreciate Don's service and support during our continued time of transition!

FAREWELL TO PASTOR JIM

Pastor Jim is now providing interim ministry at a church in Middleton, Wisconsin. We thank him for being with us during a year of transition! Click here to read his last Connections article.

"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. We are continually working toward the return of in-person worship. In the meantime, we welcome you to call or email if you have any pastoral needs or questions.

THE WORK OF THE JUSTICE TEAM

Our church Justice Team has created a new Justice page for our church website. We welcome you to take a look! The Team invites you to a virtual Book Discussion on November 9. Click here for more information.

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!

WINDOW AND BELL TOWER REPAIRS

Our Property Team Chair, Jim Clements, along with Joe Mueller and Claude Zimmerman, discovered considerable window frame rot on a number of our windows as well as needed repairs to the Bell Tower.

The cost of these exterior repairs is $46,200. We were able to pay over $13,500 toward the project from our Memorial Fund (with the families' permission). While dealing with the adverse effects of the pandemic, the UCC Cornerstone Fund made low interest loans available to congregations. We applied for and were approved to receive a grant of $25,000.  This first year we pay interest only and in years two and three the borrowed amount will be repaid. Funds from our checking account make up the difference. We are in the final stages of completing the repair work.

FINANCIAL ADMINISTRATOR CHANGES

Owen Madson has resigned as our Financial Administrator. We would like to thank Owen for his many years serving our church in this capacity. Lorraine Halls, our church Treasurer, has been assuming the responsibilities, with support from our Finance Committee.

LIGHTHOUSE YOUTH MINISTRY

Lighthouse Youth Ministry is back in action this fall! All middle and high school kids are invited to participate in upcoming Lighthouse events. Please click here to see their current flyer.

OUR CONFIRMATION PROGRAM

You might interested to know that our new minister, Pastor Scott, is planning to conduct our Confirmation program the second half of the program year (January to June) for our current 8th graders. He is looking forward to it!

THANK YOU TO THE SEARCH COMMITTEE

The Search Committee put in 17 months of time and work to bring our church a quality candidate who they feel is a great fit for our church. Sincere thanks and congratulations to the committee members: Joe Mueller (Chair), Kurt Blum, Brad Katzer, Doug McManus, Sarah Riemer, Shandy Roehrig, Holly Ternes and Joe and Grace Wilsnack (Youth Representatives). For your interest, the Search Committee prepared an overview of their work.

WORSHIP IN THE GAP AND GAP CHATS

Pastor Jim, our Interim Minister from November 2019 to October of this year, conducted sixty virtual episodes, a combination of Worship in the Gap services and Gap Chats. If you would like to take a look back, please click here for the YouTube video series. Thank you to Brett Dimmer for producing the series!

DONATIONS TO FAMILY PROMISE

Family Promise is currently in need of the following items: paper towels, toilet paper, laundry detergent pods, deodorant for women, body wash for women, shaving cream for women, new bath towels and gas cards.

You may drop off donations in our church entryway before 3:30 during the week, or you can drop them off directly to Family Promise (136 W. Grand Avenue here in Port Washington). If you would like to make a financial donation, please send it to the church marked Family Promise

DONATIONS TO THE FOOD PANTRY

We invite you to stop by the church to make contributions of non-perishable food items so that we can continue to support the Port Washington Food Pantry. You may drop off donations in our church entryway before 3:30 during the week.

Items on their request list include: progresso soup, pudding, flour tortillas, rice-a-roni, knorr sides, mustard, ketchup, spaghetti sauce, cookie mix, vegetable oil, shampoo, bar soap and dish soap.

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