Our spirits are nurtured in giving relationships. These activities will help you find your place within the larger community and provide opportunities to give.
Communion Volunteer Needed We need a third volunteer to prepare the communion elements and provide direction to the communion servers each month. With three volunteers, you will only need to serve in this capacity four times each year. (Communion is generally served on the first Sunday of the month.) Training, complete instructions, and monthly servers are provided. Please contact the church office (541-345-8741) if you are interested in helping in this very important ministry. |
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Sign up today to host an upcoming Sunday fellowship hour. Hosting includes making coffee, setting up tea and treats from the church pantry, being present during the Fellowship Hour and straightening up afterwards. Detailed instructions and training are provided if you haven’t hosted before. A signup chart for Fellowship Hour hosting is posted at the church either in the Fellowship Hall or in the upstairs lobby. Please feel free to add your name to this chart. The hosting schedule can also be viewed here on the FCC website below. You may contact Carol Faller at 541-344-1896 or caroljf@comcast.net with your desired hosting date and/or any questions.
- Fellowship Hour Hosting Instructions
- Fellowship Hosting Schedule for 2012! - updated 1/29/12
Please consider this much-appreciated volunteer opportunity!
Please sign up on the kiosk in the lobby. You can also make a donation to the Altar Flower Fund in lieu of arranging for altar flowers. Contact: Sarah Neill, 541-345-8741.
Celebrate, Participate & Serve
Our new program year has begun, and there are numerous ways you can expand your horizons with your gifts and interests. Look for the “Celebrate, Participate and Serve” volunteer survey (on the lobby tables) to make your church community experience stronger with your involvement at First Congregational Church. Please return your completed copy to the church office at your convenience.
Award presented for sustainable practices and Conversations with the FCC Earth Stewardship Team
February 5
As people of faith, we are called to care for God’s creation, but acting on that call is not always easy, cheap, convenient or comfortable. The most important thing we can do is to begin, take the first steps, and see where the journey takes us. On February 5 our church community will receive a community award for achieving sustainability practices in our church building. After worship that day, you are invited to join members of the Earth Stewardship Team for a more personal conversation about why and how we practice sustainability in our own homes.
This New Year has started out with a bang for the Earth Stewardship Team!
Recycling: On January 8 our first “Beyond Commingle Recycling” event kept ten large bags of plastic, Styrofoam, plastic bags, metal and plastic lids out of the landfill! Having it in the Atrium led to having great conversations around what is and isn’t garbage with many more people. We have set up an ongoing display in the Fellowship Hall with examples of what goes in the commingle bin, what we will take on our “Beyond Commingle Recycling” days, and what is just plain garbage. There are also reminder cards for the next three event days on the kiosk and in the Fellowship Hall. Our next recycling days are March 18, May 6, and Aug 1.
There was some confusion about tetrapaks—those boxes that hold soymilk, soup and broth. The news from Sanipac is that for now they are still taking them in the commingle bin, so keep recycling them. As usual, make sure that everything you recycle is CLEAN.
We are adding two new items to our collection: wine corks made of cork and hand-held electronics. There is a market through BRING for the corks to be remanufactured, and we will take any small electronics we collect to Next Step. Electronics could include laptops, keyboards, phones, and games. If it is hand-held we will collect it.
Green Certification: Thanks to the efforts of everyone in our church family we have finally qualified to be the first green- certified congregation in Eugene. This means that we have met criteria in the areas of recycling, waste prevention, operations, energy, water conservation, and water quality. We also have switched to biodegradable and non-toxic cleaners and use paper towels with high-recycled paper content. As part of our worship service on February 5, we will be receiving an award from the BRING RE-Think program. It is a huge achievement on the path to caring for our portion of God’s creation. Join us and let’s celebrate! After worship on February 5, join members of the Earth Stewardship Team for a more personal conversation around sustainable practices in our own homes: the challenges, the opportunities, and the frustrations. The bulletin will have details.
Dishwashing: In every home the chores are always the hardest part to share, and so it is in our church home. Commitment to living in a more sustainable way requires that we wash dishes each week after fellowship hour and during events. If you would like to help once a month, or be part of a team that washes dishes after events, please call Terri Brown (541-741-1543), Carol Faller (541-344-1896) or George Maddox (541-345-8741). Many hands make the right thing to do easier.
The Earth Stewardship Team has regular monthly meetings on the third Sunday of the month after services. Our February meeting will be on the 19th at 11 am. Call Terri Brown (541-741-1543) or Mary Mowday (541-485-6509) for more information.
Beyond the Commingle Recycling Bin - NEXT EVENT... March 18, May 6, August 1
The collection tables will be set up inside the atrium on the lower entry to the church on the morning of listed dates, so feel free to stop by before or after church. Together we can help reduce the amount that goes to Short Mountain Landfill. Have fun collecting!
We will be collecting the following items. Please note that everything should be CLEAN and dry.
Plastic lids and bottle tops with numbers 1-5, & 7.
Metal can lids and tops
Styrofoam solids and pellets
Plastic bags and film—this includes drycleaner bags, grocery bags, shrink-wrap, retail bags, bubble wrap, and soda rings
Hard plastic (for example): toys, packaging, Rx bottles (again with numbers 1-5, & 7), buckets, plastic furniture, Rubbermaid containers
Compact fluorescent light bulbs under four feet in length
wine corks made of cork
hand-held electronics
There is a new problem in recycling: compostable items. These items look like clear plastic and say compostable on them. The bad part is that they are made of materials that will break down given the right circumstances, making them a bad contaminant in the plastic stream. At this event we found glasses, tubs, lids and clamshells mostly coming from Market of Choice made of this material. These are not recyclable and are only compostable in an industrial setting. So watch out for these and ask the retailer to provide a way to take them back so they can be composted.
Coffee grounds are great for your compost!
There are compost buckets in both kitchens that are available for groups to use to gather food waste/coffee grounds to use in composting. If you are a composter and would like to have access to more food scraps (as well as our organic fair trade coffee grounds), stop by the Fellowship Hall kitchen during coffee hour and let us know. We are trying to set up a pick-up schedule and would love for you to take one week a month or arrange to take the food waste from a church event.