Established 1675
Telephone: (203) 265-1691 ¤ FAX: (203) 265-0693  ¤
Church E-Mail: firstchurchwlfd@snet.net

Welcome to the First Congregational Church of Wallingford website. To visitors, members, regular attendees and friends, we extend a warm welcome and our hope that you will find this website and the information it offers concerning the church, its ministries, activities, staff and outreach both easy to use and helpful. If you have Acrobat Reader, you can read our church newsletter, Spire. The Church's Monthly calendar of activities is also available. We welcome your comments and suggestions.

News

Shrove Tuesday Pancake Supper
Tuesday, February 21st
6:00 p.m.
Congregational Hall
Menu: hearty pancakes
(blueberry, chocolate chip, and regular)
sausage, fruit medley,
coffee, tea, juice.
Don’t miss the Pancake Flipping contest
and races, an annual delight to watch and enjoy.
A free-will offering will be received.
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The Auction is Coming!
March 24, 2012
Are your closets, attic, basement and garage filled up? We can help!
Start your spring cleaning now and donate those no-longer-wanted treasures to the church auction.
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Cultivating Fruitfulness
Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations

• Radical Hospitality
• Passionate Worship
• Intentional Faith Development
• Risk-Taking Mission and Service
• Extravagant Generosity

We have looked at each of these ideas and how they relate to our church as a congregation. Vibrant, fruitful, growing congregations practice extravagant generosity. They encourage their church members to grow in the grace of giving as an essential practice of Christian discipleship.

Hopefully, you have enjoyed our messages and are ready to make your promise real by pledging to support our church, its mission, and its place in our world. If you have already offered your pledge, thank you. It is never too late to fill out a pledge form. You will be receiving a letter acknowledging your gift shortly. Pledge envelopes for 2012 are available in the Narthex.

Thank you for your support of our congregation’s ministries, programs, and mission.
Your Stewardship Committee
Cathy Knight, Tom Jastermsky, Diana Majchrzak, Peggy Segur,
Nancy Urquhart, Mary Kay and Dave Skinnon
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Epiphany Musical 2012
presented by the Junior Choir
“The Lost Boy”
February 11 - 7:00 p.m.
February 12 - 10:00 a.m.
February 12 - 2:00 p.m. at Ashlar Village
by Allen Pote, text by Tom S. Long
The Lost Boy tells the story of Mary and Joseph losing track of twelve year old Jesus on a family trip to celebrate Passover in Jerusalem (Luke 2:39-52). They finally find him, in the Temple (his Father’s House), sharing his questions and insight with the religious leaders.
Ask, knock, seek and you too can find Jesus!
Accept the invitation! Join in the search! Experience this story come to life as our sanctuary is temporarily transformed into a Jerusalem marketplace, festive banquet hall, Roman hippodrome (with horses), and Jerusalem Temple.
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Mission Trip 2012
We will be traveling to Sutton, New Hampshire for the Sr. High Youth Group Mission Trip. It will be held during the week of July 15th to July 21, 2012.

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Youth Group News

Sr. High Youth
Meets Sundays at 6:00PM

Jr. High Youth
Meets every 2nd and 4th Saturday from 5:00 - 7:00PM
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BAWA Health Initiative

Having distributed Malaria preventing bed nets to several villages in Cameroon (including BAWA) since 2005, we now need to replace these older insecticide treated bed nets with new bed nets which have new insecticide treatment. The cost is about $10 for each bed net. Please make a Bed net gift to BHI, send it to PO Box 432, Wallingford CT 06492 (designate bed nets on your check). Please read our current Newsletter.

New Bed Net
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In 140 characters or less, how would
you describe the First Congregational Church of Wallingford to an interested stranger?

Among the responses shared:
Our church is not only the foundation for our beliefs in the Lord, but also the sanctuary for our people, our family. In one simple, but powerful word our church is HOME.

High on a hill in Wallingford, there is a pointy church, with warm, inviting, giving families, that welcome with generous loving arms all those who come to us.

The First Congregational Church is a warm inviting place that reaches out to the community with an abundance of support.


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The Bawa Health Initiative
For the Village of Bawa, Cameroon, Africa

The Board of Community and World Service has not lost sight of the great need for medical and health assistance in Africa. Dr. Dennis J. Richardson along with Dr. Blaise Dondji, have undertaken the mission of helping the village of Bawa by:

• Providing primary health care to the residents of Bawa
• Reducing the prevalence of infectious diseases
• Supplying clean drinking water to all residents
• Educating the general public about infectious diseases in the developing world

For further information (this is our latest Newsletter) on this wonderful project, and also see the NEW BAWA Health Initiative web site. You may contact Rev. Margaret Jay by calling the church office at 203-265-1691 and leaving a message. You may also mail donations to: Bawa Health Initiative, Inc., P.O. Box 432, Wallingford, CT 06492. With your continued support, we can make a difference in the village of Bawa in Cameroon. Please consider making a $10 donation to purchase bed-nets to help fight Malaria!

We are also on Facebook (search for BAWA Health Initiative page).

PLEASE SUPPORT THIS WORTHY EFFORT. HELP SAVE LIVES. THANKS!
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Holy Joe's Cafe

Holy Joe's Cafe is a Coffee House Ministry – United Church of Christ military chaplains have found an old way to invite soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan into a safe and informal place where they can receive spiritual care and good coffee. We also have a Facebook page. Search for Holy Joe's Cafe on Facebook.

Holy Joe's Cafe / First Congregational Church, UCC has been selected to represent the Northeast Region of the United Church of Christ at the General Synod in Tampa, Florida based on our Coffee House Ministry supporting deployed Chaplains and their Troops.

Read the entire article on the UCC website. Click here.
Read the CT Conf. article about Rev. Sholtes. Click here.
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The Prayer Shawl Ministry is a dedicated group of women who knit
shawls and prayers together for those in need of healing. "Part of the journey of prayer and faith is to recognize that we may never know how our love and care will touch or change another person's life. Instead, we are invited to offer others our compassion and let whatever needs to happen, happen. There is an old saying: Our hands are God's hands." Through the shawl-knitting ministry we can learn to trust the truth that God works through us when we care for our friends and strangers alike.

The instructions for both Prayer Shawls, as well as numerous patterns for baby blankets, exist on our website www.firstchurchwlfd@snet.net.

If you have a need for a Prayer Shawl for a friend, family member or for yourself, please do not hesitate to contact the ministry (Kathryn Janis) through the office (265-1691). If you are not connected to First Congregational Church in Wallingford, CT please follow this link for a Prayer Shawl Ministry in your area. Click here.

If you have created a Prayer Shawl or Baptismal Blanket, please drop it off at the church office ~ there will be a sign-in sheet to identify who made the shawl, the color of the shawl, if it is intended for someone or if it is meant to be used by the ministry in the general shawl cache. There will be a Prayer Shawl basket for new shawls and blankets that need to be blessed at the church office.

The next Prayer Shawl Ministry meeting will be February 20, 2012.
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Upper Room Devotional Booklets are in the Narthex literature rack in both regular and large print editions.

========================================================== We would also like to assemble an "All Church" email list. If you are a church member, please send us an email. Send to: fccweb@snet.net
Thanks!

==================================================================== Have you been e-spired? If you would like to receive your Spire as an email document...let us know. Email
(firstchurchwlfd@snet.net)
and say yes! To the e-spired…Thank you.
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Soul Boosters

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