Voting Your Values - It's a Matter of Faith!

by The Rev. Victoria Alford Guest, co-chair of the Environmental Ministries Team

Extreme weather events keep making headlines. Pakistan, Puerto Rico and Florida are just a few more recent examples of the devastating impact of the climate crisis, particularly on vulnerable communities. All around the globe, climate emergencies are impacting those who can least protect themselves against a changing climate and who have done the least to create the crisis....As people of faith, we are called to see Christ in those too often ignored or disregarded. How we live out our faith matters. Voting is one of the ways that we can respond to the crisis and work to create a just world for all. Read more

Called to be Repairer of the Breach “You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail…you will be called the Repairer of the Breach, Restorer of the Streets to live in.” Isaiah 58 by Jessica McArdle, SNEUCC Environmental Ministry Team The first time I heard this passage preached on was just after 9/11. Though the attack was directed at financial and governmental institutions in the northeast, most Americans experienced it as an assault upon our entire nation...Still, the preacher’s summons to us was unequivocable. However overcome and even paralyzed by grief we were, faith was made for times such as this...Years later, what we’re facing now can seem even more daunting. While the terrorist assault came from outside the United States back in 2001, we now face crises confronting us within as well as without. Nor are these threats unrelated. Instead, they are intrinsically interconnected - socially, economically, politically and environmentally.  Read more Welcome Kits Needed for Haitian Asylum-Seekers While there has been, appropriately, much media coverage of the approximately 50 asylum seekers who arrived on Martha’s Vineyard last month, there has been little attention given to the hundreds of Haitians arriving to Boston each month. According to our partners at the Massachusetts Council of Churches, 806 Haitian people arrived at the Immigrant Family Resources Institute in Boston in August, 704 in July, and 620 in June. We invite you to help welcome these neighbors with items to restore dignity while they seek housing, work, and stability. Churches are invited to collect hygiene supplies and assemble into kits – please view the full list of requested items here.

A Call for Worship Communities to Pursue World Peace

by Peter Kakos and E. Martin Schotz, MD

In June 2019, basing itself on Jesus' Golden Rule, the 32nd General Synod of the United Church of Christ overwhelmingly passed a resolution calling for the abolition of nuclear weapons. In order to see the words of the Synod become living spirit, it is critical for our churches to understand world peace and the path by which it can be achieved. Here is a call for our worship communities to study a critical document, which was a basis for the Nuclear Atmospheric Test Ban Treaty, a document that has enormous relevance for today: President John F. Kennedy's American University speech of 1963. read more

Three Respiratory Viruses to Consider This Season

by Deborah Ringen, Minister of Health & Wellness

COVID-19, RSV and Flu are All Circulating

COVID-19 is not done with us yet; we must stay aware. As congregations of faith, we are committed to caring for one another. Being informed and willing to resume masking and social distancing if warranted promotes wellbeing for all people.

Officials are warning that there will likely be a surge of COVID infection this winter as new subvariant strains are being identified. Read more

Walk a Mile in My Shoes: Health and Wellness for Transgender/Non-Binary People Wednesday, Nov. 9, at Noon (Zoom) Presented by the SNEUCC Wellness Team and the SNEUCC Open and Affirming Ministry Team    Taj M Smith (left) will host a discussion in which attendees will learn about the experiences of some Transgender/Non-Binary persons. How can we be supportive, not hurtful? Panelists will share their stories as they relate to health, wellness, and spirituality. There will be time for discussion and Q & A. Read about the panelists and register here LGBT Asylum Task Force Will Visit Churches In the work of the LGBT Asylum Task Force, our Open and Affirming commitment combines with our desire to be an Immigrant Welcoming Church. And in the process, lives are saved.  Members of the LGBT Asylum Task Force - a ministry of Hadwen Park Congregational Church in Worcester - are willing to visit your church and uplift, inspire and motivate your congregation to support their life-saving work. While the task force is located in Massachusetts, they will happily journey to Rhode Island and Connecticut as well. LGBT asylum seekers will share their stories with your congregation. It is riveting; it is sad; it is inspirational. Read more New England Environmental Justice Youth+ Summit A FREE WEBINAR OPEN TO ALL AGES! November 17, 7-9 PM; November 19, 9 AM-Noon A two-session summit open to youth and adults, sponsored by the New Hampshire Conference of the United Church of Christ and co-sponsored by the SNEUCC. Topics include Confronting Fossil Fuel Company’s Lies and Destruction from the Front Line; Uprooting Racism, Seeding Sovereignty; Cries for Justice at Standing Rock; Rights of Nature Movement; and more. View the schedule and register here.     Blessed Tomorrow Ambassador Training Saturday, November 5 -11 AM - 3 PM Americans are growing more concerned about climate change. As they witness and experience impacts to their health, livelihoods, and communities, they are increasingly looking for guidance on solutions, from leaders in their daily lives – faith and community leaders like you. The United Church of Christ and ecoAmerica are partnering to offer the Blessed Tomorrow Ambassadors Training Program. This free, virtual, interactive training will cover the links between climate, faith and humanity, the spectrum of solutions, speaking effectively on the topic, and opportunities to act and advocate. Learn more and register here! Comfort Ye, My People ~ An Advent Online Event Saturday December 3, 2022 from 9:30 AM to Noon We live in a time of radical challenge and change. Advent offers us rich material for prayer, conveying images of disruption, struggle, and endings, and images of reconciliation, birth, and beginnings.  In this morning retreat, led by the Rev. Dr. Margaret Bullitt-Jonas, Missioner for Creation Care for the SNEUCC and the Episcopal Diocese of Western MA, we will seek to create a space of prayer big enough to encompass both what disturbs and shakes us, and what brings comfort and hope. How do the images of Advent enlarge our capacity to midwife Christ’s birth within us and among us? Read more about this free retreat and register     Ever Flowing Streams features news on immigration, racism, climate change, ONA, health and wellness, and other justice issues. Your justice related news, events and reflections are welcome! Please submit to Editor Karen Methot for consideration by the third Thursday of the month for a fourth Thursday publication date. Thank you!