Good People:

This past week, I was meeting with a search committee preparing to find a designated term pastor with the intention of ending ministry in their current shape and form. During our meeting, someone bravely named that they never imagined they would be called to do this work. It was a tender moment of vulnerabilty. When I paused to acknowledge it, I leaned into the great circle of our faith: Birth, death, resurrection. When everything is said and done, for me, that's what this is all about: Birth, death, resurrection. And by "this" I mean everything - friendships, hopes, relationships, jobs, hobbies - life. It's all a journey of birth, death, and resurrection. That's why I feel so connected to our faith and the story we tell over and over. 
 
Of course, knowing that cycle, there will come a day in which this church will begin imagining what their legacy will be. They'll begin to see glimpses of the future to come. They'll start to name the new seeds God might be calling on them to plant - the fruits of which will be a blessing to many for years to come. But for now, what felt real and present was the dying and all that may be shed in the process. 
 
Without a doubt, we've experienced a lot of dying over the past three years. The bodily death of too many children of God. The dying of ways of being, seeing, thinking, and understanding the world. To be sure: More is on the horizon. I don't know all that will need to be shed, but this Lenten season I'm spending time preparing my heart for what God may ask me to shed. It is not something I always want to do, but I do so trusting that the story of our faith never changes: Birth, death, resurrection.
 
I pray that each of you, and the communities you call home, will continue to be attentive to that which must be shed this Lenten season, trusting in the power of God to raise up something new in Easter. 

With love and thanks,
Alex

Rev. Alex Shea Will
Area Conference Minister
Northeast Region (Metropolitan Boston and Northeast Associations)

Rev. Shea Will can be reached at sheawilla@sneucc.org or call/text: 508-244-4769.  

Siblings in Christ: Thank you for the invitations to worship with you! I’m currently scheduled through June 2023, and I’d love to continue scheduling in 2023. I am eager to visit with each of you, join you for life together, and even preach if you would like. Please reach out and let me know a few options of what might work for you and your congregation.  

Regardless of whether you’ve yet to meet in person, or have been meeting in person for months, we are all dealing with the ramifications of this pandemic in one way or another. I am praying for each of you and our congregations as you navigate how best to love, care for, and be present with one another. Please don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions.

Metropolitan Boston Association

Ordination, Maeve Hammond, through the Presbytery of Boston at First Congregational Church in Winchester, Sunday, March 26, 2023 at 3:00pm.

Installation, Rev. Jonathan Page, Wellesley Hills Congregational Church, Wellesley, MA on Sunday, April 23, 2023 at 3:00pm

Installation, Rev. Jennifer Macy, First Congregational, UCC, Somerville, MA, on Sunday, May 7, 2023 at 3:00pm 

Installation, Rev. Nathaniel Klug and Rev. Kathryn Novotny, The First Parish in Lincoln, on Sunday, June 11, 2023 at 4:00pm

Save the Date!  MBA Spring Meeting, Sunday, June 25, 2023.  More details to come.

Northeast Association
Northeast Association, SNEUCC | Facebook

Ordination - Renee Manning, South Church in Andover, Sunday, April 30, 2023 at 3:00pm

Installation, Rev. Pamela Cochrane, Maple Street Congregational Church, Danvers, Sunday, June 4, 2023 at 3:00pm

Save the Date!  Spring Meeting of the Northeast Association will be May 7, 2023 at 3pm at First Congregational Church of Georgetown, UCC. 

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