"I will put my teaching in their minds and write it on their hearts..."
Jeremiah 31:33
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Calendar of Upcoming Events | |
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Below are the weekly programs. Brief descriptions of these weekly programs are on our website.
Clickable links are in blue, underlined, and italicized.
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SUNDAY Choir Practice, 9 am in person, Sanctuary
Contact Tom Ludwig, if interested.
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Below are the upcoming non-weekly events on the calendar happening at McFarland UCC for about the next month. All events are on the McFarland UCC calendar with Zoom links and additional information in the details/description area. Click the event on the McFarland UCC calendar to see the details. | |
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Sunday, March 9, Daylight Savings Time starts
Wednesday, March 12, 6:30 - 7:30 pm, Contemplative Service with Prayers for Healing (In person & Online), Sanctuary
Thursday, March 13, 6:00 - 8:00 pm, SaLT Monthly Meeting (In person & Online), Multipurpose Room
Sunday, March 16, 11:30 pm, Special Meeting for All Members & Friends (In person & Online), Sanctuary
Sunday, March 16, 6:00 pm, Confirmation Meeting at MUCC
Tuesday, March 18, 6:30 - 7:30 pm, Creation Care Team Extra Meeting (In person & Online), Multipurpose Room
Wednesday, March 19, 6:00 - 7:30 pm, Outreach Funds Quarterly Meeting (Rescheduled from March 5 due to Ash Wednesday Service), (In person & Online), Multipurpose Room
Sunday, March 30, One Great Hour of Sharing Collection
Tuesday, April 1, 6:30 - 8:00 pm, Racial Justice Care Team Monthly Meeting, (In person & Online), Multipurpose Room
Sunday, April 6, 5:30-7:00 pm, Older Youth Meeting at MUCC
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Thank you to this weekend's volunteers!
Greeters/Ushers: Lisa & Mariana Schweitzer
Hospitality Hosts: Heather Blackmore, Karen Lynch
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Resolve to get involved at McFarland UCC! Volunteer on Sunday. Join a ministry such as Racial Justice, Creation Care, Befrienders Care Team, SaLT, Youth ministry, Building & Ground Team, or others. Find out more by clicking here. | |
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MICAH 6:8 Kids Club!
Act justly
Love mercy
Walk humbly
Submitted By Sheryl Rowe
Hi friends, we are ready to begin our first Micah 6:8 project to help others. We’re starting off by making no-sew cat beds for our furry 4-footed friends at the Dane County Humane Society. On Sunday, March 16, we’ll work on them during the latter part of the service. You can help in two ways:
1) Help by donating some fleece (any pattern, any color!) I need squares of either 18” or 24”, so you can cut them ahead of time and bring them on Sunday, March 16 or bring fleece to church this week and I’ll do the cutting.
2). Come and make a cat blanket! Anyone 4 and up is welcome to join in (little ones may need a parent or sibling to help if they can’t make a knot). Bigger kids will be doing some cutting, measuring and tying. We hope to get at least 10 made!
Can’t wait to get started. Please join us if you can!
Any questions? Give me a call or email. I’m in the directory!
Sheryl
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News at McFarland UCC
Note: Clickable links are blue, underlined, and italicized.
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Shamanic Journey and Potluck
Sat., March 8, 3-6 pm
Are you ready to connect with your inner wisdom, receive divine guidance, and heal on a deeper level? Join us for a soul-nourishing experience in which we will take a shamanic journey together, share insights, and nourish our souls with community, food, creativity, and spirit.
Schedule: (Feel free to join for just the journey if you prefer)
- 3-4:15pm: Shamanic Journey + Sharing Circle
- 4:15-6pm: Potluck + Art Social
Next event: March 27, 6-8pm
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Two More Association Meetings
There are two remaining informational meetings (see below) on the proposal to dissolve the four associations in favor of a unified Conference structure. The aim is to strengthen UCC relationships and enhance resource sharing. This shift will centralize Committees on Ministry into a Unified COM with regional representatives handling Authorization, Oversight, and Support.
The restructuring will be financially neutral, with efficiency savings reinvested into ministry development. A new dues system will begin in 2026, while Our Church’s Wider Mission remains the primary funding source. Meetings across the associations in February and March will provide more details. The restructuring proposal will be voted on at the Wisconsin Conference Annual Meeting in June, marking a significant transition in the church’s governance and mission.
Northwest Association
- March 8
- In-person meeting at 10:00 a.m. at St. Paul’s UCC in Wausau
- Online meeting at 10:00 a.m.
- Registration
- Zoom link
Northeast Association
- March 13
- 6:30 p.m.
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Online only. Sign up here to receive the Zoom link.
Note: Can't make your association's meeting? Feel free to attend any of the meetings virtually. The same topics will be covered.
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Sunday, March 9
Don't Miss Church!!
Daylight saving time begins at 2 a.m. on Sunday, March 9, at which time clocks 'spring forward' and reset to 3 a.m. You know at least someone is likely to walk in just as we're ending the service! Who will it be this year? Hopefully not YOU!
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Easter Flowers
Believe it or not, Easter is just around the corner. Our sanctuary will soon be decked out in beautiful spring colored flowers. If you would like to purchase one or more of the flowers we use this year, please sign up for your choice of flowers and indicate if they are in honor of or in memory of someone. Click here to sign up with SignUpGenius.com (no account necessary).
Jean Duchrow will also have the signup in church with her each Sunday before Easter if you would like to sign up with her directly.
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Postcard Writing Campaign for April Election
(after worship on March 9th)
Submitted By Jayne Fischer
With another important election coming up – for Supreme Court Justice and State Superintendent of Public Instruction – we are again working with Reclaim Our Vote*, a campaign of the Center for Common Ground, to encourage under-represented voters to vote. We will send 125 postcards by March 11 to people in Milwaukee. Wisconsin’s election is on Tuesday, April 1st. After Sunday services on March 9, you are invited to write postcards, following a template provided to us by Reclaim Our Vote. We will have postcards, pens, markers, and the script on the tables outside the sanctuary for anyone interested in writing a few postcards.
These handwritten postcards have an impact on the people who receive them. We understand that information is power, and we work to empower voters. Join us!
*Reclaim Our Vote is a grassroots, primarily volunteer-run campaign that focuses on increasing BIPOC voter turnout through postcarding, texting, and phone banking. Through our get-out-the-vote work, we provide early voting locations and times, voter registration deadlines, information for free rides to the polls, and phone numbers for county election officials.
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A Special Meeting for all Members & Friends of McFarland UCC
Sunday, March 16, 2025
After Worship at 11:30 a.m. (available on zoom using the Sunday Morning link and password) Bible Study will be canceled.
"What Does It Mean For Us To Be The Church At This Moment in History?"
I (Pastor Bryan) am calling for an informal conversation at our church sanctuary following worship on Sunday, March 16. I realize some of you won't be able to be there, but please be with us if you can. We'll set an 11:30 a.m. starting time for this and go no more than 1 hour.
The purpose of this informal meeting (as opposed to a formal congregational meeting which would require a quorum and other things stipulated by our by-laws) is simply to give everyone an opportunity to share thoughts, feelings, hopes, and concerns regarding what it means for us to be a Church committed to biblical principles at this moment in history when so many unprecedented changes and challenges are before us. There will be no "resolutions" that would require an official congregational meeting and vote. This is just a conversation for us to communicate and get more clear as to how we understand our role as Church in the midst of all that's going on in our country and in the world right now.
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Sound Bath - Chakra Balance and Affirmations
Sunday, March 16, 1-3 pm in Fellowship Area
Judy Taber has a connection with Karen Jedele and helped coordinate this opportunity.
What is a Sound Bath?
A sound bath is a meditative experience where participants lie down or sit comfortably while sounds and vibrations from various instruments are played. These instruments can include singing bowls, gongs, chimes, drums, and other harmonic tools. The term "bath" implies that the participants are immersed in the sounds, allowing the vibrations to wash over them, promoting relaxation, stress reduction, and sometimes even spiritual or emotional healing. The intention is to create a therapeutic environment where individuals can let go of tension, quiet the mind, and enter a state of deep relaxation or meditation.
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Weekly Creation Care Topic
Reduce/Reuse/Recycle
This week’s Tip: For many, Lent is a time of personal reflection, prayer, & spiritual renewal rather than strict fasting or obligatory practices. This Lenten season, we will offer some generally simple environmental options to consider deepening our relationship in caring for God’s creation. If we all commit to making 1 or 2 small changes, together we will make a difference, but individually, those 1 or 2 small changes will lead to a thirst to learn how to do more as we will not be able to unsee what we learn. This week, commit to reducing on-line shopping and shop local when you can; this will reduce cardboard, Styrofoam & plastic waste. Per the EPA (remember this is a link), in 2018, 80 thousand tons of Styrofoam were generated, and a negligible amount (less than 5,000 tons) was recycled in the United States. Additionally, 140 thousand tons of polystyrene bags, sacks, and wraps, and 330 thousand tons of other packaging were generated in 2018, with 20 thousand tons recycled (3.6 percent of PS in containers & packaging).
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A Few Words from Pastor Bryan...
…and James Finley
I’m going to start off this week by sharing two links.
One is to another meditation written this past week by my friend Cameron Trimble in response to what’s going on in our society and the world these days. This one is called "Seeing Clearly In Times Of Delusion." Her soulful reflections on how the current circumstances in our country connect with our faith is just so right on to me. I think I may include a link to one of her daily meditations each week in the Pulse as long as she keeps releasing such wonderful material. If you aren’t interested in thinking more about the political world from a faith based perspective, then just skip these links. If you are, these will feed and stimulate your soul I think. They certainly do mine.
The second link is to a podcast called “The Emerald,” and the episode is called “On Singing to the Beloved in Times of Crisis.” This is incredibly deep and powerful and about 90 minutes long. Listen if you dare! It absolutely blew me away. It’s about the current situation, the deeper “wound of America” and of most of us, about the Spirit, breathing together, listening to each other, singing to The Beloved (God, each other). There’s no way for me to sum it up quickly, but if you want to listen to something that took me “deeper into the Mystery” and into the heart of things than just about anything else I’ve heard recently, then listen to this. And if you can't access it without a Spotify subscription let me know and I'll text you the link and see if that works.
Okay and now for this week’s “Few Words…”
If you’ve been in church lately you know we’re in a sermon series on “How God Speaks To Us.” Last week I talked about there being a “Truth resonator” inside each of us, and that this is one of the most direct and reliable ways we can know something True or "of God." We feel it inside. It "rings True" within us. The presence of God within us “hears” and responds to what is True. We just need to learn to recognize and trust that resonance when we experience it, and part of that involves listening in community with others as much as possible.
I also talked about how Jesus often taught in stories, and that he invites us to listen with our “spiritual ears” to try to understand what the Spirit is saying through the story. He rarely explained the meanings. He just invited people to listen, and he trusted that those who were ready to hear what God was saying through the story would do so. The message would be revealed within them, and the same story might say different things to different people.
So this week I’m going to just share a story with you that I found in the early part of a book written recently by James Finley. James Finley is a mystic, a former monk whose novice master was Thomas Merton, and an amazing source of wisdom. He works a lot with Fr. Richard Rohr and the Living School at the Center For Action and Contemplation. When I am needing to be reminded of the healing power and depth of God’s intimate love for all of us, James Finley is one of my most trusted “go to sources.”
So here’s the story. Make sure your Truth resonator is in tune. You’ll hear what you need to hear, even if it’s not obvious at first.
Hope to see you in church this Sunday. We’ll actually be watching a brief video of James Finley during our service.
Pastor Bryan
From The Healing Path
By James Finley
There is a story about a Christian hermit who heard a knock at the door of his hermitage. When he opened the door, he saw a mother and father and their young daughter. The parents apologized for intruding on the hermit’s solitude but said they had come to ask him to pray over their daughter, whom (“as you can plainly see”) an evil wizard had turned into a donkey.
“Yes, I see,” said the hermit, as he invited them to come in. The hermit then asked the parents to sit off to one side as he asked the little girl if she was hungry and would like something to eat. When she said she would like that, the hermit talked to her as he prepared her a meal. Then, as she ate, he continued talking to her, asking her questions about things that mattered to her.
When the parents saw the love with which the hermit prepared their daughter some food and the sincere affection in which he spoke with her, their eyes were opened. They suddenly realized that the wizard had not cast a spell on their daughter, turning her into a donkey. Rather, the wizard had cast a spell on them, leading them to believe their daughter was a donkey. In seeing that their daughter was truly the little girl they loved, they were filled with joy and tearfully embraced her.
As the parents left with their daughter, they expressed their gratitude for what had just happened. And their daughter was grateful as well. For it is hard being a little girl when your parents think you are a donkey. It is especially hard when you fall into the shame-based suffering that comes when you start to believe that you are indeed the donkey your parents believe you to be.
Finley continues…
There are far too many spells being cast in our world today. I hope that you will continue to discover, in all sorts of unexpected ways, that you are becoming a healing presence in an all-too-often traumatized and traumatizing world. By that, I mean you will continue to be graced with realizations that you are becoming someone in whose presence others are better able to experience the gift and miracle of who they really are deep down and who they are called to be, so that they in turn can pass on the contagious energy of healing to others.
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