February 28 - March 7, 2025 | |
"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 2, 10:00 am, Birthday & Communion Sunday
Sunday, March 2, 5:30 - 7:00 pm, Older Youth Group at Memorial UCC in Fitchburg. Let Pastor Bryan know if you need a ride. We'll meet at our church parking lot at 5:00 p.m.
Tuesday, March 4, 6:30 - 8:00 pm, Racial Justice Care Team Monthly Meeting, (In person & Online), Multipurpose Room
Wednesday, March 5, 6:30 - 7:30 pm, Ash Wednesday Service, (In person & Online), Sanctuary
Sunday, March 9, Daylight Saving Time starts
Tuesday, March 11, 6:30 - 7:30 pm, Creation Care Team Extra Meeting, (In person & Online), Multipurpose Room
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, 6:00 pm, Confirmation Meeting at MUCC
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
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Thank you to this weekend's volunteers!
Greeters/Ushers: Cameron Macdonald
Hospitality Hosts: Kathy Paulson, Joan Jacobsen, Julie Woodward
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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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Ash Wednesday is This Coming Wednesday!
March 5th, 6:30 p.m.
(In person and on zoom using the Sunday morning worship zoom link and password)
We'll enjoy a service of music, Scripture, prayer, and the ritual of ashes. In person and online, but obviously you need to come in person to receive the ashes. If you are far away, you can get ashes of your own, or bring a magic marker that you can use to place a cross on your hand or forehead as a symbol of your mortality and the beginning of the season of Lent.
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News at McFarland UCC
Note: Clickable links are blue, underlined, and italicized.
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Proposal to Restructure Wisconsin UCC Conference
There will be informational meetings (see below) throughout Wisconsin 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.
Southwest Association
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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Postcard Writing Campaign for April Election
(after worship on March 2nd & 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 1 st . After Sunday services on March 2 and 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 who is interested in writing a few postcards.
These handwritten postcards have an impact on 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 post-carding, 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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Cereal Drive
Last Weekend
The McFarland High School (MHS) is collecting cereal and MUCC can get involved in the community effort!
MHS is participating in the second annual "Do Good Wisconsin" cereal box challenge. Districts around the state compete to see who collects the most boxes. Last year MHS won the competition for a school of our size with 1011 boxes and the McFarland Food Pantry did not need to purchase cereal for 6 months!
Bring cereal boxes to MUCC this Sunday (March 2) to donate and support the McFarland community!
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Immigration Justice Education
"Know Your Rights Training"
Sunday, March 2nd
11:15 a.m. -- 1 p.m.
At Orchard Ridge UCC on Gilbert Rd. in Madison
This event is being held at Orchard Ridge UCC and led by "Wisconsin Faith Voices"
Select Here for more information.
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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 16th. 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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Weekly Creation Care Topic
Reduce/Reuse/Recycle
This week’s Tip: As we head into Women’s history month, we celebrate 16 women who are working to protect the environment and all the creatures which share our planet. From groundbreaking primatologists to deep-sea explorers to determined activists, each of them has changed the way that we see the world and our role in protecting it; women who have shown all of us that we have an effect on the health of our planet: from the smallest decisions of our day-to-day lives to international policy each of us can make a difference. Click this Mighty Girl link to see which of these women might inspire you and your family to live more sustainably. Adult and youth book recommendations are on this site for further inspiration.
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A Few Words from Pastor Bryan...
…and Rabbi David Aaron
Well I was tempted to share another piece written by my friend Cameron Trimble this week. She has been writing her daily meditations each day NOW-- and then posting them the next morning. So she’s bouncing off the news each day and her soulful take on what’s going on in our country and in the world currently is so spot on in my opinion that I really want you all to have access to her reflections. But I also want to offer a healthy balance in these newsletter articles between the “outward journey” (world events, politics, social justice) and the “inner journey” (our own personal spiritual lives and relationship with God).
So for those of you who want and need some wonderful outward journey input, here’s a link to a biblically grounded meditation of Cameron’s this week about how we are being deceived and conned at this moment in history, and why it’s so important for us as a congregation to stay awake and be a circle of Truth and Love.
But for those of you who are wanting some great bread for the “inner journey,” here’s something that won’t take us into the world of politics and current events. Unless you choose to make that connection yourself. Which you easily could…
Since last September I have been studying the Jewish esoteric mystery system known as “Kabbalah.” The word “kabbalah” means “receiving.” Kabbalah is all about becoming human vessels who can receive the fullness of the Creator’s Light without having anything within us that blocks the flow of Divine Blessing. I’ll share more about what I’m learning in upcoming sermons. It’s all about the spiritual meanings of the Hebrew Bible (what most of us were taught to call the “Old Testament). Just amazing insights and it’s bringing the Bible and the teachings of Jesus to life for me in powerful new ways. I just love that. I don’t want to ever stop learning and growing and evolving spiritually. I hope you don’t either.
One of the modern Rabbis who has brought the Kabbalah to life for me is Rabbi David Aaron. As I mentioned, one of the core teachings of Kabbalah is that we all have certain ways in which we block our own ability to receive the Light and Love of God. Kabbalah teaches that we come to earth (and actually it assumes the reality of reincarnation and many lifetimes—but I won’t go into that now!) in order to discover and hopefully correct the primary patterns and ways each of us blocks the Light. These patterns for each of us are referred to as our “tikkun”—which means “correction.” We are here to try to discover and correct what is in our way--what is preventing us from being free--what causes us to experience and perpetuate pain—where our egos have blinded us or taken control of how we show up in the world. It’s usually something about us that has roots in an old wound or experience of brokenness. Something that repeats itself until or unless we finally see it for what it is, and then do the work of choosing the Light rather than our ego’s favorite ways of reacting. And it usually reveals itself most powerfully when we are experiencing the pain it causes. So Kabbalah teaches that when we are hurting the most, this is precisely when we are most ready to discover our tikkun and do the real work that we are here as humans to do. And this goes for societies in a collective sense as well as for each of us as individuals. Hmmm.
So I’m going to leave you with a little teaching of Rabbi Aaron’s that I think you’ll find meaningful and provocative. Just a taste of what the Kabbalah has to offer.
I hope to see you in church this Sunday. And every Sunday for that matter. Church is always better when YOU’RE there and WE’RE together!
Pastor B
Rabbi David Aaron
"Something Broken in the Bag"
“Every day we need to ask ourselves, ‘How can my innate gifts be of use?’”
Imagine you’re at a construction site and you don’t know why you’re there. Someone hands you a bag and tells you that inside it you will find everything you need to make your contribution to what is being built at the construction site. Inside, you find a saw, a hammer, and nails. ‘Oh, I get it—I’m a carpenter.’ The person next to you opens their bag and finds testers, wires, and fuses. ‘Oh, I get it—I’m an electrician.’”
But here’s the powerful part:
There’s something else in the bag—something broken, that you’re not quite sure what to do with. You’re tempted to devalue it. Discard it. But you were told that everything in the bag has been given to you to complete your work. And that’s important. Because what’s broken in your bag actually points to where you’ve been most specifically trained and equipped to help others.
This is so important to remember: the work we do to heal ourselves is not some arduous task presented to us because we are broken. It is a gift we give to ourselves and the world—it is the unique and most powerful way we bring Divine Goodness and Light into the world.
What we do with what is broken in our bag—not just what is intact, easily accessible, and obviously useful-- is ultimately our greatest gift to ourselves and to the world.
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