Blog Feed

Reclaim our Sacred Space By Rev. Averill Elizabeth Blackburn During the past several weeks, Florence Congregational Church has gone through a great many changes—and several people have come to me in distress over these changes.  I understand.  I, too, have been distressed by the one week removal of our cross.  I have found the new stage area in our sanctuary to be foreign.  I mourned seeing the sign of our church removed from the side lawn. At times like these,…

ALL CHURCH MEETING: You are hereby notified of the upcoming Annual Meeting of the Florence Congregational Church on November 14, 2021 following the morning worship service in the Sanctuary. NOTICES:  Choir Pews:  for sale to members for $100, complete with cushions. Please feel free to call the office to leave a message for Phyllis if you are interested. Let the office know by December 1st. Six pews are available: 2 short and 4 long. Religious Education: A CALENDAR FUNDRAISER will begin…

Sermon Lesson: Mark 7:24-37 (NRSV)Epistle: James 2:1-10, 14-17 (NRSV)Psalm: Psalm 125 (NRSV) This month, I am once again giving you a sermon that I was unable to preach from the pulpit, specifically, the sermon preached over Labor Day Weekend, when I was away at a funeral in Maine. What Happened Before The week before we had Jesus and his disciples in conflict with the Pharisees over the matter of unclean hands and ritual washings.  The important question that was asked…

Church is canceled tomorrow … August 22nd …. due to Tropical Storm / Hurricane Henri. This is a safety precaution and to allow everyone to properly prepare for the storm before it hits. We hope you all remain safe, remain warm, and God bless you! See you next week!

This week the Mask Mandate has returned to Northampton, and we at FCC will do our part. As such, we will return to wearing masks for the time being! We thank you for your cooperation and support!

Sermon Lesson: Mark 6:1-13Psalm: Psalm 48 A Bit of an Insight Some of you might be confused as to the title of this mini sermon, and for those of you who don’t read the lectionary faithfully every week (and why would you?) you probably have no idea what I’m referring to. For those of you who do happen to read the lectionary (or the set list of Bible passages assigned to every week in a three-year cycle), I follow it…

Before sitting down and committing these words to paper (or, rather, to pixels), I thought long and hard about what I wanted to say to you this July. The first, of course, is “hello!”  I’m used to sending out a mini-sermon once a week, and this is the first time that I will be doing it once a month, instead.  As you may have been missing your weekly update from me, I have just as equally been missing you, even…