 Ministry Highlight for November 2023  Marta's Installation We installed Marta as our associate minister on Sunday, November 12, with a festive service and reception! The Missions Marketplace On November 4 and 5, more than a dozen groups and organizations representing families and communities from Northern Colorado and around the world gathered at Plymouth to share their stories and offer opportunities for you to support their life-sustaining work. More pictures in web Gallery.  Plymouth Music Series: NOCO Singers On November 10, the NOCO Singers entertained folks from Plymouth and the larger community. Look for more Music Series events to come.   Barb Gregory's Retirement Dinner On November 9, members and friends gathered for a dinner to honor Barb's 15 years of service.  In preparation for Christmas Eve, a handbell polishing party ensued on Wednesday, November 15. Food, beverages, and good fellowship were most definitely included. We can't share pictures with you, but did you know about Plymouth's Calling and Caring Ministries?
Do you have a ministry highlight to share? Be part of the 4th Tuesday email. Visit plymouthucc.org/shine   Dear Plymouth Family, Here we are on the day after Thanksgiving... probably already bombarded by advertising for "Black Friday." Of course, there is more to the season than consumer excess. On December 3, we we begin the season of Advent, a time when we watch and wait and wonder. In many ways, Advent is the curative tonic we need during the holiday mayhem that our culture encourages. Even as some encourage us to "put the Christ back in Christmas," the cool thing is that faith hasn't been extracted from this season that leads us into celebrating the nativity of Christ. We have some offerings for you in this season to help deepen your journey: everything from craft night to short reflective films to worship to hanging the greens to Facebook Advent photos to Longest Night. I hope that you will join us as we celebrate this quieter time of spiritual deepening. It's also a great time to invite friends and family to join you at Plymouth on a Sunday or at another event. With so much turmoil, greed, war, violence, and incivility in the world, it’s good to have a place to recharge your spiritual batteries Rather than a written devotional booklet, this year we are offering you three short films from The Work of the People. You might watch one for each of the three Sundays of Advent (the fourth Sunday is Dec. 24 this year). Watch them with friends or family or your fellowship group at Plymouth. Just click on the video images on the Advent page, and you'll go to the Work of the People website. We've made special arrangements to view these without the need for an individual subscription from 12/1/23 -1/2/24.  P.S. See all the events at plymouthucc.org/advent
 For 18 years, the Sleepout has been a stalwart event in the life of Plymouth, our youth, and the Fort Collins community. In 2023, the youth have decided to reinvent this great event in hopes of broadening their reach and their impact.
We will still be partnering with Neighbor to Neighbor in hopes to benefit the homelessness prevention program, but with “Youth for Change,” the community will be invited to join us for education and spiritual practices that are intended to affect change in Fort Collins. Instead of hosting a community vigil, the youth will be organizing a fundraising event that will invite voices from our community to teach on the complexities of homelessness in Fort Collins. The youth have also moved the event from the first weekend in December to the MLK weekend in January. We are talking with N2N about how this might impact their end of year financials, and we also know this might shift some of our big donors’ ability to give. If you would prefer to give your donation before the end of 2023, you can do that! We will hold onto it and count it as part of our totals when the event happens in 2024. Our youth have been floating around some amazing ideas – silent auctions, lighting talks, local artists, breakout groups, workshops, and more. I hope you will join us for the brand new version of the 19th annual event on January 13th, 2024. And I hope you will join us for the youth-led worship and Q&A forum the following Sunday. Get Jan. 13th, 2024 on your calendar and stay tuned for details! Brooklyn  Many of you have met my friend Queen over the last few weeks. Queen founded New Eyes Village (NEV), a faith-based community focused on gathering and liberating Black folks through fellowship and formation. NEV met at Heart of the Rockies Christian Church for the last five years until HRCC started their construction projects. Now, NEV meets at Plymouth on Sunday afternoons and Friday evenings.
NEV is “nesting” in our building, and we are hoping that they can feel fully at home in our space. On Sunday afternoons, Queen and some other NEV members come in to cook lunch for their worship service. Their youth often hang out in the youth room, playing games with us like Hide and Seek tag or Exploding Kittens. On Friday evenings, a small group of women gather for the Hearts & Roots womxn’s group. The Christian Formation Board chartered a ministry team that is focused on walking with NEV during this “nesting” process. Our hope is that in their first year with us, we can build and strengthen our partnership through relationships. My dream is to see NEV feel fully at home in our shared space. We would love you to volunteer your time in getting to know this community! I invite the whole church to introduce yourself to Queen and NEV whenever you see them at Plymouth, but I also invite anyone interested in joining us in this work to reach out to me or the ministry team. As we were forming the team, one of our members who works closely with FFH talked about the importance of trauma-informed care when working with marginalized populations. As a predominantly white congregation in a predominantly white town, it is our job to make ourselves safe people and to make our church a safe space. In the future, the Christian Formation board hopes to offer opportunities for our church to explore together what this can look like. Desmond Tutu wrote, “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse, and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.” Silence - as you know - is violence. And I am so glad to be journeying with a congregation that refuses to be silent. I know that our congregation wants to be engaged in social justice and loving our Fort Collins community and responding to their needs. Partnering with New Eyes Village is an opportunity for us to practice extravagant welcome and radical hospitality. Much love, Brooklyn 
This Sunday at Plymouth we will do something we’ve only done three times in the past 20 years: install a settled associate minister. An installation is a big deal, when a minister, a congregation, and the wider UCC come together to make covenant promises to one another, ritually marking the creation of a new relationship. And we rely on God as a full partner in that covenant. You’ve probably entered other covenants, perhaps a marriage vow, sponsoring a child at baptism, or when you join a church. A covenant forms a new whole…it is far deeper than a contract. And even though the congregation voted to call my colleague, the Rev. Dr. Marta Fioriti, as our associate minister, her installation on Sunday at 11:00 seals the covenant. It’s as if we’ve been living together for eight months, and we’re finally saying, “I do.” Covenants are especially important in our UCC tradition, in fact they are the glue to joins us together as a people of faith. Episcopalians are joined by their liturgy. Methodists have the Book of Discipline. Presbyterians have the Book of Order. Lutherans have Luther’s Small Catechism. In the UCC, we have none of these; instead, we are guided and bound together by covenant. The Salem Church Covenant of 1629 is how that congregation came together in relationship. “We Covenant with the Lord and one with another; and doe bind our selves in the presence of God, to walk together in all his waies, according as he is pleased to reveale himselfe unto us in his Blessed word of truth.” That simple statement of relationship, that covenant, is critical in the development of who we in the Congregational and the United Church of Christ traditions understand ourselves to be as a gathered church. I encourage you to join us on Sunday at 11:00 (one service only) when our congregation will join in covenant with Marta, the UCC, and with God. Worship will be a celebration, and whether you are with us in person or join us online in our “virtual balcony,” your presence will grace us all. May this and all our covenant promises be blessed!  |
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