Faith Formation Team
In 2023, the Faith Formation Team continued to live into its vision, grounded in our “why,” our core purpose for this ministry: To create a consistent experience of community where children (and all of us)…
- Learn from what they see and hear in us that Edwards is a safe space that will always be there, where everyone
is welcome and involved;
- Are surrounded by people who care for them and will teach them, a caring community outside family and
school who will be with them;
- Know there’s a God who loves them, what faith is, and build a strong foundation for the rest of their (our) lives;
- Live a theology that is grounded in Christianity, social justice-oriented, progressive, inclusive, diverse and
encourages critical thinking, not reading the Bible narrowly, but finding God in many ways and places; and
- Actively engage in living out our faith, caring for and serving others.
Here are just some of the highlights from 2023…
In January, we celebrated “Old Christmas” and helped assemble “poke bags” for members of the congregation as we learned about Appalachian Epiphany traditions. Our theme for the season was “First Followers” and we learned about some of the very first disciples. February’s focus was on the Lord’s Prayer and Holy Communion.
During Lent, Christian Explorers explored what it means to follow Jesus, and we baked Easter cookies and delivered them to our seniors at home. We marched in the Palm Sunday parade with our friends from El Toque del Maestro congregation. On Easter morning, we shared blessings eggs and took a Story Walk around Edwards campus of the book, ‘Twas the Morning of Easter by Glennis Nellist.
Spring and summer found us spending time outdoors under the tent in front of the sanctuary. A theme of “Earth, wind, air and fire” helped us explore God in all these elements of creation, and we planted our annual herb box garden and made several donations of our harvest to A Place to Turn. We counted coins in the penny jar and made a gift of over $200 to the OAIC Tree of Life project in Africa and made bean bags for our friends at Sunrise School for Learners with Autism in Kenya.
At Pentecost we learned about the Holy Spirit by making bread for communion over a grill outdoors, and we celebrated Pride Sunday by painting mosaic tiles for the garden. “Together!” was our summer theme, and our second annual church picnic in August was a fun time to gather and spend time together as a congregation. Preparing for back-to-school time, families collected new school backpacks and helped fill them with school supplies for children in need in our community with Jewish Family Services.
The annual Blessing of the Animals brought us into September as we worshipped outside with our furry friends and fun face painting. Christian Explorers journeyed with the Israelites through the Exodus wilderness story. At the end of October, we had a wonderful rainy indoor Trunk or
20
Treat. (Thank you as always, Matt Walker, for your help with the pumpkins!) In November we counted coins from the penny jar again, this time making a donation to the Sunrise School in Kenya, and we decorated cupcakes for the Veteran’s Appreciation Dinner.
“Where are you in the story?” was our Advent theme, introducing Christian Explorers to important participants in the Christmas story. We painted scenery for the pageant. Our pageant by the same name was mostly in-person this year on Christmas Eve with ten families participating in costume with speaking parts! A big thank you to Sanctuary Shepherds Fran Bogle, Debbie Clark, Helen Draper, Lee Ann Friedman, Joanie White and Ronda Yeomans for all your help with the pageant!
This fall we also began to offer activities for Middle
Schoolers and up (5th grade+) including helping at the
Veteran’s Appreciation Dinner and the Christmas wreath
fundraiser, gingerbread house-making, and attending Southborough Safe Spaces Friendsgiving dinner. With money raised from the fundraiser, youth assembled holiday gift bags for immigrant refugee children and youth currently housed in Framingham. Further development of a youth program is one of our goals for the coming year.
Our Sunday morning teaching team has grown, now including Myrna Phelps, Nicole Walker, Dylan Aufman and Kelvin Phelps. Sanctuary Shepherds Fran Bogle, Cindy Sweeney, Mary Memmott, Debbie Clark, Lee Ann Friedman, and Joanie White continue to lend their support when needed, for which we are very grateful.
The “Friday Bible Study” group meets faithfully at 9 am on Sunday morning to explore that morning’s scripture in worship and prayerfully share about its context and meaning. We welcomed several new members this year and hope more will join us in 2024.
The Monday Book Group continues to meet Monday afternoons on zoom. We’ve added a new member and enjoy exploring a wide variety of books. New members are always welcome to join us for the learning, laughter, and spirited conversation! This past year’s list of books included:
The Age of Vice by Deepti Kapoor
The Heart’s Invisible Furies by John Boyne Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus Metropolis by B. A. Shapiro
Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver True Biz by Sara Novic
The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese Just East of Nowhere by Scot Lehigh
Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano
In summary, 2023 has been another year of on-going adaptation and transition. We have welcomed new member families, and Sunday morning attendance throughout the year has been consistent. Children continue to bring in the light at the beginning of each worship service and return to collect the offering and take out the light, a role that has become important to them. With the goal of remaining flexible, we have expanded our Christian Education space and are now poised to be able to add the use of classrooms downstairs in Susan Dickerman Hall, to the space upstairs Fellowship Hall and outdoors under the tent in the warmer months The space downstairs freshandcleanfromthissummer’sfloodandthesupplyclosetcleanedoutandorganized. Thankyoutoeveryone who assisted in the clean-up and clean-out efforts!
21
The Faith Formation Team appreciates this opportunity to serve Edwards Church and faithfully submits this report.
Myrna Phelps, Amy Plackowski, Jeff Stewart-Morales, Dawn Sorensen, Cindy Sweeney, Tara Whitehurst and Karen Nell Smith