Join us for a MiddUCC Ski Day at the Middlebury Snow Bowl on Thursday, March 2! We’ll meet at the lodge around 10:00 a.m. and ski until around 2:00 p.m. with a break for lunch. Day tickets are $40 for non-pass holders. All are welcome! Email Pastor Elizabeth or Margaret Eagan with any questions.

This Lent, the Green Team is exploring ways to step up our game and reduce our personal greenhouse gas emissions by choosing to eat vegan meals more frequently (we’re starting with dinner once a week) and exploring how to shift our transportation habits into more sustainable alternatives (Tri-Valley Transit is a great local partner in this work).

In addition to the work that we can do as individuals, we also know that collective action can have an impact. Connecting with a broader movement is part of our charge as a Creation Justice Church. As part of that challenge, the Green Team has been reflecting on the most recent campaign launched by author Bill McKibbon, a Ripton resident and the inspiration behind the 350.org movement that was incubated at Middlebury College.

This new campaign, The Third Act, is aimed at rallying “experienced Americans” (age 60+) to use their voices, votes, and financial resources to protect the climate. One of their upcoming actions is to make visible the connection between four of the biggest banks in America (Bank of America, Chase, Citibank, and Wells Fargo) and their investments in fossil fuels.

All of us on the Green Team realized that while we might have our checking accounts at local banks, we all have credit cards from at least one of these larger banks—and there are other options available, if we are willing to do some research and make a change. We are each reflecting on how we might participate in this important movement.

March 21, 2023, is scheduled to be a day of action to demand that these banks stop funding the fossil fuel industry and to close any accounts that might be held with these banks. We are so grateful that our church’s investment committee has begun investing the endowment in “green” accounts that limit fossil fuel investments, and that our church uses a local bank.

As people of faith, we challenge ourselves to do all that we can to protect God’s creation. In this day and age, that might mean having a credit card held by a local bank that reflects our values. To learn more about the work and mission of The Third Act and this upcoming campaign, the Green Team encourages you to visit their website at www.thirdact.org.

The church nursery, downstairs next to the fellowship hall, is open Sundays from 9:45 to 11:15 a.m. for children age 0–4 and staffed by two highly capable youth from our congregation. In addition, our Safe Church Policy requires an adult to be present in the nursery alongside our teenage nursery care providers. 

We are trying to grow our pool of adult volunteers so that each individual would be signed up approximately once every six weeks. Adult volunteers will complete a background check and be oriented to nursery procedures and the Safe Church Policy. Please contact Matt Kubacki at mskubacki@gmail.com if you are interested in becoming an adult nursery volunteer.

One way is to donate to a local resale/consignment shop. These area businesses are an integral and supportive part of our community. Visiting their stores, donating items for resale, and making purchases are beneficial to our community and can help our church.

For example:

Buy Again Alley, a thrift and consignment shop on Main Street, benefits young adults who are seeking education in the trade fields through scholarships and leadership opportunities. It has a rich history of community outreach with our local middle and high schools and with the college. Its mission statement includes breaking down socioeconomic barriers and serving diverse clientele through its services.

• If you donate items to this store, please give our church’s account number, 506, and we will receive 50% of the purchased price of each item!

Neat Repeats is a not-for-profit resale store located on Route 7 South. It is run exclusively by a volunteer staff to help residents and organizations with a “hand up.” Its grants to Addison County recipients include individuals and organizations that provide food, clothing, housing, and other services to low-income residents. Over the years, Neat Repeats has helped scholarship and sports teams, schools, elderly services, emergency services, food shelves, and faith-based organizations.

• If you donate items to this store, please give our church’s account number, 45, and we will receive 50% of the purchase price for items sold for $15 and under, and 65% for items sold for over $15!

Junebug is the amazing nonprofit resale shop located in Marbleworks that offers a carefully curated collection of affordable clothing and accessories especially for babies, kids, teens, and moms-to-be. Our Board of Mission and Social Concerns supports the work of Junebug.

• If you donate items to this store, you can choose to complete the pink first-time-drop-off slip with the church’s information (Congregational Church of Middlebury, 30 N. Pleasant St., 802-388-7634), check the Seller box, and the church will receive 30% of the resale. Please follow the very important donation guidelines on the Junebug website, junebugvt.org, before donating any clothing!
  

We encourage you to support other equally wonderful resale shops and donation centers in our area:

• HOPE (Helping Overcome Poverty’s Effects) Resale Store on Boardman Street is one of the largest resale stores in Vermont. Its profits support poverty relief work in Addison County.

• Round Robin Upscale Resale Shop is located in the Marbleworks. Its proceeds benefit Porter Hospital Auxiliary, which administers various programs and entities supporting Porter Medical Center and Helen Porter Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center.

This Lent, the Green Team thought we would step up our game. We’re committed to exploring a vegan recipe at least once a week and encourage the congregation to join us - if you have any favorites, send them to us and we’ll post them on the church’s website! 

The season of Lent is a time of reflection and change; the Green Team will explore what changes we can make in our daily habits that will step up our game in reducing our personal greenhouse gas emissions. Will you join us?

Recipes

Hello friends, and greetings from the Board of Mission and Social Concerns. We have good news, less-good news, and a request.

The good news is that last year our church community donated more than a ton of food to HOPE, which helped feed many of our Addison County neighbors. We'd love to double that this year (!), and think our church is up to the challenge. The less-good news—and the reason for our ambitious goal—is that our friends at HOPE have told us that visits to the food shelf are up by 30 percent this past year and still rising. The end of pandemic-era food benefits and inflation have pushed many families to food-insecurity. And that leads to our request. There are always food-collection baskets at the church, and we collect every Sunday. Feel free to drop something in the baskets every week if you're able! The more of us who can make this a habit, the better we can serve families in need.

All nonperishable food items are welcome, but HOPE has a particular need right now for baked beans, kidney beans, cold and hot cereals, cooking oils, hearty soups, and personal products (primarily for men—shaving cream, razors, shampoos, and deodorant).