“O Holy Night” is one of my favorite Christmas songs. Did you know it was translated into English (from French) in Massachusetts, likely in West Roxbury? The translation was done in 1855 by John Sullivan Dwight who was a unitarian minister and the former director of the school at the 19th-century Brook Farm commune. Did you know that…

How important are names? When Pastor Nick and I were preparing for our boys to be born we talked for hours about their names. It was one of the most enjoyable parts about planning for their arrival. We picked out names for girls, names for boys. We considered what their initials would be. As you may know,…

Dear OCC,                                                                                                            …

The virtue we are wrestling with this coming Sunday is restfulness. Though I believe Jesus can commiserate with our stress, (he did after all, sweat blood in Luke 22:44), he promised his yoke was easy. We also don’t see the Creator God stressed from all the creating. However, we do see in scripture that our God…

This coming Sunday we are talking about power. We don’t often think of empowerment as a virtue of Christ because we think so often of Christ’s humility. But what empowered Jesus to stand up to oppressors, to speak up for outsiders and ultimately, what empowered Jesus to go to the cross?  Think about the power…

God’s people accept others, and speak blessing into their lives. Pastor Karen spoke about the virtue of acceptance and blessing last Sunday.  She mentioned that to accept someone doesn’t mean you have to agree with them.  This is counter-cultural at this point.   In a world without God,  the most important stuff – life, love, who…

This fall we have started a worship series called, “More than Words.” This series is focused on virtue – developing Christian character such that our actions and reactions speak of Jesus. The phrase, “walking the talk,” comes to mind. This topic has become pertinent as over and over again we see leaders and influencers in…

You have already probably noticed that the weekly Messenger looks a little different.  It has been redesigned with the church’s logo and colors,  but also you will start to see the same “quick links” box at the top of the email each week.  We hope this will help to make the email more user-friendly by…

On Sunday, September 25th we have our Fall Kick-Off when Sunday School re-starts for all ages and the Fall officially begins for our life together as a church. This is always an exciting time and it is sure to be this year as well. In addition to the exciting programs, though, I believe that God…

We now have 1 Sunday until our Fall Kick-Off (Sept 25!) and we are excited about what God is doing and going to do in this coming year! We are grateful for all the folks who have stepped up to lead and help with Sunday School and Children’s Church this Fall. We are also excited…