Book Discussion Starts This Week

You are invited to join our upcoming book discussion featuring "Everything Happens for a Reason: And Other Lies I've Loved" by Kate Bowler. This inspiring book is about finding faith and making sense of life's challenges.

This group, led by Pastor Kathy, will be meeting for five weeks beginning Thursday, August 31st in the Davis Room (upstairs from the sanctuary) at 10am.

Books are available to pick up in the foyer.

If you are interested, just drop by a session! If you'd like to be added to the email list, let Pastor Kathy know.

Worship This Week

Please join us

in the Sanctuary

or online at

10am this Sunday for

Communion Sunday

Coffee hour will be held after the service in Hadley Hall.

We hope you will join us

in person or online.

The service will be live streamed through

Facebook Live here

or on 3CX here

Reader: Linda Tilden

Coffee hour hosts: Bill & Nancy Cheyne

artwork: "Our Daily Bread" © Mary Southard

www.ministryofthehearts.org. Used with permission.

Office Closed

In observance of Labor Day, the office will be closed on Monday, September 4th. We will reopen on Wednesday, September 6th at 9am.

Regular office hours will resume next week, with the office being open Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 9am to 3pm.

Have a wonderful holiday weekend!

Great Publicity as HCC Added to NH Historical List

Hampstead Congregational Church has been added to the New Hampshire State Register of Historic Places.

Here are two articles from the Eagle Tribune and the Carriage Towne News.

Special thanks to Brad Robie for all of his hard work in making this possible!

Bible Study on Hold

The Wednesday bible study group will be on hold starting 8/30 and will resume at a future date.

New UPPER ROOM

Devotionals

We have copies of the

September/October Upper Room 

devotional available

in the foyer to Hadley Hall.

If you need a copy mailed to you,

please contact the main office.

A Word From Peace & Justice

With fall approaching and schools starting there has been renewed talk about COVID-19 and its mutations. The public health community is giving advice about boosters and the natural immunity that the population has achieved through previous infections. There is a new vaccine to protect from the most severe symptoms of seasonal flu and RSV, and COVID is anticipated to be available later in the fall. To complicate policy there is a new variant that seems to be better able to evade immunities. So far it has not resulted in severe symptoms.

But the thing that I still follow most closely is the state of Long COVID. An article published 21 August 2023 in Nature Medicine gives the results of the latest long-term study of the phenomenon. The study used data from the US Department of Veterans Affairs national data base to build a cohort of 140,000 US veterans who survived the first 30 days of COVID infections. The control group of 6,000,000 was created from US Veterans Health Administration data of veterans with no evidence of COVID infection. These individuals were monitored for 2 years to evaluate risk of death, hospitalization, and an array of 80 pulmonary and other reported symptoms associated with long COVID.

The article gives all of the statistical analysis of the data recorded at regular intervals of the 2-year study period, but the conclusion is that for non-hospitalized people infected with COVID-19, the risk of death is not statistically higher than the control group after 12 months but the risk of hospitalization for associated symptoms stays elevated until 19 months after infection. However, for the long COVID symptoms in gastrointestinal, musculoskeletal and neurologic systems the risk estimates remained high beyond 24 months. Even those that were not hospitalized had elevated risks - though not as high as the hospitalized - for the long COVID symptoms for the two years.

The study is meant to guide physicians and public health officials to make plans and policy improvements to address the long-term care needs of people with COVID-19.

For the full article click here.

The Music Corner by Herb Tardiff

John Williams (1932-present)

John Williams is the most prolific and widely honored living composer of film music and the most Oscar-nominated man alive.

He also worked as a jazz pianist in both clubs and on recordings and played the piano on the soundtrack of “Peter Gun”.

Williams has received 50 Academy Award nominations. His movie credits include:

Jaws (1975), Superman - The Movie (1978), The Empire Strikes Back (1980), Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial (1982), Jurassic Park (1993), 

Schindler's List (1994), Seven Years in Tibet (1997) and Saving Private Ryan (1998)

New Hampshire Conference UCC Weekly News

We thought you might enjoy reading the NH Conference UCC weekly newsletter. You can read it with this link.

8/29/2023 Newsletter

Each week, we will update this section of our Weekly Word with the new link

for the current newsletter.

Food Drive to Support

Saint Anne Ecumenical

Food Pantry



 Currently in need of cereal (no Cheerios), chunky & Progresso soups, coffee, tea bags, salad dressings, syrup, muffin mix, brownie mix, cake mix and jelly.



Please drop off any donations in the foyer of Hadley Hall

Please, no expired items.

Thank you for all your support!

Scam Texts & Emails

This summer, a number of congregants received a scam text "from Rev. Kathy." This was sent from an unknown phone number, not Pastor Kathy's cell phone. The text said it was an urgent request. Those who called/texted back were asked to send gift cards.

Please know that Pastor Kathy will never ask you for money/gift cards over email nor via a text. And if there is something urgent, Pastor Kathy will reach out via phone. Scammers are often successful due to the "urgent" nature of their communication.

Also, any email from Pastor Kathy will always have her signature line on the bottom with her phone number/address.

If in doubt, please contact the church office or Pastor Kathy.

These scams are increasingly common, and many church communities are affected.