Welcome
I am Rev. Heike Werder, minister here at First Congregational Church of Sharon, MA. We are delighted that you are checking us out!
We are an Open and Affirming Church of the United Church of Christ that loves Jesus, music, and good food!
We are constantly working on the website information we want you to have. Some pages are currently "under construction."
If you cannot find the information you are looking for, please call the office at office at 781-784-2631 and leave a message. We check our answering machine several times a day, and we promise we will get back to in a timely fashion.
We are holding in-person worship. Please register if you wish to attend on the "Virtual Worship" page. Due to the pandemic, numbers of people allowed in sanctuary are limited. Strict safety measures remain in place.
Worship is also livestreamed on Facebook every Sunday at 10 am and you can watch a full worship service on our You Tube channel.
Wishing you and your loved ones good health and many blessings!
Rev. Heike
September 2021 Welcome Back Letter
Dear Church Family,
We simply wanted to be in touch with you as we prepare for a new program year here at the church and starting our 201st year together as a community of faith.
We hope you had a good summer. As we saw Covid-19 restrictions ease for the past few months, we trust you were able to spend much needed time with family and friends. Speaking for myself, my back deck had never seen this many dinners with friends. That was lovely and gave us a feeling of some normalcy.
As we look ahead to a new program year at the church, we are very grateful for your faith, patience, and support over the past year and a half as we figured out how to do church and be in community with Covid-19 hanging over our heads.
We are lucky to have a big sanctuary that allows us to socially distance while worshipping together. We continue to have extra cleaning/disinfecting and ventilating procedures in place to make our building safe. People have been vigilant about wearing their masks when inside of our building and we continue to do so as we follow the Town of Sharon’s mandate to wear masks inside in all public building which includes religious communities.
Not knowing what Covid-19 and its variants will do come this fall, we continue to put your safety as our highest priority. As we worship in-person, we do so in a well-ventilated space and socially distanced with a mask-mandate in place. We will continue to livestream the worship service for anyone who is not yet ready to come to church or simply can’t make it to church.
The office is open Monday through Thursday, and our food pantry has become an important community resource for anyone in need. And we are delighted to report that some of our renters (Sharon Community Chorus and Orchestra, AA, Boy Scouts, Robotic Club, Brazilian Church) are coming back this fall.
We also have hired a new Music Director with the hope that our choir can resumes its ministry for our community in a safe way (singing with a mask on).
As we look ahead, we will have to embrace a flexible mindset in light of fluctuating virus activity and positivity rates. We also follow town, state, and UCC guidelines for in person gatherings. We are committed to communicating with you any changes we make to keep everyone safe.
We are returning to our 10 am worship time on September 12, 2021. We hope that you will join us in person or virtually as we begin together a new program year. And you are cordially invited to attend our Annual Outdoor Picnic after church on September 19, 2021. We will observe strict food safety protocols by designated servers.
Peace and Blessings! Rev. Heike Werder