This Week at Glade

This Week at Glade Church

     Glade Church, a United Church of Christ (UCC) congregation, is a progressive Christian community—welcoming, compassionate, and joyful—seeking to embrace all people wherever they find themselves in life.  We strive to discern God’s still-speaking voice through worship, study, fellowship, and service. We work for God’s peace and social, economic, and ecological justice. We seek a greater understanding of ourselves and others, recognizing that all persons are members of our one human family, God’s family.

Pastor Kelly is available for meetings on Mondays. Contact them at [email protected] to schedule an appointment.

Weekly Post-Service Fellowship

Please sign up to bring refreshments for our weekly post-service fellowship time. The signup sheet is posted outside the sanctuary or you can contact Sandra Bryant at [email protected] to sign up.

Free CPR/AED Training May 10^th

Glade Church is hosting a free CPR/AED training class on Sunday May 10 at 12:30 PM. It’s provided by a group of VT students, and if we have at least 25 in attendance they will provide us with a FREE AED for the church! They would like a head count, so please click the link below to sign up. The session is open to anyone in the community, so please invite your friends!
www.compressandshock.org/event-details/glade-church

Volunteers are needed for Kids Church and Youth Group

There are leader slots available for youth, kids, and nursery. Youth Group and Kids’ Church are on alternating weeks during worship service. Here is the link to sign up to help serve our children:

Glade Kids & Youth Church 25-26 Signup

Sunday May 10

Nursery: Ann L.    Youth Group: VOLUNTEER NEEDED!

Sunday May 17

Nursery: VOLUNTEER NEEDED!    Kids’ Church: VOLUNTEER NEEDED!

Serve the Church through the Committee on Ministry

The Committee on Ministry is seeking new members to join them on the journey of authoring ministry, discernment of new ministers, and developing relationships with churches across the association. There is no expectation of education or experience. There is a scheduled orientation to the COM work that will take place May 9th. The Committee on Ministry meets every other month. A natural curiosity for this work and a listening ear are your greatest tools. This committee is open to lay members and clergy. If you have an interest, please reach out to the chair of this committee, Rev. Karen Mann at [email protected]

Pastoral Evaluation Survey

Glade Church requests your participation in the Pastoral Evaluation Survey. The survey is designed to improve the effectiveness of the pastor’s ministry, foster professional growth, and strengthen communication between the pastor and the congregation. You do not have to be a member to participate in the survey, and we would appreciate as many viewpoints as possible. When approaching the task, please keep the following in mind:

• Pray for openness and a spirit of discernment
• Be honest and provide more than one-word answers
• Be respectful (speak the truth in love)
• Give it the time it deserves
• Answer only for yourself, not for anyone else (don’t report hearsay or gossip)
• Remember that this is meant as an exercise for pastoral as well as congregational learning and growth

There are paper copies of the survey available in the sanctuary. You can also access the survey through a Google Doc available here: https://forms.gle/6jpf7uXqeUDqRF1h8

Please submit your responses by Sunday May 31, 2026.

Did You Know?

Join Advocates for Love and Religious Freedom (ALRF) every Thursday in May from 7-8 pm EDT for an on online discussion of the NY Times bestseller – The Separation of Church and Hate: A Sane Person’s Guide to Taking Back the Bible from Fundamentalists, Fascists, and Flock-Fleecing Frauds — by comedian and broadcaster, John Fugelsang.

Register here to join this important discussion, facilitated by UCC pastors, the Rev. John Dorhauer (past General Minister and President of the United Church of Christ) the Rev. Barry W. Lynn (retired Executive Director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State and former legislative counsel in UCC’s Office of Church in Society in Washington, D.C.), and the Rev. Corey Sanderson (pastor of Second Church in Newtown, MA).

ALRF’s project, This Is Christianity was created from a belief that, as Christians, we should follow Jesus’s commandment to love our neighbors, and that it is our responsibility to care for the least of us. ALRF does this by advocating for human rights, justice, and freedom, and speaking out against the dangerous political ideology of Christian Nationalism.

Food Pantry

Food Pantry donations collected at Glade continue to supplement the Future Economy Collective Food Drive that’s distributed to Laundry Love guests on the third Sunday of each month. As of April 19, the FEC is requesting donations of dry Purina dog and cat food, trash bags, menstrual products, and non-perishable food items. Thank you all for your donations, they are greatly appreciated!

From UCC Justice & Peace Action Network:

Join us for an engaging and timely webinar exploring our “Love Knows No Borders” resource, a powerful witness and resource offered to equip congregations to respond to the continued attacks on immigrants, refugees, and LGBTQIA siblings. Grounded in the Gospel call to welcome the stranger, Love Knows No Borders (LKNB) resources offer theological reflection, policy analysis, and practical strategies for advocating for our migrant siblings. Register today!

Thursday May 14 from 6-8 PM and Sunday May 17 from 2-4 PM at North Main Laundromat.

Laundry Love has opportunities to volunteer.  This is a great way to put “Words” into “Actions” of faith and love. We do this at the laundromat on North Main across from the Y-Thrift Shop. Click below to volunteer!

VOLUNTEER FOR LAUNDRY LOVE

Laundry Love is Always Looking for Volunteers on 1^st & 3^rd Sunday & 2^nd & 4^th Thursday

Coffee & Devotion on Zoom — Wednesdays @ 10am

This virtual get-together meets at 10 a.m. on Zoom and lasts for about an hour for a time to meet people, share thoughts, hear a brief devotion, and join in prayer. This time of fellowship is open to everyone, it’s a time to gather for conversation, devotion and prayer. Come meet some people you may not know.

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89240288592?pwd=KzhRWlJiQTkzWWRlYTNuRkdPaUNqUT09 Meeting ID: 892 4028 8592 Passcode: 290014

Radical Conversations [RadCon] Meets Saturdays at 11:00 AM

Beginning in April, Radical Conversations [RadCon] will begin a series of explorations on the topic “Resistance as Public Theology in the United States”.  We will explore the role of religion as resistance in movements such as the American Revolution, Abolitionist Movement, Women’s Suffrage, Civil Rights, and Vietnam plus others.

RadCon is an ecumenical group that meets on Saturday mornings from 11:00 am to 12:30 pm (or as long as people want to stay and discuss!). We meet in the “Red Room” at Glade Church. This is an “open forum” rather than a classroom-like lecture and all points-of-view are accepted in an atmosphere of civility.

Everyone is welcome. For more information contact Edd Sewell or email him at [email protected]

You may be asking “What is public theology?” Here is a good definition from a recent article in the New York Times by Lauren Jackson titled “The Role of Public Theology in Crisis” on 22 March 2026:

People have always talked of God in the public square. Faith leaders, scholars, activists and politicians all bring religion to bear on otherwise secular issues, like public policy, economics and social norms. Around the middle of the 20th century, academics named that phenomenon “public theology.”

This was not just pastors sharing their religious views outside their pulpits. It was high-profile Christians, particularly progressive Protestants, using the reasoning of religious traditions to address the world wars, the Great Depression and, later, the civil rights movement. Reinhold Niebuhr, perhaps the most famous American theologian, and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. were the two most visible examples.

This wasn’t evangelism. It was about saying: Religion has been thinking about poverty, power, suffering and justice for a very long time, and it has something to offer contemporary politics that purely secular frameworks do not.

Women’s Book Group Meets Third Mondays at 7 PM

The Women’s Book Group meets on the third Monday of each month at 7 PM in person and/or on Zoom for a discussion of the current book. The book for May is The Correspondent by Virginia Evans. Contact Katie Morris at [email protected] for more information.

Do you have an item you’d like included in the weekly newsletter? Send info and pictures (if applicable) to Sandra Bryant at [email protected]

 UCC Purpose, Vision, and Mission Statements

 Purpose: To love God with all our heart, mind soul, and strength and our neighbor as ourselves. (From the Gospel of Matthew)

 Vision: United in Christ’s love, a just world for all.

Mission: United in Spirit and inspired by God’s grace, we welcome all, love all, and seek justice for all.