Church Council Update – March 2026

As part of our effort to keep everyone better connected, I’ll be sharing a monthly snapshot of what’s happening at Church Council. I serve as your Church Moderator, and this is a quick look at what we discussed in March.

A quick refresher: What is Church Council?

Church Council is the governing board of the church, as laid out in our Constitution and Bylaws. Council includes the Moderator, Clerk, Treasurer, Pillar Leads, and a few Members At Large, with our Pastor serving as a non‑voting, ex‑officio member.

We meet on Zoom on the first Wednesday of each month during the program year. Our meetings usually open with prayer and check‑ins, followed by updates and discussion of whatever needs our attention. I do my best to keep things moving so we can wrap up in about an hour.

Highlights from March

Pastor JT shared updates on our Lenten season, including a small but meaningful Ash Wednesday service hosted with FCC Norwood. He’s also leading a book discussion on The Moral Teachings of Jesus and a new members class with three confirmed participants. Judy is once again organizing our Maundy Thursday Worship and Tenebrae service.

JT also reported back from his final Next Generation Leadership Initiative conference, and Council was grateful for the positive feedback on the visiting pastor who led worship while he was away.

Although Doug couldn’t attend, he shared via email that our finances remain in good shape following the congregation’s approval of the 2026 budget at our annual meeting.

Our pillars are staying busy:

• Growing Faith will begin work later this month on a job description for the CE position we plan to hire for September.

• Sharing Love continues to collect clothing and toiletries for Generic Ministry and is exploring ways to involve our youth in sandwich making and furniture building for New Life Furniture Bank.

• Grounding Lives has wrapped up putting away Christmas decorations, allowing us to return to worship in the sanctuary. They’ll soon be talking about refreshing both our regular and summer worship formats.

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Council members and JT also shared updates about parishioners who’ve been visited recently and who may need extra support in the weeks ahead.

Looking ahead: Pastor JT’s sabbatical

Our main discussion focused on the proposed plan for Pastor JT’s sabbatical (late January through late April 2027). The plan, developed with the Pastor Relations Committee and shared with the congregation, centers on preserving church memories—things like oral history videos, digitizing photos, and celebrating long‑standing groups like the Couples Club.

Council talked about balancing these projects with our ongoing ministries, being mindful of volunteer capacity, and planning for pulpit supply during JT’s absence. We also discussed how the plan can easily be scaled back if additional funding isn’t secured beyond what’s already in the budget.

We closed with brief notes about preparations for the annual June meeting and, as always, a prayer.

Want to stay connected?

• Our weekly email update goes out every Thursday.

• You can find the March 5 update on Facebook.

• If you don’t receive the weekly email, you can sign up in the church office or on our First Parish website.

As always, thanks for staying engaged in the life of the church!

Mary Masi-Phelps, First Parish Moderator