This Week at Tabernacle
THIS WEEK AT TABERNACLE CHURCH, UCC
June 22nd , 2025
Join Us this Sunday in the Sanctuary for our Worship Service followed by Fellowship Time in the Bigelow Room. This Sunday Jen and Bob Strom will be proving our music!!
A message from Reverend Joe….
Dear Members and Friends,
Many of you have been asking about the plans and schedule for North Shore Pride this year. Just before I left for my trip to Wisconsin and Minnesota, I received the following:
Congratulations! The Board of North Shore Pride has voted to award you the North Shore Pride Community Service Award! We would like to honor you with this award to thank you for the years of support you’ve provided to our organization and community as a whole. Your presence and inspiring words have been a large part of our Interfaith Celebration.
They are no longer holding the Interfaith Pride Service, as they have for the past 10 years here at our church. Instead, it’s now called the North Shore Pride Joy Event, and it will be held at the Old Town Hall on Thursday, June 26 at 6 pm. They also asked me and Rev. Andre Bennett to speak at that event and that is where I will receive the Community Service Award. You are all invited to attend.
This year we will March in the Pride Parade on Saturday, June 28th, with First Church of Salem. The parade starts at noon, so I think we need to arrive at Shetland Park around 11 am to line up. As you’ve seen and heard in the announcements, Carol White will again have her trishaw in the parade and is offering folks the opportunity to ride in the parade or afterwards at the common. See that notice and information on how you can apply elsewhere in This Week.
Due to a lack of volunteers, we will not have a table on the Common this year but hopefully we’ll have a huge delegation marching, as we have the past few years demonstrating our support for the LGBTQ+ community. Wear your Team Tabernacle T-shirt. It is needed now more than ever.
I participated on a panel last week at the National Rural Institute on Alcohol, Drugs, and Addiction. I shared with that audience the fact that anything that contains the words “gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender or queer” have been taken down off all federal government websites. That means that all the resources I’ve helped get on SAMHSA (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration) to help counselors in the field get trainings and assistance for working with LGBTQ+ clients are no longer available! The federal government is trying to erase any reference to the LGBTQ+ community and therefore any support, as well.
Luckily, many of us on the NALGAP (Association for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Addiction Professionals and Their Allies) Board of Directors had copies and/or downloads of those resources and we have published them on our own web site, NALGAP.org.
So, as I said, it is more important than ever that we stand up for the LGBTQ+ community and show our support!
Meanwhile, see you in church or on zoom.
Reverend Joe
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NEXT SUNDAY
MARK THE DATE
Join us in celebrating gospel music with the Joyful Voices of Inspiration. Sunday, June 29th, 10 am in the Sanctuary and Via Zoom.
Bring your voices of joy, clap your hands to the music, and take in the spirit of the gospel messages.
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Thinking of Marching in the Pride Parade… Why Not Ride along in Style……
A SIGN UP Sheet for Riding in Trishaw is on
the Bulletin Board in the Bigelow Room
or you may contact Carol White: 978-767-6540
Help Support Cycling Without Age Massachusetts and Tabernacle Church of Salem by donating and receiving a chance to be the passenger in the trishaw at this year’s Pride Parade, June 28, 2025! The trishaw seats 2 adults, so if you are selected to be the passenger, you can bring a guest of your choice!
The parade starts at 12:00 noon RAIN or SHINE! It begins at Shetland Park and ends at Salem Common. The trishaw will meet you at the start and transport you to the Common, or wherever else you would like to go! The trishaw has easy access so you will not have difficulty climbing aboard! Additionally, weather permitting, we will be giving rides around the Common after the parade for a small donation; first come, first serve!
Come and be part of the fun and support Cycling Without Age Massachusetts and Tabernacle Church of Salem, by participating in this Pride event! All donations will be divided between the purchase of a new trishaw and Tabernacle Church Mission Group.
Donations can be made through Tabernacle Church via their standard methods notating “Trishaw Ride” and/or can be made directly to Cycling Without Age Massachusetts via check, cash or by using the QR code below.
Mark the Date!!
The Annual Church Picnic will be Sunday July 13th at the Willows with worship at 10 am followed by a cookout.
More details to follow. Hope you can join us!
GIFT BAGS for SALEM SENIORS
FACTS ABOUT SENIORS IN SALEM
The following are results from a survey for Salem for All Ages 47% of visitors to Salem included at least one member of their party age 55 or older.
20% of respondents reported not feeling that opinions and thoughts of older residents are valued.
31% of Salem’s households have at least one individual who is 60 or older.
Missions is working on bringing a focus on seniors in our community and especially those most in need. Often a marginalized part of our population, we want to bring awareness and offer some recognition that we see them and support those who live in congregate housing or are homebound. We plan to provide 30 gift bags for them. Each bag will contain a $50 gift card to Market Basket and other goodies.
If you would like to make a donation toward this endeavor please send or drop off your check to the church office (50 Washington Street, Salem, MA 01970). Your check should be made payable to Tabernacle Church. You may also donate through our website. Just click on the donate button and be sure to write Seniors on the memo section. Donatins must be submitted no later than Sunday, June 29th
We thank you in advance for all you provide!
MISSIONS ACTION GROUP
Calendar
Sunday, June 22nd, 2025
10:00 a.m. Worship Service in the Sanctuary and on Zoom
11:00 a.m. Fellowship time in the Bigelow Room
Monday, June 23rd, 2025
7:00 p.m. Alanon Meeting downstairs in the dining room
Tuesday, June 24th,2025
6:00 p.m. Zilber Beatles rehearsal downstairs classroom
7:00 p.m. Jubilate Singers rehearsal in the Bigelow Room
Wednesday, June 25th, 2025
7:00 p.m. Bible Study via zoom
Thursday, June 26th, 2025
6:00 p.m. North Shore Pride Joy Event
Old Town Hall, Salem
Friday, June 27th, 2025
6:30 p.m. AA meeting downstairs in the dining room.
Saturday, Jume 28th,2025
12:00 noon NorthShore Pride Parade
Meet at Shetland Park at 11:00 a.m. if marching
Sunday, June 29th, 2025
10:00 a.m. Worship Service in the Sanctuary and on Zoom
11:00 a.m. Fellowship time in the Bigelow Room
The Deacons for the month of June is Brenda Lewis.
The lighting of the steeple for the month of June is provided by the Bennett Family in honor of Ed’s 69th Birthday and in celebration of Betsey and Ed’s 46th Wedding anniversary.
MISSIONS IS COLLECTING BOOKS
FOR THE SALEM PANTRY
Starting in April and through June, Missions will be collecting books for all ages in English and Spanish.
The books will be distributed at The Market at
47 Leavitt Street, Salem.
Please consider donating gently used books or new ones to support the joy of reading one’s own books.
Follow the Amazon link below to order books in Spanish.
Thank you in advance for your contributions.
Missions Action Group
https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/8Z9UN68AM89K?ref_=wl_share
WE Are Collecting…..
Missions is collecting plastic tabs from bread and fruit bags, and the pull tabs from cans. Collection Jars are in the Bigelow Room.
WE NEED HELP SERVING LIFEBRIDGE MEALS
CHOOSE YOUR MONTH TO SERVE
4-6- P.M. the fourth Monday of the Month
Sign up Sheets are on the board in the Bigelow Room
or
CONTACT MARTHA BAGBY (mhbagby@gmail.com)
WITH OUT VOLUNTEERS WE CANNOT MAKE THIS MOST IMPORTANT COMMUNITY SERVICE HAPPEN!!
Bible Study tonight
June 18-2025
7:00 pm via Zoom
Tonight’s Readings
Hebrew Reading
Psalm 42 and 43
Send out your light and truth
42:1As a deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you, O God.
42:2My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and behold the face of God?
42:3My tears have been my food day and night, while people say to me continually, “Where is your God?”
42:4These things I remember, as I pour out my soul: how I went with the throng and led them in procession to the house of God, with glad shouts and songs of thanksgiving, a multitude keeping festival.
42:5Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise him, my help
42:6and my God. My soul is cast down within me; therefore I remember you from the land of Jordan and of Hermon, from Mount Mizar.
42:7Deep calls to deep at the thunder of your torrents; all your waves and your billows have gone over me.
42:8By day the LORD commands his steadfast love, and at night his song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life.
42:9I say to God, my rock, “Why have you forgotten me? Why must I walk about mournfully because the enemy oppresses me?”
42:10As with a deadly wound in my body, my adversaries taunt me, while they say to me continually, “Where is your God?”
42:11Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise him, my help and my God.
43:1Vindicate me, O God, and defend my cause against an ungodly people; from those who are deceitful and unjust, deliver me!
43:2For you are the God in whom I take refuge; why have you cast me off? Why must I walk about mournfully because of the oppression of the enemy?
43:3O send out your light and your truth; let them lead me; let them bring me to your holy hill and to your dwelling.
43:4Then I will go to the altar of God, to God my exceeding joy, and I will praise you with the harp, O God, my God.
43:5Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise him, my help and my God.
Galatians 3:23-29
Clothed with Christ in baptism
3:23Now before faith came, we were imprisoned and guarded under the law until faith would be revealed.
3:24Therefore the law was our disciplinarian until Christ came, so that we might be reckoned as righteous by faith.
3:25But now that faith has come, we are no longer subject to a disciplinarian,
3:26for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith.
3:27As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.
3:28There is no longer Jew or Greek; there is no longer slave or free; there is no longer male and female, for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.
3:29And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise.