This Week at Tabernacle
THIS WEEK AT TABERNACLE CHURCH, UCC
October 4th, 2026
Join us this Sunday, October 4th for our in-person Service at 10 am in the Sanctuary followed by Fellowship Time in the Bigelow Room.
Please remember this is Communion Sunday so be sure to have some juice and bread on hand.
A message from Reverend Joe……..
Dear Members and Friends,
This Sunday is World Communion Sunday when we take our annual offering for Neighbors in Need. We have proudly been a Five for Five congregation, meaning we contribute to Our Church’s Wider Mission through proportional giving in our budget which goes through the Southern New England Conference of the UCC, and to the four Special Mission Offerings of the UCC. Neighbors in Need is one of those four special offerings we take each year. Every dollar you give, using the special offering envelopes provided this Sunday or using the memo section of our donate button marking it NIN (for Neighbors in Need) will go to this important offering. When you give to NIN, you make sure the UCC continues to be a leader for justice. Two-thirds of the offering supports justice projects across the church, and one-third supports the Council for American Indian Ministries. There is an inherent connection between the Gospel call to respond to the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, those in prison, and those who are sick, and the policy decisions that determine funding of issues such as school meal programs, standards for clean air, sentencing for nonviolent offenders, and health care access for all. For those of you who heard Rev. Dr. Raphael Warnock speak this past Sunday you’ll recognize that advocacy is essential to participating in God’s mission in the world.
While perusing the UCC website for information on this special offering, I discovered that the church I belonged to when I lived in Phoenix was a recipient of a $10,000 grant from the NIN offering in 2018! That church had an ongoing relationship with border issues, including, while I was a member there, of placing water stations in the desert for refugees trying to find a better way of life. Those water stations were often the difference between making it safe across the border or dying in the desert. During my sermon this Sunday, I’m going to share with you that congregation’s history of immigration work and the impact of this grant to that church in it’s ongoing ministry.
See you in church or on zoom,
Reverend Joe
The title of Reverend Joe’s sermon is: “A Global Table of Grace”
The Deacons for the month of October are “ The Deacons”, Brenda Lewis, Betsey Bennett, Jan Roberts-Breslin, Stephen Fisher and David Woolfenden.
The lighting of the Steeple for the month of October is in loving memory of Marc Lemieux by Mom, Dad, Michele and Mikey.
It’s Back to School
Missions is supporting The Clothing Connection.
We are asking for sweatshirts or fleece tops.
Items may be new or gently used. Please no graphics.
We are targeting high school age students so Adult size S to XL.
Questions please reach out to Jean Karam, Karamfour@ gmail.com 617-872-2041.
Donations due by November 8th.
HAUNTED HAPPENINGS PARKING FUND RAISER BEGINS THIS MONTH
For October we will park cars both Saturdays and Sundays.
October dates are: 3rd and 4th, 10th and 11th, 17th and 18th, and 24th and 25th.
Sign-up Sheets are posted in the Bigelow Room.
OR text Betsey B. 508-843-5780 with your choice(s) of date.
Please help with this important fund raiser.
(In the past we have raised as much as $14,000)
Thanking you in advance…
NEW ITEMS FOR SALEM PANTRY
COMFORT FOOD SUPPLIES FOR THE SALEM PANTRY
Missions Action Group has designated September, October, November, and December as comfort food months for the Salem Pantry so others can enjoy yummy treats for the holidays of Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas.
We are asking for donations of spices, flour, cooking oil, sugar, brown sugar, powdered sugar, molasses, dried milk, evaporated milk, and cans of pumpkin.
Reasonably priced spices can be found at Walgreens, Market Basket, and Ocean State Job Lot. You will find baskets in the Narthex to place your contributions.
Missions is joining the Coat Collection at St Peter’s-San Pedro Episcopal Church in Salem. We are asking our church community to consider donating gently used items as you change from your summer to winter clothing. We are collecting coats, jackets, scarves, gloves, and hats for adults and children. Please place your donations in the baskets in the narthex.
This collection is now until the end of October.
We appreciate you participating in this project.
Missions Group
WE NEED HELP SERVING LIFEBRIDGE MEALS
Sign-up Sheets are on the board in the Bigelow Room
or Call Martha Bagby: 508-932-0221
CHOOSE YOUR MONTH TO SERVE
4-6- P.M. the fourth Monday of the Month
WITHOUT VOLUNTEERS WE CANNOT MAKE THIS MOST IMPORTANT COMMUNITY SERVICE HAPPEN!!
AND WE ARE STILL COLLECTING …..
Missions is collecting plastic tabs from bread and fruit bags, and the pull tabs from cans. Collection Jars are in the Bigelow Room.
Calendar
Sunday, October 4th, 2026
9:00 a.m. Halloween Parking
10:00 a.m. Worship Service with Communion in the Sanctuary and via Zoom
11:00 a.m. Fellowship Time in the Bigelow Room
Monday, October 5th, 2026
7:00 p.m. Alanon Meeting downstairs in the dining room
Tuesday, October 6th, 2026
5:00 p.m. Vigil on Front steps of Church
6:00 p.m. Zilber Beatles rehearsal downstairs classroom
7:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Jubilate Choir Rehearsal in the Bigelow Room
Wednesday, October 7th,2026
7:00 p.m. Bible Study via Zoom
Friday, October 9th, 2026
All day – Magician in Emerson Hall
6:30 p.m. AA meeting downstairs in the dining room
Saturday, October 10th, 2026
All day – Magician in Emerson Hall
9:00 a.m. Halloween Parking
Sunday, October 11th, 2026
9:00 a.m. Halloween Parking
12 noon to 9 pm Magician in Emerson Hall
10:00 a.m. Worship Service in the Sanctuary and on Zoom
11:00 a.m. Fellowship Time in the Bigelow Room
BIBLE STUDY TONIGHT
September 30th, 2026
7:00 pm via Zoom
TONIGHTS READINGS
HEBREW BIBLE READING
Isaiah 5:1-7 The song of the vineyard
5:1 I will sing for my beloved my love song concerning his vineyard: My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill.
5:2 He dug it and cleared it of stones and planted it with choice vines; he built a watchtower in the midst of it and hewed out a wine vat in it; he expected it to yield grapes, but it yielded rotten grapes.
5:3 And now, inhabitants of Jerusalem and people of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard.
5:4 What more was there to do for my vineyard that I have not done in it? When I expected it to yield grapes, why did it yield rotten grapes?
5:5 And now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will remove its hedge, and it shall be devoured; I will break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down.
5:6 I will make it a wasteland; it shall not be pruned or hoed, and it shall be overgrown with briers and thorns; I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it.
5:7 For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the people of Judah are his cherished garden; he expected justice, but saw bloodshed; righteousness but heard a cry!
CHRISTIAN TESTAMENT READING
Philippians 3:4b-14 To know Christ and his resurrection
3:4b If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more:
3:5 circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee;
3:6 as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.
3:7 Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ.
3:8 More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ
3:9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law but one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith.
3:10 I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death,
3:11 if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
3:12 Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to lay hold of that for which Christ has laid hold of me.
3:13 Brothers and sisters, I do not consider that I have laid hold of it, but one thing I have laid hold of: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead,
3:14 I press on toward the goal, toward the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.