News & Announcements
Holy Week and Easter Schedule 2023
Click here for more information about Holy Week and Easter at First Church.
Advent and Christmas
It brings us great joy to celebrate the seasons of Advent and Christmas, and we’d love to share that joy with you! Here are some of the special events coming up:
December 4, Second Sunday of Advent God Meets Us in Our Fear + Trimming the Tree
December 11, Third Sunday of Advent We Can Choose a Better Way
December 18, Fourth Sunday of Advent We See God in Each Other + Lessons & Carols
December 21, 7 o’clock Longest Night Service
Christmas Eve: 4 o’clock Pageant Service
9 o’clock Meditative service with Communion
Christmas Day, 10:30 Short, joyful service on Zoom
Except for the late Christmas Eve and the Christmas morning services, all services are both in person and live-streaming on our YouTube channel. The late Christmas Eve service will be in person only, and the brief Christmas morning service will be offered only on YouTube.
Easter is Almost Here!
We are so excited to be celebrating Easter in person for the first time since 2019, and we would love to welcome you to this special service!
The service begins at 10:30, and will feature majestic organ pieces, two anthems sung by the First Church Choir (their first time singing in worship since 2019), Communion, a special children’s sermon, Sunday School and, at the end of the service, an outdoor egg hunt for children.
Masks are required, but we have found that continuing to wear masks for a while longer helps us all to feel Covid-safe and makes it possible for more vulnerable folks to worship with us in person.
The service will also be live-streamed on our YouTube channel, but we’d love to see your face!
Lent 2022: Made for Glory
For we are what God has crafted, cerated in Christ Jesus for good works,
which God prepared beforehand to be our path.— Ephesians 2:10
By tradition, Lent is a season of intentional focus on spiritual healing and renewal, a holy invitation to draw closer to God by following Jesus’ path of self-giving love. The Year W lectionary readings we’ll be using this season also invite us to consider and celebrate how we fit into the big picture of God’s extravagant love, which is to say: what our lives and our church are meant for.
These are the same questions we have been asking in our Alive with Purpose process. What joy there will be in bringing together in one rich season the gifts of Lent, our personal faith journeys, and the discernment of our purpose as a church!
There’s much more information about this in this Register and to come—about a Lent Challenge, Lent Lunches, a Lent Bible Study, reflection questions, and an inspiring touchstone. The heart of our journey together will be the time we spend in prayer, worship, and holy conversation. Please plan now to take on the challenge, and to participate in as much as you can!
(All services and events will be offered in a hybrid format, with in-person participation strongly encouraged and online options available via YouTube or Zoom.)
Ash Wednesday, March 2, 7 p.m.: Made for Wholeness
First Sunday in Lent, March 6: Made for Partnership
Second Sunday in Lent, March 13: Made for Good
Third Sunday in Lent, March 20: Made for More
Fourth Sunday in Lent, March 27: Made for Love
Fifth Sunday in Lent, April 3: Made for Joy
Palm/Passion Sunday, April 10: Made for Redemption
Maundy Thursday, April 14, 7 p.m.: Made for Communion
Good Friday, April 15: Made for Faithfulness (location, time, and format TBD)
Easter Sunday, April 17: Made for Life
Advent and Christmas at First Church Amherst
It’s hard to believe we’re heading into a second pandemic Advent and Christmas, but we thrilled to be able to do a lot of things in person (as well as on YouTube) and we’d love to have you with us.
Here’s the main schedule for our Sunday worship services, Longest Night Service, Christmas Eve services and a few other special events. We’re also offering an Advent Bible Study and a special Advent Vespers series. If you’d like to know more about those, please give us a call at 413-253-3456.
Here’s the main theme and schedule:
Advent 2021: One True Thing
And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of a parent’s only child, full of grace and truth. —John 1:14 (Women’s Lectionary translation)
When so much has changed. When so little is certain. When the ground keeps shifting beneath our feet. When divisions deepen and justice seems farther away . . . Advent invites us to remember, prepare for, and celebrate one true, never-changing thing: That God’s love is with us.
There is more than one true thing, of course; and we’ll be exploring some others. But in saying “one” we claim the most fundamental truth: that God is ever and always with us, that the Holy is always present and breaking in again to what is human and material.
To more fully explore One True Thing, we’ll be taking a three-pronged approach to the season: Advent Sunday and special worship services; “Advent Unbound” at Wednesday evening Zoom Vespers; and a two-part Advent Bible Study focusing on a new resource, the Year W Lectionary. (Read more about each of these offerings in the following pages.)
Because we’re still in a pandemic, we’ll be making some adaptations to ensure that everything we do is both safe and inclusive, either in person and online or just on Zoom. Make plans to engage as much of the season as you can. Prepare to revel in the gift of the One True Thing.
November 28, First Sunday in Advent
That Hope Will Sustain Us
Friday, December 3, 6 p.m. Family Advent Gathering—front porch
7 p.m. Greening of the Sanctuary
December 5, Second Sunday in Advent
That Peace Will Try Us
Trimming the Tree
December 12, Third Sunday in Advent
That Joy Will Surprise Us
December 19, Fourth Sunday of Advent
That Love Will Guide Us
A Service of Lessons and Carols
Tuesday, December 21, 7 p.m Longest Night Service (location TBD)
Christmas Eve: 5 p.m. Pageant service
10 p.m. Meditative service with Communion
Sunday, December 26, 10:0 a.m. Christmas Carol sing on Zoom
Welcome New Director of Youth and Family Ministry
We are thrilled to welcome Nathan Patti to First Church Amherst as our new director of Youth and Family Ministry.
Nathan brings with him a newly-minted Master of Divinity degree from Boston University and several years of youth ministry experience with churches in Florida.
We’re looking forward to resuming more youth and family events in the coming weeks and months, and we hope YOU will be there!
