Church Life Updates: Worship Information and COVID Precautions

/in /by

Effective April 11, 2021

Sunday worship at 10 am

Join us ONLINE via YouTube

OR

Join us IN-PERSON (limited seating capacity & advance registration required)

To reserve a pew, use the SignUp Genius button or call the office at (802) 878-5745

Sign Up!

Fellowship Time: A ZOOM link will be shared before/after each service. If you need technical assistance to use ZOOM, please see: ZOOM Instructions for Live Stream & Teleconferencing

For In-Person Worship, a few important notes:

  1. Ushers Needed (2 per service)! Ushers will check-in guests, do a brief health screening (take temperatures and ask a few basic questions), and guide people to pews. In-person worship is ONLY possible with the help of volunteers willing to usher. If you have been vaccinated and would like to serve as an usher – please contact the church office.
  2. Currently, we will be limited to filling 12 pews to ensure safe distancing within the sanctuary. Each pew can fit between 1-4 from a single household (or 5 with small children). Up to 2 fully vaccinated individuals from different households may coordinate to reserve a pew together.
  3. A brief health screening will be performed when you check-in. Everyone is expected to adhere to state COVID guidelines and restrictions. If you have any cold or flu-like symptoms, please stay home and join us when you are feeling better.
  4. Everyone will need to wear masks throughout the entire service and stay in their respective pews.
  5. At this time, we cannot sing aloud for hymns and anthems. Many parts of the service [Deacon’s Prayer, Anthems and Hymns, Scripture] will be pre-taped and shown up on the front wall of the sanctuary.
  6. For complete information about our health & safety precautions, please visit: Health and Safety Precautions

Easter: Sunday, April 4th, 2021

/in , /by

Easter Sunrise: Sunday, April 4th @ 6:30am via http://facebook.com/firstcongregationalej/ We will not be physically meeting for our Easter Sunrise Service this year, unfortunately.  However, Rev. Mendes will again have a live sunrise service in some beautiful location on the church’s Facebook page where we will all experience a Vermont sunrise as we celebrate the miracle of Christ’s resurrection.  This will be a special ecumenical event for Rev. Mark Mendes will be welcoming Rev. Karen Mendes and the First Baptist Church of Burlington to this sacred event.  Rev. Karen Mendes will save Rev. Mark and our entire community by bringing her angelic voice to the occasion.  Together, they will worship Jesus, commemorate his resurrection, and proclaim the continuing presence of Jesus within our world and our midst.  You will not want to miss this once in a lifetime occasion.  They will begin their live stream at 6:30 a.m. on April 4th.

Easter Celebration: Sunday, April 4th @ 10am via http://youtube.com/c/fccej. With Easter being such a high and grand occasion, the Staff and Executive Committee determined to pre-tape the service and play it at 10 a.m. on Easter morning.  With so many churches planning streamed services at 10 a.m. on Easter morning, we did not want the most sacred of all services to suffer a technological crash.   Both the Sanctuary Choir and Finally @ First are busy recording some magnificent music.  The Staff and Deacons are all preparing their parts and Rev. Josh is ensuring that it is all expertly pieced together and ready to go.  You will be able to reach the Easter Celebration by going to our webpage and clicking on the live service tab. 

Note: The Bulletin for this service is linked below.

View Easter 10am Celebration BulletinDownload

Good Friday: April 2nd, 2021

/in /by
View BulletinDownload

Good Friday: Friday, April 2nd @ 7pm via http://youtube.com/c/fccej. Join us to watch an ecumenical worship service! FCCEJ joins other churches in the Champlain Valley for an ecumenical Good Friday service. We will watch the worship service together with the other churches at 7 pm on YouTube. The service will be available for later viewing on the FCCEJ YouTube Channel. If you have not already, please subscribe to our YouTube Channel so you can easily access our services.

Palm Sunday: March 28th, 2021

/in , /by
View BulletinDownload

View the service on our official YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/fccej

Everyone likes to wave palms and remember when Jesus entered Jerusalem. And many of us like to keep our palms from Palm Sunday and put them up somewhere to remind us of last year’s Holy Week remembrances and celebrations. And those of us that are religious fanatics like to save our palms to burn them for the following year’s ashes on Ash Wednesday. So, despite not being in worship on Palm Sunday we are going to place palms on a clearly marked table out in the parking lot on March 28th / Palm Sunday. You are free to come by any time between 9:00 a.m. and 12 noon. Enjoy and be sure to wave them out the window on your way home!

An Invitation to Hybrid Worship

/in /by

Updated May 7th, 2021: Hybrid Worship Registration is no longer required.

Updated March 31st, 2021: Hybrid Worship Registration is Mandatory. Please, visit this link to signup. https://www.signupgenius.com/go/60b0a48aaad2ca2ff2-draft

Dear First Church Friends:

It is with great excitement that the Executive Committee shares with you their intent to move to a hybrid system of worship on April 11th, one where we continue streaming the service live AND welcome a limited number of folks into the sanctuary. Naturally, we will proceed with caution, and Church Council members have been invited to work through the kinks by being guinea pigs for a couple of weeks in March. But with increased vaccination and decreased infections, the Executive Committee thought it was time to finally welcome folks back into the church. However, the worship service will NOT be the same. Here are some things the hybrid service will demand……

  1. There will be no hymn singing, music, and taped anthems yes, but no singing.
  2. We will be limited to filling 12 pews with household units. Each pew can fit anywhere from a single person to a household of four folks in one of twelve pews. This means we could have anywhere from 12 to 48 people in the sanctuary for a worship service in addition to the team facilitating the service.
  3. Hybrid service with a limited number of people will begin April 11 th. Sign-ups will be through a Sign Up Genius on our webpage or by calling Doug in the church office at 802-878-5745. We hope to have this signup live on fccej.org by Easter.
  4. We must have Ushers to screen and ensure everyone moves safely from the parking lot to the pews and back. WE WILL NEED 2 EACH WEEK to safely enable services. This is a vital task to ensure that we follow mandated safety protocols and well-conceived movement plans. If you have been vaccinated and would like to serve in this role as an usher – please call the church office as soon as possible to let our administrator, Doug Ovitt, know by emailing welcome@fccej.org or call 1 (802) 878-5745.
  5. Everyone will still need to wear masks throughout the entire service and stay in their respective pews.
  6. Many parts of the service [Deacon’s Prayer, Anthems and Hymns, Scripture] will be pre-taped and shown up on the front wall of the sanctuary like we used to do for special occasions.

Despite these restrictions, we are excited to have people back in our beautiful new sanctuary, listening to our ministers preach or pray, and talking with folks after the service outside on the way to their cars. It is a first step as we move to a day when everyone is welcome to come to church and we continue live-streaming the service online.

Blessings and grace to you all as we continue to live into our new reality.


The Executive Committee
Maureen Evans
Cathy Shearer
Dan Petherbridge
Alison Wermer
Christine Sinkewicz
Josh Simon
Mark Mendes

Sunday, March 7th, 2021

/in /by
View BulletinDownload

March 2021 Church Council

/in /by
Read more

First Congregational Church of Essex Junction, 1 Church Street, Essex Jct., VT 05452 | (802) 878-5745