Pick-up soccer for kids

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Kids of all ages are invited to play afternoon pick-up soccer Monday through Thursday this summer at Curtiss Field in Falcon Heights. Mike Bradbury of Falcon Heights Church will be running it from 4:30 to 6 p.m.

Encourage your kids to come down to the park and play whenever they can. The City of Falcon Heights will soon be starting on construction of the new basketball court, so there will be two sports available.

And if sports are not your kids’ thing, there’s plenty of space to play other games or on the playground. The whole point is to get them out of the house and playing together as a community.

Summer fun and service

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Get ready for a summer of fun and service for people of all ages. The ad hoc Growing Young team is planning three special events you won’t want to miss.

On Wednesday, June 26, join us for the Saint Paul Saints Toilet Paper Drive at CHS Field. The game starts at 7:05 p.m. The Saints will be collecting toilet paper donations beforehand for Second Harvest Heartland. Tickets are $14 for adults and $13 for seniors and children under 13. Please sign up HERE BY JUNE 9 if you’re interested, or on the clipboard in the Gathering Room.

Be sure to save these dates, too:

  • Saturday, July 13: “Newsies,” presented by the Rosetown Playhouse.
  • Sunday, Aug. 18: Community clean-up followed by all-church picnic.

Outdoor Painters exhibition

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Falcon Heights Church will host an exhibition of art work by members of the Outdoor Painters of Minnesota at 6 p.m. Wednesday, June 12. Learn more about the group–which is planning to use space at FHC for meetings and activities. Come and exchange ideas about future collaboration on community art events.

Appetizers and desserts will be served.

Heal the Earth Garden Party & Swap Meet

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Heal the Earth

 

 

 

 

 

On Saturday, June 15, from 10 a.m. to noon, come kick off our summer of intergenerational fun with eco-friendly service projects!

We have four projects to help bring healing to our beautiful planet Earth. You can participate in any or all of them, or just serve as a friendly “sidewalk superintendent.”

  • Creating a pollinator-friendly garden behind the church
  • Creating an “indoor garden”–a paper mural for the Gathering Room
  • Creating stenciled reusable shopping bags
  • An eco-friendly garden-themed swap meet–a chance to re-use good stuff

We’ll provide hearty snacks and lemonade. The event will go on RAIN OR SHINE! We’re hoping for beautiful weather, but everything except for planting the pollinator garden can be moved indoors if necessary.

Invite your friends! You can copy and send them this link: http://evite.me/nhE6kmuARd

Guidelines for the swap meet

Please bring only items that are lawn and garden-related and in good condition (garden hoses, decorative pots, tools for planting/weeding/harvesting, a treasured garden gnome, maybe even some patio furniture).

You can bring plants of any kind; ones that are good for pollinators may be used in creating the new back-of-church pollinator garden.

NO CHEMICALS, please.

Children’s outdoor toys and play furniture would be great. Ask your kids, grandkids or great-grandkids to help you find some things to bring. They can enjoy swapping old toys for something new.

Drop items off at the church during the week before the June 15 event (but bringing them the day of the event is okay).

We’ll be posting signs about this in the neighborhood – anyone is welcome to participate. Invite your friends.

No money will be exchanged. Bring things you no longer want. Take things you can make use of. Anything left after 12 p.m. will be donated.

FoodShare drive exceeds goals

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Church donors’ generosity during our Minnesota FoodShare drive will feed hungry people with more than a ton and a half of food and $840 in cash, thanks to multiple matches.

Falcon Heights Church contributed nearly 750 pounds of food for the Department of Indian Work food shelf at Interfaith Action in St. Paul.

That was matched by an anonymous donor at FHC, who got so excited about our congregation’s efforts that they increased their match to 1,000 pounds.

The FoodShare organization is matching the donations again, for a grand total of 3,500 pounds of food–roughly the weight of a compact SUV.

Thanks to all who made this a successful campaign!

Food donations

Holy Week events

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Join us for these Holy Week events:

  • Maundy Thursday Service of Tenebrae, 7 p.m. Thursday, April 18 — A deeply moving service of readings, reflection, choral music and candlelight.
  • Easter Sunday, 10:30 a.m. April 21 — We celebrate the Resurrection with triumphal music from our choir and a professional brass ensemble.
  • We’re serving a delicious Easter breakfast of baked French toast, ham, fruit, coffee and juice before the service, starting at 9:15 a.m. A goodwill offering will benefit church programming.

Share an Iftar meal

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Ramadan is a holy month of the Islamic lunar calendar (May 5-June 4 this year) during which Muslims abstain from food and drink from sunrise to sunset. A meal called an Iftar breaks the fast each day. Next month, members of our congregation are invited to attend a traditional Iftar through Taking Heart, a long-running program coordinated by the Minnesota Council of Churches and the Muslim American Society of Minnesota.

Taking Heart aims to bring Christians and members of other faith communities together with Muslims for wonderful food and conversation during Ramadan. FHC members have participated in the past. There are two nearby open houses in May:

  • May 13 at 7 p.m. at Masjid Alhuda–ICCC in Northeast Minneapolis.
  • May 21 at 8 p.m. at Masjid At-taqwa, just outside the State Fairgrounds in St. Paul.

The open houses are free and open to the public, but you need to register online.

More information on Taking Heart

Special service May 5

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Our worship service May 5 will have a communion theme and will end 15 minutes early, so we can move to the Gathering Room for a Crossroads Team-led “working” portion. We will close by noon with a hymn and a prayer.

The worship service will be a specially designed, narrated experience for all ages to more deeply enter into the meaning of communion.

As for the Crossroads gathering, here’s an update from our Crossroads Team:

“A small but plucky team of FHC members began a year-long journey this winter to understand where we as a congregation might be going and how to prepare for our future. The Crossroads Team, led by Cor Wilson and including the Rev. Rick King, Margee Fabyanske, Conee Biggs, Larry Schumacher, Brian Knapp, Mary Gaasch and Carol Holm, is working this spring on understanding the demographic trends affecting our community and revisiting our congregational road map from the pastoral search process.

“We plan to bring the findings of our initial steps to the congregation and begin gathering input from members about their hopes for the future of Falcon Heights Church, UCC, and its relationship to the community at a presentation and discussion on May 5.”

Be in our kids’ play

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Rehearsals are starting for our kids’ spring play, “My Name is Jesus. WHAAAT?” The show will be performed at Falcon Heights Church Sunday, April 28. Do you know a young person age 6 to 14 who would like to get involved? Everyone is welcome!

Margot Olsen wrote and directs the play. It tells the tale of a group of children who find a stranger sleeping in the sanctuary of their church who says he is Jesus. The children try to determine if it really is Jesus. If it is him, why is he back, and how can they help? The story will be told through music, and conversations, and interactions between Jesus and the kids.

Margot is a theatre and music teaching artist and member of Falcon Heights Church, UCC. She is an experienced magician at creating a fun theatre experience for kids of all ages and experience levels, bringing out the best in each one and telling a very creative story.

Rehearsals are from 6 to 7:15 p.m. on Wednesdays, March 13, 20 and 27, and April, 3, 10, 17 and 24, with a possible dress rehearsal April 25 from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Contact Margot at margot@olsenfamilycircus or 651-646-2983 and leave a message.

Mardi Gras party March 5

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Come celebrate Mardi Gras with us Tuesday, March 5, from 5:30 to 7 p.m.

  • Eat a rich dinner of pancakes, sausage, donuts and fruit before we head into the season of Lent.
  • We will have a craft project starting at 5:30 and dinner around 6.
  • After supper, join us for a pancake toss and limbo.
  • We will conclude the evening with a simple Ash Wednesday service appropriate for all ages.