Music, games, Bible stories, crafts, snacks, and science projects will all be part of Vacation Bible Camp at St. Stephen Lutheran Church, 537 Bolton Street (Route 85), Marlborough, Monday, July 29 to Friday, August 2, from 9 am to noon.
    Register now by clicking here. Suggested fee for the entire week is $15 to $20, and scholarships are available. Although pre-registration is appreciated, walk-ins are also welcome. 
    “To Mars and Beyond” is the theme for this year’s program, which is open to children from Pre-K through Grade 5. With the church sanctuary decorated to resemble outer space, and a friendly alien puppet with a human friend on hand, the young “Voyagers” will enter an atmosphere of adventure and learn about how God is able to do far beyond all that we could ask or imagine. 
    Each morning, participants will play games, create arts and crafts, conduct science experiments, sing, and hear Bible stories, as they discover how God shows them how to “go beyond” with faith, boldness, kindness, thankfulness, and hope.
    Saint Stephen is a member of the New England Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (www.elca.org) . The church is a Reconciling in Christ congregation, inviting people of every gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, ability, marital status, or class. Parishioners come from Marlborough, Hudson, Berlin, Northborough, Southborough, Westborough, Shrewsbury, Sudbury, Stow, and Bolton. Sunday worship is at 9:30 am.

From now through April 10, worshipers at Saint Stephen Lutheran Church, Marlborough, can get both food – and food for thought at the Word-Up Wednesday soup supper and holy communion church service. Come at 6:30 each Wednesday for a simple soup and bread supper and stay for a service that will examine liberation theologies, centering on LGBTQ identities, disability, ecology, and others. 
    “Each Wednesday, we gather in prayer, break bread, have some soup and discussion, then conclude with sharing the wine, just as the earliest Christians gathered,” says Saint Stephen Pastor Joseph Graumann.
    Wednesday worship provides “an opportunity for people who can’t get to church on Sundays to come and experience Jesus,” says the pastor, as well as something less formal than a traditional Sunday service for people who might want two weekly options during Lent. It more resembles gatherings in the first century church where “early Christians sang songs you didn’t need a hymn book for, shared stories of their ancestors, talked about God at work in the world, and shared communion,” he added. At St. Stephen, everyone who wishes to share the bread and wine is welcome at communion.
    In addition to Word-Up Wednesdays, the weekly Sunday worship takes place at 9:30 am, followed by coffee and fellowship. Sunday School for children from pre-school through grade 6 takes place during part of the service.

​

Six youth and two adults from St. Stephen Lutheran Church, Marlborough, headed south for the February school break. Rather than a typical tropical vacation destination, their goal was Washington, DC, where they not only engaged in traditional volunteering at a food bank and a soup kitchen, but also spent a full day on Capitol Hil. While there, they met with ELCA Advocacy, an Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s ministry that works for change in public policy through political channels on behalf of biblical values such as peacemaking, hospitality to strangers, care for creation, and concern for people living in poverty and struggling with hunger and disease.
    “This year’s mission trip demonstrates a changing understanding of youth education in the ELCA,” said Pastor Joseph Graumann, who along with youth leader Sarah Maston, chaperoned the group that includes Zach, Caitlyn, and Samantha Gogan, Emily Haley, Abby Maston, and Emma Keledjian. In addition to finding out about the church’s priorities in Washington, the group met with their local elected officials and had a full tour of the Capitol.
    Also on the agenda for the 5-day trip was a visit to Luther Place Memorial Church, built in Washington, DC in 1873 as a memorial to peace and reconciliation following the Civil War. The neo-Gothic building resembles the shape of a ship, and is well known for its stained glass windows picturing twelve reformers. Luther Place has renovated neighborhood row houses, opened its doors to the homeless and later formed and worked with a multi-denominational coalition to open a facility to shelter and house people in need, and founded the Lutheran Volunteer Corps, now a national program that places hundreds of volunteers with social-justice oriented organizations.

​