September will be a busy month for parishioners at St. Stephen Lutheran Church, Marlborough, with three consecutive Sundays of education and social activities. Following worship on September 10, members and guests can explore opportunities to volunteer or simply find out more about the church at the Ministry Kickoff Fair. 

From congregation support through the greeting card ministry, newsletter, and parish life, to outreach through evangelism and social ministry, and to Sunday morning service support through Christian education, worship and music ministries and more – there are choices for all interests and ages. A cookout will follow the ministry fair, with Harold Greer of Marlborough at the grill, creating some congregation favorites, with others providing potluck side dishes. Weather permitting, worship, the ministry fair and cookout will be held outside.
            
Sunday, September 17 will be the fall starting date for Sunday School at 9:00 am for adults, with prayer as the first theme. Sunday School for the youngest disciples, pre-K through grade 3, will take place during the 10 am service, with a story and craft to match the church worship theme.
            
Sunday School for middle school through high school students will begin September 24, after the worship service, and continue on the second and fourth Sundays of each month. This program will be led by Pastor Rheanna Goodrich, and members and teachers Heidi Richard of Worcester, Stephanie Ruggiere (Shrewsbury), and Dianne Bruno (Hudson).
            No preregistration is needed for any of the programs; everyone is welcome.
            
For more information about the church, visit www.saintstephenlutheran.com  or the church’s Facebook page. 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, Stow, Bolton and Worcester. 

Calendar events:
Sunday, September 10
St. Stephen Lutheran Church, 537 Bolton St., Marlborough, MA
Ministry Kickoff Fair, following 10 am worship
Learn about opportunities to participate, learn and serve
Cookout after the fair; all welcome
Sunday, September 17
St. Stephen Lutheran Church, 537 Bolton St., Marlborough, MA
Sunday School for adults @ 9, worship @ 10, Sunday School for pre-K to grade 3 during worship
Sunday, September 24
St. Stephen Lutheran Church, 537 Bolton St., Marlborough, MA
Sunday School for middle school through high school following 10 am worship

​SSLC parishioners and their friends stuffed backpacks, made greeting cards, created no-
sew quilts, turned paper bags into art projects and filled them with snacks at the annual Summer
Service Week earlier this month. The 4-evening program addressed themes of hunger, health and
wellness, education, and kindness. Following a light supper each night, Pastor Rheanna,
accompanied by youth members Kaili Goodrich and Lily Ruggiere, presented a Bible-based skit
on the day’s theme before the service project began. Stephanie Ruggiere, Dianne Bruno, Beth
Warner, and Heidi Richard organized and coordinated the Summer Service Week program.
A variety of local organizations, children, families, and seniors will benefit from the
activities of nearly two dozen church volunteers. Forty snack bags were targeted for Our Father’s
Table; 10 completed fleece quilts, many in kid-friendly patterns went to Fresh Start Furniture
Bank, along with 25 bags of toiletries. The United Way will distribute the 26 backpacks, filled
with pencils and sharpeners, rulers, calculators, scissors and more to children who can’t afford
school supplies. Greeting cards and bags of treats were delivered by the pastor to the Lutheran
Rehabilitation and Skilled Care Center in Worcester.
Summer Service Week was a Thrivent Action Team event. Thrivent is a Fortune 500
financial services company that sponsors generosity programs. Thrivent members from St.
Stephen applied for funding for materials and supplies for the various projects. Thrivent also
provided the Live Generosity tee shirts for the volunteers.

On this beautiful Sunday morning, St Stephen Lutheran Members and Friends gathered for the first outdoor service of the season.  Everyone enjoyed this time of worship, singing, praying and praising.  The weather was humid but lovely in the shade.  We were  joined in service by a pair of red tail hawks that sat up on the top of the church.  Pastor Rheanna's sermon was thought provoking and well presented on a difficult topic.  God is on the move,  please check out the replay video below.

​Each Spring we have an event to clean up the property at the front of the church.  The work includes weeding, trimming bushes, and spreading mulch – no experience necessary.
 
We will meet this Saturday, June 17 for this year’s” Beautify the Campus” event.  We will gather starting at 8:30 for a simple breakfast and coffee and start work about 9:00.  We will finish by 11:30..  If you can attend and have not signed up, please let Frank Dutt know by email to frankd414@verizon,net.
 
We have Thrivent funding to cover the cost of food and most of the mulch.
 
 
 
Frank Dutt
585-260-4303

    Warm weather and abundant sunshine herald the beginning of summer as well as a return to outdoor worship at St. Stephen Lutheran Church, 547 Bolton St., Marlborough. Sunday services will be held outside beginning on June 25 at 10 am, and will continue on the second and fourth Sundays through mid September, weather permitting. 
    Summer Sundays with outdoor worship will be June 25, July 9, July 23, August 13, August 27 and September 10. Worshipers can bring their own chairs or use those provided.
     Following the Sunday service, coffee hour will take place inside the church building.
In case of inclement weather, church services will be held indoors in the St. Stephen Lutheran Church sanctuary.
    For more information about the church, visit www.saintstephenlutheran.com  or the church’s Facebook page. 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 10 am, with Sunday School at 9.

Parishioners at St. Stephen Lutheran Church, Marlborough, welcomed a new pastor earlier this month, and the warmth of that welcome has brought joy to Pastor Rheanna Goodrich and her family as they settle in to their new home in Marlborough. “The call has been amazing so far,” says Pr  Rheanna. “The congregation has been so welcoming to our family, and super supportive.”

            At St. Stephen, the new pastor is “looking forward to getting to know everybody here, working with people to figure out what comes next.”  Her focus is both the church and the Marlborough-Hudson community. She notes that “a lot of people don’t know Jesus, a loving, benevolent God.  There is so much  pain and brokenness.” The call of the church, she says “is to help heal.” 

            Pr Rheanna comes to SSLC from Michigan, where she has spent the major portion of her life, but New England is also in her background. Born in Montana, she lived with her parents and sister in New Hampshire from age 2 to Grade 4, and has fond memories of outdoor activities. “We ran around in the woods all the time and loved playing outside.”

            Her family attended Baptist and Episcopal churches, but she came back to her Lutheran roots in Michigan during her high school years. Her faith was important, but Pr. Rheanna didn’t realize then that it would become her vocation and went on to earn a BS in English with a focus in Creative Writing at Central Michigan University. After graduation, “I quickly realized I needed a job and went into business,” she recalls of her time spent managing apartment complexes. “Then God got involved.” 

            Active in her congregation leading programs, and serving as council president, the thought of becoming a pastor emerged, but she was unsure “whether I wanted to take on the responsibility in my 20s.”  She was now married - she and Mara will mark their 21st anniversary this summer. Talking with Mara and her pastor, eventually “there were enough signs that I couldn’t ignore it. This was in my heart.”

            She enrolled in the five year program at Trinity Lutheran Seminary in Columbus, Ohio, and daughter Kaili, now 12, was born during this time. Pr Rheanna accepted a first call to a church in Au Gres, MI, “a lovely, rural community experience,” and a second call to Bridgeport, MI, closer to Mara’s work.

            Accepting her third call meant a move to Massachusetts for the family of three and four cats. “It is fabulous to be back in a place of diverse culture, people, language, and food,” she says. The family likes the outdoors, especially hiking, biking, and camping. Pr Rheanna  also enjoys creative writing, including science fiction as well as poetry.  Among many new and old adventures, she would love to try snowshoeing again, take Kaili to Hampton Beach, to experience it as she had as a child, and all three would like to explore Salem, and the history of a very distinct era.    
        
            “We were looking for a new adventure,” Pr. Rheanna says with a smile, adding that “New England is a homecoming for me and had everything we were looking for.”
​
            For more information about the church, visit www.saintstephenlutheran.com  or the church’s Facebook page. 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 10 am, with Sunday School at 9.

​Melanie Whapham, second front right, who delivered the completed kitchen kits to Fresh Start Furniture Bank, with Fresh Start volunteers, from left: Jocelyn Milton, Donna Zinck, Ann Cattarin, (Melanie Whapham), and  Sarah Giansante.

​Volunteers at St. Stephen Lutheran Church packed 22 bags with kitchen items for Fresh Start Furniture Bank. From left, Martha Domke, Peg Harbert, Paula Blomquist, Joni Schaulkhauser, and Melanie Whapham pause for a photo.

Members of St. Stephen Lutheran Church, Marlboro, packaged 22 kitchen-themed welcome bags for clients of Fresh Start Furniture Bank, filled with cutting boards, measuring cups, strainers, mixing bowls, cooking utensils, and more, and delivered them this week, along with specialty items, ranging from baking pans and cookie sheets to toaster ovens and wire whisks. Extra and additional items filled another half-dozen bags, and boxes with small appliances topped off a rolling cart as volunteers transferred them from the church to a vehicle for delivery to the Hudson-based Fresh Start.

            The project was made possible by donations from those who attended the recent jazz concert presented by The Rebecca Pagano Quartet as part of St. Stephen Presents, a quarterly musical program.  Music lovers were asked to bring kitchen gadgets or small appliances as their admission fee to the well-attended event. Many also made cash contributions. More than $500 was donated. Another $500 from Thrivent Financial was used to purchase additional items people who are setting up new households might need. (Thrivent is a Fortune 500 financial services company that sponsors generosity programs; Thrivent members from St. Stephen applied for the funding for the Fresh Start kitchen kits.) 

            “We were delighted to partner with an organization as exciting as Fresh Start Furniture Bank,” said  Martha Domke, who along with Melanie Whapham spearheaded the project through the church’s Social Ministry team. “Fresh Start has been very supportive of our efforts and we feel confident that the kits will go to deserving individuals and families. We look forward to working with them again in the future.”

            “All of the volunteers at FSFB are happy, encouraging folks,” Melanie added. “It is hard not to catch their enthusiasm.” St. Stephen Lutheran Church has supported  Fresh Start in a variety of projects over the years, she noted.  A collection of small furniture pieces is a potential future endeavor.
​
            For more information about the church, visit www.saintstephenlutheran.com  or the church’s Facebook page. 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 10 am, with Sunday School preceding it at 9 am.