Girl Scout Cookies will be on sale

before and after services on:

Sunday, March 2 - Gracie & Haylee Mathews will be selling cookies.

Bring your cash - cookies are $6.00 a box.

The Theme for the 2025 Lenten Devotional is

“The Transformative Power of God’s Love”.

Copies of the Lenten Devotional will be available for you to pick up in the Gathering Space beginning Sunday, March 2nd.

Daily reflections will also be posted on our Facebook page.

Lenten Worship Opportunities - Volunteers Needed

Extra Notes

• We are looking for people to provide 6 quarts of soup on March 5 or April 2.



• If you would like to sign up or have any questions, please sign up on the Kiosk or contact Elizabeth at volunteer@messiahchurch.com

        or call/text 608-235-6910.

Walking Together in Lent – A Journey Toward Non-Violence

Please join us in a Lenten Mid-Week collaboration with our neighborhood faith partner St. Paul’s AME Church.

March 19th – Faith, Firearms and Foraging with Jeff Wild

Location -  St. Paul’s AME   -    4525 Diamond Dr. Madison. 

(Please note: St. Paul’s basement is not ADA accessible, but they will set up a fellowship area upstairs where anyone is welcome to sit. Please let Elizabeth know if this would be helpful to you or anyone in your group so they can arrange it.)

Soup Supper   6 pm     Worship  7 pm

Speaker: Jeff Wild is with Guns to Garden Tools, a program that turns unwanted guns into garden implements. 

Please bring a free-will offering to support Jeff's work.

April 2nd – Focused Interruption with Anthony Cooper 

Location - Messiah     

Soup Supper  6 pm     Worship   7 pm

Speaker:  Anthony Cooper is the founder of Focused Interruption, an organization in Madison that works to reduce trauma from gun violence by providing intervention strategies, prevention strategies, and support to families.

Please bring a free-will offering to support Anthony's work.

Fund Drive for Goodman Center Thanksgiving Baskets

Lent is a time of giving to the poor (almsgiving) and following Christ’s teachings more faithfully. In following these teachings, we moved the monetary collection for Thanksgiving baskets to the season of Lent. The Goodman Center has sponsored Thanksgiving Baskets for many years, last year giving away over 4,000 meals! 

A complete meal, including a turkey and all the trimmings, is provided to those in need who have registered. Goodman historically had to buy foil roasting pans as donations were low. It was decided to step in to purchase as many as we could.  Our goal for 2024 was to provide ALL 4,000 pans and Messiah met that goal– and more! 

Please consider donating to this cause during Lent so we can reach our goal and be ready to purchase the pans at the best price we can find (roughly $5500). If using a check, please put “Thanksgiving basket” in the memo line so it is put in the correct account.  You can donate online through REALM by using the “Thanksgiving basket” button. This collection will end at Easter. Your donations are greatly appreciated!

Ray Robinson

Divine Yoga Returns for Winter Series

March 4, 11, and 18

6:00 - 7:15 pm in the Community Room.

A free will offering will be collected for the Beacon, an organization which helps homeless people access resources during the day.

At our February Ladies Lunch Bunch

we collected $211.00  toward the

 Goodman Center Aluminum Pan Collection

Ladies Lunch Bunch

at LJ's Sports Tavern & Grill

8 N Paterson St, Madison, WI 53703-2478 

Wednesday, March 12th at 11:30

If you would like to carpool, meet at Messiah at 10:45am.

Parking is available in the attached garage. 2nd and 3rd floor in spaces marked LJ's only or you may be ticketed.

If you have any questions please contact Claire Gensch at (920) 319-6731 or Mary Kedzie at 608-716-4600

Michelle Jolly

Women's Ministry Book Study -  Loving Jesus by Mark Allan Powell

Thursdays, March 13 - April 17th  - 10:30am - 12:00 noon - in the Meeting Room

This book study is full.

SAM Potluck to Feature Live Irish Music - March 26th - 12:00 noon in the Social Hall

 It is still March so that means there is still time for Irish music!

Grand Aul Day is an ensemble of five Madison musicians who play traditional Irish music. You will hear lively jigs, reels, and hornpipes with a few waltzes and slow airs for good measure. The musicians will take time between selections to talk about their unique instruments and answer questions from the audience. The musicians include Thomas Schwab on fiddle, Will Zarwell on whistle and button accordion, Terry Maloney on bodhran and other percussion, Bryan Ogihara on bouzouki and Marilyn Duguid on concertina.

Join SAM at the MGHS Theater on April 12 th - Tickets on sale now

SAM is heading to Monona Grove High School to see the Fine Arts Department’s performance of Footloose.

We will be attending the April 12^th performance at 2:00 pm. The matinee performance gives you time to have lunch before the show. Tickets are $12.00 each.

Pick up an order form on the kiosk at church or send an email to SAM@messiahchurch.com. Tickets are moving fast so do not delay.

Please note that when you buy your tickets through SAM, you do not pay the service fee on each ticket.

SAM has an excellent relationship with the Fine Arts Department at Monona Grove High School!

Transportation is on your own.

Land Covenants

Dane County weeds out racial property restrictions that date as late as 1969.

We know that many people struggle to find housing. Stable housing provides a secure base from which to raise children, go to school and work, and be part of a community. The opportunity to go beyond renting and to own a home is an important step in securing economic security now and for future generations. However, that journey toward home ownership has been made harder for some than others due to roadblocks that were set up in the form of land covenants.

Land covenants exist for many reasons. Safety covenants might not allow tall buildings near an airport or regulate the height of shrubs at street corners to allow for driver visibility. Some condo associations have covenants that regulate paint color and holiday decorations as a way to have a unified look. 

While these may feel annoying, they often have good reasons and if they feel capricious, they at least apply to all homeowners equally.

However, land covenants have also been used to exclude racial minorities from living in certain areas. Would-be home owners who did not fit the demographics that the current residents of the neighborhood were looking for were legally excluded from living there. 

These exclusions meant that based on nothing other than race (not economics, not criminal record, etc.) some people had less opportunity to live in areas with adequate green space, medical care and grocery stores and were often closer to heavy industry and highways. Over time, this led to declining health and property values, and a higher cost of living to access basic necessities. These disadvantages were passed to future generations. 

We'd like to think this happened somewhere else, in a different time. Please read on to learn about it happening right here in Dane County as recently as 1969.

• After three years of research into Dane County property covenants, county employees found over 1,000 deeds issued between 1910 and 1969 containing language that restricted property ownership on the basis of race.

• The Board of Supervisors is highlighting and rejecting the discriminatory documents, telling an appalling story of prejudice in Dane County neighborhoods, particularly for Black residents. A new exhibit at Monona Public Library delves into the history of racial covenants. [WKOW, Dane County Historical Society]

Libraries traveling to:       

Monona - February 6th at 6:00 pm          Belleville- March 20 at 6:00 pm              Waunakee - April

Contact Person - Pr. Dan O'Brien - pastordan@messiahchurch.com

Thank you to the following people who sponsored

 "Give Kids Another Lift

Week of March 3-7

Scott & Ann DeBroux

 Neppl Family, Lyons Family

Two requests from Kennedy

We are still collecting gently used winter clothing, specifically all sizes of snow pants, boots, coats, waterproof mittens and gloves .

We also need smaller sized sweatpants/ pull on pants for when kids get wet in the snow (sizes 5-8)

• Please donate new or gently used winter gear:
• Smaller sized sweat pants sizes 5-8
• underwear all sizes

• Please no adult sized clothes

• NO PERSONAL CARE ITEMS UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE
  

Annual Blood Drive - Tuesday, May 13th

• If you want to donate whole blood, your previous donation can be no later than March 18, 2025. 
• If you want to do a power red donation, your previous donation can be no later than January 21, 2025.

You can already schedule yourself to donate.

Click here to make an appointment

Our next week for meals is March 9 - 15

Volunteers prepare a complete meal for 12 people.

They bring the meal to Messiah and our team delivers it to Healing House.

Contact Person - Elizabeth Crummy - volunteer@messiahchurch.com

St. Stephen’s Food Pantry especially needs:

condiments, baking items and laundry detergent–they recently lost the support of a long-time detergent donor.

They pour liquid detergent into soda bottles that have been rinsed clean (they are sturdier than water bottles) and distribute them to shoppers in manageably-sized containers.

Contact Person - Dee Schwoegler - raschwoe@charter.net

Contact Person - Nancy Battist - battistnancy@gmail.com

Bingo Cards are due on November 1st

Stop by our Racial Justice Lending Library located in the downstairs Meeting Room, to check out a book to read. Many different titles, topics and styles available as well as books for teens. 

Check out other recent additions to our Anti-Racism & Social Justice Resources   document. Items highlighted in pink are some of the ideas that our Bingo winners shared for books, movies, podcasts and restaurants.