Please do visit East Church!

Sunday Worship at East Congregational Church begins at 10:00 AM throughout the year. You can join in worship with us in person or by streaming online.

If you haven’t been to East Church, this photo illustrates parking opportunities and entrances (including the handicap entrance).

We understand that it can feel quite awkward to walk into an unfamiliar sanctuary as a first time visitor.
East Church is an exceptionally warm and welcoming community but it’s normal to feel conspicuous and uncertain about how the order of the worship service goes… what to do and when to do it… especially if you aren’t coming from a UCC background. Following is a brief description of what you can expect. We hope you will decide to visit!

When you arrive you will be welcomed by ushers at the entrance to the sanctuary. They will provide you with a bulletin outlining the order of service. Children’s bulletins are also available for the youngsters, who normally remain in worship until after the Children’s Message, after which they leave for their Church School classes. New children are welcome to join one of the Sunday School classes. Christian Education classes for all ages are located in the same building as the Sanctuary. Nursery care for toddlers and infants is available, but your younger kids are welcome to stay with you through the service. (We rejoice when children are in our midst, so you shouldn’t be concerned about noise.)

You may wish to look at the order of worship for a typical Sunday service. A link to the current week’s bulletin (or program, or order of worship) may be found on the home page of this website, and is typically updated the afternoon of the Saturday preceding the Sunday service.

As you enter the sanctuary, you may sit anywhere you wish. (Do note that our services are recorded and posted to YouTube. If that makes you uncomfortable, there is a designated “out of camera” section in the sanctuary.)
Hymnals and Bibles are available in each pew.
During the service an invitation for a voluntary Offering is made. Should you wish to make an offering, envelopes are available in the pews, and small white boxes are located at both ends of the sanctuary. (We haven’t “passed the plate” since returning to in-person worship after the Pandemic.) Online services (Vanco, PayPal, and Venmo) are also options should you wish to contribute to East Church. The money received is used to support the many programs that make up the mission and ministry of East Church and the UCC Conference.

East Church celebrates the sacrament of Communion on the first Sunday of each month. Our invitation to the Communion Table is very inclusive. You can learn more about East Congregational Church’s observance of the Sacrament of Communion on this page.

At the conclusion of the service, you are warmly invited to mingle with other congregants at an informal Coffee Hour in the Fellowship Hall, one floor below the sanctuary. Pastor Shelly is generally available to chat with, either in the sanctuary following worship or later during Coffee Hour.

So, what is the message delivered from the East Congregational Church pulpit? That’s a fair question, one I too would certainly ask before deciding to visit. The best way to answer that without falling back on empty labels is to point you to our archive of sermons and let you decide for yourself.

East Church publishes a quarterly newsletter. You may read the most recent newsletter in PDF format here. You may also wish to join our email list by filling out the signup form here. Doing so will provide you with weekly news updates, login information for our interactive streaming worship service, as well as the quarterly newsletter.

We would love to share our progressive, inclusive worship experience with you!