We celebrate World Communion Sunday with a special speaker from World Relief Chicagoland, Pastor Adrian Hendarta.

We will take a special offering for Neigbors in Need.

Outdoor Service, weather permitting. Please bring a chair.

Masks are now required for everyone while indoors at St. Matthew, regardless of your vaccine status.

World Communion Sunday offers congregations a distinctive opportunity to experience Holy Communion in the context of the global community of faith. The first Sunday of October has become a time when Christians in every culture break bread and pour the cup to remember and affirm Christ as the Head of the Church. On that day, they remember that they are part of the whole body of believers. 

We invite you to expand your circle of love outward by giving to the Neighbors in Need offering that we will take up on Sunday. Your offering supports Native American communities in our nation, our National church’s work for justice and peace, and many small and larger grants to sisters church throughout our country who are developing creative ministries to make a difference of meeting human need and justice in their communities. We come together in this offering as one church.

The need to support displaced persons and immigrants in our country is acute. With a rush of refugees coming in from Afghanistan, we are seeking to rebuild a relationship with World Relief, which is a leading organization providing resettlement services, that also happens to have one of its bases of operations in Wheaton. To this end, we have invited World Relief to provide a speaker for our World Communion service on Sunday, October 3rd.  We welcome Adrian Hendarta to our church.

Adrian Hendarta is the Church Mobilization Coordinator at World Relief Chicagoland, coordinating and mobilizing church engagements with the three offices across the region, Chicago, DuPage, and Aurora. An MDiv graduate from Moody Bible Institute, Adrian is also the lead pastor of International Full Gospel Fellowship in Chicago, IL and Columbus, OH – churches with predominantly Indonesian students and young families. Adrian himself is a Chinese-Indonesian, who is married to the love of his life, Yuanita, and blessed with 2 children. 

The 2022 Stewardship campaign is underway. This year, we are concentrating on living our lives as God's stewards. 

Are you a scout leader, a coach for your children's teams, a food pantry voluteer? As part of our stewardship campaign, we encourage you to go to https://stmatthewucc.org/stewardship/ and describe a way you have been a steward of time and talent.

Commitment Sunday is October 24th.

Membership Life is planning to have brunch after church on Sunday, October 3rd, at The Courtyard Banquets, located at 3S200 State Route 59 in Warrenville (the west side of Rt. 59 between Batavia and Butterfield Roads). The price is $12.95 per person (plus tax and gratuity) and includes coffee. 

Click here for the Sunday brunch menu.  If you would like to attend, please let Tina Ciner know and she can adjust the reservation. 

The Mission Committee is organizing a Feed My Starving Children event on Columbus Day, October 11th from 11:30am-1pm. Children should be off school this day so this is a great volunteer opportunity for families. Please contact Erin Walsh (edbreit@hotmail.com or 630.660.4651) or Alex Johnson (alexanderjohnson30@yahoo.com) if you are interested in attending or have any questions. 

The theme of our stewardship campaign this year is “Living for God.” We will present a 3-session Zoom seminar on that topic at 7pm on Wednesdays, October 20th, 27th, and November 3rd.

It will be based on the book “Giving to God” by Mark Allan Powell, available in paperback or Kindle from Amazon. The format will be presentation plus discussion. Although we will touch on financial stewardship, much of the focus will be on how we live as stewards of all that God provides. Contact Byron Miller with questions.

Join us after church on October 24th for a Best of St. Matthew Pie contest AND a Pie Eating contest! Both contests will occur at the same time. The crazies invite the church to be involved as well. 

Pie contest: The crazies would like everyone to make their best homemade pie and the winner will get a prize. (No store-bought pies will be judged.)

Pie eating contest: You guessed it; whoever eats a pie the fastest is the winner! Are you up for the challenge?

If you would like to participate in either of these events, click here to sign up or contact Mel at melj88@hotmail.com or 847.899.3376.

On Sunday, October 31st, during worship, we will read the names of those from our church who have died in the past year’s time. If you have lost someone this past year, please send their name to the office and we will light a candle for all those we are missing.

We will also offer our prayers to all who have lost their lives or lost a loved one to COVID-19. We hope this will be a healing service for those who have suffered a loss and a time once again to give God thanks for the lives of those who have touched our own.

The Interfaith Food Pantry in Carol Stream provides food, household items and personal items to people in need in Wheaton, Warrenville, Winfield, Glen Ellyn, Glendale Heights, and Carol Stream. More than 125 families, over 400 people, are served each month by our volunteers. They are thankful for the support that St. Matthew provides.

They need your help:
• Each three-hour shift has three volunteers
• You can help once a month or as often as once a week
• Great for retirees or stay-at-home parents
• We’ll train you - it’s easy and inspiring!

The Pantry is open:
Mondays and Wednesdays, 9am to noon
Tuesdays and Thursdays, noon to 3pm

If you, or you and your friends, would like to volunteer or would like more information, contact Mary at the Interfaith Food Pantry at 630.665.6426 or interfaithfoodpantrycs@gmail.com.

Thank you to everyone who has generously purchased items from the regitsry so far. We are still in need of a few items.

Click here to link to the registry.

Items purchased this way will be delivered to the Petersons and brought over to church. Be sure to select the Peterson's address or you can ship them to your home and bring them to church. You can also donate $$ directly to the church, clearly marked for the St. Matthew Kitchen Registry.

All purchases are considered in-kind donations for tax purposes. Just provide Edie DeBoard with your receipt.

Please purchase only those items listed in the registry, so we can be sure to coordinate! (No used items, please.) Questions? Contact Tracey Blake, Dorothy Peterson, or the office.

While we are not going on the Biloxi mission trip this year, we will still support Back Bay Mission by sending them Manna/Scrip Walmart cards to distribute to those in need.

You may donate Walmart cards yourself, just be sure to get them in $25 denominations, and mail them to the office or drop them in the mailbox outside of the office door. Please write your name on the envelope so that we can give you credit for your donation.

If you would like us to order the cards for you, just bring a check made out to St. Matthew and give to Edie at the Manna table on Sundays or send your check to the church with a note that it is for Back Bay.

The deadline for all Walmart cards or Scrip orders for Back Bay is October 17th.

This is a gentle class, suitable for beginners, those over 50, or anyone looking for a slower-paced yoga class. Yoga can be practiced with a chair, if needed.

If you can breathe, you can practice yoga! 

Marla welcomes all members and friends to attend. Cost is $10/class. Her October 4-week series begins October 7th. 

Masks will be worn, and we have plenty of space to social distance. For questions or to sign up, contact Marla Mothershed at 630.441.5963.

https://stmatthewucc.org/yoga-in-the-sanctuary/

Click here to read the updated guidelines. 

Masks are now required for everyone while indoors at St. Matthew, regardless of your vaccine status.

Please do not attend if you are sick or have recently been sick. As always, everyone's health and safety is important to us and we will adjust plans as necessary.

Please send prayer requests via the following link and we can share them (or keep them private, if you prefer). You can also email them to the office.

You can make a prayer request here: https://stmatthewucc.org/contact-us/

The St. Matthew worship service will be streamed every Sunday at 9:30am. The service will be available on our website after the service.

Access the service through the St. Matthew YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/user/StMatthewUCC

**Once you are on YouTube, you have the option to turn on closed captioning and resize the font. Once the video is playing, click on the setting wheel in lower-right of your screen, choose Subtitles/CC, then choose English.**

You can also go to the St. Matthew homepage (stmatthewucc.org) to access the online service. 

Go to our website for instructions on how to donate to St. Matthew. Thank you!