Do you want to spend time enjoying the summer sun and activities with your CTK family? Join the CTK softball team! No experience or skill required - just a willingness to have fun representing CTK Cambridge in the Boston Metro Church Softball League. Games are Saturday mornings or afternoons from June to August (you choose which games you want to play in). Anyone 18+ is welcome to play. We are also looking for non-players to come along and help cheer everyone on! Please contact Rachel rprice@mit.edu or Kimberly (kbowal@gmail.com) to sign up or ask any questions!
Boston Fellows
The Boston Fellows program is accepting applications for 2022-2023. God has a province for you to oversee. Whether your career is soaring or stuck in traffic, you need to know deep down what your work is about, beyond a paycheck, a good career move, or even that dream job. The Boston Fellows is a nine-month program for professionals seeking to cultivate the insights and spiritual habits necessary for meaningful vocation within a cohort of peers, spiritual leaders, and professional mentors. See here, here, and here for what past participants have said. Info and apply here. Please feel free to reach out to CTK member Rosemary Boyle with any questions (romaryboyle@gmail.com)
Volunteer Appreciation
Every May, the staff at CTK likes to take some time to acknowledge and appreciate the many volunteers who serve the church on Sundays and throughout the week. This week, we’d like to give thanks for our volunteers who serve outside of Sundays.
This includes our Community Group leaders; our Meals Ministry leader, Erin Ward; our Missions Liaison, Morgan Crago; our Men’s and Women’s ministry and Bible study leaders; as well as our finance committee and — this year especially — our building committee. And of course, let’s not forget our valiant and faithful snow team.
We are Christ’s body Monday thru Saturday just as we are on Sunday, so thank you to all the volunteers who serve throughout the week!
Getaway Save the Date
Save the Date for the 2023 Winter Getaway, January 27th-29th at Brookwoods in Alton, NH. Our speaker will be Glenn Hoburg, Lead Pastor of Grace Downtown Church and Senior Pastor of the Grace DC Network, a cross-cultural church network based in Washington, D.C. More information at ctkcambridge.org/getaway-save-the-date, and registration will be opening soon!
Missions Update
This week, former CTK member Hannah Nation, managing director for the Center for House Church Theology and content director for China Partnership, is launching a new book! Faith in the Wilderness: Words of Exhortation from the Chinese Church is a volume of sermons from Chinese house churches, co-edited by Hannah and Simon Liu. These sermons, which were preached online in China during the pandemic, include a series of meditations on brokenness, redemption, and hope. As Hannah says in the introduction, “in these dark times, let us set aside our relentless efforts to forget death and ignore suffering, and let us hear something about walking with Jesus that we have been missing. We descendants of Christendom fear cultural marginalization, but let us remember that those on the margins often preach the gospel more boldly, fearlessly, and humbly than those at the center…” (p. 5). The book is just now available through Amazon and Christianbook.com!
High School Events
Attention High School Youth! Join us for a Lock-in (overnight) event at the church with food, games and late-night ridiculousness from 5:30 PM Friday, May 6 to 10:30 AM Saturday, May 7. More details, along with forms for registration can be found at ctkcambridge.org/lock-in. Contact Andrea Bootsma (andrea.n.bootsma@gmail.com) for more information.
Arlington Condo
Scaffolding
The renovations on the exterior of our building at 99 Prospect will be beginning soon. Scaffolding will be going up shortly and will remain up for about 3-4 months. While we will still be able to use the building for all normal functions during the renovation, we ask that parents be particularly mindful of their children around the scaffolding on Sundays, for everyone’s safety. Thanks!
Piano
The church has been offered a grand piano to replace the instrument we currently have in the sanctuary! We are looking to re-home our 7-ft. Young Chang grand as soon as possible. If you or someone you know are interested in owning this instrument at no cost other than moving expenses, please contact amanda@ctkcambridge.org.
No Sunday school
Please note, there will not be Sunday school or Adult Ed this coming Sunday. Classes will resume on April 24th.
Catharine Downs
Congratulations to Catharine (Downs) and Taylor Gamache, the proud new parents of Elijah (Eli) Elwood Gamache, born April 8th. And congrats to Rick & T, for another grandbaby :)
Roommate
CTK member Morgan Crago is looking for a female roommate for a shared bedroom for this summer (roughly May-August, dates are flexible, with a possibility of extension into next year's lease). The apartment is located in Cambridgeport, 10 minutes from Central T stop. Monthly rent is $785 (all-inclusive). Email mcrago@bu.edu with any questions!
Sublet
Looking for subletter: Innocent Mpoki, a Ph.D. student at Boston College and housemate of CTKer Joseph Melkonian, is looking for a summer sublet between June and August in Allston. The rent for the room is $852 per month plus utilities. The room is in a 4 bedroom shared house. The roommates are all male, currently two young professionals, and another Ph.D. student. The room will be fully furnished. The house is close to Whole Foods and Trader Joe's and to the Green Line, 86, 70, 66, and 64 buses. It’s also a 5-minute walk to the Harvard School of Engineering and to the Harvard Business School. For more details, please reach Innocent at innocent.mpoki@gmail.com or 603 667 6580.
New Adult Ed Class
New Adult Ed Class starting 4/24: “The LORD watches over the sojourners; he upholds the widow and the fatherless.” (Ps 146) Such was Ruth, the foreigner. In a day of turmoil, what is the Christian attitude to the foreigner? Remember, when we were strangers to God (foreigners), Christ bought us back, redeemed us. In a 4–5-week survey of The Book of Ruth, we will learn how God redeems the hopeless and turns ordinary lives into the extraordinary. Class will be in-person in the social hall at 9am with a Zoom option.
Songs for Holy Week
In preparation for CTK's Holy Week services, check out www.ctkcambridge.org/songs to find recordings of all of the congregational hymns we will be singing throughout the weekend. Join us in singing the story of Christ's death and resurrection!
Training
FREE training for parents! As part of National Child Abuse Prevention Month, our partner, Ministry Safe, is offering their online Parent Abuse Prevention Training in April free of charge! This hour-long video training is a great resource to help parents (and others) understand and address the risk of sexual abuse. Note this training is not identical to nor a substitute for the Sexual Abuse Awareness Training required of CTK children/youth ministry volunteers, but rather intended as an additional resource.
New Hotline Number
If you need to get ahold of staff on a Sunday morning (i.e., if you are scheduled to volunteer on a Sunday and have to cancel at the last minute, or if you’re watching the livestream and are having an issue, or need to cancel your registration for the service), you can now text the church at 617-864-5464. This is the same number to call the church office and is listed on our webpage. The old “CTK Hotline” number is no longer active.
Boston Fellows Teaching Saturday
Boston Fellows is hosting a “Teaching Saturday” event on Saturday, April 23rd from 10a-3p at Park Street Church entitled “Spirituality & Medicine: Historical, Empirical, Theological Views.” Join a conversation with Drs. Tracy and Michael Balboni whose study and profession center on the questions of spirituality and medicine science. They will present viewpoints from previous generations of medicine, from current scientific and clinical data, and from theological perspectives; and discuss whether these disciplines can or should serve together for better outcomes. This event is open to the public. Registration is $15. Lunch is provided. To reserve your spot, please register by Thursday, April 21.
Declaration of Absolution
Leader: Almighty God, our Heavenly Father, has had mercy on us and has given his only Son to die for us and for his sake forgives us all our sins. God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. Whoever believes in him is not condemned. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. To those who repent and look to Jesus Christ for their salvation, the absolution of sins is effected in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Congregation: Amen.
Holy Week Services
This year, we’re returning in person for all our Holy Week Services. For more details and to register, please visit ctkcambridge.org/holy-week.
Thu, 4/14, 7:30p :: Maundy Thursday Service :: a service centering on the Lord’s Supper
Fri, 4/15, 7:30p :: Good Friday Service :: a tenebrae service of readings and songs
Sun, 4/17, 6a :: Sunrise Service and Breakfast :: a celebratory service followed by a shared meal
We’re in need of volunteers to help at these services. In particular, we need folks who are willing to help set up and tear down for the Sunrise breakfast. If you’d willing to help, please contact laura@ctkcambridge.org.