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Dear Lee — This message is for you, Lee — we of the Leverett Congregational Church community wish you well as you continue your recovery. — From all of us

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Message from Rev. Margeurite Sheehan  November, 2025

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Dear Faithful Friends in Leverett,

Thank you so much for the invitation to preach and lead worship with you in the first four weeks of November. I can already see that you are doing a remarkable job keeping your church stable and vital while your pastor is recovering from surgery. Since being asked to join the roster of fall and winter preachers I have been praying for all of you. That you will keep “showing up” in this time of transition and that you will stay open to what a season of change might bring.

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November is the last month in the church year which starts up again in Advent. November is a time to prepare for winter while enjoying the last days of autumn. It is a time when many of us count our blessings, and we are acutely aware of our mortality. November 2 is All Saints Sunday when, along with celebrating communion, we give thanks for the saints in our lives –those who died in the past year or longer. The saints who are gone from our sight but not from our hearts. I am grateful that this will be the first time that I get to meet most of you

because I will not only be meeting you, and you meeting me, but we will also tenderly be remembering our dear friends and family and neighbors. I am a newly retired (three years this month!) ordained UCC pastor who is finding in retirement a lovely gift of space to attend to family and dear friends, swim outdoors, read lots of novels and be responsive to the needs of local churches such as yours. I served twice in these last years as a Bridge Pastor (first in Northampton and then in South Amherst.) My wife Dorrie and I enjoy walking with our dog in the many conservation areas in our area. I also love reading poetry so don’t be surprised if nature and poetry creep their way into my Sunday messages. Here is one of my many favorite poems by Mary Oliver. It is called Making the House Ready for the Lord. In peace and in anticipation of our meeting.

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—

Marguerite

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