Martin Luther King, JR. Sunday of Service
Come lend your helping hands and honor Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. by showing up to answer his question: 'What are you doing for others?” Come help at each station or do just one. Join your Hills Church community as we work together to help others.
Sunday, January 19, after Worship
Join in; everyone can serve.
Hills Church honors the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther, Jr. with a day of community service. Hear the good words of Martin Luther King Jr. during the service, then get into good trouble by helping with these two family service days.
This Martin Luther King Jr. weekend, let’s come together to honor Dr. King’s legacy by serving others and spreading love in our community. On Sunday, we have meaningful service projects for all ages and abilities—perfect for families, friends, and individuals who want to make a difference.
Here’s how you can help:
✨ Build Hope: Join us in assembling tables and drawer units for New Life Furniture Bank to support those transitioning to stable housing.
✨ Bake Love: Bake delicious cookies for our food pantry guests and first responders as a gesture of gratitude and care.
✨ Share Joy: Craft valentines and notes for our elderly neighbors to brighten their day and remind them they are loved.
✨ Support Animals: Bring new towels and fleece blankets for the animal shelter, helping to keep our furry friends safe and warm.
Dr. King said, “Everybody can be great... because anybody can serve.” Let’s live out that vision by coming together as a community of compassion, service, and love.
Join us this Sunday to make a tangible impact. Together, we can build a better, brighter world—one act of kindness at a time. Drop in after worship.
Habitat for Humanity's Operation Playhouse Program
Saturday, January 20, 2025, 8 am-4 pm
The Hills Church Habitat team has volunteered to participate in Habitat for Humanity’s (HFH) Operation Playhouse Program on MLK Day, January 20, 2025. Habitat’s Operation Playhouse is a unique and popular program that builds and donates custom playhouses to the children of veterans and military families. Habitat’s Metro West Greater Worcester chapter is one of a few Habitat organizations in the United States that offers Operation Playhouse program. Our participation in this program will further strengthen Habitat’s mission of building communities and hope by providing a veteran family their own special space to bond, play and dream.
We will build a Gingerbread house themed playhouse right here at church (Wallace Chapel). We will design and paint the playhouse according to our own spin in Gingerbread houses. We need volunteers to design, construct and paint this fun house. No experience required.
The work will start at 8am and end by 4:30pm. Breakfast and lunch will be provided to the team. We shall have fun working together to create this inspiring gift and donate it to a veteran family at the end of the workday. Please come and join us to serve our veteran neighbor with compassion and love. You can sign up to volunteer via
SignUpGenius- https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0E4AA4AD28A1F58-wellesley
or contact:
Nana Poku: poyaw@hotmail.com
Rob Andrews: andrews.robert@gmail.com
World of Wellesley MLK Day Breakfast:
World of Wellesley offers MLK Day annual programs for community members of all ages to learn about advancing civil rights in the past, present, and future. Please visit: https://worldofwellesley.org/ for complete information.
Tishman Commons, Wellesley College • 106 Central St, Wellesley, MA 02481
The doors will open at 8 AM to begin breakfast and the program will start promptly. Tickets are $30 for adults and $20 for students, or a table (seating 10 people) may be purchased for $300.
For each purchase made, a percentage of available seats will be reserved for community members who qualify for financial assistance. Community members with financial constraints, please email WOW at info@worldofwellesley.org.
Hills Church is sponsoring a table, please contact Lori Janiuk - janiuk@verizon.net if you would like to attend.
Family program registration: MLK 2024 Family Event Registration.
LOCAL MLK EVENTS:
The Black Heritage Trail®
Stroll through Beacon Hill, and you'd be remiss not to notice its charming Federalist Era townhomes, brick sidewalks, and gas street lamps. But, what you might not uncover is that the neighborhood's northern slope was once home to Boston's largest community of pre-civil war African Americans.
The Black Heritage Trail®, a 1.6-mile trail of 10 sites throughout Beacon Hill, showcases the homes and community buildings of a thriving Black community formed during the nation's earliest years. Highlighting strops like the 54th Regiment Memorial, the Abiel Smith School, and the African Meeting House, The Black Heritage Trail shares a story of struggle, persistence, and hope as Black Bostonians organized toward the equality and freedom promised in America’s documents of national liberty. We encourage you to join a future tour.
United Church of Christ Racail Justice Resources:
Videos
A Mind is a Terrible Thing to Waste, by Venson Jordan, 2023.
Radical Inclusion, Worship and Conversation, with Bishop Yvette Flunder, Jan. 2023. Discussion questions included.
Videos of SNEUCC Justice Summit available to rent, Sept. 2022. Liturgy, other resources also.
Paying Royalties for Singing Negro Spirituals June 2022 webinar
Strange fruit Jolie Rock, Resident Artist at St. Peter United in Houston Texas, performs this song which she states is "not meant to make you feel good."
The Cross and the Lynching Tree: A Requiem for Ahmaud Arbery, video of Rev. Dr. Otis Moss Jr’s cinematic sermon preached at Trinity UCC Sunday, May 17
Raising Anti-Racist Children - video with Piper Kendrix Williams, co-author of The Toni Morrison Book Club
Family Resources
Racial Justice Resources for Families page curated by Debbie Gline Allen, Minister of Faith Formation
Black Lives Matter Instructional Library
Raising Anti-Racist Kids: Empowering the Next Generation of Change-Makers
21 Anti-Racism Videos to Share With Kids
"Racial Trauma in Film: How Viewers Can Address Re-traumatization" from Northwestern University
