 Greetings!
We hope you find the following reflections and resources a comfort and a help to you as you respond to the Boston Marathon Bombings on Monday. Thank you for your invaluable ministry during this difficult time.
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| Our hearts remain broken | 
Reflection by Minister and President Jim AntalTragedy brings out caring and courage. But this remains a tragedy. And our hearts remain broken, while Jesus stands embracing the fallen, the wounded, the broken and the shocked. Read more
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Ministries Beyond the Walls
|  Reflection by Associate Conference Minister
Don Remick:
They are known as chaplains, spiritual companions, pastoral counselors, among other names. They are pastors beyond the walls.
Read more
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| Used for Good | 
Reflection by Associate Conference Minister Wendy Vander HartWhat is our work now? Our work is to bring as much good to this tragedy and thereby as much evidence of God in the midst of suffering, violence and pain, as possible. Read more
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Responding to the trauma with love
|  Reflection by Resource Center Director Elsa Marshall
Through us God will be with everyone who suffers, through even the deepest grief and loss. Love is shared when we respond, pray, help, care.
Read more
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| Prayers, support, pour in from all over | News Story
Prayers of support, offers of assistance, and advice from those who have faced tragedy near their own homes have been spreading rapidly across the social network sphere and pouring into the Massachusetts Conference office.
Read some of them here
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| Someone Like Us |  Reflection by J. Mary Luti, Retired Andover Newton Theological School professor
This time it's Boston, but it has been elsewhere more times than we can count. It happened in the midst of joy on a gorgeous day, but it's happened at other celebrations on other days. Read more
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| We are OK. We're not OK. We will be OK |  By John Hudson, Pastor of Pilgrim UCC in Sherborn
"I'm okay." That's all I wanted to hear from loved ones and neighbors and friends yesterday afternoon and evening, in the minutes and hours after two explosions ripped through the finish line area of the Boston Marathon. Read more in Sherborn Pastor
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| Reflecting on the Marathon Bombings | 
Reflection by Kazimierz Bem, Pastor of First Church in Marlborough, Congregational
As a pastor allow me to assure you that even though it is graphic, and loud, and profound, evil and the powers of evil were not the only forces at work on that day in Boston. Read more on the Marlborough Patch
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Boston Interfaith
Prayer Service
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A City Wide Interfaith Prayer service will take place Thursday, April 18, at 11:00 AM at the Holy Cross Cathedral.
President Barack Obama is scheduled to participate, as is Nancy Taylor, senior pastor of Old South Church UCC in Boston.
Dan Smith, pastor of the First Church in Cambridge and Wendy Vander Hart, Associate Conference Minister, have been involved in the planning of the service, as has Laura Everett, Executive Director of the Massachusetts Council of Churches.
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Donations
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The Massachusetts Conference staff is suggesting that anyone wishing to make donations to aid the victims of the Marathon Bombings direct them to The One Fund Boston, which has been set up by Governor Deval Patrick and Boston Mayor Tom Menino to help the people most affected. |
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Other area
special services
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