Berlin Clergy Association

The Berlin Clergy Association, in which all fourteen churches in town participate, and the town's social services department co-sponsor the annual Thanksgiving and Christmas food and toy drives, which serve over 100 of our less fortunate neighbors and their families every year. The clergy association also sponsors the town's interdenominational worship services on the evening before Thanksgiving and on Good Friday, in which our church always participates. We host the Protestant Communion breakfast every year at the Berlin Fair (the first Sunday in October).

Sister church - Spottswood A.M.E. Zion

For over fifteen years, our congregation has had a "sister church" relationship with the pastor and people of Spottswood African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church in New Britain (www.SpottswoodAMEZion.org ). Together, we've held programs to learn how we can overcome racism and work together, as Christ intends. We also have sponsored joint worship services, educational and social activities, and continue a monthly dialogue with one another.

Soup Kitchen

Members of our congregation help prepare, serve, and clean up after lunch at the Friendship Center in New Britain once a month.

Thanksgiving/Christmas food & gift drive
Together with our neighboring churches in the town of Berlin, we contribute to and help run the town's annual holiday food and gift drive. Last year, we provided the ingredients for over 200 meals to our neighbors in need, plus Christmas gifts for almost 100 children who live in Berlin.

Womens's Craft Circle
Each Tuesday during the school year, a corps of dedicated women, primarly from our congregation but also from other churches as well, gathers to create handcrafted items for our less fortunate neighbors. Their work has included quilts for children with AIDS, gift items for residents in local nursing homes, and much more.

Global Missions
Through our denominational family, the United Church of Christ, we contribute almost $9,000 a year to support missions work throughout our nation and around the world. The U.C.C. has a long history of proclaiming the gospel, not only in word, but especially in deeds. We seek to deal not only with the symptoms of poverty and injustice, but with their root causes as well. We also support Church World Service (the outreach arm of the National Council of Churches) through our annual Mother's Day blanket collection, our Father's Day "Tools of Hope" offering, and semiannual SERRV sales of handcrafted items from indigenous people around the world.

Sister church in El Salvador - Pan de Vida
For the past ten years, we have had a "sister church" relationship with Iglesia Luterano Pan de Vida - Bread of Life Lutheran Church - in Jayaque, El Salvador. We helped set up a sewing school for the women there, and sponsor a number of children to go to school each year. We also send funding, school supplies, and medical supplies. Regular correspondence between the two congregations (translated by the our high school Spanish teacher) keep us connected. Pastor Francisco Carrillo visited us for the first time in June 1999.

Local Missions
In 1998, we supported the Friendship Center in New Britain, the Addison County (VT) Action Group, the Prudence Crandall Women's Center, the campus Protestant ministries at Central Connecticut State University, our town's UPBEAT program for teens, the Berlin Children's Fund, Hospice of Central Connecticut, and the Conn. Light and Power Fuel Fund with our dollars and our prayers.

Volunteer Services
KCC members and friends play a vital role in the Berlin Children's Fund, the Kensington/Berlin YMCA, the Christmas in April home repair program, Habitat for Humanity, area soup kitchens, literacy programs, and much more.

Senior Choir
Our senior choir sings an anthem and leads our congregational singing, Sept. - June. Rehearsals are held on Wednesday evenings from 7:30 to 9:00.

Handbell Choir
The Celebration Ringers play English handbells in worship about once every six weeks. They also participate in the AREA 1 AGEHR handbell festival/conference, held every other year, often with folks from as far away as California and Canada.  http://www.agehrarea1.org/   No previous experience or special knowledge is needed. Rehearsals are Thursday nights, 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. from September to the beginning of June.

Junior Choir
Proudly dressed in their blue robes, children in grades 3 through 8 sing an anthem during our worship service every 4-6 weeks. They rehearse after church every Sunday, 11:15 to 11:45AM  from September through June.

Berlin Fair
Our congregation created the Berlin Fair in the 1800s. Since then, the Lions Club has taken over the running of this country fair which is fun for all ages. But be sure to stop by our booth for a taste of our homecookin'!

Intergenerational activities
Special programs designed for folks of all ages are a specialty at Kensington Congregational Church. Regular events, like our Advent workshop, Mardi Gras pancake supper, and White Gifts pageant & Christmas caroling, are supplemented by dinners and much more.

Women's Service League
For over 150 years, our Women's Service League has provided a combination of social programs, spiritual retreats, trips, and educational activities that appeal to women of all ages. Programs are held approximately every other month, and we also play an active role in our denominational family's statewide and local women's programs. The WSL sponsors a prayer circle and craft circle, gives a college scholarship each year, and bakes the pies we sell at the Berlin Fair each fall.

For over 25 years, we've proudly sponsored the area's premier cooperative nursery school. Classes are MWF 9:00-11:30 am and 12:30-3:00 pm, and TTH 9:00-11:30 am and 12:30-3:00 pm. Parents help out in the classrooms, run the overall program, and sponsor several special weekend activities throughout the school year. Our two teachers and their aides are highly educated and experienced pros. Registration is at the end of January each year.

Senior Pilgrim Fellowship
Our organization for high school students meets on Sunday evenings at 6 p.m. We work around the school calendar, providing fun and wholesome activities and time together. The group participates in several service projects in the community each year, and sponsors a sub sandwich sale on Super Bowl Sunday.

Junior Pilgrim Fellowship
Middle school students (grades 6-8) will find lots of fun and friendship in this group, which meets approximately every third week throughout the school year. There are games, programs, service projects, and lots of good times and great food.