The Newtown/Danbury unit of Church Women United is planning its annual May Friendship Day celebration.

The theme of this year’s celebration, which will take place Saturday, May 3, at 10 am, at Newtown Congregational Church, is “Through God Our Hands Can Serve.” The event will open with light refreshments and socializing in The Great Room of NCC, 14 West Street. It will continue with a program by guest speaker Shannon Hicks. All are welcome to attend.

Miss Hicks has been a member of Sandy Hook Volunteer Fire & Rescue Company for five years. She is a former Special Olympics Connecticut coach, and has traveled — on her own, as well as with a group of her fellow NCC members — to Biloxi, Miss., where she worked with Back Bay Mission for post-Hurricane Katrina relief efforts.

“Finding a way to offer service to others is something that needs to be done from the heart,” said Miss Hicks. “It’s important to find something that is going to feel right to you, while helping someone else.”

Miss Hicks is also an associate editor of The Newtown Bee.

Members of CWU Newtown/Danbury will help present the celebration, which will include responsive readings, scripture readings, prayers and hymns.

There will be a freewill offering, which will be shared with National CWU; and Fellowship of the Least Coin (FLC), an offering that asks guests to donate their country’s smallest denominational coin while also praying. FLC is an international ecumenical movement of prayer for peace and reconciliation in the world.

For additional information contact CWU Newtown/Danbury President Darlene Jackson at 203-426-5192 or Linda Manganaro, the celebration chairperson for CWU Newtown/Danbury, at 203-417-2701.

Reservations are requested so that organizers can prepare an appropriate amount of food and beverages. Contact Mrs Jackson or Mrs Manganaro to make reservations.

At the national level, Church Women United has constructed three programs for 2014, with all three following an idea found in Isaiah 49:15-16 (“We are in God’s hands and we are God’s hands.”) A Human Rights Celebration in March celebrated protection, May Friendship Day is celebrating service, and World Community Day in the fall will celebrate healing.