Join us each Sunday as we celebrate and worship as a community.
Sunday, November 4
• An Open Letter to President Trump
• SERVICES AT 9 AM AND 11 AM
• The Rev. Greg Ward, preaching
• James Witker, Worship Associate
• We’re standing before a powerful moment in history for this country. When we stop to understand the power and responsibility we have as a nation for leadership of the global community, it is not too far-reaching to say this is a powerful moment for the future of the species – and the planet. We have so many tools at our disposal but it seems like the only one we’ve been picking up is a hammer, and everything around us is getting nailed. In this land where the binary option has been put in our face, it’s time for haters to hate and leaders to lead. We just have to decide to which group we will be true.
Sunday, November 11
Oi Troy Oi! Vietnam 50 years after the Tet Offensive
SERVICES AT 9 AM AND 11 AM
The Rev. Greg Ward, preaching
Dorothy Steinicke, Worship Associate
Rev. Greg recently toured Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia. He went partly to trace the stories of family friends and elementary and high school classmates who sent loved ones to Vietnam to fight. He found it hard to hear of all those who lost their lives, or simply were lost. But the hardest were the stories of those who came back with painful experiences which few people could understand or make room for, because their story didn’t fit our national narrative. He discovered there are other narratives we don’t often hear, but they are worth knowing. These stories could hold the key to some of the healing we seek.
Saturday, November 17
Memory
SERVICE AT 5 PM
Robin Stillwater, preaching
For the month of November, the Heart and Soul service has been moved to precede the Thanksgiving Feast. Bring your food a little early and join us for a contemplative service to give you strength before the holidays.
Sunday, November 18
Back to Junior High
SERVICES AT 9 AM AND 11 AM
Michael Eselun, preaching
Cassie Winters, Worship Associate
Church member, oncology chaplain, and popular guest speaker Michael Eselun will share some deeply personal reflections about junior high school – a pivotal and often painful time that leaves indelible memories for many of us. In dialogue with the perceptions of that 13-year-old person, what might be discovered about inherent worth, dignity and compassion?
Sunday, November 25
The Rope
SERVICES AT 9 AM AND 11 AM
Robin Stillwater, preaching
Catie Grasso, Worship Associate
Edwin Friedman, one of the pioneers of the family systems approach to understanding human behavior, has a book of fables which he uses to talk about the universal predicament we all face: the hero’s journey of becoming our own person. We may scratch our head and ask, “isn’t that what we’re doing?” But if we look at the myriad of ways we unconscious, tenaciously, hold on to the habits we were taught when we’re young, we discover we are all composites of patterns we adopted early in our lives to survive and never managed to unlearn. We talk a great deal about the value of freedom but, don’t often realize how captive we are to our own past.
