Sunday, September 18th after church at Desert Palm UCC: Are you looking for new realizations in your spiritual life? Would you like to try a different method of contemplation? Come and hear Jill Bormann, Ph.D., RN, a nurse, and a research scientist, who will present "A Mind-Body-Spiritual Stress Buster: Practical Applications or Daily Living."
Conference Minister, Rev. Dr. Bill Lyons, visited Shepherd of the Hills yesterday to preach and offer Pastor Rock and Ernie a blessing as they travel to the Assembly of the World Council of Churches in Karlsruhe, Germany, as a Voting Delegate, and as Representatives of the Shepherd Community. While Pastor Rock is away, Rev. Dr. Cari Jackson will preach.
Desert Garden UCC is joining efforts with New Leaf’s West Valley Housing Assistance and the city of Surprise to provide short-term housing in the West Valley. A new 7-unit apartment structure plus laundry facilities, a commercial kitchen/dining area and a resource center are expected to open in April 2023. The Mission Outreach Team has authorized over $13,000 to furnish one apartment providing safe and welcoming housing for families in crisis.
This last week, First Church Phoenix signed on to a letter to Alejandro Mayorkas, Secretary of the Dept. of Homeland Security. The letter, signed by 165 organizations, calls on the DHS to end the mistreatment of religious migrants by U.S. border officials. First Church volunteers at the Welcome Center here in Phoenix have witnessed this mistreatment, as it is well known that Sikh migrants often arrive at the Center without their turbans, confiscated by Border Patrol in the Yuma sector.
Here is an excerpt from the letter:For years, advocates and the media have repeatedly raised concerns about the seizure of religious headwear and other articles of faith, as well as the denial of religious diets by CBP. These practices not only affect Sikh individuals, but they also harm Muslim, Hindu, Jewish, and Christian migrants, among others.
Church of the Red Rocks recently held a celebration commemorating the 25th anniversary of service by Ginger Willetts as the Church Administrator. Then on Aug 25th, Ginger passed away. She had been visited by many members of the church, its staff and a Stephen Minister during her final days. Ginger's hospice caregiver, who gave such personal attention to Ginger during her final hours, now plans to become a new member of CRR. Our sympathies go out to all at CRR for their loss.
Join the Arizona Faith Network for a faithful dialogue and education series on Sept.13th from 6:30-8 on Zoom titled “Living Faithfully During an Election Season”. Explore how to serve as faithful community peacekeepers during a highly divisive election season. Learn how to peacefully and proactively debunk and deescalate election disinformation and misinformation. And explore how and why people of faith are called to be engaged in the work of protecting our cherished right to vote.
First Congregational in Albuquerque is passing along the following opportunity.The Interfaith Forest of Bliss project, begun by our local Sikh community and sustained through a partnership with NM Interfaith Power and Light, has a goal of planting 550 trees in New Mexico (learn more here: https://www.nm-ipl.org/campaigns/forest-of-bliss-2/) They are giving away some very young trees and shrubs, which will arrive in late September, an excellent time for planting them. The trees and shrubs are free to anyone who will promise to plant, love, and care for them.
Pastor Paul Whitlock from Church of the Palms was back in the pulpit yesterday after his sabbatical! Welcome HOME, Paul!
Pastor Pedro Goycolea led the service last week at The Good Shepherd UCC in Sahuarita. Pedro is the spouse of Alejandra, the Director of Faith Formation for Children and Youth at The Good Shepherd. Pedro arrived close to 15 years ago to start an Hispanic Congregation in the area and is now an ordained Disciple of Christ pastor. Pastor Randy reminds us that sometimes it is good for us to step back and reflect on the many ways that our churches have an impact on people’s lives.
Pastor Richard Wing from Congregational Church of the Valley had a great “Pastor’s Corner” this week in their newsletter. It made me laugh out loud. I hope you enjoy it, too.
I bought a Nespresso espresso/coffee maker. I can get super dark to light capsules of coffee. No muss. No fuss. Love it.
The capsules have codes on them. The spinning codes make the machine deliver anywhere from 1 to 7 ounces of water. Magic.
After unpacking this dandy red machine, I read the instructions, which surprised my wife. Not the unpacking. I mean “reading the instructions.” It said that I needed to connect my coffee maker to the internet via Bluetooth. What?
Normally not following directions, I did this time. I played around with this puppy for 2 hours. I needed to download an app on my phone; then lay the phone on top of the coffee maker (I am not kidding) so they can “pair.” Oops. Didn’t work. They said, “dump the app and download another and MAKE SURE it is the latest app.” I did. Still no connection. I went to the nice “chat” place on the web. Chat lady gave same instructions. Then I gave up and came to my senses.
I asked myself, “Self, why do they want to have your phone and machine connected via Bluetooth?” Answer: to ADVERTISE! The pods with little codes know what to do. I don’t need a Bluetooth connection, or the advertisements. All our electronic “stuff” can be good servants, but very poor masters. Too often it is hard for us to step back long enough and say, “Is this really needed?”
I remember the words of a Spiritual Director who said: “You must ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life.” Alas, we must eliminate unnecessary electronic connections that do not serve our needs but want to sell you more apps and stuff that will take another 4 people in your life to make sense of. I like people who know how to “cut through the maze of information” when it comes to photography, sharpening knives, decanting wine, playing the ukulele, AND religion.
My major professor holding degrees in Old and New Testament, said often, “the one unifying theme of the entire Bible is LOVE.” (Let me write that down. That seems important). The Dali Lama said (though Buddhism is technically not a religion), he said his religion is “kindness.” Definitely write that down. So come on people, don’t make love and kindness complex. By making love and kindness complex, we get around doing them. I know you already know how to do the loving and kind thing with your family and strangers. And the world at large has never need these two things more.
P.S. I just got regrets from the coffee outfit and they invited me to get into a one hour seminar, on line, that tells me how to connect my coffee maker to the internet with Bluetooth so they can flood my life with advertisements. NO WAY!