It is with great sadness that the Board of Directors of First Christian Church in Las Cruces announced the resignation of Rev. Bethany Meier-Evans. The Congregation of First Christian Church appreciates the time they had to grow and thrive with Rev. Bethany and wish her the best wherever God and the Spirit may lead her.
Pastor Michael from Casas Adobes will once again lead some relatively easy hikes during these upcoming less-hot months. At some point in the hiking journey, folks will pause for a guided prayer / meditation / contemplation. This is an opportunity for movement in the beauty of nature, building relationships, and connecting with the Spirit. Those who are interested can even indicate any limits they would need in order to participate, i.e. “need a flat trail,” or “something under two miles,” or “small elevation gain is ok,” etc. (that would be me. - Holly)
On Tuesday, October 11, 6:30 p.m. via Zoom as part of the Our Faith, Our Voice, Our Vote series sponsored by the Arizona Faith Network, view an online film screening. Suppressed and Sabotaged: The Fight To Vote shines light on the dark corners of our country’s voting processes; including the increase of vote-restricting laws passing through legislation prior to, during, and after the 2020 election cycle. Please RSVP to receive the Zoom link. RSVP
A collection of 60 amusing, poignant and inspiring Education Stories, written by a no-longer-a-mystery group of church friends, will be available for $35 (in book form) at Casas Adobes. Proceeds will benefit the Scholarship Fund.
This book will answer which church friends can claim:
“My career was inspired by women’s pantyhose.”
“I snuck a flashlight under the bed covers in order to keep reading at night.”
“Being average is extraordinary!”
“I was the first girl to take shop class at my school.”
“I earned my college degree 35 years after graduating high school.”
The plastic diversion pilot program in Tucson keeps on growing. The goal is to collect 20 tons of unrecyclable plastic by the end of December; as of September 23, 9.32 tons have been dropped off since August 1. Over 1,200 people have signed up for updates, more than doubling the initial goal of 500. Here’s where to sign up: Pilot Program - ByFusion Global Inc. Signing up will do a few things – one, by giving your zip code we can track how widely dispersed throughout the community the program is. That’ll be an important consideration later when we try to go regional with the program. Signing up also gets you periodic updates on how the program is working.
Four park benches made from recycled plastic blocks were just installed at Himmel Park. The bench seats are made by Bottle Rocket, a locally owned and operated small business, from the glass we drop off for recycling. The benches were built and installed by Kappcon Inc., a local general contracting company. Two high schools are participating. Rev Karen MacDonald is taking plastic from the ICS office at Rincon. Many citizens are bringing plastic. While the primary goal is to reduce how much plastic we use, this locally-driven diversion project to keep the plastics we do use out of the landfill and ocean is a winner.
Desert Garden UCC in Sun City West is offering the 3rd Annual Sawitski Memorial Lecture, Saturday October 8th. This Webinar is free and clergy can sign up for 2 hours of continuing education credits. Go to desertgardenucc.org to sign up. Keynoter will be author and pastor the Rev. David Finnegan-Hosey and our poet artist will be the Rev. Michelle Hargrave.
Desert Garden UCC is also excited to offer its Welcome Back Dinner October 18th for members, friends, and neighbors who have been out of the area for the summer months. The meal will have a German Octoberfest theme and the music will be by Rogers Kids Entertainment & Herding with Harmony. We are looking forward to greeting all our returning friends.
