Lenten discussion
By caitlin | February 3, 2010
Title: Lenten discussion
Location: Old Parish
Description: A variety of topics addressed in a series of short films will be used to explore our world from the perspective of Jesus. One of the benefits of this year’s approach is that it encourages a wide participation of folks since there is no book to read (or buy), and no ongoing topic to stay on top of. So come join the discussion! Light supper will begin at 5:30, followed by the 15 min. film and discussion.
Start Date: 2010-02-21
Start Time: 5:30
End Date: 2010-03-28
Topics: Ongoing events, Upcoming events | No Comments »
Winter worship
By caitlin | January 1, 2010
Worship will take place in the Social Room as of January 31, 2010. Please enter at the side of the church. We will resume worship in the sanctuary on March 28.
Topics: Upcoming events | No Comments »
Restarting Men’s Group?
By caitlin | November 4, 2009
There have been some of our OPCian men that have suggested a re-start of the Men’s Fellowship Group at OPC. To survey the feasibility of such a group, we, John Groener and Dale Alden, are looking into how best to initiate such a group.
Any group size that is meeting in Christ’s name is what Christian fellowship Is about. Please do your part, and use the signup sheet on the bulletin board located just outside and on the right hand side of our church office to show your interest. This list is to be used as a contact list to help us call an organizational meeting. At that meeting the details of this group will be firmed up: the reasons for starting a Fellowship Group, as well as its purpose, vision and mission.
Topics: Upcoming events | No Comments »
Godly Play Church School
By caitlin | November 2, 2009
Godly Play is what Jerome Berryman calls his interpretation of Montessori religious education. It is an imaginative approach to working with children, an approach that supports, and challenges, nourishes, and guides their spiritual quest. It is more akin to spiritual direction than to what we generally think of as religious education. Godly Play assumes that children have some experience of the mystery of the presence of God in their lives, but that they lack the language, permission and understanding to express and enjoy that in our culture. In Godly Play, we enter into parables, silence, sacred stories and sacred liturgy in order to discover God, ourselves, one another and the world around us. In Godly Play, we prepare a special environment for children to work with adult guides. Two teachers guide the session, making time for the children:
• to enter the space and be greeted
• to get ready for the presentation
• to enter into a presentation based on a parable, sacred story or liturgical action
• to respond to the presentation through shared wondering
• to respond to the presentation (or other significant spiritual issue) with their own work, either expressive art or with the lesson materials
• to prepare and share a feast
• to say goodbye and leave the space
To help understand what Godly Play is, we can also take a look at what Godly Play is not. First, Godly Play is not a complete children’s program. Christmas pageants, vacation Bible schools, children’s choirs, children’s and youth groups, parent-child retreats, picnics, service opportunities and other components of a full and vibrant children’s ministry are all important and are not in competition with Godly Play. What Godly Play contributes to the glorious mix of activities is the heart of the matter, the art of knowing and knowing how to use the language of the Christian people to make meaning about life and death.
Topics: Children and Youth Ministry, Godly Play, Ongoing events | No Comments »
Children and Youth Ministry
By caitlin | November 2, 2009
We welcome Margaret Joseph as our new Director of Children and Youth Ministries! In the words of our Pastor, “Part of her ministry will include reaching out to families with children; to welcome and help integrate new families into the church; to initiate intergenerational experiences that build community and covenant within the church; and to design and coordinate at least one major eduational event a year. She will work closely with me around a variety of annual ministry goals. In addition, she will work with the Church School teachers around effective use of the Godly Play curriculum designed for our younger children, and the establishment of age appropriate curriculum for our youth. Old Parish has a growing number of young people and their families and we look forward to exploring new and creative ways to grow in our faith as an intergenerational community.”
Topics: Children and Youth Ministry | No Comments »
Pastor’s letter
By caitlin | November 2, 2009
February 2010
Dear Friends,
As we move into the heart of winter we often long for signs of spring, brief periods of warmer temperatures, the noticeable lengthening of days, a feeling that there is light at the end of winter’s tunnel. Such a longing not coincidentally seems to parallel the coming of Lent – which for us comes fairly early this year.
February 17 marks our entry into this holy season. We will gather in our winter worship space for our brief service of Penitence and Ashes beginning at 7:00 p.m. Do join us for this grace-filled step into Lent.
Another of the deeply moving elements of our Lenten journey over the years has been our weekly study groups. For the wide range of folks who’ve attended, a variety of insightful and challenging topics and informative books have proven valuable to our spiritual growth.
This year I am proposing a slightly different approach to our six week sojourn.
A popular DVD series called NOOMA (a phonetic spelling of the Greek word pneuma meaning spirit, wind, breath) has been used in many settings with positive results. A variety of topics are addressed in a series of short films that explore our world from a perspective of Jesus. Their promotional material introduces it this way: “Jesus lived with the awareness that God is doing something, right here, right now, and anybody can be a part of it. He encouraged his listeners to search, to question, to wrestle with the implications of what he was saying and doing. He inspired, challenged, provoked, comforted, and invited people to be open to God’s work in this world. Wherever he went, whatever he did, Jesus started discussions about what matters most, because for Jesus, God is always inviting us to open our eyes and join in….NOOMA is an invitation to search, question, and join the discussion.”
So, how about it? Come join the discussion! Let’s spend these weeks together searching and opening ourselves to the presence of God at work among us. One of the benefits of this year’s approach is that it encourages an extra wide participation of folks since there is no book to read, and no ongoing topic to try to stay on top of. So come!
I invite you to look at your calendars and mark one, or as many Sunday evenings as you are able, and let us come together at 5:30 for a light supper, our brief 15 minute film and time of discussion.
Blessings and peace, Jill
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
January, 2010
Wow, it’s hard to believe it’s 2010 already! How time flies. As we stand at the threshold of a new year I recently sat and reflected on the year past and the many blessings and opportunities that have come our way at Old Parish Church. In a quiet moment the other day I jotted down some highlights – an amazing list, actually – that I’d like to share with you. These are what jumped to mind (in no special order):
-Four blessed baptisms
-Three newly confirmed members
-A bylaw revision clarifying the “right and responsibility of the pastor to perform… the rites and sacraments [of the church] without regard to race, disability, ethnicity or sexual orientation.”
-Beautifully re-plastered sanctuary walls
-Cozy winter worship in the Fellowship Hall
-A very well attended Lenten study group
-A very early and cold yet fun Easter Sunrise Service (was this the 1st annual I wonder?) with breakfast at Jim Kelly’s house afterwards
-Our new Director of Children’s and Youth Ministries, Margaret Joseph
-An increase in Sunday School membership and attendance
-And then there was yet another hugely successful Antique Show; an OPC record breaking participation in the Construct Walk to Prevent Homelessness; a marvelously successful 2009 annual pledge drive; an enormously active and effective Called to Care team; plus all our faithful committees and active members who gave 110% of themselves to the ministries of this community of faith. We laughed together and cried together, celebrated with and comforted one another in a way that affirms the covenant we share. What a blessed year, indeed!
In the coming months I can already see some blessings on the horizon:
-A beautifully repainted Narthex which will include the hanging of the Bradford portraits
-A fabulously fun and inspirational 275th anniversary year
-John Wightman’s soon-to-be-published collection of essays on the history of OPC becoming a best seller!
And in the coming year I dream about others:
-Each Old Parish member will invite at least one friend to church who will find a spiritual home among us
-The extravagant and inclusive welcome of OPC will become widely known and experienced throughout south county
-Our mission and justice outreach both locally and globally will grow exponentially
These dreams are not beyond the realm of possibility for I believe that with God and a clear vision they are well within our reach. “Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus, to all generations, forever and ever. Amen” (Eph. 3:21,21).
Happy New Year! May it be filled with courage, conviction and peace.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
December 2009
Dear Friends,
Mine is a simple yet heartfelt Advent gift to each of you via the words of Ann Weems from her book Kneeling in Bethlehem:
An Angel-Filled Advent
Wouldn’t it be wonderful
if Advent came filled with angels and alleluias?
Wouldn’t it be perfect
if we were greeted on these December mornings
with a hovering of heavenly hosts
tuning their harps and brushing up on their fa-la-las?
Wouldn’t it be incredible
if their music filled our waking hours
with the promise of peace on earth
And if each Advent night we dreamed of nothing but goodwill?
Wouldn’t we be ecstatic
if we could take those angels shopping,
or trim the tree or have them hold our hands
and dance through our houses decorating?
And, oh, how glorious it would be
to sit in church next to an angel
and sing our hark-the-heralds!
What an Advent that would be!
What Christmas spirit we could have!
An angel-filled Advent has so many possibilities!
But in lieu of that,
perhaps we can give thanks
for the good earthly joys we have been given
and for the earthly ‘angels’ that we know
who do such a good job of filling
our Advent with alleluias!
I give thanks for the angels that you have been to our congregation, community and world. In big and small ways, often humble and practical you bless others with the gift of God’s incarnate love. May you be blessed this Advent by the presence of angels among us.
The peace of Christ be with you!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Rev. Jill D. Graham
Minister November 2009
Dear Friends,
With the arrival of November our lives take an annual shift. The falling of autumn leaves has prepared the way for the teasing presence of snow and the accompanying anticipation of Thanksgiving. With this shift also comes our own congregational practice of a more directed focus on Stewardship. We recognize that Stewardship cannot be compartmentalized into just a ‘fall focus’ any more than living our faith can be assigned to just one day a week. And yet these next few weeks provide us with an annual opportunity to reflect, to pray, and to respond with new energy and gratitude to God.
Our denominational Stewardship materials (to which you will be introduced later this week) highlight John 1:16, “From Jesus’ fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.” Through times of joy and security as well as times of challenge and pain, the ever present grace of Christ is to be found. On our stewardship materials surrounding these words from scripture are scattered loaves of bread. Bread that nourishes, bread that is the body of Christ, bread that is broken and shared in community, bread that feeds the poor, bread that becomes our many missions and ministries multiplied as on a hillside long ago.
Within the next week you will be introduced via a letter to this year’s Stewardship Team, Jim Kelly, Mandy Morgan, John Groener, Laura O’Shaughnessy and me. With the arrival of this first letter we will enter a period of discernment leading up to Stewardship Sunday on November 22 around how God might be calling us to share the resources with which we have been blessed. Our accompanying theme is this:
Multiplying Loaves of Love, as we knead our ministries of…
The ‘…’ will become your opportunity to fill in the blank. What ministries are we kneading together that have been important to you? Maybe it has been our ministry of compassion …or peace… education… or justice… hope…welcome…support….or…. You get the idea! Our list will be long and rich with blessing.
Blessings to you as we knead our loaves of love at Old Parish!
Peace, Rev. Jill
Topics: Pastor's letter | No Comments »