What’s Going on at the Church
The Family Dinner will begin at 4 PM for apps and games! Then we will sit together as a family and enjoy a meal prepared by all of us in POT LUCK fashion at 5 PM.
A sign-up sheet will be located in Davis Hall. You can choose to bring an appetizer, veggie, side-dish, or main dish. Session will supplement the meal with a couple extra main dishes. Please make enough for your family plus 2 people. If you miss the sign-up sheet, please email or call Elder Sue.
“Weighing Truth and Life”
Last Sunday, during worship, we thought about the radical nature of God’s compassion and its influence upon how the community of faith lives, especially in the midst of serious disagreement and conflict. The next several excerpts from John Pavlovitz will be exploring how people of faith are called to aim for the higher ground. It won’t ever be easy. It will likely cost us something in terms of our comfort and composure. However, the promise is that it is capable of creating productive dialogue and even parity. It’s part of how those of us who try, can be better human beings, and faithful as well.
Generally speaking, if our faith is going to overcome the ugliness around us, we’re going to have to figure out how to do the difficult work of loving people we dislike. We’re going to have to stop creating false stories about people from a safe distance and get truer ones. We’re going to have to find a way to offer an open hand instead of a clenched fist. We’re going to need to slow down enough and get close enough to our supposed enemies that we can look them in the eyes and find the goodness residing behind them. It may be buried in jagged layers of fear and grief and hopelessness – but it is almost always there.
We don’t like to think about the humanity of people when they are acting inhumanely. We may find that we have the greatest difficulty manufacturing compassion for people who seem to lack compassion. We don’t want to risk giving tacit consent to the terrible things they do, to the wounds they inflict, to the violence they manufacture – and the simplest way to do this seems to be to despise them. Despising people is always going to be the easier and more expedient path than loving them; because loving them means seeing them fully, hearing their story, stepping into their skin and shoes as best we can, and finding something worth embracing.”
Blessing and Peace, Ed
Looking to donate to our thrift sales?
If you have any furniture to donate, please take a photo of what you have and send the photos to office@1stpresrahway.org. At this time, we’re not accepting clothes or shoes.
Members usually work on Wednesday’s for our sales from 10:30 am -1:30 pm. If that’s not a convenient time for you to drop off donations, other arrangements can be made. Please email the church office and your request will be forwarded to the “sales crew” so they can respond to your inquiry.
As always, thank you to all who donate. Our sales have been a great success this year because of you!
Important Message from the USRC Board of Directors:
Please read these guidelines about Squier Hall and the formation of the USRC Board of Directors, who will be overseeing the groups meeting in Squier.
As part of the guidelines, please use this form if you have any concerns so that they can be addressed.
Interested in Getting Involved?
We have a lot of different ways for you to get involved – short-term projects, one-time opportunities, working with our livestream technology on Sundays, plus much more. Click on the button below to see what we have on our ‘volunteer wish list’. As more opportunities become available, we will be sure to update our listings.