Mar 31 2009
Archive for March, 2009
Mar 26 2009
Leadership Team News – March 26, 2009
Another reason for a party! It was announced that Pastor Ree Hale will end her interim position on May 31st. We all wish her well in retirement—though it sounds like she will continue to be very busy. We will celebrate her service to us after church on Sunday, June 7th. That also is Sundae Sunday, so come prepared to thank Ree, eat and enjoy!
The Youth Faith Formation Ministry is looking for someone to be the youth music coordinator, and the Pastoral Search committee expects to recommend a candidate very soon. With this in mind, Past Moderator John Lemke will form the Human Resources Mission Team as proscribed in our church constitution.
We spent some time reflecting on the conversation after church on March 22 concerning attributes of a growing church, a vital church and a vibrant church. We all appreciated Winton’s excellent leadership, and the thoughtful responses of those who took time from their busy lives to attend. We hope to continue this conversation in other venues and at different times in order allow other people to contribute.
Karen Falkner
Moderator
Mar 26 2009
Floating as an act of faith -Winton Boyd
If there is anything universal about living the life of faith – it seems to be that we also live with doubt. For most of us, faith and doubt coexist in a living paradox. Origen, third century Greek commentator on the Bible once said “God has put ….conundrums and paradoxes in so that we are forced to seek a deeper meaning.” As much as we may have been discouraged to doubt in our own religious upbringing, doubt and faith have co-existed for the entire history of faith. One of the dangers of our own education is that we often equate faithfulness with intellectual certainty. There are other ways to work through our doubt.
Poet and author Mark Nepo gets at this with the simple illustration of swimming. He writes, “When learning how to swim, it’s natural enough to resist the initial sinking in the water. We seem to be going down. And the more we struggle at the surface, the stronger the pull seems, wanting to take us under. But when we can relax into the water, we settle a few inches into the miracle of buoyancy. Amazingly, the unseen depths hold us up. Continue Reading »
Mar 25 2009
The Greening of our Lives – Two Spring Time opportunities
April 19th – ORUCC co-sponsors “Food, Faith and Earth Day”
A Celebration of Creation
Featuring workshops, plenary, locally grown lunch or dinner, exhibits
First United Methodist- 12:30-6 p.m.
see full details and registration/meals go to www.foodfaithearthday.org
May 2nd – Green Our Church, Greening our Lives
Join a small group for a day-long program May 2, co-led by Interim Pastor Ree Hale and ORUCC member Helene Nelson.
