Good Day to you, Church,
I’m writing to you from my back porch again today, but we shall see how long it lasts. The haze from Canada’s wildfires is definitely in the air, and I hear we might see more of it in the coming days. (Can you even imagine 30,000 square miles of fire burning across their country? That’s like the entire state of South Carolina burning up.) We definitely need to be praying for our neighbors to the north!
*Addendum to my back porch sitting: about halfway through writing this newsletter, I had to come inside. My throat is burning and my eyes are watering.
Here’s the news for the week:
Membership Class This Sunday
For those participating, we will meet again this Sunday following worship.
Pastor Katrina Away for Continuing Ed Next Week
I will be headed to Rochester this coming week to visit with colleagues from seminary and attend worship at various churches, as part of my continuing education time this year. I’m looking forward to visiting with other pastors to learn about their struggles, hear their good ideas, and spend quality time pondering church life together.
A big thanks to Rev. Rich Hinkle, who will be filling the pulpit for us on Sunday, July 9th while I am away!
FREE ONNY Concert in our Sanctuary Friday, July 7th
If you enjoy live music, and love a free concert, you’ll want to come to church next Friday, the 7th at 7pm.
Sebastian Buhts will be playing with Adirondika Pro Musica. Here’s what Sebastian’s website has to say about him: “Buhts is a percussionist and conductor based in St. Louis, MO, and was recently appointed as Assistant Professor of Music and Director of Bands at Lindenwood University. He also serves on the percussion faculty at Washington University in St. Louis and St. Charles Community College.
In addition to teaching, Sebastian maintains an active and diverse performance schedule. Recent highlights include performing percussion with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, conducting the St. Charles County Symphony Orchestra, and performing solo marimba for the Orchestra of Northern New York.”
Second FREE ONNY Concert, Friday, July 14th
Then, the next Friday, our sanctuary will host ONNY’s next free concert in this 4-part series. On the 14th, Peggy Lynn and Dan Duggan will play songs from Adirondacks on guitar and hammered dulcimer, respectively.
Help with Helen Brouwer’s Memorial Service, July 14th
We will be holding a memorial service for Helen Brouwer on July 14th at 2pm, with a reception to follow in the Center.
Beth Grace is looking for people to help provide light refreshments for the reception. Might you be willing to bring a veggie tray, small sandwiches, cookies, or other finger foods?
You can contact Beth at bethgrace75@gmail.com.
Missing Sunglasses from Last Week’s Picnic?
Last Sunday afternoon, about 25 of us ventured out to Lazy River Playground with a handful of folks from Trinity Episcopal Church. We had an absolute blast playing shuffleboard, corn hole, putt-putt golfing, forest bathing, and roller skating. (Make sure you ask Ling Zhang about her first time on roller skates! 🙂
Turns out, our novice shuffleboard champs, Isaiah Stauffer and Henry Hebb are ready to take any of you on in a shuffle board contest! (The idea came up that perhaps we can put a shuffle board game down in the Community Center. …What if we have a shuffleboard contest this fall and invite other college students to come play?!)
Anyway, I digress. Someone left a pair of black sunglasses at Lazy River. If they belong to you, contact Sharon Pickard.
Big Thanks to Dirt Movers!
This morning a dump truck delivered 6 yards of soil to the church, to fill in ruts left by the lifts that came in to fix our roof last month. And a number of you came in the muggy haze to spread it. A big thanks to Bob and Sharon Pickard, Brian Wilkinson, Dale Hobson, Renee Stauffer, Neil Johnson, Dave Wells, and Dave Powers who came and spread the soil into the appropriate places!
Got Plants (to Share)?
Bob Pickard is putting out a call for native flowers to add to our pollinator garden at church. If you’ve got an overgrown clump of flowers you need to separate in your garden, we would love to add them to our collection! Just contact Bob to set up the details.
Prayers for Cyndy Henessey
Cyndy Henessey came through knee replacement surgery yesterday with flying colors and will be heading home tomorrow. Cyndy’s family is taking care of her while she recovers, but you can still send her a card in the mail!
Her address is:
PO Box 345
Colton, NY 13625
What Are You Doing to Help with Climate Change?
Last week, our sermon was about earth care– about recognizing that the actions we take to care for our planet are a form of worship we make to God. At the end of the sermon, Diamante Maya had a great idea. She suggested we start tallying a list of ideas to share with one another about what we each do to contribute.
If you want to participate, please send me a list of things you do intentionally to help cut down on plastic consumption, fossil fuels use, or anything else you can think of. In addition, what areas do you know you need to work on? (For me personally, 1) I need to work on reducing how much I drive my car. Do I really need to make that extra trip to town this week? Can I find a way to share rides? and 2) I could stand to pay better attention to how far I turn the water on when I’m washing my hands or doing the dishes. Do I really need the water on full blast? A smaller water stream won’t make it any less hard to wash my hands.)
If you want to email me your contributions, we will write them all down on the list we’re keeping in the Community Center, to spark ideas and help us to see that we’re all in this together. (All submissions will be anonymous, so there’s no judging going on.)
Finding Good News These Days
A couple of you have mentioned to me lately how hard it is to turn on the news these days. There is so much negativity happening everywhere– war, fires, floods, tornadoes, extreme heat, mass shootings, political turmoil, etc, etc. It’s enough to bring us to our knees, even when these things aren’t happening directly to us!
Sometimes, when you find yourself being overwhelmed by the news, it’s good to just turn it off for a while. Taking a break from the news can help cleanse our souls and realign our spirits. But here’s another idea to help us, too: Find good news to learn about!
Diamante shared some good sources with me. Check out this website:https://www.goodgoodgood.co/
And there’s this too: CBS Uplift: https://youtube.com/playlist…
I just clicked on the “goodgoodgood” site and found all sorts of amazing stories, and I feel hope in humanity once again.
Friends, for every horrible thing happening in the world, there are also good people doing beautiful, uplifting things too! This is because, even while evil and hardship live everywhere, so does God!
Near the end of his letter to the Romans, Paul reminds the Christians there to keep up their hope. They, too, were living in heavy, dark times, and they needed the same sort of assurance that God was present. Paul writes to them:
“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.”Â
~Romans 15:13
Together, we build and hold hope for one another, through the power of the Holy Spirit’s presence in our lives!Â
Holding space for you to find hope today,
Pastor Katrina