Dearly Beloved,
Worship fills and feeds me! Consistently. I am so very grateful for our combined worship this last week with First Christian Church. If you missed our service, you can watch it HERE. Included was amazing music with piano, organ, drums and violin. Our very own Mary McCabe offered a moving testimony about who God is and how God has moved and continues to move in her life. There's also a beautiful testimony from First Christian Church's Carla Stein. And there was something so very moving about worshiping together with all of our voices raised in song and praise and proclamation. Oh! And a huge thanks to Dawn Briggs who made sure that we had coffee and snacks before worship. To each of you -- thank you thank you thank you!
I'm also grateful for everyone who stayed after service for our congregational meeting and for those who presented recommendations, reports, and updates. It is so good to be church together.
This week -- on World Communion Sunday -- we look at what it means to be the global church -- Christ's church across the globe. We will celebrate communion and reflect on what it means to be Christ's body, re-membered (or put together and made whole) in the act of communion.
Normally on World Communion Sunday, we collect the UCC special offering for Neighbors in Need. This year, with stock still being taken of the true and long-reaching impacts of Hurricane Helene, we will instead collect a special offering to support Hurricane relief efforts. In addition to your normal Sunday offerings, I encourage you to give something extra to support those who have lost everything: loved ones, homes, pets, friends, livelihoods, and the sense of safety that they had in their communities and homes. Please be sure to mark offering envelopes as "Hurricane Helene Relief." If you prefer to give online, you can make your gift HERE.
Thank you for giving so generously to support our siblings desperately in need of aid.
Holding each of you in love and peace,
Thandiwe
Prestemon has offered the following prayer in response to Hurricane Helene:
https://www.ucc.org/ucc-issues-appeal-for-those-impacted-by-widespread-destruction-of-hurricane-helene/
O God of infinite grace and generous love,
our hearts tremble to see the destruction
wrought by Hurricane Helene.
We lift our prayers to you.
Hold close all those whose homes and communities,
businesses and places of worship have been overcome
by water and wind, who awakened to
upended lives and tossed landscapes.
Grant your blessing to all those who will rush
to help and heal in the immediate aftermath,
to all those who will follow over time
to recover and repair what has been lost.
Stir resilience among all those
who will walk the long road to full recovery.
Receive their tears. Absorb their shock.
Console their grieving hearts.
Resurrect what’s been broken and destroyed.
Illuminate paths to the future
when exhaustion and desolation overwhelm.
Move all of us to respond
with hearts of compassion,
acts of service, and generous giving.
O God, hear our petitions.
And let our prayers endure
and our response be sustained
until fresh hope arises from the ruins. Amen.
