Church & Community News | August 21, 2025
- jessczerwin
- Aug 22
- 4 min read
FAITH AND ISSUES
On August 23, we will continue to reflect on The Great Search: Turning to Earth & Soul in the Quest for Healing & Home, by John Philip Newell, Introduction and Chapter 2 (Seeking Earth: Nan Shepherd), pgs 32 – 50.
“Celtic wisdom is built on a strong bond with Earth. In the prophetic figures that Newell draws from, the Garden of Eden represents the inner garden of our souls and the outer garden of Earth, which are seen as essentially one. To live in relation to what is deepest in us is to live in relation to the ground from which we and all things have come. Where are we today, in relation to our true selves and the sacredness of Earth? And how are we to find our way home again?
This life-affirming, nourishing book contemplates these questions at a moment of great spiritual awakening, an era characterized by religious exile on a vast scale. We need a new sense of home spiritually, deeply rooted within ourselves and in our shared journey with each other and Earth.”
To join the discussion on Saturday, August 23, at 9:00 a.m.
Join Zoom Meeting
Meeting ID: 813 7548 3142
Join Us for Worship!
Join us this Sunday in worship as we welcome Martha Gallagher as our Worship Leader. We also welcome Kathy Wiegand as our guest musician.
To join our Zoom meeting:
Meeting ID: 914 901 831
Passcode: 202339
To help families who wish to attend, we do provide childcare. Please contact Henrietta Jordan at 518-576-2079 or via email at hbjordan@trailmarker.org for more information or to have her plan for providing care to your child.
Announcements are to be announced during Announcements -- not during Prayers
At the beginning of our church service, the minister has time to read anyone’s announcements before we begin worship proper. If you have an announcement, just provide it in writing either to the church office so it could be put in the Thursday newsletter, or give it to the minister for that Sunday’s service to be read during announcements.
For many church members, our time of prayer is a very special part of being in our faith community. Reading announcements during prayer can be discounting to those making prayers. Please consider this and provide any announcements to either the church office or to the minister for reading.
Thank you for your understanding.
Fritz Sabbow, Moderator
Coffee Hour
We are in need of volunteers to sign up to provide coffee hour. Please sign up on the bulletin board near the kitchen.
Heartsongs This Weekend...
Music as Spiritual Practice Retreat | August 22-24
“Consider the possibility that a tiny chant, deeply owned and practiced, can bring more blessing into your life than you can possibly imagine. Why not give it a try? Why not begin to practice a heart’s song?” - Gunilla Norris, author
Join songwriter and spiritual journeyer Martha Gallagher for HeartSongs, a retreat centered on exploring, singing and creating mantras, chants and simple songs as spiritual practice. Aug. 22 - 24 at the Keene Valley Congregational Church UCC, the retreat includes Fri. evening 7 - 9 PM, Sat. 9 AM - 12 PM and Sunday 10 - 11 AM. The Sunday morning session is optional. Support for this retreat provided by KVCC and The Adirondack Center for Writing.
Details and registration: https://www.eventleaf.com/e/HeartSongs
Tuesday Morning Book Group
The Tuesday morning book group is continuing an exploration of poems of spirit. We’ll be looking at poems that engage with Christianity through the centuries from a wide variety of perspectives, and we’ll also be reading a range of poems from other spiritual traditions and lenses. This will be a fun and reflective way to think about the intersection between spirituality and poetry and an opportunity for us to ask how we can leverage the poetic tradition, which captures spiritual wisdom, experiences and questions, in our own practices and faith communities.
If you would like to join, please email Kate Robinson (krobinson49@gmail.com) to receive the reading. Weekly meetings are Tuesday at 9am in the Van Santvoord Room.
Do these belong to you?
If so, they are located in the Van Santvoord Room for you to pick up.
Notes: Creation Justice Church
21 August 2025
— “OurStoryBridge Listens: Present in the Moment,” the new partner project of OurStoryBridge Inc. documenting the current circumstances in the United States that are deeply impacting Americans and others around the world, was launched today at ourstorybridgelistens.org.
“This project opens the opportunity to preserve relevant stories using the OurStoryBridge methodology from the widely acclaimed national nonprofit connecting the past to the present by facilitating the collection of first-person accounts of life, past and present, posted online,” OurStoryBridge Inc. founder and president Jery Huntley said.
Through the new non-partisan project “OurStoryBridge Listens: Present in the Moment,” people can document how their lives, and those of others, have recently been affected by decisions at the highest levels of the U.S. government. These stories include the following categories: the economy; freedom and justice; immigration; healthcare; humanities and education; the environment; and community resilience.
These personal narratives are preserved as miniplayers on the website ourstorybridgelistens.org. There is no fee to record or access the collected stories, gathered by volunteers nationally. It is anticipated that the stories will help both present-day researchers and future historians better understand this pivotal moment in American history.
To tell your story for “OurStoryBridge Listens: Present in the Moment,” visit ourstorybridgelistens.org or email listen@ourstorybridge.org. Stories can be anonymous and collected virtually, limited by volunteer resources available.
“OurStoryBridge Listens: Present in the Moment” is patterned after other partner projects supported by OurStoryBridge Inc., which began by recording the stories of people in the small town of Keene in the Adirondack Mountains of New York state and has since become a national 501(c)(3) charitable nonprofit. The short-form oral histories of 3 to 5 minutes are accompanied by photographs and posted online on dedicated websites.
“The current circumstances in the United States are deeply impacting Americans and others around the world,” Huntley said. “As an oral historian, I've felt the need to document this period, and the OurStoryBridge methodology fits perfectly. The online, brief oral histories meet the attention span of today and focus on personal narratives from those impacted. Furthermore, we are providing a listening post to those who need it most.”