Friends, Over the past 18 months, your Session has been hard at work trying to navigate the life of a congregation in a pandemic. At the center of our work has been care for the health of our congregation and our community, and to continue to faithfully serve Christ and witness to the love…
We got a call on March 9th to see if we would be willing to provide space for a Community Garden to provide fresh food to local food pantries. Fresh food is expensive, and often too expensive for those who are food insecure or the agencies that provide aid to the food insecure. Session was excited about the idea, and since that…
We gather again this year for Lent, and to gather as the community of God gathered in mission, service, and worship together in Marion. This year, our worship will be online, and shared with our community in a prerecorded format. Videos will be posted to premiere at 6 pm on Tuesday evenings in Lent, as woudl be our time if we were…
Friends, The Session wanted to relay to you some of our discussions about worship as we head into the fall and Advent and Christmas. We have been worshiping via Zoom for 7 months now, and we have begun to have a small group of people back in the worship space. In the short term, we will continue holding a hybrid worship service.…
For the foreseeable future, our worship will be based online. We are using Zoom as our worship platform. You can download Zoom from https://zoom.us/download or from your mobile platform app store. For the connection information please contact the church office. If you’d like to follow along in worship later, then we have two options: You can find our online worship recordings on…
Genesis 21:1-3; 22:1-14 God gives Abraham and Sarah a son in their old age. Abraham is told to sacrifice his son, but God provides the ram. I don’t think this is anyone’s favorite passage. It brings up far more questions than answers, and the ‘happy’ ending probably showed up on the 3500BC Jerry Springer show. Abraham and Sarah have received a blessing,…
Genesis 1:1—2:4a Creation by word; light, life; it was good. They say that the beginning is a very fine place to start, and that is where we find ourselves at the start of this narrative lectionary year. We probably know this passage. We may know that this passage and its content have been and are at the center of debates that have…
A vaccinated member of the congregation that was in attendance on Sunday, Sept 5, has tested positive for COVID. With the health and safety of our congregation being our concern, Session has decided that we will hold virtual worship only for at least the next 2 weeks. If you were present in worship at the church on September 5th, please monitor your health. Those that…
Hebrews 11:1-12:12, Often we use language without understanding where it comes from. Sometimes, we’ve lost the original meaning of the phrase. Catherine has heard about a great cloud of witnesses, and wanted to know where it came from. As she puts it, “the rest is context.” So what is the context of the great cloud of witnesses? A first reading would indicate…
A look at how the Blessing Box served our neighbors during the months of July and August 2021.It’s there for people to take what they need, and for people to stock with their generosity. Feel free to drop things off, or to get what you need.
Luke 8:3, Luke 24:10 Joanna There are so many names mentioned in passing in Scripture. Part of our growing in faith is learning many of the names beyond the top line, and after learning the names, learning the stories behind the names. Joanna is one of those. She’s healed by Jesus, she is married to power, and in passing it is mentioned…
Matthew 17:24-27 This passage is nestled in between the second prediction of Jesus’s death and resurrection and the passage where the disciples ask who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. As such, it probably isn’t a passage that we’re exceptionally familiar with, which is part of why Wils picked it. (The fishing may also play a role.) There is a…
Mark 11:12-14, 20-25 This passage occurs around in intertwined with the triumphal entry into Jerusalem, the Palm Sunday passage, in Mark. Matthew also has a version of this story. Jesus enters, looks for figs out of season, doesn’t get any, curses the fig tree, goes in to the temple, chases out the money changes, and comes back the next day to a…
Your session is reaching out to give you a heads-up about a decision we have made to help ensure, as much as possible, the health and safety of all. You may be aware that the new Delta variant of the COVID virus is highly transmissible and that COVID cases in our county are currently rising…