The Epistle Grace and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ (Paul s Epistle to the Philippians 1:2) God is Still Speaking First Congregational Church United Church of Christ September 2017 Oh, my! The aftermath of Hurricane Harvey is hard to watch. Those areas are my roots. I have no immediate family in the area hit but there are in-laws and friends family and friends. Yet, no matter who they are, they are our brothers and sisters. It hurts to see such loss. It is for times like this that we donate to the UCC Disaster Relief Fund. I understand that our Missions Board yesterday decided the September and October Noisy Change would go to Harvey Relief. Please be as generous as you can and send lots of loving prayers that way. I made four annual work trips to help clean up after Katrina. It will take years for South Texas to recover from Harvey. On a more upbeat note, there was the eclipse. Another, oh, my! What an experience! I watched it from the top of White Pines Ski area. It was all very peaceful and awesome watching the moon take little nibbles out of the sun plus there was lots of stimulating conversation with friends. And then the total eclipse! Wow! The corona was breath taking. The sun set, it got dark, two stars (or planets) popped out, and it was very still. A young child beside us said, Good night, Moon! Since we were not too far into the totality, the sky was fascinating. The pinks and mauves and purples were gorgeous. A little chipmunk scampered pass just as it was going dark. The temperature dropped about 25 degrees. There was just too much to see, to feel and to hear - fabulous shadows, lots of smiles, and lots of laughter. It was a sensory extravaganza. A scientist on NPR mentioned that the eclipse was a great opportunity to remember we all have a common origin. It is a reminder of our oneness with the universe and all creation; a time to ponder our place among it all. As Bill Nye of CBS News said, we are all citizens of the same planet. A hurricane can also do that. A local friend, who has family near Rockport, Texas, said, We have so much to be grateful for and humbled by. Humbled, indeed! God is in it all the sun and the moon and the stars the wind and the water (the God molecule as Craig Thompson calls it). And it is our relationships that make us able to endure the pain and suffering and the joy and the wonder. Where have you seen God today? Peace, K 1275 Adams Ave Pastor: Reverend Kay Grice Rock Springs, WY 82901 Pastor Email: kgricefirstrock@gmail.com 307362-3530 Church Email: churchfirstrock@gmail.com www.firstrockucc.org Office Hours: Tues-Thurs 12:30-3:30 Worship Time: Sunday 10:30 a.m. Growing Faith following the Thought for All Ages
SEPTEMBER 3- WE BEGIN THE SEASON OF CREATION SEPTEMBER 4 LABOR DAY OFFICE CLOSED SEPTEMBER 10 DIACONATE MEETING @ 9:30 AM GROWING FAITH ALL CHURCH PIZZA PARTY AFTER WORSHIP SEPTEMBER 11 WOMEN S FELLOWSHIP @ 1:00 PM SEPTEMBER 18- COMMUNITY GATHERING @ VETERANS PARK 5-7 PM SEPTEMBER 24- YOUTH CHOIR REHERSAL @9:30 AM SEPTEMBER 27 TRUSTEES MEETING @ 6:00 PM BREAST CANCER SUPPORT GROUP @6:00 PM SEPTEMBER 28 COUNCIL MEETING @ 6:00 PM OCTOBER 1- YOUTH CHOIR REHERSAL @ 9:30 AM WORLD WIDE COMMUNITY SUNDAY NEIGHBORS IN NEED OFFERING Community Gathering for First Responders Monday, September 18, 2017 ALL CHURCH PIZZA PARTY AFTER WORSHIP SEPTEMBER 10TH 5:00 p.m. 7:00 Veterans Park Hosted with Troop 4
It s not just us. We are part of the bigger body of Christ. Mark your calendars! Intermountain Association Fall Meeting October 28, 2017 Kingsbury Church, Vernal, Utah Let s get a car full (or two) and go meet and greet our friends from Pinedale, Green River, Vernal and other Utah UCC churches. Program has not been announced but it is just fun to eat and sing together. Talk to Kay or Jan Zans, who serves on the Association s Church and Ministry Committee. Check out www.ucc.org to see reactions to what s happening around our country from other UCC people and our national officers. There are articles by our President John Dorhauer and a MSNBC interview with our Executive Minister of Justice & Witness, Traci Blackmon. And you can sign up for an email newsletter. You might also check out www.rmcucc.org for what s happening in our Rocky Mountain Conference. Neighbors in Need is an annual UCC offering to support ministries of justice and compassion throughout the United States, including the Council for American Indian Ministries, justice and advocacy efforts, and direct service projects funded by the UCC s Justice and Witness Ministries. You will have the opportunity to make a gift on Sunday, October 1.
Women s Fellowship 1st fall meeting will be Monday, Sept. 11, 1:00 at church. Many thanks go to Kay, Lynne and Mary for hosting our summer get-togethers. It was good food, good company and good fun! What a great way to get to know each other outside of church. Yeah Fellowship!!! Mission Moments Our Summer noisy change added up to $269 for the famine in Syria Somalia, South Sudan, Nigeria, & Yewan. Please continue to bring your change on the 3rd Sunday for local needs. We are also collecting feminine hygiene products and men s razors for a community service project with Holy Communion, Mount of Olives, and Union Churches. Please bring these items and put them in the basket by the office. Don't forget to register and use www.smile.amazon.com when shopping online. Register First Congregational Church, Rock Springs, WY as your charity of choice and we will receive a rebate on every purchase you make.
COUNCIL S CORNER Board Reports: Council met August 24. Diana Wiig, Sharon Pribyl, Liz Strannigan, Melinda Ransom, Connie Jensen, Shelia and Lee Pendleton, Michele Olson, Paul Legerski, and Kay Grice were present. Trustees talked about some upkeep and updating needed in the basement and the upstairs bathrooms. We prioritized these projects and will do work as we have the funds. We also need some creative ways to raise funds for the parking lot (would love some input). We still need roughly $25,000. A big thank you to Rosie Dillman for the Sav n for Pav n fund raiser. Put on your thinking caps and let s have some fun and get this done. We are currently in the black but have quarter payments due in September. Growing Faith is cleaning up the basement and the supply closet getting ready for September 10 and the first day of lessons for the fall. At this point we have teacher through October 9. Thank you to those who have volunteered. There are obviously plenty more opportunities, so prayerfully consider spending a Sunday morning with our youth. Missions has set Monday, September 18, for our second First Responders Community Gathering. Boy Scout Troop 4 will host this with us. We will be collecting our annual Neighbors in Need offering on October 1. Diaconate will host a Pizza Party after worship on September 10. After these reports, we had a conversation about the four values which we named in church last May: love, faith, hope, and acceptance. During worship, everyone, including our youth, had an opportunity to write down the value they would inscribe in each of the four corners of the sanctuary. We then took the top four love had 25 votes and each of the others 13 or 14 votes. As a council, we talked about faith and what that meant to us. Kay offered Marcus Borg s four meanings of faith something which we give our assent to, that which we give our heart to, the way we view the world, trusting not in certain statements but in God as our ground of being. Faith is about seeing, living, trusting, and centering our lives. We then talked about how we as a church do those four things and how we would like to be known in the community. There was also a discussion about our constitutional mission, purpose, and belief statements. Our belief statement is printed in the bulletin each week. We will begin printing our mission statement in the bulletin as well. If you have any comments, suggestions, questions, or want more information, talk to any of the council members or email dwiig54@gmail.com, slpribyl57@gmail.com, or kgricefirstrock@gmail.com
JOY CHRISTAIN 2 JONATHAN FIRME 3 WILLIAM MAES 5 GENE DEXHEIMER 7 JOHN ANDERSON 12 ALEX VALENTINE 14 SANDRA PEARSON 21 LISA FECH 23 RICK REEVES 25 MEGAN GILBERT 27 SHELIA PENDLETON 31 Don t forget your aluminum and tin cans! Our proceeds support the Discretionary Fund. JOHN & BARBARA ANDERSON 6 DOUG & SHANO UHRIG 6 JOHN & GREER FERRERO 23 3rd Kathy Garrison 10th Mary Powell 17th- 24th-Mary Powell Monthly Art Gallery Jan Zans Deacon of the Month Rosie Dillman 3rd- 10th-Diaconate-Pizza 17th-Pendletons 24th- We hold these folks in our prayers: Oscar Erickson, Shelia Pendleton, Ann Clifton, Donna Hay, Nancy Robins, and Hannah Soltis.