Dear Skyland Friends,

Easter proclaims that through the power of God, love is stronger than fear, hate, violence, and even death. How that plays out in this world is a mystery. 

We can look at the world and see what seems like evil triumphing everywhere or most places or some places or a few places. Or we can see the presence of God pouring out love that heals and renews and even resurrects everywhere, or most places or some places or ...well, it is our choice. 

We do have choices about how we see the world. We can choose to look for and live out the love of God wherever we go. We can do this. 

Most people follow whatever mood strikes them at the moment, but we can also actively choose to live out the way of love whatever happens. This, in itself, has tremendous power. It requires that we pay attention to our way of experiencing the world and take active steps when we feel drawn into the fear and all the rest.

At the root of success is prayer, reconnecting again and again to the God who is love and is always there: there to forgive us for messing up again, there to inspire us to forgive 70 times 7 times, there to make this little moment in the world a little better. 

Easter day, like Christmas, "comes but once a year", but the spirit of love transforming the world is for every day, every place, and every heart. May that spirit live in all of us and live brightly in the world so that all may see and join in.

 

Easter Blessings to all,

Stephen

PS: 

Please join us for our Easter worship service at 10:30. This is a Family Sunday and all are welcome. There will be an Easter Egg Hunt for the children after the service. During the service we will take our annual One Great Hour of Sharing offering. After the service all are invited to an Easter Tea sponsored by the Women's Group. Please bring finger food to share. Devilled eggs, tea sandwiches, desserts and other sweet and savory surprises will be greatly appreciated. 

April 1 Easter

10:30 a.m. Family Worship Service

Easter Egg Hunt and Easter Tea -- After Worship

April 7, Saturday -- Memorial Service for Harold M. Hoyt Sr.

11 a.m. Service with Luncheon afterward

April 8

10:30 a.m. Family Worship Service

April 15

10:30 a.m. Family Worship Service

3 p.m. Ordination of Beverly Brook at Peace UCC, Santa Cruz

April 22 Celebration of Earth Day

10:30 a.m. Family Worship Service

3:00 p.m. Spring Meeting of the Santa Clara Association of NCNC at La Selva United Church of Christ

April 28, Saturday

10 a.m. - 2 p.m. Women's Group Retreat at Skyland Church, $25

April 29

10:30 a.m. Family Worship Service

When the church council met on Sunday, March 25, at noon, the recent update of the church website was discussed. If you haven’t seen it, please have a look at  http://skylandchurch.com . Many thanks to Anne Evans, Cliff Barney, and Stephen for all their work to create such a beautiful site, and also to Nancy Jo for the lovely photographs. The new website has a calendar that can be updated to include all church events. If you have an item to add, please send the date, time, and event to Stephen or Anne.

 

The council also discussed how to coordinate the monthly pot lucks, and decided to add them to the coffee hour list and ask for volunteers. Since it is more work to clean up after a potluck, any individual who volunteers for a potluck will not be expected to volunteer for two coffee hours. (Anyone is welcome, of course, to volunteer as many times as they feel moved!) Deana will update the sign-up sheet in Whitaker Hall and the volunteers will also be recorded in the online calendar. 

In addition, the council agreed that a good date for Harvest Festival is September 15.

Jan Swayne noted that many of the flower seeds planted in the fall, most by her and Ann Baier, are now coming up. She and Ann are planning to do some weed trimming around the flowers so others will see where they are growing and avoid accidentally harming them.

The Board of Religious Education has planned a lovely Easter egg hunt for Easter Sunday. The Deacon’s are discussing a church retreat to be scheduled sometime in July. The Women’s group has preparations for Harold Hoyt’s memorial on April 7 well in hand. More information on Harold’s memorial below.

Thanks!

Deana

Link to ReVision process

Japanese maple's

feathery, maroon leaves stir

in soft April breeze.

Davenport Resources Center

Warm clothing, canned goods, and toiletries were delivered to the Davenport Resources Center on March 26.

Feeding our school

We bring snacks to our local schools: granola bars, fruit cups, drinks, etc. No peanuts please.

Contact: Jeremy Cole

Africa Library Project

We will be adopting a primary community library in Sierra Leone. Please start collecting books for preschool- 8th grade . For more info see:  http://www.africanlibraryproject.org

Donation boxes have been added to the local schools. 

Contact: Cindy Siwajek

Local Support

Mental Health Community Action Network (MHCAN) in Santa Cruz helps those transitioning into homes. We are still collecting forks and razors . In April we will be looking for a changing table for a newborn , socks, jackets and sleeping bags .

Contact: Shannon Edwards

We are sorry to have to report that Harold M. Hoyt Sr., a long-time member of our church died in March.

Harold handed out bulletins most Sundays and often took the offering. He served on the Deacons and Trustees and was most recently on the Missions Board.

A great volunteer and up for anything that needed doing, Harold was good with a chainsaw and other tools or just helping us set up and take down for Harvest Festival or whatever needed doing at the moment. We will miss his friendly greetings and helping hands.

Harold was active in Mountain Neighbors Helping Neighbors. With his spouse, Shirley, he gave many rides and did home fix-it jobs for neighbors who needed help, both as a caring friend and through MNHN.

We will gather to celebrate his life at the church on April 7th at 11 am. Please join us and feel free to bring something tasty to share at the reception. If you have a good pecan pie recipe, that was one of his favorites.

Hope to see you there.

Cliff Barney, Anne Evans and Stephen Glauz-Todrank have been working for the past few weeks on redoing the website with technical help from Bet Hannon of the Church Website Program.

 

The website is a work in process. Slowly over the next month, we will be editing the site and adding content. Nancy Jo's photos are already a lovely addition and there is a full church calendar. Please let Stephen or I know if you have dates or events to add.

We anticipate re-designing the whole website, which will take 6 months.

My personal vision is a website that reflects and communicates Skyland Community church's mission and concerns. An open website where newcomers and the congregation alike can come for information, insight and spiritual connection. Bet Hannon, who is a UCC minister, guides us in this endeavor and thank goodness, she and her staff are technically brilliant at WordPress.

We are recruiting from the congregation- especially those with a technical or graphics background to join us in this website creation. We cannot do this alone.

We owe such a debt of gratitude to our friend, John Gaffney for creating and maintaining the previous website by himself. I know that John is looking down on us now from Heaven and chuckling, "I tried that and I know it's not going to work... why don't you try doing this." Thank you, John, for your inspiration!

Anne Evans