Connections: March 7, 2022
Season of Lent
Dear Beloved Community at CCSM,

Lenten blessings to each of you! Thank you so much to everyone who joined us for worship yesterday. It was such a privilege and an honor to preach and to have the opportunity to start our Lenten worship series focused on rituals and spiritual practices in everyday life. If you missed it, please go back and watch the service and do consider sharing it—or the videos of individual portions of the service—with friends and family. Also, leaving a comment helps to raise the profile of the post on social media, and also lets our community know what resonated most with you so we can build deeper connections with one another.

I think Lent is such a perfect time to focus on this theme of spiritual practices and rituals. Lent, sort of like New Year's, gives us an opportunity to be intentional about setting new practices and trying out new things. But unlike New Year's resolutions, they aren't intended to be forever, necessarily. We can try something on for 40 days and then decide whether it fits or not.

For Lent this year, I'm trying to create more mental space, more space for silence and reflection. As some of you know, I love podcasts and I find that there are so many that I enjoy listening to that it is easy to fill up all of the silence of my day with them. But, this means that I am multi-tasking most of the time, and, rarely am I alone with my own thoughts. So I am committing, rather than listening to podcasts while washing dishes or gardening this Lent, to being present to the task. To notice the changing seasons and the beauty of the day, to pray for peace and justice in the world. Is there anything you might take on this season?

We are so delighted to welcome back Rev. Penny this Sunday as we continue in this worship series on rituals. I know she has missed the CCSM community and is very much looking forward to reconnecting with us all. Also, please consider attending our spiritual practice workshop online this coming Sunday at 1pm (see below for more information).

Finally, this Sunday is the "spring ahead" time change so don't forget the "ritual" of changing your clocks on Saturday night!

In peace and love,
Sheryl 
Please be alert: Phishing emails
Once again, someone is trying to impersonate Penny by using her name on a different email address. If you receive an email that looks like it's from Penny, please make sure that it's actually from Penny's email address.
Click on the video above for the most recent entire worship service, or click HERE to listen to Sheryl Johnson's sermon, To Be Human is to Celebrate
Spiritual Rituals for Everyday Life
Sunday, March 13 from 1-2pm 
Online only—click here for the Zoom link:  tinyurl.com/CCSM-Rituals-2022
Spiritual rituals are all around us marking many of the transitions we experience as a Church community. We pray for each other, celebrate communion, and experience baptisms. Creating spiritual rituals that come from our own life experiences gives us the ability to experience the sacred in our everyday lives.

Join us in an after-worship event that will cover many of the essentials about spiritual rituals that will be explored during Lent. The workshop will allow you to:
  • Gain an understanding of what defines an everyday spiritual ritual with some examples
  • Explore areas in our lives where we could develop our own spiritual rituals
  • Learn a process to create spiritual rituals for yourself

This workshop will be facilitated by Laura Pierce-Mackenzie, Kelly Colwell, and Sheryl Johnson. 
Climate Connection #4
by Gary H. White

In our previous Climate Connection installment, I spoke of the increasing urgency for all sectors of society to take proactive steps to adapt to climate change and not just try to lessen the severity of this human-caused condition. The timing of focusing on this perspective it turns out, could not have been more prescient. Earlier this week, the UN-based Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change or IPCC, released its much anticipated follow-up study to Assessment Report #6 that was originally published last August. This follow-up study done by Working Group 2 (WG2) assesses the impacts of climate change, addresses the increasing vulnerabilities we will experience and highlights the adaptations we’ll need to make for future generations to be able to sustain.
 
So let’s now take a high-level look at the newest report as pictured on the left. Researched and authored by 270 scientists from 67 countries around the world, the WG2 report (report.ipcc.ch) doubles down and expands upon the basic message delivered in the previous report. It restates that allowing the world to warm by more than 1.5 degrees Centigrade will lead to severe and in some cases, irreversible climate impacts. It goes on to say that our fate, should we surpass this heat threshold, will rely on near-term efforts of adaptation. However, these adaptation efforts will not eliminate all challenges posed by climate change, but they can “substantially reduce future losses & damages”.

So what will these adaptations need to look like? For land and ocean ecosystems, adaptations will include the hardening of coastal defenses, use of sustainable aquaculture, water resource management, and improved cropland generation. For urban systems, adaptations will include the building of a green infrastructure and the planning of sustainable urban land & water ecosystems. For energy systems, adaptations will include the building of resilient power systems and a guarantee of reliable energy. For human health, adaptations will include healthcare system reinforcement, green job development, human migration management, and the improvement of social safety nets. As the IPCC argues, it is only through the taking of these critical adaptation efforts by governments, businesses, and individuals that the future of humankind can survive the continued ravaging of our planet.

EEJ is looking for volunteers to join a task force
As we value and live our Christian values with Social Justice, your Energy Environmental Justice Ministry (EEJ) encourages us to also recognize the importance of Environmental Justice in our lives and for the health of our planet, Earth. One critical aspect of environmental health especially in California, is the impact of changing climate and drought. EEJ is looking for volunteers to join a task force to research water use and landscaping at CCSM and potentially make recommendations to Building and Grounds and the Board of Directors on how CCSM can save water and take positive action on drought. This aligns with our becoming a Climate Church.
Please contact Warren Long, longlake15@sbcglobal.net, or Rev. Dr. Sheryl Johnson sjohnson@ccsm-ucc.org, for information on the goals of the task force. 
We also encourage you register for an upcoming Zoom webinar on What People of Faith Can Do to Heal the Earth, co-hosted by the Rev. Dr. Brooks Berndt, Minister of Environmental Justice for the UCC. Date is March 23, 10:00am. To register, go to tinyurl.com/CCSM-Heal-the-Earth-Zoom. Topics to be discussed include native plants, landscapes and creating a transformative movement full of actions ordinary people everywhere can take to care for God’s creation.

Hope you can join us on the task force and on the webinar! Thank you!

Celebration of Life: Elise Leung
Please join us for Elise Leung's Memorial Service at CCSM  

March 26, 2022 at 1:00PM

Refreshments to follow after the service.
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Here's a new video to share which gives a wonderful introduction to CCSM and a feeling for the community, both local and virtual.
Please enjoy and pass it along to anyone you think might be interested in finding out more about our church!
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