A Note from Rev. Seth Stearns

Beloved Community,

Happy Spring to you! Perhaps like you, I am looking forward to the weather turning and staying warmer.

I have been reflecting on the program year that began September of 2024 will be wrapping up in May 2025. I want to thank all of you who participated in the programs and events that we organized. As you may have noticed, we tried a lot of new things. We learned a lot along the way and had over 2200 people attend the programs that were offered. The year’s programs and events included:

• Women Living the Questions
• Tai Chi
• Thursdays@10
• Group Spiritual Direction
• Leaning In Series (In partnership with the Interfaith Association of Central Ohio and the Spirituality Network)
• The Contemplative Series
• Centering Prayer
• Bible 101
• Bible 201
• Sunday Intersections Adult Sunday School
• NakedPastor – David Hayward
• Jim Wallis

Jen and I would love to hear from you about the program year. What programs and events did you find enjoyable and meaningful? What ideas about programs, events or speakers do you have for next year’s schedule? Click here to offer your thoughts and ideas.

We are all continuing to try to keep up with and make sense out of the rapid news cycles. I wanted to share a podcast with you and suggest Tangle News as a wonderful way to think through key headlines in an objective and balanced way. You can sign up for free or you can pay for a subscription. I have found it to be a great way of stepping outside of my normal echo chambers and perspective, and helps me think more deeply about issues and events.

• Podcast – Question Everything – Can Journalism Save a Marriage?

• Tangle News

Gratitude and blessings to you all!

Rev. Seth Stearns

Minister of Spiritual Life & Learning

Not meeting April 13 and 20.

Join us on April 27

At Thursdays at 10 we are reading The Tears of Things: Prophetic Wisdom for an Age of Outrage by Richard Rohr.

Brooks Heck, who joins our Zoom gathering each week from Florida, provided us a review of this book:

Dr. Harry Emerson Fosdick (1878-1969) was Pastor of several churches in New York City with Riverside Church being one of them, (1926-1946), for which his preaching and social action ministry is well known. Among the quotations for which he is well known is this one regarding his view of the role of the Christian church and its ministry. "The role of the Christian Church is to comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comfortable."

In his book The Tears of Things: Prophetic Wisdom for an Age of Outrage, Richard Rohr applies the power of Fosdick's quotation. Rohr's book is full of age old biblical wisdom which he powerfully brings to the forefront with new understandings for our current culture.  He rattles the dusty words of the ancient prophets and instills them with a precision that speaks to the age we live in now. Any reader who wishes to review and renew their spiritual development will be thrilled with the quality of Rohr's writings as he breathes new life into the familiar Old Testament prophets as well as the spiritual developmental formulas he suggests for his readers. This is a book that is ripe for discussion group conversation. It should rapidly rise to the top the Must Read List.  

To purchase this book, please consider First Community's Church Merch. Click here to buy a copy.



If you would like to recommend a book for next month's newsletter, please click here.

• Spiritual Check-Up Document

On Sunday, April 27, the Washington Gladden Social Justice Park will honor our planet Earth with an afternoon of activities from 12:30 to 2:30 p.m. in the park, 404 E. Broad Street.

The event is free and open to all and will include speakers, children’s activities and information about celebrating nature and combating climate change.

More details can be found HERE. 

Enneagram Institute of Ohio

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