Rock the Week for October 6
Your Wednesday Dose of Shadow Rock News
SHADOW ROCK SEEK AND FIND
This week's Seek and Find photo honors Profound Journey Dialog. You're invited to this weekend of creative theological inquiry, October 15 and 16. See all the details below. Last week's photo of the back fence of our Festival Garden was first correctly identified by Michael Curry.

Be the first to correctly identify where this photo was taken and be recognized in the following week's Rock the Week. Submit your guess by clicking the button on the left.
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Advent Prayer Opportunities
St. Teresa of Avila Ecumenical Catholic Community invites you to participate at no cost in their Advent retreat, "At a Crossroads." December 4 from 9:00 am to 2:00 pm, participants will explore Joseph Campbell's Hero's Journey through the lens of Advent. For questions or to register, please email Rev Kate Lehman.

Also in December, Monday evening small group ministry will take a quiet and loving look at the Christmas stories from scripture and from our own lives. Stay tuned for a Zoom link. For questions or to register please email Karen.
Access Sunday, October 10
This Sunday in worship, we will celebrate Access Sunday, an opportunity to recognize and celebrate the abilities of God’s amazingly beautiful and beloved children! As usual, it's going to be a terrific Sunday. Michael Curry will be preaching; his sermon title is "One Step at a Time." Also - Hey Zoomers - a quick heads up. We anticipate that for this week only, we will not be able to talk back and forth through Zoom and the sanctuary sound system. We'll manage this tech glitch compassionately together.
Refugee Resettlement Ministry - An Update
The situation with our family is very fluid. We are still waiting for approval from US Customs and Immigration (USCIS) offices which are part of the Department of Homeland Security. Everyone is confident the family will be approved given their vulnerable circumstances, service to the US, and the advocacy of our embassy on their behalf. However, we do not know when that will be. Other Afghan diplomat families are receiving notifications from USCIS requesting permission to release information to legislators which means the process is moving forward. We are seeking to be proactive and have already sent the signed forms to USCIS. When this approval moves forward, the family will have 30 days to arrive in the US.
 
Recently Pastor Ken has been speaking and emailing the family and embassy officials several times per week. We expect that we'll hear right away when they are given the green light and know when they intend to depart for Arizona.
 
The other unknown is how long the family will stay under our sponsorship and how long they must stay with us as they hope to move close to another family member already settled in California. We are seeking guidance from an immigration attorney.
 
Everybody has responded with great compassion and generosity. Perhaps the fluidity of the circumstances is causing you some frustration. As we wait with both patience and urgency, there are things you can do. We are gathering household items (refer to this updated list from Sharon Haynes). We are seeking financial support to meet our sponsorship commitment. Our commitment is for $26,400, of which we have raised $17,000. If you feel called to give, we are grateful. If you write a check, please use 'refugee resettlement' on your check memo line. If you have already corresponded with Welcome Team lead Sharon Haynes or with the church staff, we are grateful and will be in touch.
 
Thank you everyone for helping implement this great Wedgeblade opportunity. We remain in a prayerful posture as we wait together for movement.
Profound Journey Dialog: Experience, Explore, Evolve
It has been a while since we offered our conversation about the theological foundation of Shadow Rock. We call this Profound Journey Dialog or PJD for short. Some of Shadow Rock's theological language comes from PJD, and we want to invite you to experience and explore it together. Our schedule will include sharing ideas about life, God, Christ, Spirit and Church and inviting participants to evolve their own understanding of these big ideas. The PJD outline incorporates large and small group discussions and individual discernment.

Fall 2021 Profound Journey Dialog is Friday, October 15 from 7 pm to 9 pm and Saturday, October 16 from 9 am to 1 pm (brunch included). For COVID mitigation and safety, we will be requiring mask use, congregating outside as much as possible, and limiting attendance to 10 participants. For questions or to register, please email Ken or Karen.

While we're limiting the size of this PJD cohort, PJD Weekend is for EVERYONE! Expect a special post-PJD spiritual formation and worship service on October 17, starting at 9:00 am.
Rock the Week is published each Wednesday. 
To submit content or offer comments, please email karen@shadowrockucc.org