"I will put my teaching in their minds and write it on their hearts..."
Jeremiah 31:33
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Calendar of Upcoming Events | |
Below are the weekly programs. You can find brief descriptions of these weekly programs on our website. Clickable links are in blue and italicized. | |
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SUNDAY Choir Practice, 9 am in person, Sanctuary
Contact Tom Ludwig, if interested
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Below are the upcoming non-weekly events on the calendar happening at McFarland UCC for about the next month. All events are on the McFarland UCC calendar with Zoom links and additional information in the details/description area. Click the event on the McFarland UCC calendar to see the details. | |
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Sunday, October 6, 10:00 am, Birthday, Communion, Worship & Neighbors in Need Collection Sunday
Sunday, October 6, 5:30 - 7:00 pm, Teen Youth Monthly Meeting
Wednesday, October 9, 6:30 - 7:30 pm, Healing Prayer Service (In person & Online), Sanctuary
Wednesday, October 9, 6:30 - 8:30 pm, NO Befrienders Training
Thursday, October 10, 6:00 - 8:00 pm, SaLT Monthly Meeting, (In person & Online), Multipurpose Room
Sunday, October 13, 5:30 - 6:45 pm, Monthly Younger Youth Meeting
Wednesday, October 16, 7:30 - 9:00 pm, Befrienders Training, (In person & Online), Multipurpose Room
Tuesday, October 22, 6:30 - 8:00 pm, Creation Care Team Meeting, (In person & Online), Multipurpose Room
Wednesday, October 23, 7:30 - 9:00 pm, Befrienders Training-last class, (In person & Online), Multipurpose Room
Tuesday, November 5, 6:30 - 8:00 pm, Racial Justice Care Team Monthly Meeting, (In person & Online), Multipurpose Room
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News at McFarland UCC
(Note: Clickable links are blue and italicized.)
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Stewardship Update
During the Sept. 29, 10 am worship service, Kathy Schwenn, treasurer, provided a stewardship update of transactions through 8/31/2024. In case you missed it, the slides are on the website until 10/9/2024. There is also a link below. If there are any questions, please contact Kathy.
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Neighbors in Need Collection - This Sunday, October 6 | |
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Postcard Writing Campaign to "Get Out the Vote"
MUCC is partnering with Reclaim Our Vote*, a campaign of the Center for Common Ground, to encourage under-represented voters to vote. We will send 500 postcards by mid-October to people of color in South Carolina and Texas who are registered to vote but have not voted in the past couple of election cycles.
After Sunday services you are invited to write postcards, following a template provided to us by Reclaim Our Vote. We will have postcards, pens, markers, and the script on the tables outside the sanctuary for anyone interested in writing a few postcards.
These handwritten postcards have an impact on the people who receive them. We understand that information is power, and we work to empower voters. Join us!
*Reclaim Our Vote is a grassroots, volunteer-run campaign that focuses on increasing BIPOC voter turnout through post-carding, texting, and phone banking. Through our get-out-the-vote work, we provide early voting locations and times, voter registration deadlines, information for free rides to the polls, and phone numbers for county election officials.
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Racial Justice Invitations
The racial justice team invites everyone to join in 2 events coming up.
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Taking a Faithful Stand for Equity on Tuesday, October 8, 6:30 pm on Zoom
Join this meeting with Rev. Breanna Illéné, Director of Ecumenical Innovation & Justice Initiatives at the Wisconsin Council of Churches. She will guide us through a review of the ideological parallels between White Christian Nationalism and Project 2025. It looks like an engaging evening, especially regarding enabling us to explain why White Christian Nationalism is more than just a theoretical theological concern.
Please register here.
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Sauk County Indigenous Peoples' Day on Monday, October 14, 1-4 pm, Baraboo
There will be artists, vendors, food, and short documentaries throughout the afternoon. At 2 pm Ho-Chunk singers and dancers will perform followed by a dedication and unveiling ceremony for a new interpretive panel at 4 pm on the Square. At 7 pm a showing of the new documentary Bad River will be at AL. Ringling Theater.
Contact Rachel Saladis if you are interested in attending/carpooling.
More information here.
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Join the healing prayer service Wed., Oct. 9
Feeling rattled by this election season? Finding yourself running in too many directions at once? Worried about yourself or someone you love? McFarland UCC offers a monthly service that can help. The second Wednesday of each month (next service 10/9) from 6:30 to 7:30, we host a calming, contemplative service with prayers for healing for ourselves and the world. Let God give you a cool drink of comfort from the well that never runs dry. Questions? Contact Cameron Macdonald.
Click here to join via Zoom
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Guided Shamanic Journey & Potluck Socials
With Jessica Riphenburg
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- Free, and donations are greatly appreciated!
- Hosted from 6-8 pm on four dates: 10/12, 11/8, 11/22, 12/6
Our dear Shamanic practitioner friend Jessica Riphenburg of Be The Light Shamanic Healing, who has been leading our quarterly Solstice and Equinox fire ceremonies since June of 2022, has offered to teach anyone interested how to begin a shamanic journeying practice.
Shamanic journeying is very similar to a guided prayer meditation. We learn how to guide ourselves through these meditative experiences. I (Pastor Bryan) have studied this practice extensively myself and I consider it to be one of the most helpful and powerful spiritual practices I've ever known. I strongly encourage you to give this a try if it interests you at all. If you have any concerns or questions as to how this fits in with our Christian traditions please don't hesitate to ask me. It's all just about connecting with the Holy Spirit of God in a beautiful and meaningful way.
Click here for more information (including what to bring) and to RSVP.
An RSVP is not necessary, however, in the rare chance we'd have to cancel a session, the only way to be notified is to RSVP no later than 1 hour before the event.
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Walk-4-Water: Approaching 5 Wells!
The Walk-4-Water on Saturday, Sept 21, was a great success with 84 individuals walking and the silent auction bringing in $3K. The total amount raised is now over $26K, and with the $21K of matching funds, we have enough funds to drill 4+ wells in Uganda. Wow! Your contributions have improved living conditions for thousands and saved lives, especially those of children.
A deeply deserved thank-you goes to all who help make the Walk-4-Water a success. Whether you walked, made a donation, contributed quilts, contributed to silent auction baskets, bought a basket, or spread the word about the Walk, you were a vital part of the event and the excellent results. Especially important, a hearty thank you goes to the anonymous donors who provided $21K of matching funds.
In past years close to half of donations have come in after the walk. Thus the website for donations will stay open for a couple of months. Five wells, anyone?
Click here to learn more about the villages that will receive wells or make donations.
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Weekly Creation Care Tips
Reduce/Reuse/Recycle
This week’s Tip: A June 2024 report from the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) on the war in Gaza calls for immediate ceasefire to protect lives and for risk of irreversible environmental damage. In summary: the conflict has reversed Gaza's limited environmental gains; war has destroyed water, sanitation, and hygiene systems; a large portion of Gaza's solar infrastructure is eliminated and will leak lead/other heavy metals; explosive weapons have generated 39m tons of debris. Debris poses risks to human health and the environment, from dust and contamination with unexploded ordnance, asbestos, industrial and medical waste, and other hazardous substances. Gaza’s five wastewater treatment plants have shut down, with sewage contaminating beaches, coastal waters, soil, and freshwater with a host of pathogens, nutrients, microplastics, and hazardous chemicals. This poses immediate and long-term threats to the health of Gazans, marine life, and arable lands.
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A Few Words from Pastor Bryan
...and my favorite spiritual teacher
Just this morning someone posted a quote from Fr. Richard Rohr that I’d never seen or heard before, but it reminded me why I’m so drawn to the way he understands the message of Jesus. Here’s the quote:
“Christianity is a lifestyle—a way of being in the world that is simple, non-violent, shared, and loving. However, we made it into an established ‘religion’ (and all that goes with that) and avoided the lifestyle change itself. One could be warlike, greedy, racist, selfish, and vain in most of Christian history, and still believe that Jesus is one’s ‘personal Lord and Savior’…The world has no time for such silliness anymore. The suffering on Earth is too great.”
I love every word of that quote, but my favorite part is, “The world has no time for such silliness anymore.” No wait—my favorite part is the beginning—“Christianity is a lifestyle—a way of being in the world that is simple, non-violent, shared, and loving.” No wait—yeah—I love every word. Read it through a few times and take it to heart folks. He nailed it as Richard Rohr so often does.
Given who I am and what I do as a pastor, I spend lots of time listening to what people think about Christianity and “organized religion” in general. And yes, the Church as an institution sure got away from the essence of the life and teachings of Jesus. That's a trite understatement. It's downright amazing how far the Church strayed historically from the teachings and life of Jesus.
This is one of the reasons why I’ve enjoyed the Solstice and Equinox fire ceremonies we’ve shared with Jessica Riphenburg and her Shamanic community. Quite a few of those who have attended these gatherings are people who grew up going to church and left the religion of their childhood precisely because of the failure of the people and leadership of the church to live lifestyles that were congruent with the teachings of Jesus. Many of them have shared with me that they are delightfully surprised to find there’s a church community that is actually more focused on Love and finding common ground than on Church doctrines about sin and judgment and the necessity to believe the “right” things about Jesus and God. It has been healing and even challenging for some of them to let go of their anger and judgment toward churches and “churchianity” as I often call it. It is healing for them to find that there are churches (we’re not the only one obviously) that are rediscovering the power of the “lifestyle" that Jesus taught--a way of being in the world that is simple, non-violent, shared, and loving.”
In June of 2023, as some of you will remember, I put together a t-shirt for some of us who went to the Madison area Pride Event to wear. It was black (of course) with a rainbow heart on the chest, and the words, “God is Love. It really is that simple” around the heart.
God is Love. It really is that simple.
Any expression of religiosity that is not loving is not only nonsense—it is dangerous.
And THAT IS the message of Jesus. Religion that is more about rules than about love is at best off track and needs to be corrected. That was a huge part of Jesus’s message to his own people. At worst, it is abusive and more part of the problems in the world than God’s healing responses to the problems.
I’m so glad to be a part of a church community that embraces the simple but life-changing and world-changing message that God is Love. Anything else is ultimately beside the point. Or as Richard Rohr put it—the world has no time for such silliness.
Here's to living out the Way of Jesus with love, laughter, non-violence, and as much consistency, authenticity, and humility as possible.
Hope to see you soon,
Pastor Bryan
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