"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 NO practice Sept. 15
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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, September 15, 10:00 am Outdoor Worship Service & Celebration of Life for Rev. Cathy Carlson with luncheon to follow
Sunday, September 15, 5:30 - 6:45 pm, Monthly Younger Youth Monthly Meeting
Wednesday, September 18, 6:30 - 8:30 pm, Befrienders Training, (In person & Online), Multipurpose Room
Sunday, September 22, 5:30 - 7:00 pm, Teen Youth Meeting
Wednesday, September 25, 6:30 - 8:30 pm, Befrienders Training, (In person & Online), Multipurpose Room
Thursday, September 26, 6:30 - 8:00 pm, Creation Care Ministry Team Meeting, (In person & Online), Multipurpose Room
Friday, September 27, 7:00 - 9:00 pm, Fall Equinox & Fire Ceremony with Jessica Riphenburg, Outdoor Firepit
Tuesday, October 1, 6:30 - 8:00 pm, Racial Justice Care Team Monthly Meeting, (In person & Online), Multipurpose Room
Wednesday, October 2, 6:30 - 8:30 pm, Befrienders Training, (In person & Online), Multipurpose Room
Thursday, October 3, 6:30 - 8:30 pm, Justice & Peace in Palestine (In person & Online), Sanctuary
Sunday, October 6, 10:00 am, Birthday & Communion 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, (In person & Online), Multipurpose Room
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
Wednesday, October 23, 7:30 - 9:00 pm, Befrienders Training-last class, (In person & Online), Multipurpose Room
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News at McFarland UCC
(Note: Clickable links are blue and italicized.)
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LAST Outdoor Worship Service & Celebration of Cathy Carlson's Life Sunday, Sept. 15
10:00 a.m. in person and on Zoom as usual.
https://zoom.us/j/97010988439
Password: betogether
Bring your own lawn chair if you have a favorite, but we'll have folding chairs available also. We'll start setting up at about 8:55 a.m., so if you're able to come and help us bring tables and equipment outside please do!
During worship, we will also celebrate the life of Rev. Cathy Carlson, a member of our church and beloved spouse of Pastor Mike Bausch, who passes away on August 8. Mike and his musical group, "The Hoot 'n Annie String Band" will lead our worship service as they have previously. The service itself will feature music and themes that Cathy loved personally and that were at the heart of Cathy's work in all the churches she served throughout her many years of ministry. Everyone is invited to the luncheon afterwards.
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Sound Bath - Chakra Balance and Affirmations
Sunday, September 15, 3-5 pm in Fellowship Area
Judy Taber and Araceli Wehr have a connection with Karen Jedele and helped coordinate this opportunity.
What is a Sound Bath?
A sound bath is a meditative experience where participants lie down or sit comfortably while sounds and vibrations from various instruments are played. These instruments can include singing bowls, gongs, chimes, drums, and other harmonic tools. The term "bath" implies that the participants are immersed in the sounds, allowing the vibrations to wash over them, promoting relaxation, stress reduction, and sometimes even spiritual or emotional healing. The intention is to create a therapeutic environment where individuals can let go of tension, quiet the mind, and enter a state of deep relaxation or meditation.
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Bill Stoneman, the current McFarland Community Garden Coordinator, expressed the following in the email with this invitation, "We appreciate our opportunity to garden on your church’s grounds and we look forward to seeing you on the 15th." | |
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Send Your Pictures!
The deadline has been extended to September 15. We need you help! Our goal is to update our bulletin board in the fellowship area and our website with fresh photos of our vibrant community! Find recent photos or take photos and submit them to Ginger, our administrative assistant, via email or her office mailbox. If photos are provided, it will be assumed that you grant us permission to have and use the photo. If the photo contains an image of a minor, a parent/guardian will be asked to sign a Minor Photo Release Form.
Let's showcase our "A Church With Heart" spirit!
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Save the Date...
THURSDAY, SEPT. 26 | 7 PM | ZOOM
On Thursday, September 26 at 7 pm, the Interfaith Peace Working Group of Wisconsin will offer a live, hour-long Zoom session on the crisis in Gaza.
The session will begin with a presentation by Dr. Peter Makari, one of the most well-informed Church leaders in the United States on developments in the Middle East and Gaza.
As Global Relations Minister for the Middle East and Europe for the United Church of Christ and the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), Peter works closely with the Middle East Council of Churches and with faith communities internationally. Having recently returned from Jerusalem, Peter’s presentation will provide an opportunity for us to hear, first-hand, about the latest developments in Gaza. A question-and-answer session and discussion with Dr. Makari will follow the presentation.
This event is designed to assist spiritual leaders and members of churches and other communities of faith and conscience to understand, from a faith perspective, what is taking place in Gaza. It also offers an opportunity for people and communities of faith to consider what they can do to realize the widely shared hopes of people for peace, an end to violence, and reconciliation in Gaza and Israel/Palestine.
We present this hour-long event in the spirit of faith, hope, and love and welcome all who are hoping and praying for peace to participate in it.
This event is free and no registration is required. The link will be provided closer to the event.
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Mt Morris AME Church Invitations
Racial Justice Ministries members and others have attended events at S.S. Morris Community AME Church in the past as part of our attempt to build relationships with a primarily African American congregation in the area. Their pastor sent these invitations for folks in our congregation to participate if possible, and this is being promoted by our racial justice ministries group. Pastor Bryan will be offering a prayer at the October 6th service in honor of S.S. Morris's anniversary celebration. We look forward to getting to know the congregation of S.S. Morris and to sharing several events and opportunities for discussion and collaboration in the year to come.
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CROP Hunger Walk
Sunday, October 20, 2024
Over the years, McFarland UCC has supported John and Jean Sheild and their commitment to the CROP Hunger Walk. Just as last year they are doing a "virtual" walk to raise money. If you choose to support John and Jean Sheild and the CROP Hunger Walk, you may make a donation online with the link below or mail a check made out to CROP to First Congregational Church, Attn: Jeff Rabe/John & Jean Shield, 1609 University Ave., Madison, WI 53726 by Wed., October 16. Jeff Rabe is the chair of the Madison Area CROP Walk and has agreed to take care of the "paperwork" for John & Jean. Questions? Jeff Rabe 608-232-2142 or jrabe@firstcongmadison.org
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Weekly Creation Care Tips
Reduce/Reuse/Recycle
This week’s Tip: Monarch butterflies are a beautiful and important insect species. Their numbers have dropped over 80% since the 1990s due to climate change, pesticide use, parasites, and habitat loss. They are on the waitlist for the Endangered Species Act but if we work together, we can help them thrive again which means we also thrive as they pollinate our food. We have all heard that Monarchs need milkweed to lay their eggs on, but the adult butterfly also needs other nectar-bearing plants for their food source especially in the Fall as they bulk up to head to Mexico. Consider planting milkweed, but also native plants such as butterfly milkweed, showy goldenrod, purple coneflower, black-eyed Susan, & New England aster. Wisconsin Monarch Collaborative is a group of industries, agencies, organizations, & individuals teaming up to increase monarch populations. Click here to get involved with the Wisconsin Monarch Collaborative!
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A Few Words from Pastor Bryan
Like many of you I'm sure, I watched the presidential debate this past week between former president Trump and Kamala Harris. And completely apart from what I thought about the substance of the debate itself (the content of the positions taken and points made and who "won or lost"), the debate helped me realize something...
I don't think debates are what we need anymore.
Regardless of who wins or loses.
Or what network and moderators host the debate.
Especially in an already dangerously polarized society, and especially when it comes to matters of great significance with stakes that are incredibly high.
Oh I think Tuesday's debate made certain things rather clear for those willing to see them, although people tend to see and hear what they/we want to see and hear. There was and is some value in the candidates contenting in that way, and I understand why the debate format has been chosen historically. I also actually appreciate and enjoy the "rhetorical art" of debating. It's a jousting match of sorts. I admire the skill set. Kind of like intellectual boxing. I'm all in favor of debate teams in academic contexts. I love listening to someone present a thesis or position and share its logical foundations and the processes by which a certain hypothesis is presented as good and true and even preferable or the best possible alternative.
But at this point I'd be in favor of ending electoral debates between candidates altogether and replacing them with something even more important. And what might that be?
A conversation. An actual conversation. Humans having to talk to and with each other about difficult topics of great importance, and bring the conversation to a meaningful conclusion.
You see I'm really not interested in who can "win" or gain the edge in an argument, or who can get the best of someone else in a confrontation. I'd much rather watch and listen to two candidates actually talk to each other. I'd like to hear them stay in a difficult conversation and discuss difficult topics. I'd like to observe how they would talk to and with each other--their tone, their ability to listen, their ability to make their own point and then also acknowledge when someone with whom they disagree may actually have made a good point that needs to be taken into consideration and honored as they move forward toward solutions to problems. I'd like to observe their capacity to give and take and reach compromises--sure--even "make deals"-- that they could both live with. All these things would tell us more about what kind of leader someone might be, and whether or not they should be entrusted to represent us as a people in a world of dangerously differing ideals, agendas, tactics, violence, and issues of life and death for humans and all life forms.
Another way to make my point here is to say that we need to shift the paradigm of our political (and for many of us our personal) discussions. We need a different way of engaging with each other when we differ.. A shift in energy. A different purpose in the discussion itself. A move from winning an argument to engaging in an exchange of ideas and perspectives. Or even more radically, as St. Francis put it, we'd serve the world more effectively if we sought first "to understand rather than to be understood." As John Lennon sang, "imagine."
In addition to moving from a debate to a conversation about the key issues that confront us as a society, I think we also need to move from focusing on who is somehow "right or wrong" to focusing on what is best for the common good. Yes. I think the public conversation could be about what's truly best--including what's most economically prosperous--for the greatest number of people, and especially those most disadvantaged and vulnerable. I'll admit it. I get that from the Bible. And if a candidate does not care about what's best for everyone, and only wants policies that favor theirself (how's that for a new pronoun?) or a certain segment of society, that should simply and clearly be stated in the conversation, and the reasons discussed. Or perhaps confessed. I would so much appreciate that kind of transparency and honesty.
As a follower of Jesus and a seeker of Divine Truth and Wisdom, my own journey has taught me something that has become foundational for me. Instead of arguing about who or what is "right or wrong," I think we are all served better when we are focused on exploring the following question;
What's the most loving way to approach a given situation or issue?
We would undoubtedly often not all agree on the answers to this question. But what if we agreed that this IS the question we most need to ask?
This is the question Jesus constantly asked and answered with his life, and this is what got him in trouble with those who wanted religious rules, holiness codes, and mandates of the empire to obey and enforce rather than a "law of love and grace." Christian author and activist Shane Claiborne posed it this way; "what does love require of us.?" What if we actually entered our public discourse agreeing that this question be our north star?
I know how naive that sounds. But what's more naive is to think that we as a species can go on the way we have been without destroying ourselves and the planet.
And as always, the deepest and most challenging question is whether or not I myself and we as a church are willing to practice this different way of engaging in our own lives and ministries together. Am I/we more interested in being right or in being loving? What would those who know me (or us) best say about that? Do I bark out (preach?!) my opinions and positions more than I engage in openminded and open-hearted conversations--especially when it comes to the things that I care about the most and that get my blood boiling the hottest?
Moving from debates about who and what is right or better to conversations about what course of action would be most loving and just for the greatest number of people.
Fewer debates and more actual conversations. THAT could actually change the world.
So if and when we disagree, let's challenge ourselves...to a loving conversation about it.
Hope to see you soon,
Pastor Bryan
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