In Sunday School we are learning about Holy Currencies. It "...is a holistic model for stewardship and congregational vitality, moving beyond “time, talent, and treasure” to create missional and sustainable ministries. This model with its processes, enables church leaders to understand, develop, and utilize five other kinds of currencies besides money that are essential for creating sustainable and missional ministries. These currencies are: Time & Place, Gracious Leadership, Relationship, Truth, and Wellness. These currencies flow and recirculate to form a Cycle of Blessings which empower congregations to strengthen their internal relationships as well as reach out and connect with the diverse populations in their neighborhoods" Susan's Book RecommendationPraying Our Goodbyes, by Joyce Rupp, OSM Here we are - moving into the Easter Season where we celebrate the possibility for new life... I say possibility - because not everyone is experiencing that new & joy-filled life right now. Just this past month, I have journeyed with some of you who are grieving the death of a loved one, or the loss of a significant relationship, or the handing over of your freedoms due to health and aging issues. The story of gain and loss, of joy and sorrow, of life and death, of union and separation, is inside each of us. Who of us has not said "goodbye" to someone and felt a great and deep heartache? This book by Sister Joyce is a book for everyone. If we haven't, we all will experience loss - in a job change, the end of a friendship, a move, or the death of a loved one. Not only does this book offer sound theological and psychological grounding - Sister Joyce's reflections using scripture help identify the "ache" common to humankind, and offer a healing process of letting go. The last half of the book offers 24 prayer experiences which incorporate images, symbols and rituals as sources of strength; offering a pathway toward new life on the other side. Nick's Book RecommendationDISCOVERING A LOST WORLD IN A 1938 FAMILY FILM This recommendation arose out of a discussion concerning holiness during a Sunday faith forum. "Painstakingly assembled from interviews, photographs, documents, and artifacts, Three Minutes in Poland tells the rich, harrowing, and surprisingly intertwined stories of seven survivors and their Polish hometown before it was razed to the ground in the beginning of World War II. Originally a travel souvenir, David Kurtz's home movie became the most important record of a vibrant town on the brink of extinction. From this brief film, Glenn Kurtz creates a poignant yet unsentimental exploration of memory, loss, and improbable survival—a monument to a lost world. What remains is a sobering memorial dedicated to the town's three thousand Jewish inhabitants, where fewer than one hundred would ultimately survive." A holy piece of history indeed. |
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January 2021
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