Blog Archives: January 2020 — December 2020

Here are some ways our church celebrated Christmas in the old days, according to notes from the Sunday school board: There was a Committee appointed called the Committee on Candy and Oranges. There was also a Decorating Committee. Each Sunday school class was allowed to decorate with a budget of up to $3.20. There was also a child care person, but back then it was called the cradle roll. By 1922 each Sunday school scholar received, at the Christmas party, a half pound box of candy (which was worth $0.22) and an orange. Prizes of books and ...

When white supremacist "Zoom-bombers" tried to stop us from worshipping, church member and Council co-chair Leslie Hamilton forged a powerful poem-prayer in response. You can’t take us out with your chat your hate speech Your white supremacy Your ill-conceived disruption plan Your unsuccessful plot to rob us of unity and focus and comfort and certainty Your … HACKING BY WHITE SUPREMACY Hate Speech cutting into chat like scissors, scraping to etch pain like acid Acting out anger at solidarity Coming in our midst ...

This reflection begins where all theological reflections these days perhaps should: TikTok. Check out this TikTok video from British comedian Gina Barrett, who appears as an animated talking sun rambling about being late to work, going home early, and maybe coming back tomorrow. It’s too real, right? I don’t know about you, but I’ve noticed that with staying home more this winter season due to coronavirus, I’ve been even more attuned than usual to just how early the sun goes down in December. My phone and computer’s “night” setting is ...

A poetic grounding in prayer. Marge Piercy's 2000 volume, The Art of Blessing the Day, is full of prayers in poetic form. In "Shema/V'ahavta," she reimagines a traditional Jewish prayer in a way that feels beautiful, powerful, and absolutely necessary for these days. Shema Hear, Israel, you are of God and God is one. Praise the name that speaks us through all time. V'ahavta So you shall love what is holy with all your courage, with all your passion  with all your strength. Let the words that ...

I remember the first day I drove past Chestnut Hill United Church. The rainbow flag caught my eye, because I grew up in a UCC church and knew that if a church had a rainbow flag outside, it must be associated with the United Church of Christ. At the time I was a single person living in Philadelphia. I was no longer attending my hometown church, which was an hour away. I so badly wanted to be a part of a church family and to have a place to further my relationship with God. After becoming a member and going on to help with the youth, I ...

  We can't talk enough with kids about racial justice. For that reason we are providing some resources to encourage more family discussions. You will find watch & play together activities, discussion guides, and a kid friendly version of the Black Lives Matter Guiding Principles. If you use these resources and want to share feedback, you are invited to join our Parenting in a Pandemic zoom gathering on Mondays at 8:15 pm. Enjoy! Black Lives Matter Early Childhood & Elementary Resources The Power of We: A Sesame ...

Hello CHUC Folks!   You may have noticed a couple of unfamiliar faces joining you in Sunday Zoom Worship. My husband and I have been joining you from Michigan pretty regularly so I thought I would introduce myself. I am Becky Jamros and I live in SW Michigan just a few miles from Lake Michigan with my husband, John, and our three dogs, Pal, Samson, and Billy. We moved to the tiny town of Fennville about three years ago from Lansing, our state capital in the center of the "Mitten." Our area is a lush, fruit-growing region filled with ...

During these tumultuous times do you find yourself confused about how to answer the seemingly simple question, “How are you doing?”   I try to avoid the answer “fine.” I have said okayish. I’ve even answered with a slogan borrowed from an Instagram post by responding “I am happy, hurting, and healing all at the same time.”  Let me elaborate on specific reasons that make me feel each of these various ways. I’ll share two things that made me happy recently. First, I passed my final ordination exam and after a discernment process that began in ...

As many of you probably know, Richard, Emma and I recently returned home from a year in England, in what was, essentially, a protracted exercise in significantly changing how we live. We traded our 2,400 square foot American home, with its modern conveniences and sizable backyard, for an 1,100 square foot semi-detached house with a postage-stamp garden. I spent the year doing laundry in a tiny washing machine located in the kitchen. I hung our wet clothes on a line in the garden or – if it was rainy – on the wooden laths of an overhead ...

At the start of August, I spent a week in Ocean City, NJ. In this pandemic, uprising summer, it was a much-needed respite - a chance to poke my head, turtle-like, out of the shell of my house. A chance to take a week off from reading the news. A chance to breathe. A chance to be with people I love. In a pandemic summer, that doesn’t come without risk. Cathy and I shared the first floor of a house with a few friends - in a town that’s a people-magnet when the weather is hot. We felt confident about sharing the space with our friends, but ...

Well. 130 miles later and we marched down the Mount Vernon Trail and into the Capital this morning. Fourteen of us walked from Charlottesville, Virginia to Washington, DC over nine days. About twenty folks folded in and out over the course of the week, with over a hundred walking in with us this morning. One of the organizers of this group, Doug Pagitt, who founded Vote Common Good, walked the distance with us and spoke at the Lincoln Memorial as part of the March on Washington today. Our group was enthusiastically welcomed by Rev. Al ...

Why did I think I could walk over 100 miles when one year ago, I couldn’t walk up the stairs without being winded? The reasons: 1) I’ve had companions on the way to help me, encourage me, push me, and help care for me; and 2) our POWER leaders said they wanted someone on this pilgrimage. (It helped that one of the gifts of my sabbatical time was focusing on my health. But I still haven’t walked over a mile in years...) I didn’t think I was the right person, and I’m probably not. But as someone inclined to the driver’s seat, and ...

As some of you may know (if you’ve listened to enough Our Time with Children moments over the years), “Sawubona,” is the way that Zulu-speakers in South Africa greet one another. Sawubona. In English, it means, “We see you.” Not “Hello.” Not even, “I see you.” But “We see you.” We - me, my people here in my family and extended family, my community, and my ancestors - we see you, your people, your community, and your ancestors.” We passed the 100-mile mark today. We are walking this hot stretch of road between Charlottesville, Virginia ...

Church community, Today was our seventh day together and our sixth day on the road. We’ve gone 90 miles so far. About 40 to go. It was hot as blazes out there, and as we walked along one lane of the Robert E. Lee Interstate, you could feel the heat radiating off the asphalt. It was a privilege to walk today with 7-year-old Maya, 8-year-old-Aria, and their dad, Shane. They live in a small Virginia town and heard about our walk on the radio. They showed up this morning, fired up and ready to roll. The girls were amazing - happily leading ...

Chestnut Hill United Church community, This was our “hump” day - the middle day in our trek. It began with the news that Jacob Blake, a Black man in Kenosha, Wisconsin, was shot seven times in the back by police in front of his children after attempting to de-escalate a conflict. He is fighting for his life. Kenosha has erupted. A Black man, trying to help others out, is presumed violent and dangerous by police who shoot before doing anything else. It’s the story of our criminal justice system. It is why we, as people of faith and ...

Chestnut Hill United Church community, One more reason to love Zoom Church - I could join in today from Route 29 in Elkwood, Virginia. I got there just in time for prayers (sorry I missed your sermon, Kipp!). Despite the heat and humidity (the humidity was 95% when we started off this morning), one thing that keeps me going is a collaborative playlist that some of us are creating together. If you listen to music on Spotify and have a song that helps you "walk the walk" and sustains you when your spirits (or feet) fail, ...

"The old is dying and the new is struggling to be born. Now is the time for monsters.” Antonio Gramsci, an Italian philosopher imprisoned by the fascist regime, wrote about what happens when the old order refuses to give up power and unearned privilege. The way those who fear they are losing everything unleash all possible havoc while they still have a chance. Reconstruction and Jim Crow. The end of apartheid in South Africa. And now. Now is the time for monsters. We saw our share of monsters on our 17-mile trek today.* And we learned - ...

Chestnut Hill United Church Community, Fifteen miles today. No historic sites. Just one foot in front of the other. Talking with fellow pilgrims, most of whom locate themselves in different pockets of the Christian tradition than I do. Marveling at the ways their faith has led them to this moment - putting their bodies on the line as white Christians for Black Lives.* Serious humidity. Two dozen of us walking down one lane of a hilly four-lane highway. Honks and cheers of encouragement, including someone who anonymously bought the whole ...

Church community, As a midwestern, middle-class, educated white person, I grew up believing that we really write our own stories. But I know now, more than ever, that we are always inside bigger stories - whether we name them or know them or not. Setting off on the first mile and the first day of this 140-mile journey* in Charlottesville, Virginia this morning, we went deep into four bigger stories. Stories meant to frame the purpose of this pilgrimage. Story #1. Four hundred and one years ago today - on August 20, 1619 - twenty ...

  Chestnut Hill United Church community, A brief reflection on the first day of my journey from Charlottesville, Virginia to Washington, DC. Walk the Walk: Day One - Charlottesville, VA. The symbolic starting point of this experience was supposed to be the gathering at the burial grounds of those enslaved at Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson. There, we—a group of white faith leaders from around the country—would mark the beginning of our 140 mile walk.* Along this journey we will reckon with the ways our Christian faith ...