First UCC Richmond

Beloveds -

Sweet summer greetings to you. Isn’t it lovely to see flowers and birds and bees and dragonflies and fireflies again?

I think about the different stages of our lives – how we see and experience God’s amazing world from wherever we are in our own life-journey. No matter where you are, open your eyes and look around!

Remember how you saw as a child? If you’ve forgotten, spend some time with a child and watch them notice the world! Banish the phrase: “that’s just a …..” Be filled with a child’s wonder. Don’t explain it away. Let yourself wonder at an ant at work. Or the red bird in the tree. Or how we human beings are small threads in this wondrous, living, breathing tapestry.

Here’s a favorite poem by Mary Oliver. She’s an old woman with a child’s heart and an uncanny ability to capture with words the wonder that is all around us.

I hope the small wonders of the world find you this summer and that you fall madly in love with God’s creation and wonder about your place in it.

Blessings,

Pastor Denise

The Summer Day 

Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean-
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down-
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.

Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don't know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?

~ Mary Oliver

General Synod News

During the first week of July the United Church of Christ will meet together in Baltimore in our bi-annual General Synod. Which is when representatives from all of our Conferences throughout the US and Puerto Rico join together to celebrate, listen to the Spirit, and discern the direction for our common life together as God's people in the United Church of Christ. It's a huge meeting - with about 5,000 people set to attend. Imagine worshiping together with 5,000 other UCCers! Imagine making praying and discerning and deciding with 5,000 other UCCers!  It's actually amazing and really lovely.

This week John Dorhauer, the General Minister and President of the UCC announced a new initiated called The 3 Great Loves.  Here's s the article:  I really liked it and I think 1st UCC could eagerly participate.  Read it and see what you think.

For more UCC news and to follow General Synod 2017, check out the UCC website at www.ucc.org.

Pastor Denise

3 Great Loves

The United Church of Christ has a vision of a just world for all. In this world all are welcomed, everyone is loved and justice is inherent. The 3 Great Loves is the denomination’s opportunity to express how our Love of Neighbor, Love of Children, and Love of Creation work together to address the inequities in our current world.  

Over the course of the next two years, through the lens of the 3 Great Loves, the United Church of Christ tells the story of how we are impacting and transforming the world, united in common purpose and mission.

During these upcoming two years, there will be moments of special invitation to participate in this denomination-wide undertaking. One by one we will focus on each of the 3 Great Loves in service to our communities.

Our expression of love, is and will be our living testimony.

What would it look like for an entire denomination to commit to a shared mission? How much impact could an entire denomination have if it worked as one on a mission that mattered?

We're about to find out. We have done this before, and not that long ago. Five years ago, the United Church of Christ launched Mission One - an initiative to help alleviate hunger. Four years ago, we launched Mission 4/1 Earth - a concentrated effort toward restoring health to the planet.

This year, and for the next two years until General Synod 2019, we call the faith communities of the United Church of Christ to engage in the Three Great Loves mission campaign.

In response to our Purpose statement - a call to love our neighbor as ourselves; and to our Vision statement - to build a just world for all: we are asking our congregations to seek ways to live out a commitment in mission to the love of children, the love of neighbor, and the love of creation.

How does your church embody its love for children?

How does your church incarnate the love of Jesus in seeking to love your neighbor?

How does your church uphold the mandate to steward the Earth by demonstrating a love for creation?

Together, we can change the world.

United in God's spirit and inspired by God's grace, we can love all, welcome all, and seek justice for all: for the children, for our neighbors, and for creation.

We can, we will, we must make a difference.

Let our love light the way to a better world, a more just world - for the children, for our neighbor, for creation.

 
John C. Dorhauer
General Minister and President

Pastor Denise’s Office Hours and Pastoral Care

I plan my week to be in Richmond on Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday. It’s possible that the days may move a bit as I respond to various needs that arise, but for the most part, that’s when I’ll be in town. If possible, please plan for committees to meet on one of those days or evenings. Thanks so much!

If there are situations that arise in which you’d like pastoral care, please call to let me know. In the old days, hospitals and rehab/nursing facilities used to inform pastors when one of their flock was admitted. That doesn’t happen anymore.

You can reach me directly by calling my cell phone—630-297-1740 or call the church office and leave a message with Helen or on the answering machine. I’m always happy to receive your calls.

Pastor Denise