Looking forward to worshiping with you on Sunday, as we celebrate the feast of Communion, remember those who have passed on in the last year, and work together after worship to feed our neighbors.
Blessings,
Manda
From David Gaewski:
Update: Reports are trickling in on damages sustained and unfolding concerns. Thankfully most of our churches on Long Island did not sustain major damage. Two churches that have reported damage are Rockaway Beach (Queens) and Mt. Vernon (Weschester Co.). I must emphasize that there are still a number of churches both on Long Island and NYC that we have not yet heard from. Fires have continued to be burn and sadly there have been several reports of looting. We thank all who have reached out to us in NY with messages of support.
"Many Different Kinds of Power" by Donna Schaper
Last night at Judson about 20 of us gathered, along with one dog, to light candles, sing a few songs and say a few prayers. We also walked the giant canvas labyrinth, which was easy to put out in the dark. It has white stripes. We observed what our hearts know: there are many different kinds of power. Too many people are saying they are “out of power,” or “powerless.” More precisely, we are without electrical power.
Last Sunday I innocently preached about the need for new folkways, new rituals, and new ways of being. I actually said, “For most of us, the major ritual of our lives is to remember to plug in our cell phones.” I pontified, “Wouldn’t it be great if we kept a good Sabbath with such rigor or also prayed intentionally before we ate or before we slept? Not to mention how great a Jubilee, an automatic normalized forgiveness of debts, would mark our political economy?” Well. Since Sandy hit, we have been wandering around with cell cords in hand in lower Manhattan, looking for a plug that had power. No lights, no traffic lights, no hot water, and no working plugs: that is the reality post Sandy. It is dark outside and sometimes also dark inside.
To keep from being a complete fibber, we just had to do a service. We had to remind ourselves that there are different kinds of power than the kind we don’t have. There is people power and candlepower, physical power (you can’t volunteer for the Red Cross if you can’t lift 50 pounds or stay for 12 hours), magical power, the kind that makes you think the A train will be humming again soon. There is the power to hear words anew: infrastructure, nature, air, wind, fire. There is the power to recognize, as the labyrinth shows, that in every end there is a beginning. New York will never be the same. We know that. Worship helps us say what we know out loud. The word Katrina came to mind. We have known for a long time about climate change and aging infrastructure. Now we know that we know, in a different kind of power, the kind that moves people to change.
As we went back to our dark homes and our meager food, we didn’t forget to give thanks for the Sabbath we had just had because nature had demonstrated astonishing infrastructural failure.
Click here to read another reflection by Donna Schaper
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The New York Conference has set up a fund to help with Sandy recovery. The funds will be administered to UCC churches who can then use them in various ways to help themselves and their neighbors. There are 2 ways to donate to this fund:
1. Go to http://uccny.org and click the donate button on the right. Type an amount into the "UCCNY Sandy Relief Fund" box and fill out the rest of the form to make a donation.
2. Write a check to our church and indicate that it is for Sandy Relief. We will send it to the conference office.
If you are on Facebook, click here to go to the NY Conference page. Regular updates are posted here. You can also visit http://uccny.org for updates on the conference website, but Facebook has the most current information.
Texts For This Week:
Hebrew Bible Ruth 1:1-11, 14-18
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