Creation Care

Bag It Intro from Suzan Beraza on Vimeo.

Plastic Free! (or at least we can try!)
I just found this site called myplasitcfreelife.com and there are some really good tips to living without plastic bags and packaging, bottles, etc...you get the idea.  It's our job to care for God's world. Let's teach our kids to do the same. One step at a time.

Reverend Pershey In Round Table Discussion

Listen to internet radio with CR Radio on Blog Talk Radio

Simple Living Podcasts and More!

Friday Morning book group read Organized Simplicity this year and many of us enjoyed Tsh Oxenreider's tips to simple living and loving life. I love a good podcast. Put your feet up and get inspired by Tsh and her podcast mates. Peace.

Someone to Read

"Rats and roaches live by competition under the laws of supply and demand; it is the privilege of human beings to live under the laws of justice and mercy."- Wendell Berry

 

WENDELL BERRY was born in Henry County, Kentucky, in 1934. He earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Kentucky in 1956 and continued on to complete a master’s degree in 1957. In 1958, he received a Wallace Stegner Fellowship from Stanford University.

Berry has taught at Stanford University, Georgetown College, New York University, the University of Cincinnati, and Bucknell University. He taught at his alma mater, the University of Kentucky from 1964-77, and again from 1987-93.

The author of more than 40 works of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, Wendell Berry has been the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship (1962), the Vachel Lindsay Prize from Poetry (1962), a Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship (1965), a National Institute of Arts and Letters award for writing (1971), the Emily Clark Balch Prize from The Virginia Quarterly Review (1974), the American Academy of Arts and Letters Jean Stein Award (1987), a Lannan Foundation Award for Non-Fiction (1989), Membership in the Fellowship of Southern Writers (1991), the Ingersoll Foundation's T. S. Eliot Award (1994), the John Hay Award (1997), the Lyndhurst Prize (1997), and the Aitken-Taylor Award for Poetry from The Sewanee Review (1998). His books include the novel Hannah Coulter (2004), the essay collections Citizenship Papers (2005) and The Way of Ignorance (2006), and Given: Poems (2005), all available from Counterpoint. Berry's latest works include The Mad Farmer Poems (2008) and Whitefoot (2009), which features illustrations by Davis Te Selle.

He lives and works with his wife, Tanya Berry, on their farm in Port Royal, Kentucky.

taken from his website wendellberrybooks.com

Community of Inquiry

Check out the British site Ekklesia.
You can sign up for their daily news. They describe themselves as:
Welcome to Ekklesia, the beliefs and values thinktank. We provide briefing, research, comment and analysis. We examine religion, politics, theology, culture and society.

What it means to be a community of inquiry: As a UCC community we honor the tradition of personal, social and theological reflection. We have a theology of curiosity and daring. Go forth and explore! peace.

Words for Your Children

"Three things in human life are important.
The first is to be kind. The second is to be kind.
And the third is to be kind."   Henry James as quoted in Henry James: A Life

Restoration Project

There is too much to say about Tracy Wispelwey. Singer, songwriter, theologian, peacemaker, visionary, sage....Wow. It is good this world has someone who writes about love and God in the way she does. Her new album Hold On to Love was just released this past April. You can check out more about her and her music at RestorationVillage.com. Be inspired!   Peace.

Words for You

"Our task is to help people concentrate on the real but often hidden event of God's active presence in their lives. Hence, the question is...not how to keep people busy, but how to keep them from being so busy that they can no longer hear the voice of God who speaks in silence."-  Morton  Kelsey, from The Other Side of Silence: A Guide to Christian Meditation

Attentive Love

Excerpt taken from the Center for Action and Contemplation:

Sara Ruddick in her book Maternal Thinking: Toward a Politics of Peace speaks of the attentive love of a mother. In summary, Ruddick says mothers are characterized by attentive love. They have to keep watching this new life; they have to keep listening and adjusting to the needs of the child. It is necessary to recognize a new agenda with the growth of the child. If the mother cannot transform herself into attentive love, she quite simply cannot be a mother. She has to learn early on that life is about change, not about theological absolutes. All growth is about changing and adjusting to what is needed at this moment by this child. The mother cannot run to abstract truths. She has to deal with this child, these tears, and this present moment with this child.

Part of Something Beautiful

This is a great video about this church's commitment to diversity. Maybe we should think about making one for First Congo. What do you think? Enjoy.
Peace.

Words for Your Children

"If you hate injustice, tyranny, lust and greed, hate these things in yourself."

- Mahatma Gandhi

Just something to consider in the wake of the world's news these days. Peace.

When You Have a Moment for You

check out this great blog the handmade home Reverend Pershey passed along. There are lots of fun links and some good advice from a very busy mom.

Ida Pearle Mother - Child Prints

great for gifts or for your little one's room. find her work here.

Vacation Bible School

Many of you requested this link to the Western Springs Baptist Church Bible Study in June.  All of the information is online and you can register online too. 

http://www.westernspringsbaptistchurch.org/#/ministries

Princess of Consumption?

Passage taken from Religious Dispatches article The Princess Bride: Royal Weddings for Everyone by Katy Shrout:

Unromantic as it may sound, this celebration of the transformative power of consumption seems to be part of the magic of the wedding day for many women. On this day I am more beautiful, elegant, and radiant than any other. On this day everything is perfect and lavish and matching. A real-life royal wedding, televised and celebrated by millions, represents and encapsulates this magic for those who eagerly watch and read about it.

It might be tempting for some—especially for anyone nostalgic for some mythic age of piety—to argue that the wedding-as-princess-pageant represents a secularization of the marriage rite. But the truth is that the celebration of consumption, the acting-out of the princess ritual, is its own expression of what has become sacred.

What do you think? Are weddings these days merely signs of a cult of consumption?

Updates!

Bring a mat and $10 and join us for Yoga from a Christian Perspective at 9:00 this coming Saturday, May 7, in Plymouth Hall. Bring a mat and $10.

Help!  Summer Sunday School Classes are offered every Sunday for three age groups - 4s & Fall Kindergarten, Fall 1st and 2nd Graders, and Fall 3rd-5th Graders. Pairs of teachers are needed for each class. Curriculum is provided for these 35-40 minute classes during the 9:30 service. Sign up with Jan F. or on the rolling boards in the light court.

The Annual PF (Plymouth Fellowship, our high school youth group) Golf Outing will take place on Saturday, May 14, at Flagg Creek Golf Course. There will be a 4:30 p.m. shotgun start for golfers of all ages and abilities. A 7:00 p.m. party will follow at the Western Springs Village Club. Send in your RSVPs now. The cost of each event is $50/person. Questions? Contact Mike Tilden.

All women of the church are invited to the 7:00 p.m. May 10 meeting of Dining for Women at the home of Rochelle Heinz (4537 Clausen, WS). This month's NGO is Mujeres Aliada, Mexico 2011 which offers health care and educational services to women and adolescent girls in the Lake Pátzcuaro area of Mexico. Our donations will help reduce maternal and infant mortality by supporting professional midwives and equipment in the clinic. Rochelle would like six volunteers to help her start cooking the meal at 5:30.

Bagel Bite Picker Uppers are Needed! Sign up in the light court or give Linda a call at 708/246-1900, ext.216. It's easy just pick up the bagels Saturday at The Great American Bagel and get them to the church by the 9:00 service on Sunday.
Peace.