UPDATE: The 9th Annual Celtic Festival events at Union Church: Cowan Chapel — 3 pm Irish song session and a violin concert at 4 pm AND in the sanctuary: a fantastic traditional & grassroots concert at 8 pm (admission $20, students/kids $5, under 6 free, special seating $50 https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/3578768 ) — preceded by Pipes and Drums on the lawn at 7:30! and Irish harp music at the Sunday service. Volunteers are needed all weekend! If you can help, call Sune Frederiksen at 248-0690, or email sune.ky@icloud.com.
If you have piano keys to pickup, they’re ready for you in the office! Also, they’ll be in the vestibule on Sunday.
First Choir rehearsal of the new season will be August 30. All welcome.
Wednesday Nite Live will begin its season again with a potluck supper on August 5, 5:45 pm.
New Church Directory Coming and we NEED YOU! We’re trying for a print date of earliest September. If you will send us your photo and info (names, addresses, birthdates, anniversaries, email addresses and phone numbers), you can save us a phone call! Kiddo gone off to school? Gotten hitched? Maybe you’d like to opt out of the Directory? Send to office@union-church.org. Thanks.
Sometimes our church members need help. If you have a skill you are willing to share, please email the information to dodiemurfmsw @yahoo.com. It will be printed on a page in our new church directory for folks to contact you directly. Thanks for consider-ing! Possible categories (include your own skill if it’s not listed):
- Yard work –planting, weeding, watering
- Making a meal
- Babysitting
- Baking
- Driving to appointments
- Running errands
- Grocery shopping
- Doing laundry, ironing
- Mending or hemming
- Writing thank you notes
- Lending books, DVDs or CDs
- Typing
- Computer software/hardware instruction, repairs
- Small plumbing jobs
The Children’s Church Team is looking for teachers for the upcoming year! No teaching experience necessary — just a good sense of humor, a bit of patience, and the willingness to sit on the floor with small humans and explore the values of our faith while making cool stuff. The commitment is from September to May; you will be paired with another teacher, and will likely be with the children every third Sunday. (The scheduling is flexible according to your needs, and we are good about stepping in for each other when life interferes.) We are a close-knit team who work together to plan out lessons and problem-solve along the way. Interested? Have questions? Please contact Laura at joyfulsunflower@gmail.com or 859-358-0106 (text or call).
Next Sunday, God on the Quad. Can you remember moving away from home for the first time? We have the opportunity to offer love, a warm welcome, and COOKIES to Berea College freshmen as they make this huge transition. God on the Quad is scheduled for Sunday, August 19th, from 3:00 – 5:00 on campus. We need volunteers for the following times:
· 2:00 – 3:00: set up (table will be provided)
· 3:00 – 4:00: be with the students
· 4:00 – 5:00: be with the students
· 5:00 – 6:00: clean up (hopefully there won’t be much left to pack!)
We also need nut-free cookies.
If you can be a part of this unique opportunity to minister to our young neighbors, please contact Laura Nagle at joyfulsunflower@gmail.com or text / call 859-358-0106.
Cool Opportunity! The City of Berea is sponsoring a three-day community building workshop called AIR:Shift from Aug. 17-19 at Berea City Hall. AIR:Shift, a program by Berea College, helps participants to transform their ideas about money, business, art, and how to combine them. The winning project will receive funding from the City of Berea. The cost is $25 thanks to a sponsorship from MACED. Register at https://bereaeconomicdevelopment.com/event/airshift, or call 859-302-1018.
Programs upcoming at the bell hooks Institute – all at the Institute, 300 Center St. at 4:00 pm:
· August 20 – On Family Homophobia, Sarah Schulman
· August 27 – Talks with bell hooks about his new novel, Silas House
· September 10 Identity Politics and Feminist Studies, Beverly Guy-Sheftall
· September 27 – White Men Engage Feminist Studies, Billie Korinko & Eric Carter
Bridge Classes. The Bridge Club will hold “Bridge for Beginners” classes every Friday from 1:00-2:-00 pm in the classroom. Join and learn to play! Also good for existing players who need to brush up on their skills (no charge). Then we play at 1:30!
CoCoDA visit August 29. At 5:45 pm, our CoCoDA Salvadoran friends, Ivan Villasboa and Yunior Gomez will visit Union Church. They will bring their wonderful expertise and slides to catch us up on what is going on in El Salvador and Nicaragua, the two regions in which CoCoDA works.
Especially of interest for us is the current situation in the El Roble village and its school project. The water projects in various areas are moving along. Student medical delegations have been learning and working in Suchitoto. And there is always the thought of a delegation from our area going to El Salvador again and renewing our relationship with our friends there. CoCoDA has been working on many projects. Food will be provided! Bring interested friends as well as yourself for a great evening of catching up, good humor and renewal.
Berea Home Village Fundraiser Sept. 13. Berea Home Village presents “September Serenade” featuring The Jigs! Join them on September 13 from 6:30 – 8:30 p.m. at Churchills in Berea. Help them to continue to provide services for Berea Home Village members! Call Katie Heckman for more information or to purchase tickets at 859-985-0099.
Healing Arts Retreat Saturday, September 15, 8:30-5:30. Led by Donna Eder, this year retreatants will enjoy the centering and meditative movement of calligraphy, brush painting (bamboo), and Tai Chi. Chinese brush work is an ancient tradition which strengthens “chi,” while promoting sensi-tivity and an appreciation for simplicity. Advanced registration requested online at union-church.org or by calling the Union Church office, by September 5. Please bring a suggested $25 materials & lunch fee to the retreat (can be waived). Adults only. Limit 12.
Please Sign up to Read Scripture or to Help Greet and Usher! Please use our electronic sign up system, http://signup. com/go/xkdVtB, where you can pick a date that works for you and get reminders! OR you can also call the office and we’ll get you on the lists.
The flour and water and yeast are nothing on a table. No taste, no spring, no staff of life. No mouth hungers for this, no heart breaks at the touch.
But add the salt, Water it well with the tears of experience, and fold the dough of your life over and over: the small hard grains smooth, they blend, they become.
They become because they link, they bond to be broken open,
like bread.
Joy is the loaf. Deep is the need.
Forgiveness: Stretched and pummeled, rested, and fired.
Justice: folded through, turned over and over, pushed through with unbearable effort, making smooth the path.
Joy: the love bound by struggle in the tumult.
Mixed well, we rise through the fire.
Like Bread.
Paul Laurence Dunbar
I have seen full many a sight
Born of day or drawn by night:
Sunlight on a silver stream,
Golden lilies all a-dream,
Lofty mountains, bold and proud,
Veiled beneath the lacelike cloud;
But no lovely sight I know
Equals Dinah kneading dough.
Brown arms buried elbow-deep
Their domestic rhythm keep,
As with steady sweep they go
Through the gently yielding dough.
Maids may vaunt their finer charms–
Naught to me like Dinah’s arms;
Girls may draw, or paint, or sew–
I love Dinah kneading dough.
Eyes of jet and teeth of pearl,
Hair, some say, too tight a-curl;
But the dainty maid I deem
Very near perfection’s dream.
Swift she works, and only flings
Me a glance–the least of things.
And I wonder, does she know
That my heart is in the dough?
Kneading Dough
The smell of bread baking wafts, stills her light
as she enters bouncing, screen door clanging.
Show me, Grandma. I want to know.
For the next batch, she is held firm between
warm embrace and floured dough upon tan
table. She’s stunned by the flowing union
of grandma’s arms and shaking dough.
Punch into the metal bowl, there you go.
The holy is here in the expanding yeast,
in the building of love’s awed vitality.
Rising bread and growing girl, all glory
and praise is poured forth in the communion
of kneading dough.
(This poem was previously published as part of the essay “Franciscan Eucharistic people: living into our call” by Sister Sarah Hennessy in FSPA Presence magazine (July 2017) and in the November 16, 2017 issue of Superior Catholic Herald.)
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