If you don’t have other plans, please consider joining us at the church for a Thanksgiving dinner. You are welcome to come alone, with family or friends (whether connected with the church or not) – any combination is welcome.

If you know anyone who might be alone for Thanksgiving dinner, please consider suggesting this to them. If you have been to these festivities before, you will know that we typically have about 30 people, with a range of ages – children through elders – and have a happy time together, along with good food. If you haven’t been before, please consider giving it a try.

Please sign up here to attend, though you will be welcome even if you don’t do this! The event is free. We always serve turkey along with its sides and plenty of pies. Gluten free, vegetarian and other special requests will be happily accommodated, as long as we know in advance. Those who wish to, bring a food contribution (sign up here to contribute food) and you are welcome whether or not you do this.

If you have questions, please contact Penny Sparrow at pjsparrow2@gmail.com.

Join us this Sunday, October 25th, for our Last Sunday of the month Bible Study in the Tucker Room before worship. We’ll consider together the most famous sermon of all time – Jesus’ Sermon on The Mount and the particular passage that we’ll be considering later in the worship service – “where your treasure is there your heart will also be” from Matthew 6:19-21. Come with your own Bible or we’ll have Bibles available. Come with a ton of Bible knowledge or none whatsoever. Come with questions, doubts, wonderings and ponderings and together we’ll dig into the sacred text and see how it speaks to our lives.

Roots and Branches groups are organizing for a new year.  That means that you can join a group that meets in a home, at church or on zoom.  Newcomers are welcome!!

Registration opens today and continues until October 7.

Join a Small Group Here

What stays the same… time to connect informally with others at church and talk about the meaning of our shared doubts and faith.

What is new this year. We take a practical topic of faith and pair the poems of Mary Oliver, the wisdom of Brother Lawrence and a scriptural text.

What to expect… a new slant on familiar (or not so) Biblical texts… a fun connection with others at church… a chance to examine your own faith at whatever level you choose.

We hope you can join us! Groups meet eight to ten times from October through April. Try a Roots and Branches group this year!!

Tuesday mornings we meet at 9 am at 2 Mayflower Rd. for a walk on paved streets with hardly any cars.

Thursday mornings we start at 11 am. Meeting place is 82 Salisbury St. and we walk “the flats”.

Both walks are about 30-40 mins. We’d love to see you there!

Roots and Branches is focused this year on faith in ordinary moments. We are bringing the simple thoughts of a seventeenth century monk named Brother Lawrence and a contemporary poet, Mary Oliver, to help us capture faith in every day places in our lives. “Day by Day” (our title for this series) will help you take the ordinary parts of your life and find in them extraordinary power and grace. We have five groups this fall and a place for you. Give one of these “home groups” a try! Sign ups are coming in next week’s newsletter.

Contact Christine at cgtresselt@gmail.com with any questions.

Halfway through our week here, we have already experienced extraordinary grace, beauty, suffering, and compassion.

The reservation — The Rez — is a hard place, by design. Centuries of genocide, oppression, and deprivation have made sure it is so, and continue to this day. This is one of the poorest places in the United States, where many people live without running water, heat, electric power, or adequate — let alone healthy — food. The people here are suffering economically, physically, mentally, and spiritually. There is every form of injustice. And yet we are hearing from our Lakota relatives that there is a renaissance unfolding. People are re-learning their heritage: their language, traditions, songs and ceremonies and prayers. As we offer our labor to build and deliver beds, safety ramps, and outhouses — outhouses! — they generously reciprocate with their life stories, both trauma and hope. It feels important to contribute, as Nancy put it, concrete interventions to problems that go way beyond the concrete. And it feels equally important to gratefully embrace our Lakota relatives as beloved family, to join with them in heartfelt prayer for peace, justice, and an end to White Supremacy.

As hard as it is, The Rez is also a profoundly beautiful and sacred place, as Branda captured in her poem, and as you can see in some of the numerous photographs we have taken. In our nightly closing session, we have reflected on how each day’s experiences have kindled our spirits with gratitude and wonder. There is so much more to share with you, much of which will take us time and discernment to fully process.

Thank you for sending us here with your love and support. Please continue to pray that God will work through all of us — those of us here in Pine Ridge this week and all of you at home — to re-member creation, to heal and make whole that which humans have broken.

In love —

Julianne, on behalf of Andrew, Branda, Henry, Jodie, Maggie, Michaela, Nancy, Petra, Sonia, and Rev. Will

Badlands by Branda Wilhoite

Painted desert,

desiccated to fading,

Crumbly underfoot,

Framed by wide, blue skies.

A ribbon of green, swaying grasses

Swathed at its feet

A dry creek bed- the memory of a river-

A trickle, a shrinking puddle,

In the hot afternoon sun.

Rock spindles stand like tall sentries

Guarding “The Bowl”

Unlikely life- sage, paintbrush, and thistle,

Breathe hope into this desolate,

Beautiful place.

Re-Member

To make whole that which is broken.

Please join us for a Church Bike Ride this Saturday, June 20, at 1:00 PM. We’ll meet at Michelle & Rich Crawford’s house in East Arlington at 1:00 and bike to Lexington Center via the Minuteman Bike Path. Once in Lexington Center, we’ll take a break, re-group, and then bike back to the starting point, so that’s about 11 miles round-trip.

All ages and abilities are welcome. We’ll have that stop in Lexington Center where we’ll re-group, so you may go at whatever pace feels comfortable to you!

The Crawfords live at 85 Lake Street, Unit 2, in Arlington, but their driveway entrance is on Lakehill Avenue and there’s plenty of free parking on that street so, if you’re driving over, please park there – just off Lake Street.

There’s a couple of Blue Bike stations nearby if you’d like to rent a bike for the ride. Please arrive early if you plan to rent a Blue Bike.

Last but not least, we’ll be serving a coconut chocolate chip cake made by Karen Lauterwasser at the end of the ride!

Contact person is Michelle Crawford

Text/Call: (781) 367-7725

Email

Please feel free to call, text, or email with any questions.