Life can sometimes feel like it’s one transition after another. Whether big or small, these transitions can be both exciting and challenging. There’s no one right way to get through them, but often it’s helpful to share our experiences, learn from one another, and find support for the journey. Such was the case on Saturday, April 20th when these folks pictured below came together for prayer and meditation, sharing and discernment, faith formation and food fellowship. Rev. Matt Carriker, the retreat facilitator, taught the group how to use the Quaker practice of Clearness Committees to understand liminal spaces in our lives as well as Lectio Divina, a contemplative practice of reading Scripture for deeper, more personal meanings.  Through conversation and spiritual practices, the retreat participants came away with various tools for navigating transitions in their lives as well as a few new friends for the road ahead.

After a successful helping hands trip to the Jenkins-Man house this past winter, word got out that our WCUC Youth are pretty adept at crawling into small spaces and working together as a team to clean out and relocate attic boxes. They were “hired” again for similar work to be done for a donation towards the cost of our new heating system. On Sunday after church, the youth made their way over to Ann and Tom Bailey’s house for another attic adventure. The pictures will speak for themselves, but please pay special attention to the “ancient” Bible they found with Bailey birth records from the early 1800’s! It was a fun and very productive afternoon.

We had a joyful celebration. Thanks to all who joined in!

Sunday Fellowship started working with our Lenten theme, the Body Remembers, way back on February 11th. After sharing the story of Jesus’ temptation and 40 day fast in the wilderness, we recognized the tendency to think of Lent as a time to deny or punish the Body. What would happen if, instead of denying our bodies, we trusted that we could draw closer to God by focusing more on our bodies and how they impact our spirituality?

Each week, we explore different scriptures and different embodied practices. We explored Paul’s discussion of the Body of Christ in 1 Corinthians 12, the Feeding of the 5,000 and the Story of Holy Week. We did chair yoga, hand reflexology, hand/foot washing and made enough snacks for all out of a small amount of ingredients. Naturally You, a local salon, donated aromatherapy oils for us to use in our practices. Check out our photos!