May 13th

What a gift to have a beautiful and highly functional church building, the serene prayer garden and the resources of the Pray’n’Play Park! Wherever you find yourself in the building or on the grounds, take a deep breath, be open to the Spirit of God and give thanks. 


The book Hallelujah Anyway by Anne Lamott was recommended to me recently so I’ve been reading it in my morning devotion time (which admittedly is hit-or-miss these days). I thought I’d share with you a brief quotation: 
When we manage a flash of mercy for someone we don’t like, especially a truly awful person, including ourselves, we experience a great spiritual moment, a new point of view that can make us gasp. It gives us the chance to rediscover something both old and original, the sweet child in us who, all evidence to the contrary, was not killed off, but just put in the drawer. I realize now how desperately, how grievously, I have needed the necessary mercy to experience self-respect. It is what a lot of us were so frantic for all along, and we never knew it. We’ve tried almost suicidally for our whole lives to shake it from the boughs of the material world’s trees. But it comes from within, from love, from the flow of the universe; from inside the cluttered drawer. 
                    –Anne Lamott, Hallelujah Anyway: Rediscovering
                      Mercy 
(Riverhead Books, 2017), p. 18. 

Mercy. Such a beautiful word, almost an old-fashioned word. We are suspicious of offering mercy although we are grateful to receive it. I invite you to think about how mercy is a part of your life this week. 

Grace and peace, 
PM 


New name tags have been created and are ready for you on Sunday mornings! Be sure to pick yours up each Sunday so that others can get to know you. This will be especially important to help the Ice family learn your names, but we have members who have been with us for awhile now who still say, “it’s hard to learn everyone’s name!”

If perhaps no name tag for you has been made (we hope not!), please let us know! We do not want to leave anyone out! Also, when you get your name tag, please let us know if there are any corrections to be made — maybe you prefer a nickname over your given name or something its misspelled. We want them to be correct and there will be a clipboard in the narthex where you can indicate any problems. 

Thanks very much to Susan Barnes and the Nurture-Member Care Committee as well as Joshua Lane for accomplishing this project of getting everyone a new name tag! 


Get to know the Ice family! Check out the bulletin board display in the church hallway with fun facts and great photos!


Pastor Mary and Michael are moving! Above is a picture of their retirement home in Columbus, IN. The moving truck will be at the parsonage at 8:30 am on May 16. Once the move is accomplished, PM will continue to serve as our pastor until the end of June as planned, and the Trustees will begin their work to get the parsonage ready for the Ice family. Thanks for your patience as this move is accomplished. PM will be back in the office more regularly after next week!