| sunday worship: | 10:30 am |
| sunday school for adults: | 9:15 am |
| sunday school for children: | 10:30 am |
| Sunday Nursery Care Available | |
This past year saw a curriculum that revolved around our church inquiry and exploration of the concept of "Just Peace" or "Peace with Justice". This was in keeping with the church's effort to prepare for a vote of whether to become a Peace with Justice Church.
Our first activity was to study the John Dominic Crossan series, "Victory and Peace or Justice and Peace". This was a series of video presentations and discussions based on Crossan's presentation of the same title to a church in Arizona in the Spring of 2005. The series presented the message of Jesus against the backdrop of the Roman Empire and drew parallels to our world situation today. The four major sections were:
The basic message of the series can be summed in countering the four elements of Roman Imperial Theology - Piety, War, Victory and Peace - with Jesus' alternative of Covenant, Non-violence, Justice and Peace.
The series is available in the church library on DVD.
Over the summer, we presented the series "Living the Questions". This is a 12-week series designed to look at various questions about what it means to be a Christian today. Topics included:
Participants read materials prior to the session. During the session, we viewed a video presentation on the topic by various theologians then discussed all of the material. Based on the success of the program, we hope to present it again in the future.
The fall series was a series of three activities centered around the "Peace with Justice" theme.
For several weeks, we studied the series "In Response to the Call of Christ" published by the United Church of Christ. This series, prepared by the Justice and Witness Ministries, is a Bible Study and Reflection Guide designed to help church members understand why the work of peace and justice is the work of the church. Its purpose is not a call to specific action, but to consider that God is calling to us, and for us to formulate our response to God's call.
Ira Herritt, from the American Friends Service Committee, brought a display of boots to represent service members from Kansas and Missouri killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, and shoes to represent all of the civilians killed in the conflict. Ira also made a short presentation on the topic and hosted a discussion on the social and economic effect of having - and using - a military force.
In December we held several discussions in Sunday School about what it means to be a Peace With Justice Church. During this time, we examined and discussed the UCC statement from the XV General Synod, Peace with Justice statements and declarations from other UCC congregations, and a draft of our own declaration that was unanimously favored by our congregation at our 2007 general meeting.
Read our Peace With Justice Statement.
We begin 2007 by presenting the series, "Saving Jesus", continuing in our goal to provide another medium for the Spirit of God to touch us and manifest itself in us, in our actions and in our love for one another.