Silent Prayer: Fridays, 8:30am to 9:00am via Zoom. Contact Sandra.
Sunday School: Sundays, from 10am via Zoom. Contact Hilary.
Town Hall Meeting: Thursday, Nov. 19, 6-7pm via Zoom. Passcode: 4J9pt2. All are invited!
Sunday Service:
Live: 11am via Zoom. Sunday's e-mail has instructions; or join via regular landline by dialing 1-253-215-8782, entering meeting ID 570 401 2497 and passcode 918316.
Love Is the Way - A Conversation between Bishop Michael Curry and Michel Martin
The presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church talks to Michel Martin, of NPR, at The National Museum of African American History and Culture, about living a life guided by love in an open-ended period of change, like a pandemic. Bishop Curry recently published Love Is the Way: Holding on to Hope in Troubling Times. Monday, November 16th at 4 p.m., Pacific Time | Free Register earlyBack to Contents
God said to Moses, “Take off your shoes, you’re standing on Holy Ground.”
Moses looked around. There was a bush burning that would not be consumed. There were rocks—so many rocks. There was dirt and a few hardy mountain plants. But Holy Ground? Really? This was only a common, ordinary mountain—except for the bush, of course.
My friend and I talked in and around many subjects, and at some point landed on labyrinths, and “how we do it.” She said that when she goes to the labyrinth at the church, it feels so sacred, so holy, so different than the rest of the world. But then she told me a remarkable story. During her lunch hour sometimes, she makes her way around a particular route she has adopted, calling it her labyrinth. Downtown, past the police department, across from some government offices, among the homeless and business people. She walks and prays and feels that she is on holy ground, sacred ground.
Common ground is ground we all walk on, stand on, live on. Common ground is also a term meaning a place of meeting, where we find out we agree, can come together. It is our turn, it is our time. We must find our common ground. We must find where we can agree, even with those who seem far from us in belief
and way of life. We must find that common ground.
And then. (Never start a sentence with “and then”). And then we must take off our shoes and look around. Because common ground is sacred ground. The place where we meet the rest of humanity is sacred. We must recognize these places, we must celebrate them and worship there, because that is where God is—in the burning bush, the hard scrabble rocks, the everyday life of being. God is in our Common Ground, our Sacred Ground.
We cannot afford not to find our brothers and sisters in common ground. We have stood across the divides of everything long enough, yelling at each other, feeling hard in our hearts, standing in our own puddles of correctness. But God is on Common Ground, God is in the divides, the breaches, the empty spaces between. We must make our way across and into those places. We have to listen, to talk to, to embrace (metaphorically) those with whom we disagree.
We must be the bearer of the Gospel, the reconciler, the light. That is what it is to be a Christian. They will know we are Christians by our love, and by how we stand waiting, reaching out, inviting others to our Common, Sacred Ground.
Coming soon, the 2020 Advent study, and you are invited! Our book will be Love Came Down, a collection compiled by Christopher L. Webber, which “draws on the best sermons, books, poems, and hymns by classic Anglican writers, with a reading for every day in Advent and for each of the Twelve Days of Christmas.”
We will meet (via Zoom) at 6:30 on Wednesday evenings, beginning on November 28. If you would like to join us, please contact Deacon Lauri at (918) 766-2473 or by e-mail.
Support farm worker women by purchasing a beautiful holiday wreath made by Mujeres Luchadores Progresistas! This Woodburn-based women’s cooperative provides needed income for farm worker families during a cold time of year. The project creates opportunities for women to gain financial management and leadership skills.
Wreaths cost $35 each
All orders must be prepaid and placed by November 22
Make out checks to MLP and mail to Dale Bixler, 2968 Riverview St, Eugene OR 97403
Pick up your wreath on Wednesday, December 9, at the church
Love Is the Way - A Conversation between Bishop Michael Curry and Michel Martin
Our book will be 
