United Church of Strafford, Vermont
All are welcome, without exception.
Maundy Thursday Last Supper Seder Dinner Theater 2019
2019 Maundy Thursday Last Supper Seder Dinner Theater, April 18, 6:30-8:30 PM
If you feel moved by the candlelit beauty of Christmas Eve, you may find this event just as moving if not more so. We will begin with an informal Passover seder with a variety of traditional and nontraditional foods, including ones to fill a hungry vegetarian (see the menu and call for help below).
At the end of the meal we will turn out the lights and reenact the last supper by candle light. We will then hear a theatrical, poetical retelling of the story of Jesus’ last eighteen hours of life performed by Meg Albee, Maeve Miller and Tom Kinder. Candles will be extinguished one by one as the disciples desert Jesus, ending in total darkness when he is led to be crucified.
All ages are welcome—children third grade and older may find this meaningful as well as beautiful. Donations will be accepted but the event is free and open to the public (you are encouraged to invite friends).
Please make reservations by emailing unitedchurchofstrafford@gmail.com or speaking with Tom (765-2710, feel free to leave a message).
MENU
This is not a potluck, but we are looking for people to provide food, as well as assist with set up and clean up. If you can provide one of the dishes below, please email the church unitedchurchofstrafford@gmail.com to let us know what you will be bringing. Please have your dish in the kitchen by 6:15 PM on the 18th.
We are looking to people to provide the following, ideally with no grains and no leavening (e.g. no baking soda, baking powder, yeast) and nothing leavened. (Kim has recipes if people would like to attempt a traditional Passover dish, but that is not required!)
- One Seder plate (lamb bone, bitter herbs (maror, hazoret), parsley (karpas), haroset, hard boiled egg)
- Matzo ball soup (chicken and veggies)
- Grape Juice
- Lamb dish
- Chicken dish
- Roast potatoes or other potato dish
- Vegan dish
- Deviled eggs or other egg dish
- Green salad
- Haroset (apple, date, nuts, etc.)
- Fresh horseradish
- Beet dish
- Matzo and butter
- Flourless cake or other dessert
Thank you for your help!
Sunday, April 28th: George Kinder in Worship and Conversation
Tom’s brother George will be with us in worship and afterward for a structured circle conversation on Sunday, April 28, 2019. George has been teaching meditation and mindfulness from a Buddhist perspective for over thirty years, although he began his contemplative journey by studying the Christian mystics. During worship Tom and George will share their different (or not so different) perspectives on the lectionary gospel text for the Sunday after Easter which is rich with metaphor and allegory relating to the contemplative spiritual life.
Here is a description of the circle conversation:
A Golden Civilization Conversation with George Kinder
Bring your wildest ideas and most personal values to a conversation about the future. You’re invited to a conversation and visioning exercise facilitated by George Kinder, internationally-recognized thought leader and father of the financial Life Planning movement. Imagine a thousand years into the future there is a Golden Civilization. What does it look like? Feel like? How do people communicate and govern themselves? What does the economy look like? And what can we each do to move towards it right now? Inspired by his latest book, A Golden Civilization and the Map of Mindfulness, these structured conversations are held with groups globally and represent the beginning of a grassroots movement. The conversations are designed to move us through much of the turmoil we find ourselves in by creating a positive vision of civilization’s future and action steps to accomplish it in short order. Visit www.AGoldenCivilization.com for more information.
Upcoming Service Notes, March 31, 2019
This Sunday we will look at the story of the Prodigal Son not only as it applies to us individually but as it applies to the human race and the nature of the universe.
People often comment on what a great storyteller Jesus was, meaning his stories are well told and full of profound wisdom. That is true, but he was more than that. His stories come from an understanding of the way the Creation works that is so deep it is as if the Creator herself wrote them. They come straight from the same Holy Spirit that hovered over the waters of Creation and then filled Jesus as he came out of Jordan’s waters.
That is why we can feel engaged by the story of the Prodigal Son at every developmental stage of our life, and why people of other religions can appreciate it as much as we do. It is why we can find life-giving hope in it as we look at the life-threatening condition of the world today. It is the perfect Lenten text. It shows human nature at its worst and at its best, and the Spirit in us resonates with the Spirit flowing through Jesus and his story so that we know in our heart of hearts that the power of love and forgiveness and oneness will win. This is the power that we need to rule our lives and the earth now, and if we can overcome all odds and evolve human consciousness to this spiritual level in time, we may yet reverse the prodigal damage we have done and create the realm of God on earth, the Eden that it was made to be. Read More
Timely New Program for Church Children and Youth!
Dear families:
Easter is a powerful time in the church calendar when we feel all sorts of possibility and potential in ourselves, our church, our community and our world. We are building toward Easter at the United Church of Strafford with another outstanding series of religious exploration sessions for children and youth designed and taught by Danette Harris and Joey Hawkins.
The programs will be during 10:00 AM worship the four Sundays starting March 31 and going through Easter. This email describes those programs and also clarifies what we currently offer for children and youth and invites you to dream still bigger.
The theme leading up to Easter Sunday will be what the Golden Rule looks like in practice, exploring what the Golden Rule looks like when people move beyond stereotypes to treat each other with empathy and what the Golden Rule looks like when people take it upon themselves to make the earth a healthier, more beautiful place for everyone. Each lesson will focus on an extraordinary illustrated book that could appeal to a wide range of ages from adult on down and will involve talking about the stories and making a poster. You can see the specific stories in the schedule below.
On Easter Sunday Danette will explore the Easter Story. We are seeking an adult volunteer to help Danette with her session on Easter Sunday. Read More
Centering Prayer Workshops, April 6, 2019
The Heartfulness Contemplative Training Circle will be sponsoring two workshops led by Mark Kutolowski on Saturday, April 6, 2019, with a potluck lunch in between. They will be held in the Parish Hall of the United Church of Straffod, Vermont. The first workshop is an “Introduction to Centering Prayer” from 9:00 AM to noon, a combination of instruction and practice designed to provide beginners with the training needed to begin a regular practice. It will also be an excellent refresher for people who are experienced.
The second workshop is “The Way of Christ and the Contemplative Journey” from 1:00 to 3:00 PM, open only to people with an established Centering Prayer practice. It will be an opportunity to explore the deeper spiritual foundations of Centering Prayer in the teachings and life template of Jesus, as well as how Centering Prayer supports the transformation of the whole human person, known as ‘divinization’ in Christian mystical theology. We will explore the ways in which continued Centering Prayer practice can support the healing of the human condition, and the possibility of spiritual liberation in union with Christ. This session will include practical guidance on what conditions and experiences may occur in the heart and psyche with continued fidelity to the Centering Prayer practice.
You may come to the potluck lunch from noon to 1:00 PM whether you are attending the morning or afternoon workshop.
Please extend the invitation to anyone you feel may be interested in these workshops. They are offered free of charge but donations are welcome.
Please email us at unitedchurchofstrafford@gmail.com to reserve your space.
Here is a flyer for the Introductory Workshop. Please post it or forward it to friends: Mark Retreat Flyer 4-6-19
William Sloane Coffin Address Flyer pdf
William Sloane Coffin Address flyer
Please forward to your email list or print and post on a bulletin board. Thank you!
Sermon from March 17, 2017
Remember That You Are Dust
Rev. Thomas Cary Kinder
United Church of Strafford, Vermont
March 17, 2019 Second Sunday in Lent
Psalm 27; Genesis Chapters 1-3; Luke 13:31-35
“Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” I repeat those traditional words at the Ash Wednesday service as I put ashes on each forehead. They come from the creation story in Genesis (3:19).
It is important that we understand what it means that we are dust. It is the clue to our place in the universe, our true human identity, and much depends on how we see that.
Just this week children all over the world have gone on strike from school to beg us to rethink our relationship to the world and stop climate change. In New Zealand we have seen a white supremacist massacre fifty faithful, loving people based on divisive stereotypes of race and religion. Someone was overheard here in town this week saying, ‘Those Muslims bring death on themselves by their behavior.’ Now the Islamic State is saying that we are bringing death on ourselves by our behavior. An eye for an eye will leave the whole world blind, but we will continue on that self-destructive path until we come to a truer understanding of humanity’s place in the universe.
What kind of dust are we? Are we white people’s dust or black people’s dust, Christian dust or Muslim dust? Is one dust superior to another dust?
Genesis says, “God formed the first human from the dust of the ground, and breathed into its nostrils the spirit of life; and the human became a living being.”
Whose dust are we?
We are the dust of God, the Creator, the force of love and life and light that evolved spirit-filled life out of lifeless dust.
Whose dust are we?
We are the dust of the earth that is the corner of the dust of the universe to which humanity uniquely belongs.
My life and your life and all lives on this planet belong to God and to the earth. Everything we are we have borrowed from them, or we have made out of what we have borrowed. Everything we have we will have to return. Everything comes from this combination of God and earth, spirit and dust, so the meaning of our lives is not ultimately about us, any more than the meaning of a book is about the paper on which it is written.
The meaning of our lives is that God is yearning to live through us. The one great ongoing life of the earth is yearning to live through us. We are each a momentary expression of a life that existed long before us and will exist long after us. We are each like one word in a never-ending story, and our life task is to be the truest expression we can be of that unique word of God and the earth that we find within us. Our task is to serve God and the earth with the humility of knowing that all we are is a brief constellation of swirling matter through which God and the earth are living and working toward ends of their own.
And what is that end? Why is it that they have called us into being? What do they want to do through us?
Upcoming Service Notes, March 24, 2019, William Sloane Coffin Sunday
Below is how I am describing this Sunday’s service on listserv and facebook. What is not included is that Annemieke McLane will be performing pieces by Chopin and Beethoven that Bill would have loved.
Dear neighbors,
First, a quick reminder that you can see the full schedule of the William Sloane Coffin Weekend of Events on our website at https://wp.me/p95Qj3-gR. If you missed the first three installments of this series you can go to our facebook page and find in depth background information on the world-class musicians who will be performing J. S. Bach in our sanctuary this Friday evening at 7:00 (Part One), and on Jim Antal’s William Sloane Coffin Address at 1:30 on Saturday in our sanctuary entitled “He Asked of Us Something Great” (Part Two), and on the film “An American Prophet” showing at 7:00 PM Saturday (Part Three).
United Church of Strafford, Vermont 