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This Week: Nov 12-18

THIS WEEK
at Jackson Community Church and Around Town
THIS WEEK @ JCC: Mon – Music Team; Tue – Deacons; Wed – Pastor’s Hours & Tune-Up Fitness & MIssions Mtg & Council Mtg; Thurs – Yoga & Front Entrance Renovation; Fri – Set Up for Brunch Church & Front Entrance Renovation; Sat – Pvt Wedding; Sun – Interfaith @ Old Library, Choir Rehearsal, Harvest Brunch & Worship plus Thankful in Mountains. COMMUNITY EVENTS: Wed – Oh My Aching Knees (Whitney Community Center)

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Reflections on giving plus meditations on Veterans Day

Excerpt from Second Inaugural Address
… public declarations have been constantly called forth on every point and phase of the great contest which still absorbs the attention and engrosses the energies of the nation … Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental and astounding. Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God’s assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men’s faces, but let us judge not, that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered. That of neither has been answered fully … With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations. — Abraham Lincoln

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THIS WEEK: MON, Nov 5 – SUN, Nov 11

 Jackson Community Church and Around Town
MON, Nov 5 – SUN, Nov 11

THIS WEEK @ JCC: Mon – Scouts; Tue – Pastor’s Drop-In Hours (Glen Ledge Corner Store); Wed – Tune-Up Fitness; Thurs – Yoga; Sun – Interfaith @ Gazebo, Choir Rehearsal, Worship with Veterans Day & Armistice Observances. COMMUNITY EVENTS: Mon – Legacy Pavilion (Jackson Grammar School); Tue – General Elections (VOTE); Wed – Housing Forum (Whitney Community Center) & Distinctive Photography (Jackson Library); Fri – Eastern Slope Ski Sale (North Conway Community Center); Sat – XC Consignment Sale/Ski Swap (Jackson XC Center) & Eastern Slope Ski Sale (No Conway Community Center) & Holding Difficult Conversations (Conway Library & Old Jackson Library); Sun – Holding Difficult Conversations (Whitney Community Center)

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Meditations on loving God, neighbor & self: themes from Mark

How do you place God — holy healing Love — first? How do you care for yourself? How do you care for your neighbor? How do you love the home — creation — in which you and your neighbor abide? How do you love the un-loveable?

What are the edges of how and who you love? What are the limits of how you allow yourself to be loved in return?

Fire of love, crazy over what You have made. Oh, divine Madman. — Prayer of Catherine Siena

O you who’ve gone on pilgrimage – where are you, where, oh where?
Here, here is the Beloved! Oh come now, come, oh come!
Your friend, he is your neighbor, he is next to your wall –
You, erring in the desert – what air of love is this?
If you’d see the Beloved’s form without any form –
You are the house, the master, You are the Kaaba, you! . . .
Where is a bunch of roses, if you would be this garden?
Where, one soul’s pearly essence when you’re the Sea of God?
That’s true – and yet your troubles may turn to treasures rich –
How sad that you yourself veil the treasure that is yours!

— Rumi ‘I Am Wind, You are Fire’
Translation by Annemarie Schimmel

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This Week: MON, Oct 29 – SUN, Nov 4

THIS WEEK
at Jackson Community Church and Around Town
THIS WEEK @ JCC: Tue – Pastor Parish Team Meeting; Wed – Pastor’s Drop-In Hours (Glen Ledge Corner Store) & Tune-Up Fitness; Thurs – Yoga; Fri – Pastor’s Office Hours (church); Sun – Interfaith @ Gazebo, All Saints Worship & New Member Welcome & Evening All Saints Observance. COMMUNITY EVENTS: Ongoing: Legacy Pavilion @ Jackson Grammar School; Wed – Sweet Streets (Main St in Jackson); Thurs – Silver Lake Singers Concert (Nativity Lutheran, No Conway), Fri – Pasta Party by Jackson Grammar School (Whitney Community Center); Sat – Neighbor to Neighbor (Starts at Nativity Lutheran, No Conway) & Trivia Afternoon (Jackson Library)

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Story: Seeing

<iframe src=”https://player.vimeo.com/video/297614693?byline=0&portrait=0″ width=”640″ height=”360″ frameborder=”0″ webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen allowfullscreen></iframe>
<p><a href=”https://vimeo.com/297614693″>JCC 102818-seeing</a> from <a href=”https://vimeo.com/user12779609″>architect</a> on <a href=”https://vimeo.com”>Vimeo</a>.</p>

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Reflections on being heard & listening: themes from Hebrews

Do you feel heard? Seen? Recognized? Beloved?

Here are Rev Barbara Brown Taylor’s thoughts on the Love who insists one being Present and bears Witness to our lives:

“I use the word “sacred” to describe something that grounds me in this world and opens me up to another world all at the same time. Oceans usually do it, especially in the middle of summer storms. The kindness of strangers does it. Getting sick does it, especially if I am so sick that I cannot do anything for myself. Being present at the birth of a new human being does it, and so does being between the sheets with someone I love. I could go on. I use the words “holy” and “divine” to describe the same phenomena. They almost involve the sense that there is a Witness to my life, a Consciousness that is for me in the best situations but also in the worst, where this Sacredness is working around the clock to make life out of death for me and every other living thing.”

We had seen God in His splendors,
heard the text that Nature renders.
We had reached the naked soul of man.
— Ernest Shackleton

I know that when I pray, something wonderful happens.
Not just to the person or persons for whom I’m praying,
but also something wonderful happens to me.
I’m grateful that I’m heard.
— Maya Angelou

The minute I heard my first love story,
I started looking for you, not knowing how blind that was.
Lovers don’t finally meet somewhere.
They’re in each other all along.
― Mawlana Jalal-al-Din Rumi, The Illuminated Rumi

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THIS WEEK @ Jackson Community Church & Around Town: Oct 15 – Oct 21

This week @ JCC: Tue – Deacons mtg, Wed – Tune-Up Fitness & Zimbabwe Potluck Dinner & Council Mtg; Thurs – Pastor’s Drop-In Hours (Glen Ledge) & Yoga; Fri – Pastor’s Office Hours & Wedding Rehearsals; Sat – UCC Annual Mtg (Concord) & Wedding; Sun – Interfaith @ Gazebo, Pet Blessing @ Gazebo, Worship @ church. Community Events: Ongoing: Volunteer for planing & oiling Legacy Pavilion @ Jackson Grammar School; Wed – League of Women Voter’s Meet Your Candidates Forum @ No Conway Community Center; Sun – Hops & Hymns @ Hobbs Tavern for Whitehorse Addiction Center.

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Reflections on boldness, mercy & grace: themes from Hebrews 4

How will you come boldly into the presence of God, of Love? What does it mean, for you, to trust that you will receive the help you require, if not the help you desire, even if you cannot possibly merit it? Have you ever felt such a moment, being utterly loved and supported? Have you ever offered that sort of love and support to someone else? What sort of grace, or help, do you need?

How does the Meadow flower its bloom unfold?
Because the lovely little flower is free down to its root,
and in that freedom bold.
— William Wordsworth (excerpt)

Are you in earnest? Seize this very minute –
What you can do, or dream you can, begin it.
Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.
Only engage, and then the mind grows heated —
Begin it, and the work will be completed!
— John Anster (excerpt) translation of Part One of
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s“Faust”

On Boldness

Dream a big dream, a bold dream. Don’t play conservatively between the 40 yard lines. Don’t just play it safe. — Robert Kraft

Fortune befriends the bold. — Emily Dickinson

Be bold, be brave enough to be your true self. — Queen Latifah

Shine like the whole universe is yours. — Rumi

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