THIS WEEK @ FMC – December 6-19, 2023
Christmas festivities in Bethlehem have been cancelled this year. Standing in solidarity with brothers and sisters in Gaza who are experiencing unimaginable terror and suffering, Palestinian Christian clergy and leaders are calling for festivities to be replaced with a focus on the spiritual meaning of Christmas. I most recently read of this request for solidarity […]
Read postTHIS WEEK @ FMC – November 29-December 5, 2023
“How Does a Weary World Rejoice?” (Advent 2023) (Written by the creators at A Sanctified Art) Joy is often a companion to many other emotions. We can feel joy in addition to feeling many other things at once: grief, anticipation, anxiety, excitement, disappointment, exhaustion. Perhaps many of us live with the myth that joy is […]
Read postTHIS WEEK @ FMC – November 22, 2023
New every morning is your love, O Lord! Fresh your compassion daily dawns. New every morning is your mercy and grace; you are faithful you are strong. Lord, we thank you for this day! (text of a song written by Rory Noland) Thanksgiving is the theme of this week. While I value the invitation of […]
Read postTHIS WEEK @ FMC – November 15-21, 2023
“It is lovely to know that we are a family united by the Spirit of God, and that despite being spread across the whole world, we can bring our petitions for one another before God,” says Samuel Martínez Leal, Iglesia Evangélica Menonita de El Salvador. This quote opens an email I received this week from […]
Read postTHIS WEEK @ FMC – November 8-14, 2023
A Blessing … written by Jan Richardson (Voices Together #1049) Blessed be the ones who dance in the corridors of death, who sing in the hallways of terror, who laugh in the prisons of fear, who shout across the silencing walls, who love beyond the borders of hatred, who live to welcome home freedom, who […]
Read postTHIS WEEK @ FMC – November 1-7, 2023
November 4 (Saturday) Prayer-Rising for Oak Flat + FMC Church Work Day This invitation comes to us from the Coalition to Dismantle the Doctrine of Discovery, who we hosted this past summer for their annual meeting. I’ve been slow in getting this information out, and the event is now THIS SATURDAY! Even though we cannot […]
Read postTHIS WEEK @ FMC – October 25-31, 2023
A prayer for Palestine and Israel (from Mennonite Central Committee) O God of life and love and peace, We witness the violence and injustice in your Holy Land And our hearts break. Our hearts break for the people of Israel – For the victims of violent attacks by Hamas For those who live in fear […]
Read postTHIS WEEK @ FMC – October 18-24, 2023
Hear again, to be both strengthened and challenged, by the Benediction Joel Iwashige sent us with this past Sunday (written by Neil and Gerlinde Kennedy-Jones and Andrew M. Seddon, found in the Northumbria Community Celtic Daily Prayer Book 2.): May you always be a strong arm to the weak; And may you always be […]
Read postTHIS WEEK @ FMC – October 11-17, 2023
I have found few words to express the despair I am feeling about the current surge of violence in Israel and Palestine. In times like this I am grateful for the words of others to help us enter into prayer more fully. The Corrymeela Community in Ireland exists to support people from different backgrounds in […]
Read postTHIS WEEK @ FMC – October 4-10, 2023
The Lord spoke to Moses, “I have heard the complaining of the Israelites; say to them, ‘At twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall have your fill of bread; then you shall know that I am the Lord your God.’ ” (Exodus 16:11-12) I’m still thinking about the God who listened to these complaining wilderness travelers, […]
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