Read this week’s newsletter here: The Weekly Liberal Sept. 5.

In this week’s issue, Rev. Justin writes:

This Sunday is Water Communion Sunday, a “Homecoming Sunday” of sorts, as we return to two services at 9:30 and 11:15 a.m., welcoming adults, children, youth, and visitors into our sanctuary. You are invited to bring a small vial or glass of water from a place that is sacred or special to you. In our service, we will combine these waters, reminding ourselves that at church, we flow together into one body, rich with stories and experiences and histories. 

If you’ve been away for part of the summer, welcome back to church! If you’ve been visiting us this summer, we’re delighted you’re with us! If your heart is broken at the state of the world, come, and let us hold your broken heart with you. If you yearn for “something deeper” in your life, come, be with others who yearn as you do, and discover life’s fullness together. If you long for a more racially just, sustainable world, come, and join your longing with the longing of others.

Why come to church? The poet, Anne Hillman, writes this:

We look with uncertainty
Beyond the old choices 
for clear-cut answers
To a softer, more permeable aliveness
Which is every moment
At the brink of death;
For something new is being born in us
If we but let it.
We stand at a new doorway,
Awaiting that which comes…
Daring to be human creatures.
Vulnerable to the beauty of existence.
Learning to love. 

We come to church to be human. To feel our vulnerability. To let something new be born in us. To learn to love as best we can for the time we have.  

I can’t wait to be with you this Sunday, as we continue our journey together. 

With care,
Rev. Justin