The First Church List
We are so glad that you’ve joined the List, and we look forward to the connections we’ll make here as a community. We hope that you will use the First Church List to: Share personal announcements and prayer requests. Publicize…
Water in the Wilderness Blog
Prayers for the Church and World
If you are looking for a prayer to pray this week, pray with us: Holy and eternal God, turn our faces to you… Give us space to come into your presence, Life beyond life… Wellspring of being… Draw near to…
Invitation to Contemplation
For many of us, Advent is a time for introspection and reflection. As the days grow shorter, we feel the silence of winter, and experience an invitation to become still and quiet. As we anticipate the return of the light (both literally and figuratively in Christ), we turn inward in contemplation and appreciation.
Christmas Caroling Sing-Along Videos for First Church Families
First Church member Buzz Gagnebin is a generous patron of the arts. He engaged three musical groups to prepare videos of Christmas caroling for First Church families to enjoy as we celebrate Christmas. Find links below to the videos and…
A Creative Offering from the Men’s Breakfast Group
I sent the poems and images to the Men’s Breakfast group for our November meeting. We talked about the sijo verse form—three lines with a ‘twist’—and the movement out and about that a poem invites us as readers or writers to follow. Then those attending made their own poems, which follow. And they do also lead us, away, to other places of vision, contemplation, experiment.
Prayers for the First Sunday of Advent
God of wonder, of light and shadow, half-revealed, half-hidden One… O radiant darkness, we praise you and we bless you! Your hands are stretched toward us in giving, and from your heart flow rivers of grace. Slow us down to…
The Call to Give: Reflections on Stewardship at First Church
Blessed is the person who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. They are like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves…
Discernment, Doubt and Flowers in Bloom
As followers of Jesus, we are invited to let the good in us “grow together” with all that is not of God. As my daughter puts it: “you can be beautiful even when you’re wrapped in weeds.”
Communion Bread Recipe
As we participate in holy communion from home, perhaps you are wondering if you can bake your own? The recipe below is what our own Kate Layzer used for the communion bread for this Sunday’s worship at her house: COMMUNION…
Writing Justice on Our Hearts Poetry Project
We respond to an invitation by our poet in residence Jean Dany to join him in writing Haikus about the soul work that is required to work for justice and racial equality in the world. Submission by Holly Marple, a…