What’s Going on at the Church
On June 20th, we had 2 events happening simultaneously!!
Our first distribution from our food pantry was tended by members of the church and the Lafayette Mason Lodge! Al Shipley organized the distribution. The pantry is located in the former library of the church. We are using the shelves to store non-perishable food items. We will be hosting other distributions in the future. However, if you are in need of an emergency distribution, please call the church and we will arrange a time for you to come by and get a bag or two.
Outside we were celebrating the grand opening of the Union Street Resource Center (USRC) Community Garden! Mayor Ray Giacobbe cut the ribbon alongside Council members Darlene Eastman, Dave Brown, Danni Newbury and Jeff Brooks, USRC Director Cheryl Anne Cammann, Rahway’s Best owner Joie Nodarse, First Pres member Sue Krivenko, and David Holmes was accompanied by his fiancé, Hakiema.
The creation of the garden was the idea of David Holmes. David and Cheryl Anne worked hard to take this from idea to reality! Many volunteers from the church attended work parties to build, move, and fill the raised bed gardens. Northfield Bank gave funds to purchase the soil through Councilwoman Eastman. At the ribbon cutting, attendees signed-up to help tend the garden. Loyalty Food Truck provided free hot dogs and sodas to attendees.
All of this happened one of the most beautiful days of the year! God’s blessing is upon us in so many ways!
“Weighing Truth and Life”
The fourth step in the 12-step process says to “make a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.” However, before we can delve deeper into the spirituality we can draw from this step, it is imperative that we understand what this is NOT about. This is not about discovering how good or bad we are. It is not about judging ourselves (or by extension other people). It is simply entering into the pursuit of honest acknowledgement of the areas of our lives that need work, but always with the understanding that we are ever held in God’s unconditional love. With this in mind, Richard Rohr continues with some insights.
“The goal is not the perfect avoidance of all wrongdoing, which is not possible anyway, but the struggle itself and the wisdom that comes from the encounter. We do this for the sake of truth and humility and generosity of spirit. There is no other way to read Jesus’ stories of the prodigal son or the publican and the Pharisee. In each story, the one who did the wrongs ended up being right simply because he was honest about it. Our souls know that we grow best in the shadowlands. Our shadow selves are not evil. They are the unacceptable parts of ourselves that we want to avoid seeing. The truth is we all need conflicts, relationship difficulties, moral failures and defeats to our grandiosity because they are our necessary mirrors.
This is where Jesus seems to have preceded modern depth psychology by 2,000 years. He says, “Why do you observe the splinter in your brother’s or sister’s eyes and never notice the plank in your own? How do you dare say, let me take the splinter out of your eye, when all the time there is a log in your own? Take the log out of your own eye first and then you will see clearly enough to take the splinter out of your sister or brother’s eye.”
This is about seeing our own logs first so that we can stop blaming, accusing and denying – thus displacing the problem. It’s all about seeing truthfully and fully. Jesus knows that if we see rightly, our actions and behaviors will eventually take care of themselves. It’s all about creating a good and trustworthy lamp inside of us that reflects and reveals what is really there, and knowing that anything exposed to the light will itself become light (Eph. 5:14). Somehow goodness is transferred to us by radiance reflection and resonance with another goodness. We do not pull ourselves up; we are pulled.
God does not directly destroy our sin the way our dualistic minds like to imagine. God is much wiser, wastes nothing, and includes everything. God transforms every failing into our own more perfect good. God uses this fourth step to bring us from unconsciousness to ever deeper consciousness and conscience. How could that not be good news for just about everybody?“
Blessing and Peace, Ed
Looking to donate to our thrift sales?
If you have any furniture to donate, please take a photo of what you have and send the photos to office@1stpresrahway.org. At this time, we’re not accepting clothes or shoes.
Members usually work on Wednesday’s for our sales from 10:30 am -1:30 pm. If that’s not a convenient time for you to drop off donations, other arrangements can be made. Please email the church office and your request will be forwarded to the “sales crew” so they can respond to your inquiry.
As always, thank you to all who donate. Our sales have been a great success this year because of you!
Important Message from the USRC Board of Directors:
Please read these guidelines about Squier Hall and the formation of the USRC Board of Directors, who will be overseeing the groups meeting in Squier.
As part of the guidelines, please use this form if you have any concerns so that they can be addressed.
Interested in Getting Involved?
We have a lot of different ways for you to get involved – short-term projects, one-time opportunities, working with our livestream technology on Sundays, plus much more. Click on the button below to see what we have on our ‘volunteer wish list’. As more opportunities become available, we will be sure to update our listings.