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Mabon - An Earth Centered Spirtuality Ritual and Celebration
Outside in the grove with a fire, weather permitting, inside otherwise
When night and day stand in balance!
The Minstrel plays a lively tune
Strings and drums do lively play
as Mabon brings a Harvest Moon
Let's celebrate the pagan way
Get in touch with your Earth centered spirituality, as we celebrate Mother Nature's bounty.
Newcomers welcome! As always, we'll teach whatever you need to know, so don't be shy.
The Autumnal Equinox is sometimes called the second harvest. This is a time when day and night stand in balance. When things are neither this nor that.
The Earth Centered Spirituality Group of the Concord Unitarian Universalist Church invites you to share in the festivities as we celebrate this day as Mabon.
We will engage in song and revelry, but also times of deep rooted spirituality.
As always, we'll share food and refreshments afterward, and you're welcome to stay if you will or go if you must.
Also, feel free to bring some food or drink to share if you like.
So come join us as we say good bye to summer, and welcome the glory of autumn!
Hope to see you there.
Adult Education and Enrichment Summer Offering: Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) is an 8-week program that teaches participants how to consciously and systematically apply mindfulness, in order to connect with what is genuine, true and healing within each of us. Practices of meditation and gentle yoga will be learned, to cultivate a sustained, awake way of being. Benefits can include reduction of stress, fatigue, anxiety and physical or psychological pain, and can include an increased sense of aliveness, joy, connection and well-being. There is a required commitment of 45-60 minutes of home practice each day during the program. The class will be held on Tuesday evenings, beginning with an orientation on July 3. Please contact Margaret Fletcher at mfletcher@well-aware.org for further details or to register.
Service for All Ages
“From Friendship to Works of Justice: A Water Communion Service,” Rev. Michael Leuchtenberger
We will celebrate the gathering of our beloved community in this annual blending of the waters of our lives. The water communion is a ritual that honors the varied paths that bring us together - again and again, or for the first time. We will join water of Friendship & Community, of Spiritual Growth & Learning, of Sorrow, Sacred Places, and Works of Justice. Bring the water that has blessed you - on your summer travels, in your home, or at those places that are special to you. Spare water will be available for all. (This week is the first in our regular church year, and starts at 10:30am.)
"Keeping the Soul Alive," Joanna Henderson
Keeping your soul alive is a delightful challenge and an essential spiritual practice. What effort is required to do this? What ways do others feel have been successful? Keeping your soul alive during tough times in your life becomes urgent, although in good times it's pretty important too. Care of the soul requires ongoing attention at all times!
"Just a Story" presented by Rachel Vogelzang
We live our lives in words strung together into story, and these stories are powerful enough to change our lives and the world around us. In a world where truth and fact are often conflated, the importance of stories is often ignored. The stories of faith are sometimes dismissed as "just stories", as irrelevant, as not based in fact and therefore of no value. Stories can be true without being factual; and when we recognize this fact, we can reclaim the power of our stories to shape our lives.
Please join us for the Dances of Universal Peace @ Concord UU, held the third Sundays of each month from 7 - 9 PM. This starts our third year of monthly dance circles and the circle is growing!
The practice of the Dances of Universal Peace cultivates harmony in body, mind and spirit. This community practice includes focus on breath, listening, feeling, seeing and silence. An atmosphere of heart centered peace and harmony is created. The Dances of Universal Peace are led by Sarah-Elizabeth Whitcomb and Jenaabi Finlay with musical support of guitar, harp, flute, recorder and drum. The Chapel will be open a half hour prior to the start of the dance. All are welcome to join us as leaders and musicians connect and create space together.
Come, come, whoever you are! Bring yourself, an open heart and a friend to the dance circle! For more information please contact Sarah-Elizabeth Whitcomb at 365-0852 or sarah_elizabeth@me.com or Rev. Michael Leuchtenberger at michael@concorduu.org or 410-4830.
Keep updated, “like” our facebook page: facebook.com/DUP-ConcordUU.
This on-going Adult Enrichment group meets every week on Tuesday evenings for one hour of meditation including a reading. Come, sit, listen, and meditate with us.
Yoga is a multipurpose tool for improving a lifetime: the essence of Yoga is nonphysical inner development. To varying degrees for each individual, Yoga brings inner quiet, peace of mind, character strength, and spirituality. We each relate to it and its many physical and inner benefits in ways that suit our individual needs and personalities.
This Mindful Yoga program cultivates the abstract benefits. It encourages a quiet, mindful awareness while doing a full range of classical postures. Postures improve health through strengthening, purifying, and toning of the body, as well as of the nerve, and energy systems. Improved health, self-confidence, and a feeling of well-being, foster the inner results. Although the postures are a valuable tool, their improvement of the body is a byproduct, not the goal of Yoga practice.
Appropriate for a range of students, the approach is sufficiently safe, gentle, and even-paced for new students, while providing depth, variation, and practice options for experienced students.
Led by Beck Anamin
Meets Thursdays, weekly
An Adult Enrichment Program
A worship opportunity for members of the Earth-Centered Spirituality Group.
For information about becoming a member of the ECSG, visit www.concorduu.org/ecsg.
Please come (or contact me) if you are curious about what we do. Email is best: deborahbruss@mac.com. Or leave message Did you know that that our Community Plate, which is passed during each Sunday service, collects an average of $500 each week during the regular church year? That’s more than $2000 each month that goes to important projects outside of our church’s operating expenses.
The Community Service Committee (CSC) would love to have you on board, whether it’s for one event or the entire year. We also need requests from the congregation for our plate donations.
We should be proud that our church donates to community projects, which include healthy meals for children and adults, community gardens, women rights, peace actions, food banks, summer day camp tuition, animal welfare, environmental programs, hospice and so much more.
In addition to collection money, the CSC is involved in Community Outreach projects, collecting food, helping children at the Boys and Girls Club choose and wrap holiday gifts for their parents, buying turkeys for baskets, participating in the Crop Walk and many others.
You can participate in our work, whether or not you are on the committee or can attend monthly meetings. Here are some of the areas where the CSC needs help:
· Collect and deliver food
· Souper Bowl Sunday
· Wrap gifts at the Girls and Boys club
· Take meeting notes
· Talk with church members about requesting funds from our Community Plate
· Help write a mission statement
To participate, you can do so without attending monthly meetings (though we hope your can). You can be any age (think poster making, collecting cans of food, dressing up as a can of food).
We need Community Plate requests from church members. Forms can be picked up at the church office, or request one by emailing me.
After several years of running this successful CSC, Amy Wright is passing the reigns to me. Thank you Amy. We have a few dedicated members from last year and are eager to sign on a few more.
For me, the most enjoyable part of our job is matching Community Plate requests to Sunday services. It’s a great way to feel involved in the wider community, make connections within our church and disperse lots of money without having to empty your personal bank account.
Our first meeting will be on Sunday September 9th at 9:30. Please come or contact me.
Join us in our efforts to reach out to the wider community – Concord and beyond – in serving and promoting the values of what we cherish.
Contact me by email: deborahbruss@mac.com. If you don’t have email, leave a message at 856-7529.
Thank you!
Deb Bruss.
This is an opportunity to be introduced to a number of weeks' worth of material and work on our choral sound. We'll also take some time to explore choir procedures for the coming months. Should be a ton of fun!
This on-going Adult Enrichment group meets every week on Tuesday evenings for one hour of meditation including a reading. Come, sit, listen, and meditate with us.
This Adult Enrichment program is led by Beck Anamin, and meets Thursdays, weekly. Yoga is a multipurpose tool for improving a lifetime: the essence of Yoga is nonphysical inner development. To varying degrees for each individual, Yoga brings inner quiet, peace of mind, character strength, and spirituality. We each relate to it and its many physical and inner benefits in ways that suit our individual needs and personalities.
This Mindful Yoga program cultivates the abstract benefits. It encourages a quiet, mindful awareness while doing a full range of classical postures. Postures improve health through strengthening, purifying, and toning of the body, as well as of the nerve, and energy systems. Improved health, self-confidence, and a feeling of well-being, foster the inner results. Although the postures are a valuable tool, their improvement of the body is a byproduct, not the goal of Yoga practice.
Appropriate for a range of students, the approach is sufficiently safe, gentle, and even-paced for new students, while providing depth, variation, and practice options for experienced students.
Beginning Anew
Explore the spiritual tasks that come with new beginnings. Intern minister Lyn Betz will share her experience working as an English teacher at Second Start and how her students taught her more about ministry.
If you have been to at least two of our public rituals, you are welcome to join in the planning and presentation of our Mabon (Fall Equinox) Ritual. The ritual itself will be on Saturday, September 22.
Led by Beck Anamin
Meets Thursdays, weekly
An Adult Enrichment Program
Yoga is a multipurpose tool for improving a lifetime: the essence of Yoga is nonphysical inner development. To varying degrees for each individual, Yoga brings inner quiet, peace of mind, character strength, and spirituality. We each relate to it and its many physical and inner benefits in ways that suit our individual needs and personalities.
This Mindful Yoga program cultivates the abstract benefits. It encourages a quiet, mindful awareness while doing a full range of classical postures. Postures improve health through strengthening, purifying, and toning of the body, as well as of the nerve, and energy systems. Improved health, self-confidence, and a feeling of well-being, foster the inner results. Although the postures are a valuable tool, their improvement of the body is a byproduct, not the goal of Yoga practice.
Appropriate for a range of students, the approach is sufficiently safe, gentle, and even-paced for new students, while providing depth, variation, and practice options for experienced students.