President Steve Veazey announced on 6 March 2023 in a letter to the church that he plans to retire as prophet-president and World Church employment at the 2025 World Conference.
In this video, President Veazey invites the worldwide church into intentional time to discern who is called to be the next prophet-president for Community of Christ. Learn more about the discernment process on CofChrist.org.
We will be featuring congregations and emerging congregations periodically to share the good news!
This week we are featuring the Long Beach Congregation (again) to highlight a quick update.
The transformation journey continues. We are still working on bids for roofing repairs, Jerry Webb has completed the lighting journey, and these beautiful signs are in the building for usage in sharing our messages in the near future. I bought a set for Santa Barbara too as we increase our shared space with others. You can contact GwenLute@mac.com about ordering these for your congregation. I have made a trip to the Fremont congregation Childrens Peace Pavillion to assess their content to share , and there are some other discernment journeys being considered.
We will be featuring congregations and emerging congregations periodically to share the good news!
This week we are featuring the Long Beach Congregation!
The Long Beach congregation began in 1966 and it is a large campus for ministry. The memories of people, events and ministry have been special to reflect upon with pictures and stories. The members still attending voted to disband as a congregation on 1-31-2023, and surrendered the building and all assets to the mission center. Paul and I are working with Roger Saylor on all the elements of this transition while attending to the relationships and people impacted by this decision. The first step is to assess some of the physical needs to repair or remedy. The roof is a major issue and being evaluated this week.
There is NO PLAN TO SELL the building. We are working with a team of folks local to the community and beyond to discern the multitude of ways we can re-purpose the facility for added neighborhood relationships and ministries. The going deeper journey has discovered two capped oil wells under the property that would impact any type of selling in the future, but selling is not the plan in this moment.
The ”Dreaming Team” of Transformation for a New Expression for Community of Christ is energized and passionate about what could be next. Diverse members have been recruited for specific tasks. Crystal Moreno volunteered to go by the church on Sunday after services in Orange to measure for a refrigerator. We want to move forward with options for complete hospitality. Good thing she went! She called me to say there is a dove in the sanctuary. I asked if it was a Peace Dove to guide our future, and she laughed and said no, it’s a morning dove and it’s flying all over and hitting windows trying to get out to another panicked dove on the other side cooing.
I know how good Crystal is at wrangling kids, so I asked if she could catch the dove! She could now see how it got in, which we reported to Roger, and he said he could block the upper window panes that were missing. The pictures show you our guest, and Crystal’s success in safely catching and releasing the dove! One point for the Sacredness of Creation!
All of the contents of the building are also being reviewed for a final removal by members for items of personal significance or special sharing with others. There will be another time when we will notify the mission center to come, look, and take items useable in other congregations or ministries after we inventory items.
Crystal asked about two children’s rocking chairs in the nursery, and they had not been identified to be held for the congregation, so I released them. Vivian and Maddie are thrilled with their new special chairs as seen in the pictures.
In the first week of this transition, I was called about available space to host a CALIZONIA Rally for youth from Sierra Pacific, Arizona, and PSI to begin relationship building for SPEC. It’s our first big YES! Please keep this journey in your prayers, and contact me if you have any questions or comments on what might be on our horizon. Peace for all!
Denise
We will be featuring congregations and emerging congregations periodically to share the good news!
This week we are featuring the Tecate Congregation!
Michele Mc Grath and I made the journey back and forth on Sunday to Tecate. Lessons learned from past trips is to leave the car on the USA side and walk across the border, then get picked up and returned to the border by Nacho....”easy peasey.” Georgina’s family met us with tender hospitality and had done all the preparations for the worship service and a delicious carne asada luncheon with large tortillas that melted in our mouths. Michele delivered a heartfelt scripture-based homily with contemporary stories, we served the congregation of approximately 30 the sacrament of Communion, and I offered a pastoral prayer for the congregation. We were standing and clapping for the songs of praise, experienced emotional gratitude for being gifted with communion as an international community, and checked in on the family and congregation.
Georgina’s family is honoring her with a commitment to the spiritual well-being of the congregation and beginning professional grief support to live with her memories guiding their lives through love and deep faith in all the next steps. They want to stay engaged in the scholarship program, go deeper in their studies of scriptures and our Enduring Principles, and NEED a speaker for their speaking microphone while another speaker is needed for providing their music. If you have one to share, or choose to offer generosity for the need, contact GinaNorton52@yahoo.com.
It was a wonderful, yet wet, day of hope that was blessed with each other.
Denise
We will be featuring congregations and emerging congregations periodically to share the good news!
This week we are featuring the Las Vegas Congregation!
The Las Vegas Congregation has started the year off right with the 2nd Saturday event. The congregation came together for a family meal of Olive Garden lasagna, salad, and breadsticks. Members also brought desserts and other items for the event. After the meal was served, some serious gaming took place. There were a couple of games of Mexican Train Dominoes being played and also a game of Red Light, Green Light was played. There was lots of laughter and fun fellowship. It was a joy to hear the youngest of the party say, "Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner!" after she won a hand of Red Light, Green Light. The competition of the Mexican Train Dominoes games was fierce and fun. It is such a great game to bring people together and have some fun competition.
The idea of the 2nd Saturday event is to bring the members of the congregation together so they can understand each other more fully. This allows the group to then be able to discern more freely the call of God in the mission here in Las Vegas. It is the hope that the Congregation will continue to experience great fellowship and reach out to friends to attend the 2nd Saturday events to help spread love of Christ. If anyone is ever in town on the 2nd Saturday, we would love to have you stop in for fun and fellowship.
Mark Lowry
We will be featuring congregations and emerging congregations periodically to share the good news!
This week we are featuring the Santa Barbara Congregation!
The Santa Barbara congregation finished the Christmas scripture story with an Epiphany scripture and participating in the gifts from the wise. Our manger was filled with packets of new socks for the Showers of Blessing project for those unhoused in our communities. I blessed the socks for warm feet and warm hearts that they are loved. After church Kathy McGuire decided to type up our gift story with the prayer offered and indiicate who is sending them love for each pair of socks. We have also re-committed to our NA & AA friends for a space for their Higher Power to bring them healing. The Congregation B’Nai B’rith temple, our neighbors, will be vacating their premises next month for a major construction project. Many places of diverse faith traditions are offering space to them for the next 14 months. We are sharing our space for after school Hebrew studies, youth events, and other classes of value for their learning about Judaic culture, religion and Mitzvah service to others. We are being the Good Neighbor engaged in something new!
We will be featuring congregations and emerging congregations periodically to share the good news!
This week we are featuring the Orange Congregation!
There were an abundance of gifts for the children at the Orange Friendly Center that Orange works with year- round. Orange and Gardena members also support CLUE-Orange County and showed up to protest this last year and go to the tables with community bargaining voices. The success at many levels had them working for justice in the communities they live. Read the full article by clicking the button below.
We will be featuring congregations and emerging congregations periodically to share the good news!
We’d love to know what you’ve been up to in your community/congregation/ministry. Send Denise an email at denise@cofchrist-psi.org, and we’ll include it in a future MMM.
We will be featuring congregations and emerging congregations periodically to share the good news!
This week we are featuring the Escondido Congregation!
Advent Play Day at Escondido on Dec. 4th provided fun, food, listening, learning, creativity, and more fun, for 12 children ages 5 to 13 from different congregations in the San Diego area. Suzy Hawthorne presented 5 stories of Advent and Christ's birth with a craft and game for each, culminating with decorating cupcakes and singing "Happy Birthday" to Jesus. Each child also took home an Advent bag filled with a different activity to do each day until Christmas. A joyful time for kids and adult helpers alike!
Unfortunately, we don't have any pictures from our Peanut Butter Sandwich Sunday activities! We already did it last Sunday for this month, so it will be January before we can take pictures. One Sunday a month, after a short worship service, we all gather in the kitchen and fellowship hall to make 150 sack lunches to be delivered to Interfaith Community Services. Interfaith provides breakfast and a sack lunch every day for homeless people, as well as counseling services, housing help, employment help, behavioral health services, and more. We are glad to contribute in a concrete way and have fun and fellowship together in the process.
Merry Christmas!
Bobbi
We will be featuring congregations and emerging congregations periodically to share the good news.
This week we are featuring Beach Church!
Such a beautiful altar for reflection and Advent preparations for the sacrament of communion. It is simple and blessed everyone that came with questions about the giving and receiving of gifts - including each other.
We will be featuring congregations and emerging congregations periodically to share the good news!
This week we are featuring the El Cajon Congregation! Here are a few things happening there that might interest you.
This last Friday we fed our friends from AA. We served them breakfast following their meeting. After everyone was fed we spent some time with them. We wanted them to know how much their presence means to us. Having them here helps keep problems to a minimum and it helps them to be in a beautiful, pastoral setting.
On December 21, 2023, a Wednesday evening, we will have the "Longest Night" service. I think the service will begin at 7 pm. Georg Schild is bringing this special service to us. It is a chance to acknowledge, reflect and remember those who are no longer with us and that includes congregations that are no longer viable. There will be singing and candle lighting and time to share. Everyone is invited to participate and we expect this may be an annual service. I hope you can come to show your love for our special friends and family.
We are planning a very special Christmas Day Service. We will begin at the regular time (10:30). Cheryl Sharon is producing and directing a special service that we did several years ago. If you can be part of this service and not be brought to tears, you are way better than me. I know it is hard to break away on Christmas morning but I suggest you open a few gifts, have a bite to eat and then join us in service. The gifts will be even better later in the day. I hope you all can join us.
If you have any questions please let me know. We think of all of you as our special Church Family.
Cheryl Daily
Pastor, El Cajon Congregation
The Holy Spirit is stirring fresh expressions of gospel community amid massive cultural changes and human need. These messages grew from talks with the World Church Leadership Council and others about opportunities and challenges before the Community of Christ. In each video, the president offers insights and reflection questions to lead discussions about what is most important in each area of the church.
World Conference 2023 legislation is now available for your review. Whether you are planning to attend as a delegate or not, staying up-to-date on the topics slated for discussion at World Conference is an important way to stay connected to the mission and vision of the church. Click the button below to review.
