April 2022 Issue
First Community Older Adult Times wishes you many Easter blessings. In this newsletter, you will find current programs and gatherings along with links and emails to help you get connected.

If you or someone you know would like a paper copy of this issue, please contact Robin.

Find out more about the FC Older Adult ministry and view previous issues of this newsletter here.
A Note from the Editor
Dear Friends,

Happy Easter! During this special season, I pray you can take a moment and be grateful for who you are. I recently decided to search the internet on the meaning of Easter. There is a ton of information, ranging from love and rebirth to fact-based to sin-related explanations. According to Christianity.com, I found the origin of the name "Easter" might have derived from "the Norse eostur, eastur, or ostara, which meant "the season of the growing sun" or "the season of new birth." This seems fitting for the season, especially when life seems to come back after winter. The site further says, "The significance of Easter is Jesus Christ's triumph over death. His resurrection means the eternal life that is granted to all who believe in Him." This explanation is relatively well-known about Easter. But sometimes, we need to be told again and share the stories of why we celebrate a holiday.

On Dictionary.com, the definition explains, "Easter is the holiday on which Christians celebrate the resurrection of Jesus following his crucifixion and death (observed on Good Friday). It is considered the most important Christian holiday." The most important holiday! Now, this is something to celebrate. Because of Jesus' love and rebirth, we can celebrate him through celebrating each other! Jesus lives within us; his love is there all the time. And so, I want to tell you again to take a moment and be grateful for who you are.

My favorite description I found was on the website Odyssy, where Karen McFarland states, "The true meaning of Easter is unconditional love. Jesus's resurrection from the dead reassures us that He will never leave us, and He will love us through everything..... [God] invited us home to be with Him in heaven.... That is unconditional love."

Rev. Sarah Kientz, Minister to Youth and Camp Akita, recently had our middle and high school Sunday school class (Crossroads) learn about The Seven Keys. Dr. Roy Burkhart first created the seven keys, which are now woven within the history of First Community. One of those keys is "Love." Sarah Kientz had each middle and high schooler fill out a heart with different things they love about themselves and emphasized: "the importance of loving yourself, even during difficult moments." I want you to do the same thing. Using the heart pictured below, take time to write about things you love about yourself.

With blessings and prayers to love yourself as I do,

Robin Hood
Congregational Care Coordinator
Prayer Chain
Please let us know of any needed prayers. These prayers are confidential unless specified by you for a call from our clergy.
Parish Registry
Please see the most recent parish that includes member births, weddings, and deaths.
Daily Lenten Devotion
First Community's On the Road Again Daily Lenten Devotional
You can download the full booklet here.
Daily Devotional
Fresh-Squeezed
Lillian Daniel

So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God. - 1 Corinthians 10:31 (NRSV)

Where I live, you cannot buy fresh-squeezed orange juice anywhere. So I buy it 90 minutes away, in Iowa City, five small bottles at a time, and freeze them. Later in my kayak, I’ll treasure a tiny frozen bottle as it slowly thaws during the hours of the trip, so that at just the right moment, when my forearms are fatigued, I will sip it, half-melted, and God’s sweet sugar will rush through my body like a scurvy-suppressing superfood.

Could I simply squeeze the juice myself? Of course, but it’s not pretty. I angrily fling orange rinds around the kitchen to punish them for getting stuck in the cheap machine I purchased to replace the better juicer a friend bought me. I broke that good juicer due to not reading the instructions because I knew better. I have come to the conclusion that I am not a natural juicer.

Back when I lived in Chicagoland, I could buy fresh-squeezed orange juice at twelve stops along any ten minutes of highway. But there were times when the juice just sat in my fridge, sadly ignored. These days, I treat my orange juice like a fine wine produced 90 minutes away at a mystical college town food co-op where I imagine juice artisans meditating on each orange’s inner loving-kindness and sweetness.

Who am I kidding? Work is work. And I appreciate theirs. The juicers, the growers, the trees, the dirt, and most of all the Creator who came up with the crazy idea of an orange in the first place.

Prayer
For what we are about to receive, may the Lord make us truly thankful. Amen.
Blooming Ministry
By Rev. Mary Kate Buchanan, Minister of Pastoral Care
Robin Hood and I have been forming this team of CCM, Congregational Care Ministers, since the day I arrived here at First Community. Some of you might have received a call from one of them. Others of you might receive one in the future! So, I thought it might be nice if you knew a little bit about this team. They spent an entire Saturday morning training and eating tasty treats that Robin ordered for us! After their initial training, they were commissioned a few weeks ago in worship and committed to continuing their training as they begin their work. This team of CCM has been the biggest blessing thus far in my budding ministry here at First Community Church. These nine folks have a diverse set of gifts: 

  • A lifelong member who is outgoing and easy to connect with.
  • A social worker with a heart for justice.
  • A mental health specialist both for adults and for children.
  • A spiritual director with as wide a view of God and the universe as you can imagine.
  • Experience with children with autism and disabilities.
  • A passion for older adults and assisted living transitions.
  • Big hearts, good writers, and humble spirits.

This is a team of people with bumps, bruises, and scars that help them care for people with bumps, bruises, and scars.
 
Over the past few weeks I have been watching the tree outside my office window burst into bloom. It has almost reached the stage where you can’t even see the limbs anymore- it’s just a cloud of white with chirps and birdsongs emanating from its petals. As I sat down today to make plans for our CCM team gathering next week, I realized that the blooming of this tree has almost perfectly coincided with the formation and blossoming of this team of Care Ministers. I pray for them just as I pray for all of you- will you join me in praying for them?
 
Loving God, I give you thanks for these people who have been blessed by you and commissioned by this church to care for this faith community. May your Spirit be with them and may they be nourished by this work. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.   
Congregational Care
By Robin Hood, Congregational Care Coordinator

Meet our Congregational Care Ministers (CCM)! Pictured below are some of our members who have recently been commissioned as CCMs. One of them may call on you, pray with you, offer communion to you, write you a note, or offer other pastoral care. If you feel that you would like someone to reach out to you, please let us know. You can email Robin or call her at (614) 488-0681 ext 235.
Amy Baughcum
Jane Briggs
Ron Johnson
Mandy Levell
Paul Saltz
Patrick Carle
Jodi Patton
Older Adult Council

Burkhart Luncheon
April 30, 11:15 am at North

The Burkhart Luncheon (formerly the Sweetheart luncheon) will be held on April 30, 2022. This luncheon began in 1935 by Dr. Roy Burkhart who wanted to honor his mother's birthday in the spring. Each year, they celebrated all the women who were 65 years and older with a luncheon. In addition, these "Sweethearts" would also receive a rose during Christmas. As times evolve, we are opening this lunch to ALL our members, men and women, 65 years or older. We want to celebrate all our older adults.

Our program this year will highlight The Burkhart Legacy, presented by Priscilla Ratliff and a highlight on The Seven Keys with special guest Jackie Cherry. If you would like to attend the 81st Burkhart Luncheon, call or email Robin .

**The luncheon will be available online to watch through Zoom. The link will be sent via email on Friday, April 29, the day before the lunch. If you have not yet received an invitation or would like the Zoom link to attend online, please email Robin.
Older Adult Day at Akita
Tuesday, May 10
9 am - gather in North parking lot

Our Older Adult Day at Akita will be here soon. We are heading to Akita on Tuesday, May 10. For anyone who wants to ride the bus down, we will meet at 9 am in the North Campus parking lot. Or, you are welcome to drive yourself and meet us there! Lunch will be included in the Dining Hall. More details of the day will be coming soon. RSVP by emailing Robin or calling (614) 488-0681 ext. 235.
The Maturation of Soul for the Sake of the World
By Rev. David Hett, Dean, The Burkhart Center
Spirituality is about personal experience but not for the sake of feeling good, individual prosperity, or guaranteeing a blessed afterlife. It is about tracing the threads of the interconnected universe, about finding God in nature and neighbor—and, in finding God, discovering that we really are one. 
--Diana Butler Bass, Grounded
 
In a recent Patheos blog, Tom Raspas begins with a truth many of us share these days: “Is there any more hopeless feeling than watching day after day of news coverage on the war in Ukraine? It’s a soul-wrenching experience and like me, you may have wondered, ‘What can I do?!’”
 
He ultimately suggests that we practice agape, unconditional love. For sure! And I suggest there are additional steps that makes such loving action possible; steps that require following a path of transformation of the ego-self. (By the way, since we are entering Holy Week, I believe this metamorphosis is the meaning of the Passion-Death-Resurrection story for each person who follows the way of Jesus—the ultimate Christian path.)
 
As the 30 plus people gathered the other night for a Burkhart Center program brainstorming session, I concluded my welcome by declaring my continuing intention for the Center: that we provide a space for the transformation of consciousness that we might live more compassionate lives in the world. This has been my intention in ministry from the beginning. Then I added this more current languaging that I hoped those gathered would hold as an intention for the evening in their hearts and minds:
 
That in our programming we seek the maturation of the soul in community that we might become more true expressions of the Divine in the world, particularly seeking what our Jewish siblings call tikkun, the repair and healing of the Earth and all her inhabitants.
 
Transformation of consciousness, or maturation of soul, requires an interior life, and this is a “second half of life” necessity, as Richard Rohr describes in his work, Falling Upwards: “The first half of life is the outward journey, while the second half of life is the inner journey.” Rohr suggests that even extroverts become more introverted as they age, while introverts become even more introverted.
 
But the term “introvert” might make the interior life seem like naval-gazing. However, for those who undertake an inner journey, it is anything but! Although this work requires significant self-reflection, that is more the search taken by the mystics of all traditions, to discover the truth of reality by uncovering the truth of who they really are—and always involves a dark night of the soul—or several!
 
And, although there is solitude involved, this journey for most of us must necessarily be done in the presence of a teacher, spiritual guide, soul friend, or at least an intimate other; and also with the holding and support and shared search within a community. A Sanskrit word, sangha, may help us understand this kind of community more accurately, for it includes the connotation of a group gathered around a particular spiritual path, following similar practices, who support each other in the inner work. This definition contains the description of how some earliest followers of the path laid out by Jesus called themselves “The Way.”
 
The other day I was telling one of my own friends in my sangha of the inner journey that my own experience of this path actually makes the outer life so much more vibrant, alive, and real. It makes true connection and contact more possible.
 
Ultimately, there is no distinction of inner and outer, but for me that nonduality does not become clear without become intimate with one’s own soul. When the Divine is discovered as the Source of one’s own being, then we can more clearly see the Divine within all beings, and within all creation. Then true connection, or contact, can be made with the truth of each other and of each object. Robert T. Weston’s poem, The Web of Life, begins:
 
There is a living web that runs through us
To all the universe
Linking us each with each and through all life
On to the distant stars.
 
The inner journey completes the cycle of life that unlocks our connection to, and individual role in, this “living web.”
 
Mindfulness teacher Tara Brach writes:
 
The spiritual path is often considered as the inner work of an individual, and yet our inner practice is inseparable from our ways of engaging with our wider society. As awareness awakens, we realize our connectedness and oneness with all parts of life. The natural expression of this wisdom is a care for our world, an active response to suffering, and a trust in and cherishing of life’s intrinsic beauty and goodness.
 
This, then, is “the maturation of soul in community to live more fully as expressions of the Divine, for the repair and healing of the Earth and all her inhabitants.” It seems to me that we all share in that intent for our lives, for all lives, for the war in Ukraine, and for the world.
Quest Singles
By Nancy Dunn, Leader

If you are a single who enjoys meeting new people, join us for a dinner and/or book discussion. Most of us are in our sixties and up, but we welcome all ages. If you would like to be on our e-mail list, contact Nancy Dunn at ndunn1975@gmail.com or call (614) 771-4869 for more detail about current plans. If you have an idea for a fun activity, let us know!
Note: Our dinner times have changed from 5:30 pm to 6 pm throughout the summer. Book Discussion times remain the same.

Upcoming Dates and Activities

Thursday, April 21
6 pm
Theater parking lot
 
Sunday, April 24
5:30 pm
Book Discussion
Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand
By Helen Simonson
 
Thursday, May 5
6 pm
Dinner at the Bonefish Grill
 
Thursday, May 19
6 pm
Dinner at Louie’s Grill
Hilliard
 
Sunday, May 22
5:30 pm
Book Discussion
Title not yet determined
 
Thursday, June 2
6 pm

Let Nancy know if you plan to attend.
Pop Up Pantry Update
The Pop Up Pantry was created as a outreach ministry of Heart to Heart Food as as a way of providing food directly to families within their local communities during the early days of the pandemic. Today, this mission continues to grow through the efforts and support of a dedicated team of amazing volunteers. Read about our Journey here.

If you are interested in volunteering for this ministry or would like to learn more about the Pop Up Pantry, please contact Janice Rook or Melody Smiley.
Welcome to Creative Connection.  You will find activities and readings below.



What's Happening at FC


  • ElderWisdom Book Group: Meets the 4th Thursday of the month at 1 pm in the Library at South. Contact Lorelei Lotozo or Robin Hood at (614) 488-0681 ext. 235 to be added to the email list.




Recipe of the Month
The recipe for the month of April is from member Jeanie Bauer. This is another recipe that was gifted to me at my bridal shower in 2003. My parent's Couple Circle gave me the "Bountiful Blessings" cookbook created by the Guild. They each included several of their own favorites. This one is so delicious I had to share. Thank you, Jeanie!

Creamed Chicken over Biscuits
Ingredients
  • 1 whole stewing chicken (about 4 lbs)
  • 6 tablespoons chicken fat or butter
  • 1 1/2 cups chicken broth
  • 1 cup half and half
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon pepper
  • 8 oz fresh mushrooms
  • 3/4 cup green pepper, diced
  • 1/4 cup canned pimento

Directions
Cook chicken in 2 cups water for about 45 minutes or until it comes easily off the bone. Cool in broth. Remove onto cutting board and pull chicken off bone. In large saucepan, melt chicken fat or butter, or combination of both. Blend in flour and cook over low until bubbling. Remove from heat and stir in 1 1/2 cups chicken broth and 1 cup cream of half and half. Return to heat and slowly bring to a boil and cook 1 minute, stirring constantly. Add salt and pepper and cut up chicken. In a small skillet saute sliced mushrooms, green pepper, and pimento in butter. Add to creamed chicken. Heat on low until heated through. *Serve over biscuits.

*I use Pillsbury Grands. But you could use any favorite recipe.
ElderWisdom
Join us Thursday, April 28, in the Library at South (1320 Cambridge Blvd). You do not need to have read the book to attend – just come and join us for an open discussion. Please contact Lorelei Lanier Lotozo at (614) 209-7125 or Robin Hood with questions or to add your name to our email list.
April book selection:
Secrets Under the Parking Lot by First Community member Kim Shoemaker Starr and Diane Kelly Runyon

Thursday, April 28, 2022 1 pm
South, Library

Author Kim Starr will attend this discussion! Come join us and hear from the author (pictured below). We hope to see you there!

To get your copy and read more about the book click here.
Kim Starr
First Community member
Diane Kelly Runyon
One Final Thought
Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation
Week Thirteen: Be Not Afraid    
The River of Grace 
Father Richard teaches that a practice of contemplation carries us into the “Big River” of God’s love and enables us to release our fears. 

Grace and mercy teach us that we are all much larger than the good or bad stories we tell about ourselves or one another. Our small, fear-based stories are usually less than half true, and therefore not really “true” at all. They’re usually based on hurts and unconscious agendas that persuade us to see and judge things in a very selective way. They’re not the whole You, not the Great You, and therefore not where Life can really happen. No wonder the Spirit is described as “flowing water” and as “a spring inside you” (John 4:10–14) or as a “river of life” (Revelation 22:1–2). 

I believe that faith might be precisely that ability to trust the Big River of God’s providential love, which is to trust its visible embodiment (the Christ), the flow (the Holy Spirit), and the source itself (the Creator). This is a divine process that we don’t have to change, coerce, or improve. We just need to allow it and enjoy it. That takes immense confidence in God, especially when we’re hurting. Often, we feel ourselves get panicky and quickly want to make things right. We lose our ability to be present and go up into our heads and start obsessing. At that point we’re not really feeling or experiencing things in our hearts and bodies. We’re oriented toward making things happen, trying to push or even create our own river. Yet the Big River is already flowing through us and each of us is only one small part of it.

Faith does not need to push the river precisely because it is able to trust that there is a river. The river is flowing; we are already in it. This is probably the deepest meaning of “divine providence.” So do not be afraid. We have been proactively given the Spirit by a very proactive God. 

Ask yourself regularly, “What am I afraid of? Does it matter? Will it matter in the great scheme of things? Is it worth holding on to?” We have to ask whether it is fear that keeps us from loving. Grace will lead us into such fears and emptiness, and grace alone can fill them, if we are willing to stay in the void. We mustn’t engineer an answer too quickly. We mustn’t get settled too fast. We all want to manufacture an answer to take away our anxiety and settle the dust. To stay in God’s hands, to trust, means that we usually have to let go of our attachments to feelings—which are going to pass away anyway. People of deep faith develop a high tolerance for ambiguity and come to recognize that it is only the small self that needs certitude or perfect order all the time. The Godself is perfectly at home in the River of Mystery.
Holy Week and Easter
Maundy Thursday
April 14, 7 pm
Sanctuary, South

Join First Community Clergy and musicians in this Tenebrae service in which we remember the last evening Jesus shared with his disciples in the upper room before his arrest and crucifixion. We hope you will join us for this traditional service of Tenebrae.

We will stream the service at 7 pm. Watch live on Facebook and FCchurch.com
Stations of the Cross
Good Friday, April 15
7 am - 12 pm Noon and 1- 5 pm
Both locations: North and South

On Good Friday from 7 am -12 pm and 1-5 pm, Stations of the Cross will be offered at First Community North and South. Participants will have the opportunity to walk through Christ’s last moments that led to his crucifixion.
Good Friday Worship Services
April 15
12 pm Sanctuary, FC North and 5 pm Sanctuary, FC South

Join First Community Clergy and musicians in these Good Friday services that mark Christ's crucifixion. 12 pm in the North Sanctuary – a service of music and spoken word, and 5 pm in the South Sanctuary – a service of word and prayer.

Services will be streamed on Facebook and FCchurch.com
Easter Service Times by location:

First Community North:
  • 8:30 am Sanctuary - sermon by Glen Miles, music by the Chancel Choir and brass quartet
  • 10 am Grace Hall - sermon by Glen Miles, music by the Common Grace band
  • 11:30 am Sanctuary - sermon by Glen Miles, music by the Chancel Choir and brass quartet

First Community South:
  • 6 am Sunrise Service - on the lawn at FC South led by Revs. Kate Shaner and Sarah Kientz
  • 10 am Sanctuary South - sermon by Glen Miles, music by the Cambridge Choir and brass quartet

Directions to FC South - click HERE
Directions to FC North - click HERE
Interested in Membership?
To learn more about First Community or to become a member, contact Kristy Glaser.
Give to First Community
If you would like to make a gift to First Community, you can click the buttons below to make your pledge or to give.
Do you have thoughts or comments about the FC Older Adult Times? Please email or write Robin Hood, Congregational Care Coordinator and Editor, at 1320 Cambridge Blvd, Columbus, OH 43212.

First Community | FCchurch.com