First Community Older Adult Times wishes you summer 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.
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Being present, just two tiny words. So simple, yet so complicated. With all the stuff going on in the world, these two words can sometimes be so hard.
We do need to think of the future. That is important. Ask ourselves, "what is working right now?" and "what needs work?" Both are two good questions to help us move forward. And I'm not just talking about the physical work; I'm also talking about the emotional work. We need to allow ourselves time to absorb what is happening. We need to allow our body to feel - even if it hurts. The process of going through all the feelings can help us grow - to move forward emotionally and physically - to allow us to heal and think clearer.
And we need to remember the past, what we've learned. This is important too. It is remembering how we have felt at a particular time in memory. Those feelings are real, and we need to recognize them - good and bad, confusing or sad. The past is also how we grow—bringing bits of the past with us to share, help others, and learn. We should realize, though, that if we hold on too tight to the past, we might not allow ourselves to see something in the present, something important, to be a part of some new memory. We don't want to shut down the "now" by trying so hard to remember how it was, how it used to be. The present will eventually be a part of the past - don't let it slip by.
I hope to be present as much as I can - although I know there will be times I need the memories and times I need to think about the future (especially with two kids in high school, a 6-year-old and 3 year old). I want to be here for my kids, family, friends, and co-workers. I want them to know I'm here for them today; to be at the recital, to hear the cancer diagnosis, to understand how I can help a co-worker, to enjoy the sunset and all the colors it brings. I want to be a part of today, right here right now, a part of a new memory.
We need all three to make it through the journey: past, present, and future - part of the "melting pot" of life. But don't let the now pass you by. Try to make time to be present, right here, right now. After all, as Jesus Jones put it so well...
I was alive and I waited, waited
I was alive and I waited for this
Right here, right now
There is no other place I want to be
Right here, right now
Watching the world wake up from history
With love to you and all your presence,
Robin Hood
Congregational Care Coordinator
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Prayer Chain
Please let us know of any needed prayers. These prayers are confidential unless specified by you for a call from our clergy.
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Parish Registry
Please see the most recent parish that includes member births,
weddings, and deaths.
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Daily Devotional
Ungubani?
Phiwa Langeni
Then Jesus said to the disciples, “But who do you say that I am?” And Peter answered, “The Christ of God.” – Luke 9:20 (ESV)
If you watched the 2018 Marvel movie, Black Panther, you may recognize the Xhosa question, “Ungubani?” meaning “Who are you?”
During introductions in fictional Wakanda and real-life South Africa, people often ask each other who they are. Here in the U.S., people might respond to the question with their names, identities, professions, and whatnot. There, people respond with a litany of family names and relationships that situate them as one person connected to many. The response never stops at the individual.
When Jesus asks his closest friends the reverse question, “Who do you say that I am?” he’s already heard how the crowds misidentify him as John the Baptist or even Elijah. Much like ungubani wouldn’t be asked of people you already know well, Jesus’ question lands curiously in this context. He hasn’t had a bout of amnesia needing assistance remembering who he is. Nor is Peter a newcomer in this circle needing to be quizzed on who’s who among the closest friends of Jesus. So why ask the question?
Perhaps Jesus’ inquiry has less to do with his curiosity about who others think he is and more about helping us properly identify ourselves. Who Jesus is aids us in uncovering critical truths about who we are beyond our individual selves. Who Jesus is supports us in recognizing our inextricable interconnectivity, one created being to innumerable others. Who Jesus is (re)orients us in everything we do and all of who we are.
And so, I ask you, dear one: Ungubani?
Prayer
When we’re tempted to stray from our truest identities, remind us of who we are so that we might never forget Whose we are. Amen.
About the Author:
The Rev. Phiwa Langeni is the Ambassador for Innovation & Engagement of the United Church of Christ. They are also the Founder of Salus Center, the only LGBTQ resource and community center in Lansing, MI.
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No Matter What...
By Rev. Mary Kate Buchanan, Minister of Pastoral Care
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She came out as gay to her youth group before she came out to her friends at school or work. Tears streamed down the faces of the whole congregation as she took the microphone to sing the opening lines of the anthem, “Child of God” by Mark Miller.
No matter what people say, say or think about me, I am a child, I am a child of God.
Sobs broke out as her friend took the microphone next to her and sang the next line,
No matter what people say, say or think about you, you are a child, you are a child of God.
The month of June is Pride month. As people who belong to an affirming church, we have a special calling to love as big and wide and loud as we can imagine. We have a calling to celebrate that our LGBTQ+ siblings in Christ are their truest self, created in the image of God. As other churches and denominations make rules and decisions regarding who can’t marry and who can’t be ordained. As politicians and lawmakers make decisions about who can’t play sports and who can’t receive medical care. We have a calling to make love be the loudest voice in the room. No matter if we don’t understand it all. No matter if we can’t remember what LGBTQIA+ stands for. No matter if it makes us uncomfortable. No matter what.
No matter what the world says, says or thinks about me, I am a child, I am a child of God.
No matter what the church says, decisions pronouncements on you, you are a child, you are a child of God.
And there is nothing and no one that can separate, they can’t separate you from the truth that you are someone, you are family, you are meant to be, a child, a child of God.
Will you pray with me this month?
Alpha and Omega, Beginning and End and everything in between, help me to love as big and as wide as I can. Stir a desire within me to keep learning and being curious. Move me towards action, volunteering to march or to be on a ministry team, to vote in ways that affirm and include, not destroy and separate. Loving God of all people, help me to love as you love. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
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Older Adult Council
Heart to Heart Shopping
Friday, May 13
The Older Adult Council helped fill bags for Heart to Heart on May 13. Afterwards, Director of Heart to Heart Yohan Kim explained the whole process of how we help get food to our clients. If you haven't heard him speak yet, you should get in touch with him (ykim@FCchurch.com). We have an amazing food pantry with staff and volunteers who keep the entire process running smoothly, from picking up food, to drop-offs, to shopping, to delivering. Heart to Heart is currently running Tuesdays and Thursdays at our South location in a drive-through system where clients can remain in their car, but H2H also has several "pop-up" locations through a mobile system throughout Columbus, appropriately named Pop-Up Pantry. Contact Yohan to learn more about how you can be involved!
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From Ageing to Sageing: The Value of Lifelong Learning
By Rev. David Hett, Dean, The Burkhart Center
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To be surrounded by lifelong learners in the Burkhart Center classes I help facilitate, among our center teams, and in the various groups in which I participate in and outside the church, is such a blessing. It provides stimulation for my own learning, and as we age and some other commitments diminish, we have the freeing opportunity to create our own “curriculum” for learning, following our instincts and passions for what “grabs” us.
The key point of my column—about what the desire for lifelong learning means as we age—is in the last five or so paragraphs, so if you don’t want to hear my current reading list, skip down to comments by and about Rafael López-Pedraza and William Sheldon.
Also, with ideally even fewer demands during the summer, we can open up to whatever learning sources excite our minds and hearts, and also to relax more fully with beach reads, fiction, and blogs. Recent novels I’ve read:
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The Vanished Bride of Northfield House, the enchanting novel in the Gothic tradition written by our own First Community author, Phyllis M. Newman.
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Michelle Huneven’s Search, a novel based on a Unitarian Universalist church’s search for a new senior minister. As one critic wrote, “Whoever said that university politics are vicious because the stakes are so low probably never served on a ministerial search committee.” Plus, the book is filled with recipes; the protagonist, like the author, is a food critic too.
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And just started The Silent Patient, a mystery by Alex Michaelides, recommended by my daughter Katie.
If you want to spend the whole beach week on one fascinating and absorbing study, try David Graeber and David Wengrow’s massive tome, The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity. If you ever thought there must be other, more creative and beneficial ways to organize society, this book does it searching throughout history for alternatives (spoiler alert: one of the indigenous examples are of the people who lived in our own central Ohio area prior to colonization). If you’re traveling, kindle or audio a far easier way to carry this one!
The books our Much Matters book group (3rd Wednesday of each month) are examples of this lifelong learning aspect of this church. Coming up this month, The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together by Heather McGhee. The ElderWisdom group, always noted in this newsletter, also maintains the work of learning something new and challenging.
I’m almost always reading something related to my work in the Diamond Approach, books by A.H. Almaas like The Unfolding Now: Realizing Your True Nature through the Practice of Presence.
And I’ve also ventured into more Jungian related works such as Connie Zweig’s The Inner Work of Age: Shifting from Role to Soul, after she presented a workshop last month for our C.G. Jung Association of Central Ohio.
Right now, I’m finishing past Spiritual Searcher Thomas Moore’s new book, Soul Therapy: The Art and Craft of Caring Conversations, several books by James Hillman that Moore recommended in an online class I took with him recently, and two by Latin American Jungian analyst Rafael López-Pedraza, including Hermes and His Children. I quoted from López-Pedraza’s Cultural Anxiety in my recent Burkhart Center newsletter, and I conclude with the point of this column, a quote he cites.
In the essay, “Consciousness of Failure” in Cultural Anxiety, Rafael López-Pedraza describes the appropriate vigor of adolescence and youth into young adulthood in the first half of life, but how trying to continue in the same youthful vein as we age actually stagnates us. He quotes William Sheldon referencing a comment by the psychologist William James: “[William James] found mental growth so rare in later decades of life that a matured intellect seemed to stand out as a curiosity.”
But I want to conclude with this statement Sheldon wrote in his book, Prometheus Revisited, 30 years later, affirming the value of lifelong learning, and what it demonstrates:
Today, wrote William Sheldon in 1975, the situation is apparently worse. The days of youth sometimes teem with morning dreams, ennobling plans but the human mind at forty is commonly atrophied, deadened, wasteful of its hours. … Yet there are a few who progress toward full mental growth. At twenty these do not particularly stand out, except that they often seem socially immature for their age. But at thirty-five or forty it can be gathered from a half dozen sentences that here are minds still alive. The philosophy is tentative and sensitive, interests are expanding, there is an eagerness for new knowledge.
People who show these qualities in mid-life are inclined to continue their mental growth for the rest of the way, often gathering headway and competence even in the final decade. For such, a year in the seventies or eighties may be worth, in both affective and cognitive fulfillment, far more than a year of youth. These few live more for the second than for the first half of life. They seem happier and intrinsically stronger in old age than in youth.
Not surprisingly, then, this is how I experience the lifelong learners of First Community and The Burkhart Center, people living more for the second than for the first half of life. What an exciting—and admittedly challenging—time to be aging and alive!
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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!
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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, June 16
Café Istanbul
Sunday, June 19
Book Discussion
The German Heiress By Anika Scott
Thursday, June 30
6:00 pm
Ann and Tony’s
Thursday, July 7
6:00 pm
Sunday, July 17
5:30 pm
Book Discussion
Title not yet determined.
Let Nancy know if you plan to attend.
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Blood Drive
Save the date! Our next blood drive is on August 22 at South. Details and sign up will be coming up in July. Contact Robin at (614) 488-0681 ext 235 or rhood@FCchurch.com for more information.
Please note the following from Red Cross:
- Face masks are no longer required at blood drives and donation centers.
- Social distancing will continue wherever possible.
- We will also accommodate mask requests from donors where close interaction occurs. Individuals may choose to continue to wear a mask for any reason and we will continue to make masks available for those in attendance at blood drives and donation centers.
- In addition, where state or local laws differ from our policy, the Red Cross will remain in compliance with these laws.
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Welcome to Creative Connection. You will find activities and readings below.
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ElderWisdom Book Group: Meets the 4th Thursday of the month at 1 pm in the Library at South. The group breaks for summer and resumes in September. Contact Lorelei Lotozo or Robin Hood at (614) 488-0681 ext. 235 to be added to the email list.
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Recipe of the Month
The recipe for the month of June is from Eileen Covell. This salad sounds perfect on a hot day!
Mandarin Orange Salad
DRESSING: (do ahead)
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup salad oil
2 Tbl sugar
Dash of pepper
1 Tbl parsley
2 Tbl vinegar
Mix dressing ingredients and chill.
SALAD:
1/2 cup sliced almonds
1/2 head iceberg lettuce
1 cup chopped celery
1 (11 oz) can mandarin oranges, drained
3 Tbl sugar
1/2 head romaine lettuce
2 whole green onions
Pace heavy pan on medium heat. Add sugar and almonds. Stir constantly until sugar melts and coats almonds (will turn caramel color). Remove from heat immediately. Careful - do not burn. If almonds stick together, break into small pieces when cool. Can do ahead and store in airtight container. Mix greens, celery and onions. Before serving, add oranges and almonds and toss with dressing.
Variation: Pat Boyd adds 1/2 teaspoon salt, dash of pepper and dahs o red pepper sauce to her dressing for this salad.
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ElderWisdom
By Lorelei Lotozo, Coordinator
We had a lovely, lively meeting for our last book of the program year, In Love : A Memoir of Love and Loss by Amy Bloom. And what a year we've had, starting out on Zoom and moving to in-person. I just love our group, so many thoughtful insights, so supportive of each other, so willing to share.
On to our next program year------
September book: Holy Rascals by Rabbi Rami Redux (Right after the August Holy Rascal weekend.)
October book: Orphan Master's Son by Adam Johnson (I can't wait to read this, I have heard so much about it.)
Have a happy healthy summer and see you in September,
ElderWisdom is a book group that meets in the Library at South (1320 Cambridge Blvd). The group is taking a break over the summer but will resume in September. 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.
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One Final Thought
Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation
Week Twenty-Three: The Holy Spirit
The Immensity Within
Father Richard describes the Holy Spirit as the loving immensity of God’s presence within us:
On one level, soul, consciousness, love, and the Holy Spirit can all be thought of as one and the same. Each of these point to something that is larger than the self, shared with God, and even eternal. That’s what Jesus means when he speaks of “giving” us the Spirit or sharing his consciousness with us. One whose soul is thus awakened actually has “the mind of Christ” (see 1 Corinthians 2:10–16). That does not mean the person is psychologically or morally perfect, but such a transformed person does see things in a much more expanded and compassionate way. St. Paul calls it “a spiritual revolution of the mind” (Ephesians 4:23, Jerusalem Bible)—and it is!
Jesus calls this implanted Spirit the “Advocate” who is “with you and in you,” makes you live with the same life that he lives, and unites you to everything else (John 14:16–20). He goes on to say that this “Spirit of truth” will “teach you everything” and “remind you of all things” (John 14:26) as if you already knew this somehow. Talk about being well-equipped from a Secret Inner Source! It really is too good to believe—so we didn’t believe it.
Consciousness, the soul, love, the Holy Spirit, on both the individual and shared levels, have sadly become largely unconscious! No wonder some call the Holy Spirit the “missing person of the Blessed Trinity.” No wonder we try to fill this radical disconnectedness through various addictions.
There is an Inner Reminder and an Inner Rememberer (see John 14:26, 16:4) who holds together all the disparate and fragmented parts of our lives, who fills in all the gaps, who owns all the mistakes, who forgives all the failures—and who loves us into an ever-deeper life. This is the job description of the Holy Spirit, who is the spring that wells up within us (John 7:38–39)—and unto eternal time. This is the breath that warms and renews everything (John 20:22). These are the eyes that see beyond the momentary shadow and disguise of things (John 9); these are the tears that wash and cleanse the past (Matthew 5:4). And better yet, they are not only our tears but are actually the very presence and consolation of God within us (2 Corinthians 1:3–5).
You must contact this Immensity! You must look back at what seems like your life from the place of this Immensity. You must know that this Immensity is already within you. The only thing separating you from such Immensity is your unwillingness to trust such an utterly free grace, such a completely unmerited gift.
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Interested in Membership? |
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To learn more about First Community or to become a member, contact Kristy Glaser.
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If you would like to make a gift to First Community, you can click the buttons below to make your pledge or to give. |
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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.
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