Bumper Sticker Theology

Sundays | 9:30 am

This is the final week in our summer series. Have you seen any good bumper stickers lately as you've been at a stoplight or stuck in rush hour traffic?...

ACT Countywide Action Team Meeting

September 7 | 7-8:30pm

ACT will have an in-person meeting on September 7th, 7-8:30 pm at the Unitarian

Universalist Church of Annapolis (UUCA) to celebrate the work of our Action Research Teams! During this meeting we will hear of the great work being done by our Mental Health, Equity in Education, Preventing Gun Violence, and Attainable Housing research teams and proposals for moving forward into action. Together we will be making plans for a large action this fall to make changes on the issues we have identified and celebrate ACT's 5th Anniversary!

Brunch at The Pier

Sunday September 17 | 10:30 am

Join other families from Joy Reigns after worship at The Pier to enjoy some outdoor fellowship and share a meal. Rain date TBD.

Confirmation Information Session

Sunday October 1 | 10:30 am

All 6th-8th grade youth and parents are invited to this information session. At least one parent/adult must attend with their youth. Please RSVP to Pastor Sara.

New Member Classes

Sunday October 8th | onsite

Sunday October 15th | online

Joy Reigns would love to be considered your church home. Join for the onsite or online class both following worship in October. Light refreshments will be served.

Spooky Paint Night

Friday October 13 | 7 pm

Join the Ghost Painting TikTok trend. We will repurpose landscape paintings into spooky masterpieces filled with ghosts, pumpkins, bats and more. Cost is $10. Please RSVP to ensure there are enough supplies.

God's Work. Our Hands. - Lunch

Sunday September 10

Please join us in the worship space Sunday, September 10 at 10:45 when we will be making toiletry kits for Sarah’s House for this year’s...

God's Work. Our Hands. for our Online Community

We know many of you can’t make it to the worship space to pack toiletry kits for Sarah’s House but there is a way you can help! Please consider donating items for Sarah’s House through this Amazon wish list 

God's Work. Our Hands. Donate

If you are interested in helping, please join us to help pack kits or consider making a financial donation via cash, check, or in our app to purchase supplies for the kits. Select GWOH in the drop down giving type.

Baby Pantry Update

Saturday September 9

Due to the upcoming Labor Day holiday, Baby Pantry distribution is moving to Saturday September 9th.

Future Church: God’s Love Made Real

We become church together by listening to and learning from one another – will you help? By filling out a new survey, you can assist the ELCA churchwide organization in learning more about our church, what is strong and what needs to grow, so it can better serve our congregations and the world. Your responses will guide us toward a world experiencing the difference that God’s grace and love in Christ make for all people and creation.

Anchored in Hope Update

We received a great first year Anchored in Hope (AiH) update from co-chair Frank Downs. It includes stories and information on our progress including a graph for our collective generosity so far. THANK YOU!

Little Food Pantry

The Little Food Pantry is back on its feet and back in business! Many thanks to Doug Kaempf for installing concrete footers and to Tim and James Moreland for helping to get it upright again. Canned donations, especially canned tuna and chicken, are always needed.

We have just experienced another International Overdose Awareness Day. (IOAD) is the world’s largest annual campaign to end overdose, remember without stigma those who have died from overdose, and acknowledge the grief of the family and friends left behind.  Every August 31 there is a theme. With the IOAD 2023 theme “Recognizing those people who go unseen” we honor the people whose lives have been altered by overdose. They are the family and friends grieving the loss of a loved one; workers in healthcare and support services extending strength and compassion; or spontaneous first responders who selflessly assume the role of lifesaver.

While we continue to do our work with Journey to Joy Recovery House, we pray for those who grieve and have been touched by overdose. Here is a prayer, I ask you to say with me:

O God, we pray for all those in recovery whose demons are kept at bay one day at a time;

for those clean twenty-four hours and wondering if they will make it another day;

for those in the middle of ninety meetings in ninety days;

for those whose years clean and sober are like a resurrection from the dead.

We acknowledge all the times they cannot remember

and the days of pain they will never be able to forget;

the families that they lost and the community that they have found;

the lives they have now that they once could not even have imagined.

We remember those who tried and did not make it.

We pray for all those still out there using today.

We pray also for all of us whose addiction is not heroin, but money;

not cocaine but nationalism; not alcohol but ego.

May we be ruthlessly honest with ourselves

and willing to admit our need for You and for others.

O God, when your people wandered in the wilderness, you nourished them one day at a time.

When Jesus and his friends asked you for what they really needed, it was bread for today.

We confess that there are days when this one day at a time business seems like very little, but

we are grateful that there are days when it seems like more than enough.

Let this day be one of those.

Amen.

Written by Carrie Fraser, who serves as the Director of Spiritual Wellness and Alumni Services at The Next Door, a treatment facility in Tennessee and sent this email out to staff yesterday as a reminder to pray for all of those who have lost someone to addiction and all who are affected by the disease.

God's Peace,

Pastor Sara