For those of you who live locally, come on back to church in person!!! We miss you. Everyone enjoyed the return of coffee hour on the loggia. On Palm Sunday, April 10th, we are going to have a grand reopening—stay tuned for more details.

Please take time to scroll down so you won’t miss some of the exciting CCSM events happening. This coming week we will focus on Finding Hope in Unlikely Places. Hope is definitely we could practice more often—not the kind of wishful thinking that is sometimes confused with hope, but hope that is about engagement and action. Hope that lives unconquered even in the most seemingly hopeless situations.

Penny 

at CCSM  

Click on the video above for the most recent entire worship service, or click HERE to listen to Penny Nixon's sermon Redo Rituals

Climate Connection #5    

In our most recent installment of Becoming a Climate Church published in the latest issue of our Pine Tree newsletter, we introduced you to an interfaith organization - GreenFaith - that helps faith communities around the world address the climate crisis. We informed you that CCSM recently joined the GreenFaith community as an active climate church. Headquartered in New York City, GreenFaith is led by the activist Episcopal priest, Rev. Fletcher Harper. He is the author of the book, GreenFaith: Mobilizing God’s People to Protect the Earth.

We are excited to confirm that Rev. Harper will join us live via Zoom for a special Second Hour event on Sunday, April 3 at noon. Please join us in person in the Buckham Room where we will use the large screen for his Zoom presentation, or you may Zoom in from home. During the call, Rev. Harper will tell us why and how he and his followers founded the organization. He will share information on the past, current, and anticipated future work of GreenFaith as well as outline recommended activities we at CCSM can consider taking in the coming months in order to advance our climate work.

I hope you will be able to join us for this event. Look for the Zoom link to the event in an upcoming issue of Connections.

In-person AND Zoom coffee hour are BACK! Please join us immediately following the service on the Loggia (the walkway alongside the grass between the Sanctuary and Kloss Hall), or on Zoom at this link. Hope to see you there!

CCSM held a powerful live Prayer Ritual for Ukraine on March 6th. We have decided to premier this ritual ONLINE every Tuesday until the war ends. We hope you will join us online weekly to continue our prayers and heal our hearts. These are challenging times and this offering is a way to bring our community together and magnify our prayers.

We also encourage you register for an upcoming Zoom webinar on What People of Faith Can Do to Heal the Earth, co-hosted by the Rev. Dr. Brooks Berndt, Minister of Environmental Justice for the UCC. Date is March 23, 10:00am. To register, go to tinyurl.com/CCSM-Heal-the-Earth-Zoom. Topics to be discussed include native plants, landscapes and creating a transformative movement full of actions ordinary people everywhere can take to care for God’s creation.

Here's a new video to share which gives a wonderful introduction to CCSM and a feeling for the community, both local and virtual.