Originally Blessed!

an original blessing community


  April 17, 2014    
  eNewsletter from
  EVOLVEChesapeake

 

    Chesapeake Creation Spirituality Community   

 

 
IN THIS ISSUE
April 20th Sacred Gathering
From the Pastor's Keyboard
Spring Community Meeting
Food Bank
Wisdom from Howard Thurman about "the growing edge"
Registration for Creation Spirituality Gathering in Pittsburgh
People's Health Forum
From Erine
Peace & Justice Conference
Try the $5 iGive Challenge
Creation Spirituality Communities
"Rabbi Jesus" Book Group
April Covenant Dates
Article Headline
News from G.A.I.N.
More Ways to Support our Ministry
LGBT Wedding Expo
Find Us on Facebook
Our Business Sponsors
Chuck Riley
Chuck makes a donation  to Evolve Chesapeake from every commission received through our community!  For your real estate needs in Maryland, the District of Columbia, Virginia, or across the country contact:

   

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iGive.com

Check out Evolve Chesapeake's online bookstore at:
CCCS Sphere  
Join our Sacred Gathering on Sundays normally at 6 PM at the Annapolis Friends Meeting House, 351 Dubois Road, Annapolis, MD 21401. Click here for directions. 
Quick Links
Join Our Mailing List
easter-header5.jpg

 APRIL 20, 2014
Easter Sunday 
and 5th Sunday on the Path of Transformation  
Sacred Gathering at 6 PM
at Annapolis Friends Meeting House 
351 Dubois Road, Annapolis, MD 
 
Reflection by the Rev. Dr. Wayne Schwandt
  
Gathering Leaders: 
Set-up/Put-away: Rick Stewart 
Greeter/Usher: Sylvia Oliva     
Reader/Communion Assistant: Rick Dove & Tom Good     
Offering Invitation: Dave Miller     
Community Hour Hosts: Scott Bowling & Dave Miller    
*
"Sharing a common dream 
of surrendering to this creative impulse 
to bring forth the future our hearts know is possible." 
 
From the Pastor's Keyboard
The Rev. Dr. Wayne Schwandt

I challenge everyone reading this column to make a new commitment to attending our weekly Sacred Gathering on Sunday evening. It is our main event!  It is the most likely event where guests come to check us out and see if we might be the spiritual home they have been looking for. Everyone's presence is important.  What a difference it makes to walk into a community of 25 instead of 15!  If you've been a way for a while, come HOME!  We miss you!

We don't call it "worship" because the Holy One, God, Ultimate Reality, Creator is not "out there" somewhere demanding our humble words and actions of adoration.  We gather to develop our experience of the Divine in our lives. Through music, sharing our joys and concerns for ourselves and others, listening to what I hope are words of wisdom about the teaching and life of Jesus and others, breaking bread and sharing the cup, being in our sacred circle of community, we experience the Divine within, between, and around us.

This is the Sunday Christians everywhere celebrate Easter. It is a particularly challenging Sunday for Progressive Christians following a Creation Spirituality path.  What question does Easter present to us?

Is it a call to believe in the unbelievable? That Jesus was physically known to his disciples and followers after the crucifixion?  or does the risen Christ proclaim that not even death can separate us from God's love?
 
Sunday in community we will explore the meaning of Easter for ourselves and what it might mean to be an Easter people.  Do we dare affirm that God is in all things, and that all things dwell in God?  Regardless of what happening in our lives can we celebrate the presence of the Divine? in the darkness as well as in the light? in the joy as well as the sorrow? in the death as much as in new life?
 
I hope we can and do!  Come celebrate the rebirth of life around and within us as we explore together on a path sustained by Love.
On May 18, 2014 Evolve Chesapeake will hold its
Spring Community (Congregational) Meeting.
Members of our Community who would like to serve on the Board of Directors for the next term can obtain a copy of the Questionnaire for Prospective Board of Directors by clicking here.
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Please help the food bank if you can, by bringing along a food staple or personal care product such as soap, toothpaste, laundry detergent, etc. when you come to Sacred Gathering. It is always appreciated.
Look well to the growing edge.  All around us worlds are dying and new worlds are being born; all around us life is dying and life is being born. The fruit ripens on the tree, the roots are silently at work in the darkness of the earth against a time when there shall be new lives, fresh blossoms, green fruit. Such is the growing edge! It is the extra breath from the exhausted lung, the one more thing to try when all else has failed, the upward reach of life when weariness closes in upon all endeavor. This is the basis of hope in moments of despair, the incentive to carry on when times are out of joint and men have lost their reason, the source of confidence when worlds crash and dreams whiten into ash. The birth of a child - life's most dramatic answer to death - this is the growing edge incarnate. Look well to the growing edge!
                                   - Howard Thurman
 

REGISTER NOW FOR A CREATION SPIRITUALITY GATHERING IN PITTSBURGH THIS SUMMER

 

Renew your friendships! Refresh your vision! re-Source! your CS Community! Gift your wisdom and skills to the Creation Spirituality movement! On June 20-22, 2014, the Creation Spirituality community will gather at First United Methodist Church of Pittsburgh for a time of spiritual renewal for ourselves and our communities. We will deepen our spiritual practices, body prayers, meditative art forms, ritual leadership, and spiritual wisdom to connect more deeply to Source and to enliven our compassionate action in the world.  Visit the  re-Source! website for information and to register.  
FROM THE GAIN INFORMATION NETWORK: 
 
People's Health Forum: Healthy Lives, Healthy Communities

Tuesday, April 22, 2014, 7:00 PM 
Wiley H. Bates Legacy Center, 1101 Smithville Street, Annapolis

The Anne Arundel Chapter of the Healthcare is a Human Right Campaign, along with the NAACP, Chesapeake Climate Action Network, Caucus of African American Leaders, and the Wiley H. Bates Legacy Center invites you to our "Healthy Lives, Healthy Communities" Candidates forum. Join friends and neighbors together with community leaders and candidates for state office. The event will be an opportunity to speak directly to concerns on a range of health related issues including healthcare, paid sick leave and toxic air pollution, and its public health implications. 

During the event residents will share how they are impacted by the private healthcare crisis including medical debt, bankruptcy and delaying care due to cost. We will hear about the largest trash burning incinerator in the United States permitted to be built less than a mile from public schools, and we will hear about workplace health issues such as paid sick leave. State legislative candidates will then have the opportunity to inform us of where they stand on these issues.
Refreshments will be provided.

Questions?  Contact: 410-340-2838

From Erine
"There are moments when you need the sunrise... taken in Atlantic City, October 2013"

Peace and Justice Conference

April 25 and 26 

    The 29th Annual Peace, Justice, & Environment Conference, "Peace and Justice through the Generations: Passing the Torch for a Better World," will be held Friday, April 25th at St. Philips Episcopal Church in Annapolis and Saturday, April 26th at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Annapolis. 

   Sponsored by Maryland United for Peace and Justice/Institute for Positive Action, the program will examine how different generations can work together to create a more peaceful, just and environmentally secure world.

   Paul Chappell, Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, will speak on "The Art of Waging Peace" for the Friday evening program." A potluck dinner will begin at 6:30, with the speaker at 7:30.                                                                                            

   The Saturday program, from 8:35 a.m. to 4:45 p.m., will feature talks by Kristi Casteel on "I Refuse:  Joshua Casteel's Journey from West Point Cadet to Conscientious Objector and Peacemaker;" Kathleen McClellan and W. Kirk Wiebe on "The Criminalization of Whistle-Blowing;" and Senator Jamie Raskin, giving a Maryland General Assembly session wrap-up. Three workshop sessions will allow registrants to choose among a variety of peace and justice topics.   For a complete list, see MUPJ.org.   

   The Key School is one of three youth programs that will be awarded an annual Benjamin Peace Award.  They are honored for supporting the Teaching Peace Initiative.  

   To register, or to reserve a table to distribute or sell literature or other materials, download a registration form from MUPJ.org or contact Paulette Hammond at 443-418-5479.  Please RSVP by April 20th so organizers can order enough food.  Registration includes a continental breakfast and lunch with a vegetarian option.   

   Before April 20, the registration fee is $30 for individuals, with reductions for families, retired people, and students.  For details, see mupj.org or contact Paulette Hammond at 443-418-5479.  Scholarships are available.   

   Lunch will be catered by Lighthouse Caterers.   Entertainment will be by Max Ochs, who will offer a tribute to Pete Seeger.

 

Try the April $5.00 iGive Challenge            

If iGive gets at least 1,000 new members a day during the month of April, it will donate $5 to Evolve Chesapeake for each new member that joins that month in support of Evolve Chesapeake.

In their best months, iGive gets 1,000 to 1,500 people joining each day.  So tell your friends about this good deal and we can meet the Challenge. There are over 1,400 participating stores and the average shopper raises $30 - $100 a year for their cause.  New members can sign up to support any cause, including our community, of course.  Joining is absolutely free and no purchase is necessary.  New members are only required to try the iGive button anytime before July 15th. 

   
If you have any questions, contact iGive at http://support.iGive.com. 

Why not share this with your friends!

 Evolve Chesapeake has earned $1,632.42  
through iGive as of April 17, 2014  

You can become an individual member of Creation Spirituality Communities or sign up  as a participant in the online CSC logo smallcommunity for free. Join our online community, Chesapeake Creation Spirituality Community and take part in the discussion.  You can get more information and/or sign up by clicking on the following link: http://originalblessing.ning.com.  NOTE: This website is well worth checking out, with its interesting videos of Matthew Fox and others on different facets of Creation Spirituality.  You'll also find news of upcoming conferences and much more.
Next Book Group Meeting Sunday, May 11th

This will be our third meeting with "Rabbi Jesus."  Join us at Annapolis Friends Meeting House from 4:00 to 5:30 PM.  We will continue our discussion of Chapters 5 through 8.  It is especially interesting as some members of the United Church of Christ of Annapolis, the Unitarian Universalist Church of Annapolis and Annapolis Friends Meeting have joined the book group. Contact Pastor Wayne if you need more information at (410) 353-5534 or SchwandtW@aol.com.
April Covenant Dates
Birthdays, Anniversaries, Covenant Days  

April   2  Tony Teano Birthday
April   3  The Rev. Kathy Baker Birthday
April   6  Robert Brian Eathorne Death (2013)
April   9  George H. Kresslein, Sr. Birthday (d. 1997)
April 19  Esther Elizabeth Grosperrin Birthday (d. 1999)
April 19  Edward Lardizabal Birthday
April 20  Caroline Gaulke and Debbie Smith Holy Union (2002)
April 22  Daniel Teitjen Schellhorn Death (2008)
April 24  Roy D. Woods Death (2005)
April 26  André Hill Birthday
April 26  Zybia (Cy) Hosley Birthday (d. 2013)
April 26  Zybia (Cy) Hosley Ninetieth Birthday (2010)
April 26  Ralph Ferrante Death (2003)     

 The Patapsco River
The Patapsco River
The Patspsco River
Near the Jones Falls Trail in Baltimore

Photographs taken by Andre Hill
NEWS FROM G.A.I.N. (Greater Annapolis Interfaith Network):     

  

A COMMUNITY MEETING FOR UPDATES AND TO ASK QUESTIONS ABOUT

 

The Community Services Center at Crownsville, Inc. (CSCC)   

future Crownsville Community Campus

(the former Crownsville State Hospital Site)

 AT

 THE FIRST CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY CHURCH OF ANNAPOLIS

1800 APOSTLE JOHNSON RD., ANNAPOLIS 21401

(off Crownsville Rd., across from the Renaissance Festival Grounds)

 

FRIDAY, APRIL 25 FROM 7:30 - 9:30 PM

 

Meeting is open to all those interested in the welfare of the Crownsville Hospital.

More Ways to Support our Ministry  
Check out our Welcome Table in the lobby. There are books for sale by Bruce Chilton, Matthew Fox, John Shelby Spong, Marcus Borg, and others.  You'll also find Rick Dove's large selection of nature photography:  5x7 photocards @$3 and matted photographs @$10.  Buying these will help support Evolve Chesapeake's ministry.  See a sample of Rick's "awe and wonder" photos at the bottom of the newsletter.  
 
And remember, your used cell phones and empty ink jet and toner cartridges can also help fund our ministry.  These items fit nicely in the offering basket along with remembrance of time and talent you have offered to our ministries and your financial gifts.  Bring them to Gathering with you.  
 'SAME LOVE, SAME RIGHTS' LGBT WEDDING EXPO       Sunday May 4th, 2014 from 12:30 to 3:30 PM         

     Crowne Plaza Rockville, 3 Research Ct, Rockville, MD       

You & your partner are invited to the 'Same Love, Same Rights' LGBT Wedding Expo in Rockville on Sunday, May 4th! Dozens of gay-friendly exhibitors will participate, eager to help you and your fiancee plan the ceremony of your dreams!  Photographers, DJs, Officiants, Wedding Planners, Venues, Jewelers, Invitations & more...  FREE Raffle Giveaways, LGBT-Planning Tips & Trends! FREE TO ATTEND - Couples, singles, and allies interested in marriage rights are all invited.  RSVP through the website! www.SameLoveSameRights.com 

 

Rainbow Wedding Network, PO Box 2434, Weaverville, NC 28787; phone 828-645-8750  
Thank you to all who read this newsletter and to all who send contributions that liven it up!  Please send your poems, articles, news, photographs, announcements, etc. to:  EvolveSylvia@gmail.com.  And we would love to know how we can improve our newsletter.  
"In the early morning light" photo by Rick Dove

Find us on Facebook 

If you have a profile on Facebook, become a fan of CCSC (Evolve Chesapeake) 
by clicking here.  Upload pictures, start a discussion, invite friends.
 
Visit our website: www.EvolveChesapeake.com
  and other great websites under Quick Links in the top left column. 
And join us in Sacred Gathering this Sunday.