Worship & Work Day

Sunday, May 21 after worship

Wear your grubby clothes and garden gloves and come and weed, mulch flower beds, trim bushes and plant plants.

Bring your wheelbarrow, shovels, trowels, rakes, blowers, and hedge trimmers (all marked with your names on them).

Help us care for our beautiful grounds and afterwards enjoy a wonderful lunch sponsored by Congregational Life.

“Speak with the Earth” – a Pop-Up Wild Church gathering for ORUCC

(Final Book Study gathering, but please join us even if you haven’t read Daniel Cooperrider’s book, Speak with the Earth and It Will Teach You, even if you didn’t participate in any of the discussion groups) 

Description – Many people, whether they participate in organized religion or not, feel closest to God in nature. In this pop-up “Wild Church” gathering we will experiment and play with an emergent outdoor church model, where we join our worship with the wind, the birdsong, the clouds, and the many other partners in the sacred conversation between Creator and Creation. Based off the innovative model of the Wild Church Movement (Wild Church Network – Home), we will begin in a circle with words of welcome, introduction, and readings, before allowing time to wander and wonder, experiencing the “sermon” as a time to be in contemplative openness and conversation with the more-than-human world. We will return to circle with sharing insights, hopes, prayers, blessings, and sending forth. This will be the conclusion to the book study of Daniel Cooperrider’s Speak with the Earth and It Will Teach You, and will draw on the book’s Epilogue.

 Time – Sunday May 21, 4pm (Rain or shine – dress appropriately to be outside). Bring a chair or blanket to sit on.

 Location – Donald County Park – “Pop’s Knoll” - 1945 Highway 92, Mount Horeb, WI 53572

Updated Masking Policy

In response to recent declines in COVID infection numbers and a steady low level of local community spread, the ORUCC COVID Response Team has updated the masking policy:

• Masking is optional throughout the building
• Those with symptoms of illness should refrain from entering the building
• Individual decisions to mask or not mask are to be respected
• This policy may be revised with changes in infection number or levels of community spread 

Moderator’s Update  from Hal Evensen, ORUCC Moderator

Hello! As we head into summer, I wanted to update the congregation on what the Leadership Team (lay leadership) has been up to.  Here are some highlights:

• Planned the recent Candidating Weekend for Rev. Kate Mackey. This included finalizing the Call Agreement (“contract”), etc.
• Extended Julie Mazer’s position as Christian Education Coordinator through the end of 2023, to support Rev. Mackey as she starts her ministry.
• Revived the Human Resources team, to support our pastors & staff with an annual reflection process and a human resources policy document.
• Revisiting our congregation’s approach to Stewardship, seeking to form a year-round Stewardship Team. Stewardship encompasses more than fundraising!
• Working to update church communications, and to make our Ministires’ work and opportunities more accessible to people.

We are working to help ORUCC live into its vision statement to be Spiritually Alive, Joyfully Inclusive, and Committed to Justice and invite everyone to please feel free to reach out to any of the moderators ([email protected]) or leadership team member (see the color poster on the bulletin board just outside the kitchen) with any questions, comments, suggestions, or offerings of support! 

MAY COMPASSION OFFERING-OutReach LGBTQ+ Community Center

OutReach LGBTQ+ Community Center has served the Madison area since 1973, providing community building, health and human services, and economic, social, and racial justice advocacy for the LGBTQ+ community and our allies. OutReach has staff advocates that offer peer support, information, and referral in three main areas: substance use and harm reduction, transgender services, and elder services (for those over age 50). We also host social and support groups for people from all across the LGBTQ+ community where people can come together to discuss their lives, learn new skills, or just watch a movie and have a good time! OutReach LGBTQ+ Community Center houses the Earl Greely Memorial Library, an over-4000 volume lending library of LGBTQ+ fiction and nonfiction, the David Bohnett Cybercenter, community meeting space, and a community pantry with food and personal essentials.

Funds raised will be used to support Willma’s Fund, a program of OutReach offering emergency financial assistance to LGBTQ+ adults in Dane County. Willma’s Fund was founded in 2011 by Donald Haar, a former employee of the Salvation Army and drag performer who goes by the name Willma Flynn-Stone. Donald recognized that LGBTQ+ people often face additional barriers when accessing support for homelessness or housing insecurity and saw a way to help (and get back into performing drag!). Since 2011, Willma’s Fund has awarded over $250,000 to over 500 people. In 2022 alone we awarded $50,000 to 120 people. We paid 35 people’s security deposits or first month’s rent, and provided over 400 nights of emergency shelter through short-term hotel stays. Willma’s Fund is a vital piece of our community’s efforts to protect its most vulnerable members.

VIDEO



You can make a donation by check, on the memo line, please write “compassion” and mail to ORUCC, 1501 Gilbert Road, Madison, WI 53711, or donate online from our website. The link is https://orucc.org/contribute/support/

Invitation to submit a request for a Compassion Offering

ORUCC has a long history of generously supporting recipient organizations of the monthly Compassion Offering selected by the Ministry of Christian Witness and Service (CWS). As our CWS team deliberates over which organizations to choose, we welcome your engagement in the process. Any two members of the ORUCC congregation or pastoral staff may nominate a recipient organization to be considered by CWS. To review the guidelines and suggest an organization, please read and complete this form.  

This form is always available on the ORUCC.org website by clicking on the “Contribute” tab and choosing “Monthly Compassion Offering” from the drop-down menu. 

Spiritual

Nourishment

for you!

For the week of May 18 – May 24

Read this week’s reflections as a way to dive deeper into your spiritual practice or to get some nourishment and inspiration

for your day.

Click Here for Reflections

We are grateful for the ministry of Jeanne Moberly who is a member of Adult Faith Formation, as she puts together a set of fresh readings every week for our devotional practice at Orchard Ridge UCC. You will see these posted daily if you are part of the “Members & Friends” Facebook group. If you know someone who needs encouragement and would like the devotional mailed to them, please contact Julie Wombacher in the church office.

May 18, 2023

WAYFINDING

Planting Seeds: legacy, becoming ancestors,

writing our spiritual will.

“The Soul-tasks of Aging

toward a Theology of the Elder Years”

Thursday May 18th 4:00-5:15pm

Topic: Wayfinding ZOOM

Time: May 18, 2023 04:00 PM Central Time (US and Canada)

    Every month on the Third Thu, until Jun 15, 2023, 2 occurrence(s)

    May 18, 2023 04:00 PM

    Jun 15, 2023 04:00 PM

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86199874033?pwd=bFY3ZFc2OENCekVmUC9DaDV6TkJEdz09

Meeting ID: 861 9987 4033

Passcode: 749717

We are looking for Brat Fest Volunteers for the weekend of May 26-May 28!



Would you be willing to donate a few hours at Brat Fest to benefit our Youth Service Trip? Brat Fest has a variety of volunteer positions from set up, grilling, trash pick up, serving, event take down. Our church has to fulfill 20 hours of set up to qualify for fundraising and we really need your help.  

To sign up go to:  https://app.initlive.com/JE/63v6refjssjaf2

You must create a sign on, choose a T-shirt size and check that you are volunteering to benefit a charity. Then, choose Orchard Ridge United Church of Christ as your benefiting organization. You get to choose the date, time and position you’d like to volunteer for. Ask your friends to join you – as our teens know – it’s more fun to volunteer as a group! Plus, you get the t-shirt and a free brat for every shift you work. Sign up today – these shifts go F-A-S-T..

AT ORUCC, the Members

are the Ministers!

We are seeking volunteers to serve on Sunday mornings for in-person worship. You need not be a member, simply a person who loves ORUCC and is eager to find

a place to serve!

Young people are welcome to sign up too!

Would you consider serving one or more times as

a Coffee Maker, a Welcomer, a Lay Liturgist or

to assist with Holy Communion?

It has been fairly easy finding Lay Liturgists and Communion Assistants, but much more challenging finding

Coffee-Makers and Welcomers!

Feel free to sign up as an individual, a couple, or a family!

Click here to sign up as a Coffee Maker

Click here to sign up as a Welcomer

Click here to sign up as a Lay Liturgist

Click here to Assist with Holy Communion

After selecting one or more dates, you will need to click “Submit and Sign Up” at the bottom of the page, then enter your name & email address, then click “Sign Up Now.”

Questions or problems signing up?

Contact Ken Pennings at [email protected] or 608-556-2371.

Orchard Ridge United Church of Christ

1501 Gilbert Road

Madison, WI 53711

608-271-7212

Office Hours: M-Th 8:30-12:30