ORUCC Vicki S. May Memorial Service

Orchard Ridge UCC on June 16, 2022

In Loving Memory of Vicki S. May

Vicki was born on June 26, 1940 and passed away at 9:20pm on Monday night June 13, 2022.

Our hearts surround her wife Susan and their whole family with comfort. 

Join us for a Memorial Service for Vicki

Saturday July 30 at 11am

followed by a reception hosted by the Catering Mission Team.
Orchard Ridge UCC | Spiritually Alive, Joyfully Inclusive, Committed to Justice, 1501 Gilbert Road, Madison, WI 53711

ORUCC, Interfaith Vigil Against Gun Violence 5pm

Orchard Ridge UCC on May 31, 2022

LOCATION ANNOUNCED:

Common Grace

3565 Tulane Avenue, Madison, WI

Join us in Prayer & Action at 5:00

Clergy and Religious leaders are encouraged to wear their religious clothing.

This is a family-friendly event. Family area will be available with chalk and family activities.

Organizers:

Wisconsin Council of Churches

Wisconsin Faith Voices for Justice

MOSES

Cosponsors:

80% Coalition

American Baptist Churches of WI

Brady: United to End Gun Violence

Common Grace

ELCA South-Central Synod of Wisconsin

Episcopal Diocese of Milwaukee

JustDane

Oakland-Cambridge Presbyterian Church

Sherman Avenue United Methodist Church

South Central Synod ELCA

Temple Beth El

Wisconsin Anti-Violence Effort (WAVE)

Wi Conference United Methodist Church

Wi Conference United Church of Christ

Take Action Now!

Demand Action to End Gun Violence Now

 

The Wisconsin Council of Churches sent out a sign on letter for clergy responding to the most recent heart-breaking mass shooting of nineteen children and two adults at a school in Uvalde, Texas. 

They have also shared an action alert for non-clergy to speak out. We thank them for allowing us to share these opportunities for action with you.

Too many lives have been lost because our leaders have failed to take commonsense, evidence-based action that we know can reduce gun deaths:

•   Universal background checks

•   Extreme Risk Protection Orders (ERPOs)

•   Community violence intervention funding

•   Reasonable permitting process for carrying firearms

 

Please contact your representatives in Congress TODAY to Demand Action to End Gun Violence Now.- tell them no more delay, no more excuses, no more nonsense, no more avoiding the issue.

Thank you for your faithful advocacy.

                                                      CLICK HERE
Orchard Ridge UCC | Spiritually Alive, Joyfully Inclusive, Committed to Justice, 1501 Gilbert Road, Madison, WI 53711

ORUCC Installation Sunday 2pm

Orchard Ridge UCC on May 20, 2022

Installation Worship Service Note
May 22, 2022
2pm
Dear ORUCC Community,
I am delighted to invite you to our Installation service, as church and pastor, this Sunday May 22nd at 2pm. I love ritual, because it helps us practice for the world we want to create.
We will ask for God’s blessings in all the changes and transitions in our lives, with Psalm 121:8 where the text says,
“The Lord will keep
  your going out and your coming in
  from this time on and for evermore.”
We will hear a word of blessing from the Rev. Amanda J. Conley who will preach at our installation! Amanda is my close friend and colleague from seminary and has seen me through so much life transition. Amanda is a LGBTQIA+ UCC clergy person and Board Certified Chaplain practicing in Columbus, OH.
Amanda loves serving as a hospital chaplain, because she sees it as a place where socio-economic differences, suffering, and faith collide.
Amanda is also a consultant and educator for public schools all across Ohio, consulting with school districts about racial justice education and making systemic and policy change for more just and equitable environments.
Join me in welcoming Amanda to Madison and ORUCC for the weekend when you see her on Sunday!
Installations have a sense of completion and satisfaction, they mark a moment of deep peace and celebration on a long journey. We are finally here! We have been through so much transition as a church, in some ways we are getting good at it. Together we can normalize transition and seek spiritual resources and wisdom in transitions. Sometimes change feels scary and hard, but during our installation we are calling on some positive attributes of change. I hope this will be meaningful for all of us and help us in the transitions and changes to come as individuals and a church.
The Holy Spirit is the biggest change agent in Christianity, creating inspiration and guiding our journey. We bring RED into our ceremony to celebrate the Holy Spirit, who has guided us to this place.
We will call on a few attributes to claim during transition and change; beauty in transition, joy in transition, vulnerability in transition and creativity and play in transition.
Change is done best when we make sure the good from the past is honored and carried forward. During the service we will light a candle to honor the past. Change feels best when we choose it: each of us will be invited to put a stone in bowl near the altar which has transformed into a river, to claim our desire to trust God into the future, putting our stone in the river of change.   

We are in a really good place as a church right now. Our moderator Barbara Strechberry, who will welcome us and represent ORUCC in the service, and I say that to each other often, as we look out over the past week or the week to come, and see the life-giving worship and ministries that continue to blossom at ORUCC. We trust in the spirit’s guidance to tend to the whole church and to each of us as individuals seeking wholeness in God.
At the end of the installation service, my partner and spouse the Rev. Daniel Cooperrider will offer a blessing for me and for us, a benediction in the Japanese tradition of Hanami, which is a celebration of the falling cherry blossoms which represent transient beauty. Beauty in change. We will both become members of ORUCC with other New Members at the 10am service.
We are so happy to be with you all and to make it “official.”
May God bless each of us in our coming and our going, from now and forevermore. Amen!
Blessings,
Julia
‌
Orchard Ridge UCC | Spiritually Alive, Joyfully Inclusive, Committed to Justice, 1501 Gilbert Road, Madison, WI 53711

ORUCC Movie Group Discussion, May 20th, 7 pm

Orchard Ridge UCC on May 15, 2022

The ORUCC Movie Group will meet
this Friday, May 20th at 7 p.m. at the church
Were you a fan of “I Love Lucy”? The ORUCC movie group will review both the film “Being the Ricardos” and the documentary “Lucy & Desi”. Both available free on Amazon Prime. Javier Bardem and Nicole Kidman were nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor, Best Actress respectively for their portrayal of Desi & Lucy in “Being the Ricardos”.  All are welcome to join us on Friday, May 20th at 7 pm. A light dessert will be served. Please RSVP Steve Sheets, [email protected] so that we may plan accordingly.
 
We will introduce a new ORUCC feature! Folks may attend in person or join the discussion via Zoom. New equipment in the Swan Room will make this experience much more user friendly than the usual Zoom meetings. We will make the Zoom link available in the weekly church announcements on Thursday, May 19th.

Orchard Ridge UCC | Spiritually Alive, Joyfully Inclusive, Committed to Justice, 1501 Gilbert Road, Madison, WI 53711

Work & Worship Sunday!

Orchard Ridge UCC on May 14, 2022

 

Orchard Ridge

United Church of Christ

WORSHIP & WORK DAY

MAY 15 after worship

You are invited!

Come to weed, plant natives, mulch flower beds & trim bushes.

Bring your wheelbarrow (marked with your name), shovel, trowel or rakes.

Wear your grubby clothes and garden gloves.

Help us care for our beautiful grounds.
 

Enjoy a delicious meal provided by Congregational life following our work. Thank you to our chefs! Yum.

Get to know people by working together & enjoy the beautiful day.

Help wash our indoor windows or just keep us company, then whether you worked or not, we can all relax and enjoy some food together. 
 
 
 

If you have any questions please contact Joyce Pohl at [email protected] or call or text 608-206-5697. 
Orchard Ridge UCC | Spiritually Alive, Joyfully Inclusive, Committed to Justice, 1501 Gilbert Road, Madison, WI 53711

Wayfinding May 18 9:30-11:30 am

Orchard Ridge UCC on May 13, 2022

WAYFINDING

Wayfinding for Seniors Returns!

Wednesday, May 18, 9:30 am – 11:30 am

 

This is a special invitation for you to join us next Wednesday May 18 at Orchard ridge UCC in Friendship Hall if you see yourself as a “senior,” for a chance to reconnect and envision our future.

 

Going forward, we’ll be narrowing the focus of Wayfinding to address the spiritual aspects of aging and end of life — i.e., the very real challenges of getting older, the spiritual qualities that help meet these challenges, useful spiritual resources, and how we make sense of it all. 

 

For the fall we’re envisioning a series of “cafe-style” meetups on a regular basis.  They will provide a chance to connect around specific issues and gain strength for our journeys.

 

On May 18 we’ll begin with inquiry.  Julia would like to know: What are the spiritual tasks of aging as you experience them? Are you finding new wisdom (or humor!) as part of aging? What are the unique challenges elders face? (Of course being a 65-yr-old is quite different from being a 90-yr-old, so “senior/elder” encompasses a range of things.)  We’ll use this input to further plan our cafes for 2022-23.  

You may have seen this event referred to on our calendar and announcements as “Death Cafe,” – and while “death cafe” is a wonderful national movement where people drink tea and talk about death with candor, it is ultimately not what we are focusing on for our initial gathering. We want to discuss the spiritual tasks around aging and the elder years, and facing death is certainly one of these, but not the only one. Sorry if this misnomer in our announcements and calendar caused any confusion.

 

Date:  Wednesday, May 18.  Time 9:30-11:30.  Place: ORUCC Fellowship Hall.

No need to RSVP. For more information contact [email protected] or [email protected].
Orchard Ridge UCC | Spiritually Alive, Joyfully Inclusive, Committed to Justice, 1501 Gilbert Road, Madison, WI 53711

Memorial Service for Fern Hernandez

Orchard Ridge UCC on May 11, 2022

Memorial Service for
Fern. E. Hernandez
Saturday May 14
6:00 p.m. Service
5:00 p.m Visiting Hour
Orchard Ridge,
UCC
1501 Gilbert Rd. Madison, WI 53711
The service will be in-person and live-streamed.
Click link below.
 
Orchard Ridge UCC | Spiritually Alive, Joyfully Inclusive, Committed to Justice, www.orucc.org, Madison, WI 53711

In person & live stream service for Robert Prugh

Orchard Ridge UCC on May 5, 2022

Memorial Service for
Robert Prugh
Saturday, May 7
2:00 p.m.
Orchard Ridge
United Church of Christ
The service will be in person and livestreamed.
Click link below.
 
Orchard Ridge UCC | Spiritually Alive, Joyfully Inclusive, Committed to Justice, www.orucc.org, Madison, WI 53711

Memorial Service for Robert Prugh

Orchard Ridge UCC on May 5, 2022

Memorial Service for
Robert Prugh
Saturday, May 7
2:00 p.m.
Orchard Ridge
United Church of Christ
The service will be livestreamed.
Click link below.
 
Orchard Ridge UCC | Spiritually Alive, Joyfully Inclusive, Committed to Justice, www.orucc.org, Madison, WI 53711

This Saturday’s Memorial Service for James Cox

Orchard Ridge UCC on April 27, 2022

Remembering
James Cox
 
ORUCC member James Cody Cox died on August 17th, 2021, at the age of 62, with his loving wife Nancy at his side.
A memorial service will be held at Orchard Ridge United Church of Christ, 1501 Gilbert Rd., Madison, 53711, this Saturday, April 30th, at 12 noon, with Rev. Kenneth Pennings officiating. A light luncheon will follow the service. Visitation at 11 am-noon. All are welcome for the visitation, service and luncheon.
Online condolences can be made at www.gundersonfh.com.

Orchard Ridge UCC | Spiritually Alive, Joyfully Inclusive, Committed to Justice, www.orucc.org, Madison, WI 53711