Adult Education Opportunity

Sunday, June 16, 2024, 9 am

Alfred Swan Room

How Can We Have Meaningful Discussions with Others

about Difficult Topics?

Featuring Robert Asen, the Stephen E. Lucas Professor of Rhetoric, Politics, and Culture in the Communication Arts Department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison

Facilitator: Baxter Richardson

This presentation/discussion, while using the Israel-Palestine conflict as an example, will not focus on the content of that conflict, but rather will explore the approaches and strategies that we might employ in order to have meaningful discussions with others, including those we disagree with, about the conflict. These approaches, it is hoped, can also be used for other kinds of undertakings, such as Jewish-Christian dialogue.

Americans live in an increasingly polarized society in which we face difficult issues impacting our local communities and our wider worlds. These issues may address core values and commitments that connect us and divide us from others with similar and different viewpoints. Indeed, we may even feel internal tensions as we struggle to articulate coherent perspectives on complicated issues. This brief presentation and facilitated discussion will invite reflection on the possibilities for productive deliberation and dialogue across differences. We will consider the ethics, purposes, and implications of engaging different perspectives on potentially difficult issues. We will also reflect on our own values and commitments, including what we are willing to risk to engage different viewpoints.

Robert Asen is the Stephen E. Lucas Professor of Rhetoric, Politics, and Culture in the Communication Arts Department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In his research, Asen explores the democratic possibilities of public debate and dialogue, as ordinary folks may connect with others to build diverse communities and support individuals, as well as the ways that public discourse may divide and scapegoat people and sustain unjust practices. He regularly teaches an undergraduate argument course that starts with the basic belief that we must be able to discuss our differences and that these differences can contribute to a dynamic and diverse society.

Please open this link and read the UW Madison Faith Leaders statement before Sunday:

Click here for the statement

Questions? Contact Baxter Richardson at [email protected]

Upcoming Holidays and Observances

Sunday, June 16, Father’s Day

A holiday honoring one’s father, as well as fatherhood, paternal bonds, and the influence of fathers in society.

Sunday, June 16 – Monday, June 17, Eid al-Adha

Or the “Feast of Sacrifice,” is the second of the two main holidays celebrated in Islam. It honors the willingness of Abraham to sacrifice his son Ishmael as an act of obedience to God’s command.

Wednesday, June 19, Juneteenth

Officially “Juneteenth National Independence Day, is a federal holiday in the United States. It is celebrated annually to commemorate the ending of slavery in the United States.

“Kids in the Garden”

”Kids in the Garden” is our yearly summer enrichment program. During worship, children ages 6 and older (ages 5 and younger must be accompanied by a caregiver) will be invited to hear a nature-themed story, visit our Children’s Garden plot to collect herbs, and make a snack to serve after worship. This program will be offered five more times throughout the summer: 6/23; 7/14; 8/4,11, & 25.

There is no regularly scheduled 9:00 a.m. Sunday School for Children and Youth during the summer. Sunday School will resume on September 8th!

JUNE COMPASSION OFFERING

Casa Alitas

 The compassion offering for June 2024 is Casa Alitas. Casa Alitas is a non-profit, immigrant welcome center near the border in Tucson, Arizona. Casa Alitas provides a warm welcome, food, clothing, and shelter for a few days for legal asylum seekers who have crossed the border. Casa Alitas provides services to 1,000 to 1,500 guests every day.

The ORUCC connection with Casa Alitas was prompted by a mission trip to the border in 2015. Since then, we have maintained a hands-on connection, through compassion offerings, clothing drives and volunteer time at Casa Alitas.

During the last year in particular, despite unpredictable funding allocations from the federal government, Casa Alitas was the only welcome center on the border that maintained its capacity to welcome all who arrived at its doors.

Casa Alitas needs our help now more than ever. Funds that we provide will keep people from being dropped off as street releases in the city of Tucson. All funds will provide direct services to immigrant families. Funds will

• Pay for clothing and food provided by Casa Alitas;
• Buy items for play bags for children; and
• Pay for transportation to reunite families who have been separated at the border.

VIDEO

Please give generously. Thank you.

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/

We Need Gardeners!  

 Do you enjoy seeing the flower beds at church? You can learn about them and enjoy them even more in our group of dedicated gardeners. Generally we dig, plant, water, weed and prune on summer mornings before it gets hot. We work in small groups and talk almost as much as we work! It is a great way to meet like minded people and enrich your life as well as enrich the soil. 

A small group of gardeners meet at church on Thursday mornings. You can either join us that day or adopt a bed and maintain it at a time convenient to you. 

Please join us at 9:00 AM to tend our lovely landscape.

Our upcoming projects are as follows:

• Finish the beds at the end of the education wing which are being planted with Wisconsin native grasses, wildflowers and shrubs. (Go check it out!)
• Add some low border plants in the meditation garden. 
• Monitor the rain gardens for invasive plants (and pull them out!) Learn about the ecology of a rain garden and pollinators. 
• Keep the entrance garden beds in and near the parking lot tidy. (The peonies, alliums and columbine are gorgeous right now.)
• Tend the garden beds on the west side of the church. 
• Adopt the bed at south door of the church or the northwest corner of the property. 

Questions about what needs to be done, contact Joyce Pohl at [email protected] for more information. You can also ask about free tulip and daffodil bulbs from plantings that are finished for the year. 

Forest Bathing

You are invited to join Becky Baumbach and the two OR meditations groups on a forest bathing experience at Holy Wisdom.

June 14, 9:00am-10:30am, back of Holy Wisdom Monastery parking lot

In this practice we immerse our senses in the woodlands as we honor the land, notice our surroundings, and bring ourselves to the present moment. We connect with the forest in relationship and allow it to settle within us. We walk slowly and learn the art of stillness in nature.

All are welcome! Questions: Becky 608-239-0221

   Freecycle

Sunday, June 16

Everything is free for the taking!

Bring gently used objects to church before worship and after worship. Take home what makes you smile.

  Bring yard tools, toys, camping gear, outdoor games, books, kitchenware, decorations, suitcases, etc.

  No clothing or large items, please.

Questions? Email Jill at [email protected]

An Invitation from Our friends at Madison Mennonite Church

Reading From The Margins:

An Evening with Fr. Shannon Kearns

June 18, 7pm - via Zoom 

What can non-transgender people learn from reading and engaging with theology by transgender people and theologians? How might a “reading from the margins” open up a liberatory space for all people? In this conversation, Fr. Shannon TL Kearns, transgender man, priest, and theologian will share from stories from Scripture, some transgender readings of those stories, and point the way forward to a more robust conversation on transgender and nonbinary identities. What might transform in the church and in the world by taking seriously the stories of trans and nonbinary people? Join with us to find out!

Spiritual

Nourishment

for you!

For the Month of June

For the summer months our Daily Reflections will take on a new format, and a new name: Summer Seeds for a Growing Spirituality. There will be one set of Readings for each of the summer months.



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  the church office.

Sign Up to Volunteer on Sunday Mornings Now Through the End of

September 2024!

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, an Usher, a Lay Liturgist or

to assist with Holy Communion?

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 an Usher

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