Treinen Farm’s Bonfire and Corn Maze

All Ages Event! Tomorrow, Friday, October 25th,

6:00-9:00 p.m.

Come join other friends and families from ORUCC in some fall fun up at Treinen Farm in Lodi. The church will have a bonfire pit reserved along with s’mores supplies for roasting marshmallows. Each family is responsible for purchasing their own tickets, which can be done online or at the door.

Hope to see you there! See Pastor Kate with questions.

Serving our Neighbors:

Thanksgiving Year-Round

and Neighborhood Support Conversation

This Sunday, October 27th at 9:00 am in the Alfred Swan Room, you are invited to join Loretta Swanson and Eric Alvin for a conversation about the importance of our October Compassion Offering, the Thanksgiving Year-Round fund and the needs they see in our immediate neighborhood. Loretta and Eric are local social workers who actively support individuals and families in our community. They will also be available after worship to answer any remaining questions you might have.  

Hurricane Relief

Support Project

October 27, 11:00 a.m.

Friendship Hall

ORUCC joins along with other congregations in the Wisconsin Conference UCC to support relief efforts following the hurricane disasters this fall. We have a goal to assemble 10 cleanup buckets for Church World Service (CWS)! Please sign up here with supplies that you would like to contribute, and bring them to church by Sunday 10/27 or before (M-F 8:30-noon). After worship on Sunday we will have an all-ages opportunity to pack and bless these buckets! Thank you for your generosity of spirit to support this initiative.

Sunday, Nov. 3

Worship & Work Sunday

Wear your grubbies and bring your garden tools so that we can spruce up the church grounds after worship. There will be inside jobs also. All are welcome to the free luncheon provided by the Ministry of Congregaional Life, even if you’re unable to participate in the clean-up!

October Compassion Offering:  

The ORUCC Thanksgiving Year-Round Fund

 ORUCC has a long tradition of supporting our social services partners in their work with neighbors in need. Post pandemic and the end of federal CARES funds have left some of our neediest ORUCC neighbors struggling to keep up with inflationary food prices and skyrocketing rent increases. 

  

Established in 2020, the ORUCC Thanksgiving Year-Round Fund helps support our neighbors with Woodman’s gift cards distributed by staff from Joining Forces for Families (JFF), Commonwealth Development (CWD), and Early Childhood Development (ECD). There is now a need to replenish this fund to continue this vital support.  

ORUCC member Loretta Swanson and Community Social Worker, Eric Alvin are our lead social services team who distribute the gift cards to other neighborhood case workers. Loretta reports how a $20-$50 gift card can help a family through the holiday season and beyond:   

• To cover the cost of extra food needed while children are home during holiday breaks
• To help pay for gas to allow a parent to travel for a job or for an interview

These gift cards help in so many ways. Please consider a donation to the Thanksgiving Year-Round Fund to provide direct support to families and individuals in our neighborhood.

Thank you in advance for your donation to benefit the ORUCC Thanksgiving Year-Round Fund as our October Compassion Offering recipient. This video shares more info.

Your donation is truly appreciated, this 2024 holiday season and beyond. 

Sign Up to Volunteer on Sunday Mornings now through the end of

October 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.

First Nations Cultural Landscape Tour:

Friday, October 25th

Madison Mennonite welcomes you to join us for a First Nations Cultural Landscape Tour at UW Madison on Friday, Oct. 25 from 3:30-5:30pm. The First Nations Cultural Landscape Tour is an award-winning, place-based, walking tour that welcomes guests to learn about the First Nations of Wisconsin. It provides an introduction to the 12,000+ years of human history along the shores of Lake Mendota. Please RSVP to Mark Wagler ([email protected]) if you are interested in joining.

Plastic Recycling Challenge!

Join Care of Creation in a Plastic Recycling Challenge! Our goal is to collect 1,000 pounds of plastic bags (and other plastic films like bubble wrap) to exchange for a plastic bench that we can use to enjoy the church gardens. Click on the Trex recycling challenge website for more details about what can be collected. Or watch this short video to learn about how grocery bags can be turned into plastic wood. We’ll collect bags at church and then take them to HyVee for recycling.

Friday Breakfast Group – November 1st

The next Friday Breakfast is set for November 1st at 8:30 am at Denny’s, 433 S. Gammon Road. All are welcome! The group meets on the first Friday of the month and includes both men and women. Join us for this informal chance to connect and converse on many topics. Contact Louise Jeanne, Link for more information.

Hope Cafe

Wednesday November 6th 9:30am-12pm

Join the pastors along with Loretta Swanson for snacks and coffee and tea the morning after the election for ‘Hope Cafe’ held in Friendship Hall and Crossroads at ORUCC. Being in community is healing during these times of anxiety and unknown for our nation. What we do know is that we are in this together and coming together offers hope. Come however you are, and whatever the election results are (or are not! we likely still won’t know the result). Know there will be space for you, a listening ear, yummy snacks and community care. This is an intergenerational space so little ones are welcome. Open to the wider community as well, so feel free to bring a friend.

Women’s Book Group to Meet Thursday, November 7th

Women’s Book Group will meet in person in the Alfred Swan Room and on Zoom on Thursday, November 7th at 1:30-3pm. Joyce Pohl will lead us in a discussion of Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver. December’s book will be Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan. Contact Deanna Blanchard with questions.

Restorative Movement and Meditation

Sunday November 10^th 9:00am-9:45am

Come and join Julie Mazer and Julia Burkey for a quiet time to be together and move together and hold restorative space. This takes place the Sunday after the election and no matter the results, our whole nation and our very souls may be weary and in need of healing and rest. Let’s pause together to breathe, to just be, in gentle movement, in a circle of care. 

Building Peace and Justice in Palestine/Israel

The Palestine Justice Mission Team invites you to a presentation at Christ Presbyterian Church in Madison on November 19, 2024, from 7:00-9:00 pm for a conversation on Collective Liberation with Palestinian and Israeli activists Osama Iliwat and Rotem Levin.  Learn more and register. Rotem and Osama will share their transformative journeys of trying to change the reality in Palestine and Israel, about humanity in times of dehumanization and war, and about their hope and the courage to share this hope publicly. Co-sponsored by Jewish Voice for Peace Madison, Mennonite Action-Madison, and Orchard Ridge United Church of Christ.

 Flicker Wild Church

 Save the Date—looking ahead our next two gatherings will be held at and in collaboration with the Farley Center for Peace, Justice & Sustainability. We will gather under the mother oak at the entrance to their Natural Path Sanctuary, as our “Wild Wander” moment will involve the trails that wind through their innovative, inspiring, and deeply earth-honoring green/natural burial grounds. We will meet there on Samhain, November 1, and on the Winter Solstice, December 21, likely at 4pm. 

New Growth—we’ve been working on a new website this summer! We are also excited to share that we have received fiscal sponsorship/ 501(c)3 status through Mission.Earth—tax deductible donations are live now, but stay tuned for emerging plans for a fun fundraising event. We are also in conversation and discernment with the Wisconsin Conference United Church of Christ as a new church start! Our dream is one in which Wild Churches like Flicker are as completely legitimate, self-organizing/self-sustaining, and ultimately impactful in holding space for transformative encounter as any “indoor church” or traditional spiritual community. I remain more convinced than ever that the Earth (ecosystems, climate, biodiversity) is calling out for more nature-honoring human spiritualities to pop up like mushrooms and flourish, and so we’d love to invite you all to continue with us in this journey of dreaming big for a vibrant year and years ahead for Flicker Wild Church!

Yours wildly,

Daniel, Julia, Reverie & Kindred 

Ushers needed through Christmas 2024

Please consider signing up to be an usher during our Sunday morning service. Ushers hand out bulletins, help people be seated, take the morning offering and count the money received.

We would like to see the days all filled up. On-the-job training will be provided, but it is very easy to complete the ushering duties.

Please visit the signup genius via the link below. If you have any questions, please contact the church office and they will put you in touch with the appropriate members.

Usher Signup Genius Link

Come sing with us–join our Choir!

All singers are welcome to join our Choir! Rehearsals are Wednesday

evenings from 7:00 to 8:30pm. We sing in worship the first and third

Sundays of the month, gathering for rehearsal 9am those Sunday mornings.

Please share your voice with a group of music-loving friendly people! For more information, email Bruce Gladstone at [email protected].

Spiritual

Nourishment

for you!

For October 24 – 30

Daily Reflections: October 24- 30 

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. If you know someone who needs encouragement and would like the devotional mailed to them, please contact the church office.

Orchard Ridge United Church of Christ

1501 Gilbert Road

Madison, WI 53711

608-271-7212

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