From Laura Brinson at Su Casa:
Our “Intercambio de Idiomas” or “Language Exchange” will begin on Saturday, October 29th. It will be held here at Su Casa on Saturdays noon until 1 PM. This is an opportunity for native Spanish speakers to practice English and native English speakers to practice Spanish, and is free of charge. Please tell everyone who you think would benefit. Have those interested contact me if they have any questions: 513.761.1588, ext 14.
From Mary Ellen:
Please join the Courtland Ave. House Church at Upper Millcrest on October 30th for a celebration of the space, as a thank you to the neighborhood for allowing us to use it this year. There will be facepainting, pumpkin decorating, free lunch and desserts and a chance to view the long-term plan for the park. The event will be from 12:30 – 2:30
From Molly at Xavier University:
I’m writing to invite you THIS SATURDAY to a big day at the NEXUS Community Garden. From 9AM-1PM on 10/29, we’ll be “Putting NEXUS to Sleep” for the season and completing the “Color Your Block” Community-wide Mural Project (see attached flyer for details). Come for a few minutes or a few hours to see all the great things going on in and around the NEXUS project and lend a hand. We’ll need help adding compost to plots and preparing the garden for winter and all are invited to paint a block or more on the back of McGrath Health & Wellness (1714 Cleneay Ave.). All needed tools and supplies will be provided. Food, drink, and great people will be available.
Many hands make for light work and many minds and hearts make for great community. So, please come on out and contribute!
Over the past two Sundays, we have been exploring what our options are in regards to the broken and beautiful structure that is St. Elizabeth. We have also had a time of confession and repentance over our lack of faithful stewardship. Five main options were explored by a committee last year, and they can be found here: https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=1JnXZMho4_wJSdBapr_jrg1XUYfB0StKLD6VK4lVJPSb9_w7F5ASPxSbCzTMt&hl=en_US
It was proposed that selling the building be an additional sixth option. It was also proposed that a new committee be formed to pick up where the last one left off, with a specific deadline for making a decision within the coming year.
Laura McNeel issued a call to more faithfully steward the building in the meantime. Don McNeel issued a call to join together in prayer to discern what God’s purposes are for the building and how we as a church are to be a part of that. Mark Bruner suggested that repairing the building may be something people from the community would be excited to be a part of. Stephen JohnsonGrove suggested that like St. Elizabeth the person, we might have to leave the building behind in order to more faithfully serve those around us.
Moving forward, we need to assemble a team of people to advance these discussions. If you are interested, please contact a member of the discernment team (Natasha, Laura, Nate or Josh). We also need to have intentional times of prayer together over the coming year. Caring for the needs of the building may also be included in what it means to be a member of VC during the year ahead.
From Mary Ellen:
The Courtland House Church and other friends of the park will be hosting a neighborhood gathering in Upper Millcrest Park on Sunday, October 30 from 12:30 -2:30. Lunch will be provided, along with games and pumpkin decorating. We will also be presenting the long-term vision for the park. Please come down and support the effort, and invite neighbors. We want to use this event both to thank West Norwood for allowing our community to use the park, particularly for the garden project, and also to invite our neighbors to be a part of the planning process.
The end is coming!
Christ the King Sunday is Nov 20, and that is the final gathering of the discernment process. Here is the plan for the remaining weeks:
October 16- Building discussion, pt. 2; exploring the purpose(s) of the building in what God is calling us to as a church in light of the financial realities of the options discussed last week
October 23- Relationship to Vineyard USA; theological affirmations
October 30- Budget discussion and deciding on the possibility of paid staff in light of the the financial and ministry realities; projecting income and expenses for 2011
November 6- Present finalized membership proposal; sound the official call for one year commitments to membership and for considering being an elder
November 13- Receive members; decide on a process for selecting elders for a one year commitment; begin nominating candidates
November 20- Christ the King Sunday; elder nominations received; vision for church presented and committed to
November 27- First Sunday of Advent; regular service; celebration!
Revised Nov. 3
Hello VCers.
As you know, we’re in the midst of an important Discernment Time for our church community, and we’ve been spending time on vital issues for our community one after another since Pentecost. This upcoming Sunday, October 9th, we will begin what will be a 2-3 week conversation regarding our building, St E’s.
In the recent history of Vineyard Central, some among us dedicated an important chunk of time and energy to considering options for the building going forward. As an affirmation of their important work, and as a confession that we’re not re-inventing the wheel now, several members of what was known as the St. Elizabeth’s Explorers will share with us their work, give us recommendations, and have some time to respond to questions we might have.
It will be a panel format, with those who can make it sitting together up front. Angela Pancella will begin with an overview of what the team discovered and the options they had been working on. The other panelists can chime in and add details as they see fit. Then there will be a time of Q&A for the whole gathering. If there is time, we will conclude by giving each panelist a couple minutes to share their personal recommendation/desire for the building. So a general timeline:
Here is a brief recap of some of things we shared and heard the last two weeks during our discussions about our place in this neighborhood:
Below is a short synopsis of our conversation from this Sunday (October 2nd). A strong attempt has been made to group together the thoughts and responses that were most connected to one another:
Joshua Stoxen kicked off the conversation with a reflection on how we might seek to see where God is already at work and join Him and others there. He recalled Dave Barr’s sharing of the image of a open cistern with God’s water being poured in and overflowing outwards to bless others. Joshua reflected that in a sense, there are cisterns all over Norwood; we are not the primary bringers of God’s Spirit, but companions with other. He asked, “How do we listen and humbly join with others that God is pouring into?” He also recalled the work of CCDA (Christian Community Development Association) and their work in the larger church to bring together the call to social justice and the call to evangelize with words, reminding us all that the good news is not either/or, but the deep togetherness of both. So, the great call in Matthew 22 to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind” and “love your neighbor as yourself” is the framework for all we work towards.
Laura Menze: Sensitive to and aware of mental illness/addiction present in our neighborhood. In her work with Summit, she is sensitive to God’s beauty displayed through mental illness. That also brought to mind for her a desire for the building to be handicap accessible.
Angie Ferrell responded that she would love for chances to be educated about how to connect with and communicate well with persons with mental illness.
Angie moved on to wonder how we could partner with other churches to use our building in a more full way
Joshua Stoxen responded that in the Norwood Ministerial Association meeting last week, he mentioned the possibility of St. E’s as a church-based health clinic
Sandie asked, “Would there be a conflict experienced with the Norwood Health Clinic?”
Stoxen: “That’s a good question. One advantage of a church-based health clinic is that they have more freedom for spiritual conversations and therefore a more holistic care of persons.”
Mary: Could the building be used for child-care?
Don: “There’s a very diverse group of people here. Spreading our unique knowledge we might carry (hanging dry wall, mechanical, mental illness, etc) could be a practice we commit ourselves to (consistently spending time teaching others in practical, shareable skills)
Juli Thompson; “With just moving and around all new neighbors, I’m aware of the need for us to be authentic in our family-dynamics with our neighbors, to portray authentically who we are in interactions with them.”
Leslie Nixon: “It’s very helpful when talking with our neighbors to listen deeply to them. What do we hear? What needs do we sense?”
Sandie: “In the fundraiser Sarah Allen had at her home, we had a great conversation with the Mayor of Norwood and his wife. The conversation was of great benefit to both sides (old school Norwood meeting new school Norwood).
Greg York: Shared a reflection of his of late, that we carry lots of dreams, but we don’t have to start them all, or carry them all. He recalled a transformative conversation he had with a Norwood city official recently. He’s had some frustration in relationship with the city, but the official shared why he pursued working in his position; because he grew up in Norwood and really wants to see the community thrive again. Greg felt reminded of the need to bless the city officials in their work more and seek to understand their story too.
Nathan: Shared of a spectrum he’s had in his mind where one extreme is a community that consistently, habitually does good things, but without joy, without deep love, and the other extreme is a community that has lots of good ideas and has a desire to love, but whose practice is very inconsistent or non-existent. The middle would be the ‘sweet spot,’ where deep love and consistent practice ‘hold hands’ together. He observed his perspective that if we’re honest as a community, we’re very far over in the spectrum towards the community with a desire to love with very inconsistent practice. “So in order to have more balance, we need to choose to emphasize practices we can consistently carry out, even if it feels too tough, to grow our capacity over time. We’ve mentioned in the Discernment Time that we would like to have a community meal where our neighbors are invited. In order to grow in consistency, maybe we need to start at a place that we know we can handle. We’ve seen how our consistency in eating together weekly has petered out over the course of the Discernment Process. Can we begin with a once-a-month meal, and maybe after a year, or several years, or a decade, move to maybe twice a month as we build the capacity for consistency, and our neighbors can grow to know we are trustworthy with that time and space?”
Tom Wuest: Shared, “During the listening prayer time, I had an experience where I was sitting on an airplane beside Jesus, and he was in the window seat. As I sat beside him, I just felt like it was strange, so I asked ‘Jesus, why are you here?’ Jesus looked out the window, and said, ‘These clouds are awesome. I remember when we had the idea for water evaporating up and being caught in this way. They’re so beautiful!’ I responded, ‘Yes, but Jesus, we’re separated from the clouds in this metal container. Don’t you feel exiled here?’ Jesus said, “Yes, but I am also deeply present here. I am an exile wherever I go, but I am also deeply present.’ And I said to him, “I need to learn how to do that. I feel the sense of exile so deeply, and I need to learn how to be deeply present like you.’”
Tom then left the story to give his response to Nathan, saying, “When it comes to being deeply present to our neighbors, the idea of a common table, of a regular open community meal, is something I find deeply welcoming. I desire that.”
Todd Long: Shared about the importance of having a point person to communicate in simple consistent ways about the things we have said we will do. He wondered if this may have contributed to the inconsistency of meals during the Discernment Process.
Kenny Havens: Commented that he was sensitive to the need for that communication to not just be electronic to be as accessible as possible to as much of our community.
There is more that was shared, but hopefully this captures a good slice of it. Feel free to add comments below about what you heard (or didn’t hear) and were encouraged (or discouraged) by. We will be transitioning to talking about the building this Sunday, while continuing to hold our larger place in the neighborhood in view.
Also, as a reminder, if you have yet to do so, please fill out our short survey about the discernment process. You can find it here: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/D3GZWPQ. We definitely value your input!
From Liz Bruner:
This Friday, women will be gathering for “bring your own craft and hang out” time! Meet us from 8pm-10pm at the back entrance to St. E’s. Enter in the orange doors and go up to studio 6 (Juli’s Studio). I will have stamps and paper available to make cards for those who don’t have a craft project, but you can just come and hang out, too. Apple cider and snacks will join us as well. Please let anyone who you run into without email access or internet capabilities know about this, too! It is open to all.
Hope to see you there!
Apartment available in West Norwood on Williams Ave.
This little apartment is a perfect fit for someone with community leanings who appreciates the flexibility of individual space. The building is owned by a 70 year old woman who views her tenants as a kind of makeshift extended family. She will bring you a hot bowl of Campbell’s soup if you are sick. I and the other tenant are single 30-somethings who leave our doors unlocked and volunteer to pet sit
one another’s cats on weekends. We help one another in concrete ways, and although we wouldn’t formally characterize ourselves as an official community, life is definitely lived together.
If you have a penchant for gardening, a high tolerance for cats (there are 10 total in the building), and a desire for a living situation that is more interdependent than submitting rent once a month, this
may be the place for you. Please contact Meridith Owensby at 513-223-3509 or meridithowensby@gmail.com for more information.