What a Great Weekend!

Another full weekend.

We held our third in a series of leadership workshops on Saturday. This one was held at St. Paul's UCC in Rio Rancho, NM. We are gratefull for Lynne Hinton, pastor at St. Paul's and pictured here with Darrell, a member of the church:

and to Sandy Sorensen, who runs our Washington, D.C. advocacy office and who flew in to lead two of the workshops for us, and to preach at St. Paul's on Sunday morning. She is pictured here with our Vice-Moderator, Alissa Marquis from United in Santa Fe:

Yesterday, I spent the morning with the wonderful people at Faith UCC in Dewey, AZ. We had a delightful time, shared a meal together, worshipped, and had great conversation about the mission of the Conference.

And then, last but certainly not least, I was honored to be present for the Ordination of Rev. Jeffrey Dirrim at First Congregational UCC in Phoenix last night. It was magnificent, and we were all so proud of Jeffrey. The church was alive with spirit and energy, and many tears of joy were shed as we laid hands on him and ordained him into ministry. I would have pictures, but my over-used camera, with me everywhere I go, ran out of battery. But here is a pic I took of Jeffrey with his pastor Steve Wayles on the day he was approved for ordination by CoCAM.

I'm back!

Having been away for ten days, this site went dormant for a short while.

But I am back - and glad to be so.

I will share some pics from my time away:
Last night I met with the Search Committee from Desert View UCC in El Paso. Here are Ruth, Cornelia, Jim, Marcos (whom I asked to remove that Indians shirt - but who would not), Lindy, and Bill.


Before I left, I presided at the Installation of Rev. Dr. Sam Sowitsky, pictured here with his lovely bride. Sam is now the duly installed pastor and teacher at Desert Garden UCC in Sun City.


In between, a little golf (this is my son John):


a visit with an old friend - about whom you can learn a little by going to hazellarts.com:


...and something I've always wanted to do - so here I am "standing on a corner in Winslow Arizona, such a fine sight to see."

on vacation...

Please stay tuned for more posts, but am enjoying a week away right now. Some golf, and a lot of baseball.

Thank you for your patience!

A Church and Their New Pastor

Here is a photo of Jane Cheek. With her are Marilyn Dunnels, Gordon Bergthold, and Don Storer.

The group came down from First Congregational United Church of Christ in Prescott.

Jane was presented as a candidate for licensed ministry in service to First Church.

It was with much joy and enthusiasm that the license was granted, and on this day begins the Pastorate of Jane Cheek. If the rest of the church is as excited about this as was the group that came to represent them, I suspect there will be much rejoicing in Prescott in the coming days.

A moving trip...

How do I begin to describe all that I encountered in the last three days?

Gathering with global partners in Ministry from both the United Church of Christ and the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), we traveled across the border into Mexico to examine the life, the journey, the struggles of the Migrantes.

I was moved by the challenges they face, and by the dignity with which they comport themselves.

I was challenged by those who are on the frontlines ministering to these noble people whose lives have become so desparate they will face great odds to help feed their family - to simply survive.

Here are just a few pictures. I will try and post a link soon so you can see a whole gallery of photos from this trip.

A special thanks to both Randy Mayer, Delle McCormick, and Liana Rowe for their participation and leadership in this event, and in their efforts to shape justice on the border.

A Fruitful Weekend...

...that began with a meeting of the Nominating Committee on Saturday morning.
Pictured here are Mike Peacock, David Ragan, Holly Herman, Melissa Talley (yep, she made it on the blog again), and Sally Ponzio. Not pictured are Faith Crawford (who came just after this picture was taken), and Rich Doerrer-Peacock - who was sitting at the other end of the table.

From there, I hit the road and headed into Los Alomos - where it snowed on me Saturday as I arrived in town!


I spent the rest of the weekend there, and loved every minute of it.

One of the unusual features are their stained glass windows. I know, you are thinking 'A church with stained glass windows? Who'da thunk it?"

But, look a little more closely at the top of this window. Betcha find something you won't see in any of your windows. And though it isn't pictured here, bet none of you have a rendering of a black hole in any of your windows, either (maybe in your pulpits, but not your windows: shame on me for that one).


I finished my time there with a nice meal shared by Don Childers (Sr. Pastor), Deb Worley (clergy and member of the church), Ken and Mary Freese (members who have been very active in the Conference, and who were there for their last Sunday - after 35 years!), and Kathleen Logan (Associate Pastor).


I had a great time.

Now I'm off to Mexico! (look for pics later in the week).

Annual Meeting...

The Annual Meeting Planning team met this morning in the Conference Office. Such exciting things as tents, and meal menus, and workshop spaces were discussed.

In addition, we planned for youth involvement, key note adresses, the clergy/youth softball game, worship themes and services.

This is going to be a great event - I truly believe that. Register now if you have not!

Since last I posted...

I have been a few places, done a few things.

In order, they are:

A meeting with the Justice and Witness Committee here in the Conference Office. Pictured here are Sandi Britton, Phil Reller, Brian FRederick-Gray, Liana Rowe, and Lee Clegg.

The very next day, we gathered in Tucson for a full day of workshops. Here are a couple of pics from that, including the ever present (or so it seems) Melissa Talley. The other pic is Jake Pomeroy leading a workshop on various legal issues in the life of a church.



The next day, I was in Sahaurita a week late. Should have been there for their building dedication last week, but snow in Chicago kept me too long in Cleveland which got me late into Denver which meant I never got to Phoenix and so didn't make it to Sahaurita - until this Sunday. It was a blast! Had a great time there, and can't wait to go back. What a lively place that is. And ask Randy and his son Jacob who won the early morning, backyard game of PIG.


Finally, just a picture of me on my way to work this morning. Staff meeting today - which I need to hurry up and get ready for.