Worship this Sunday, September 17
Gifts of the Spirit – Improbable Gifts
Music Sunday
Worship Leader and Song Leader: Jeremy Nafziger
Pastoral Prayer: Dayna Olson-Getty
Scripture: Acts 10
Bulletin: 091717-bulletin
Upcoming CMC Events at a Glance (details below)
Sept 22-24 CMC Retreat at Camp Brethren Woods
October 21 Church Work Day
CMC Events and Announcements
CMC Annual Retreat. CMC's annual retreat will be held September 22-24 at Camp Brethren Woods. Our keynote speaker will be Isaac Villegas, pastor of Chapel Hill Mennonite Church. The theme will be Love, Joy and Resistance: Practicing the politics of Mary in the face of empire. In addition to learning sessions with Isaac, we are planning hands-on learning activities for children and youth, story-telling and s'mores around a bonfire, Saturday Night Live (CMC-style), and free-time for outdoor activities. Come for part or all of the weekend. Registration is available online at surveymonkey.com/r/2017CMCRetreat.
Church Work Day. Mark your calendars and plan to participate in CMC’s Church Work Day on Saturday, October 21 from 8:30 am-12:30 pm. More details to come! –Sam Miller, Property Committee Chair
Did you know that there are four ways to give to CMC?
By cash or check: Either place your contribution in the offering basket or mail checks to the church. Use the memo line to indicate a particular fund ("Everyone Welcome," "General Fund," etc.).
By text message: Text the amount you wish to donate (e.g. "$25") to 540-779-1276. The first time, you'll receive a link to register your information. Undesignated funds will go to CMC's general fund. To contribute to the Everyone Welcome, add "Welcome" after the amount (e.g. "$100 Welcome"). To donate to the Fifth Sunday offering, add "Fifth".
On our website: Click the teal "Give" button on the top right corner of our website at cmcva.org
On your smartphone: Search for "GivePlus Church" in the Android or iPhone app store, once you've installed it, just search for "Community Mennonite Church."
CMC wants to keep in touch with you! Please notify the church office whenever your contact information changes, or if you would like to receive weekly emails with CMC announcements and prayer requests. Mailboxes (located in the Fellowship Hall) are available to CMC members and regular attenders. A regularly updated version of the CMC directory is available online on the CMC website (the password is the same as it has been for a long time—please call the church office if you do not know what it is). Photo directories (updated every few years) are available through the church office and can be handy resources for getting to know the names of fellow CMCers.
Sunday School for Children and Youth began September 3. Children ages 2-3 are using a curriculum called Wee Wonder. Ages 4-high school are using lessons from the Circle of Grace/Our Whole Lives curriculum for the first three Sundays in September. Details of topics for each Sunday, age groups and meeting locations are available on the kiosk in the Fellowship Hall. The Shine curriculum will begin on October 1.
Attention CMC Seniors. As a senior group we have agreed to help the Murches in the potato preparation for the potato donuts made at the Virginia MCC Relief Sale. We are meeting on Tuesday evening, September 26 at 6:00 pm. Thanks to those who have agreed to help. We still need more help. If you are free to help, bring a potato peeler, knife, bowl and cutting board. If you can help, let me know at kykauffmans@yahoo.com.
Volunteer Opportunities for the MCC Relief Sale. There are many opportunities to volunteer at this year’s MCC Relief Sale. Please sign up online or on the poster in the Fellowship Hall for the following:
- Persons to assist with equipment set upe. chairs, tents, grills, tables, coolers, etc. To sign up, click on this link: https://slotted.co/9ae5291x and click on “slot me” to fill in your name and email address.
- Persons to assist with food sales. To sign up, click on this link: https://slotted.co/ltubggf2 and click on “slot me” to fill in your name and email address.
- Pie makers: Please pick up pie pans this Sunday to create delectable pies. No cream pies, please. Pies must be ready for pick up at 4 pm Sept 29 at CMC
- MCC Donation forms are available in the church office for anyone who needs: "2017 Donation Form for the Virginia Mennonite Relief Sale, September 29 & 30, 2017."
Kiddie Corner at MCC Sale. The Kiddie Corner at the Relief Sale (yard sale type stand of kids’ items) needs a few people to staff it throughout the day on Saturday. If there are 2 or 3 hours you would like to help out, please contact Greta Kreider at 540-432-9107.
Fall Mums Fundraiser for Community Preschool. The Community Preschool is selling beautiful fall mums! Look for the display in the fellowship hall to sign up, or contact Eliot or Katrina Swartz at ekswartz@gmail.com.
CMC Art Display– The art pieces by Madeline Miller that were displayed in the CMC hallway this past month were taken down last week. If you have interest in purchasing one of her pieces, you may contact Madeline at: miller.madeline99@gmail.com.
Retreat to the Front – Lots to see on the infamous photo collage bulletin board (on the west wall of the fellowship hall, y'all). A new display on the September worship service theme, "Gifts of the Spirit"; to the right, a collage of CMC's 2015 retreat at Camp Brethren Woods, "Play It Again, Sam: How God Speaks to Us Through Play"; and a congregational report for July-August in Mennonite World Review. Then, do an about face to the bulletin board on the east side of the fellowship hall and relive the congregation's 2009 retreat at Camp Overlook on the theme, "I Have a Dream." Did we? –Jim Bishop
Apartment needed: A neighbor friend of mine has become homeless after her place was deemed unlivable by the city. She is looking for a place that is or can be handicap accessible with money she has through assistance for disabled persons. Living quarters made for aging parents or small apartment on one level are ideal. Please contact Greta Kreider 540-432-9107 if you know of anything.
The opera, Singers Glen, will be performed at the Singers Glen Music and Heritage Festival Sept. 23-24. Two performances on Saturday (2 p.m. and 7 p.m.) and one on Sunday (2 p.m.). The opera, by Alice Parker, tells the story of Joseph Funk and his 19th-century hymnal publishing using a number of Harmonia Sacra tunes in choral and solo singing. CMC members involved: Matthew Hunsberger, Erika Metzler Sawin, Isaac Dahl, Brian Martin Burkholder, Sam Miller, Atticus Nafziger, Helena Nafziger, Alisha Huber, and Jeremy Nafziger. No tickets required; offering taken. The festival also includes walking tours, historical displays, food, a Harmonia Sacra sing, and other music. For more details, see www.donovanumc.org.
Book Signing for Dorothy Jean Weaver's Irony of Power. Eastern Mennonite Seminary will host a book-signing for Dorothy Jean Weaver's newly-published volume The Irony of Power: The Politics of God within Matthew's Narrative on Wednesday, September 27, from 11:00 AM – 1:00 PM at Martin Chapel in the Seminary Building. Dorothy Jean will offer a brief "reading" which highlights the central theme of the volume. A dessert reception and book signing will follow. Payment for the book, $23.25 may be made via check.
The One-Hundred Years Roar. Eastern Mennonite University has launched its Centennial year (1917-2017), and whether or not you are among the great cloud of alumni witnesses you can help celebrate this historic occasion with a Lifelong Learning Institute (LLI) class being offered by JMU. The course will meet 9:30-11:30 a.m. Thursdays in two five-week sessions Sept. 14 – Nov. 16; persons may attend either session for $35 or all ten weeks for $50. The class will provide an overview of EMU's transformation from a small, insular academic community to an accredited university with a global impact. You may know several of the instructors – Lee Snyder, Jeremy Nafziger, Nancy Heisey and Gloria Rhodes – along with nine others. For more information and to register, contact the JMU Lifelong Learning Institute at www.jmu.edu/LLI or call 568-2823. BTW, did you know our own Louise Otto Hostetter is chair of EMU's Centennial Planning Committee? –Jim Bishop
Tickets for EMU’s Centennial Play for Oct 13-14 are on sale now. The production, written by Ted Swartz and Ingrid DeSanctis, will appeal to many who remember the tender years of college and to those interested in EMU’s story of transformation, both past and into the future. Braydon Hoover is also a part of the production. Order tickets online at emu.edu/box-office
Events and Announcements from the Broader Community
Bike Shenandoah. You are invited to participate in the 20th annual Bike Shenandoah ride on Saturday, September 16 at Eastern Mennonite School in Harrisonburg, VA. This family-friendly event includes rides of 5, 15, 30, or 62 miles in the beautiful Shenandoah Valley. All proceeds benefit Virginia Mennonite Missions, MennoMedia, Mennonite Central Committee, NewBridges Immigrant Resource Center, Our Community Place, and Roberta Webb Childcare Center. Individuals and congregations can also participate by sponsoring riders. Register online at bikeshenandoah.org or the day of the ride!
New Mennonite Hymnal Hymn Sing. Let your voice resonate! Join a regional hymn sing at 6:30 pm, Sunday, September 17, at Harrisonburg Mennonite Church, for a glimpse into the work of the Mennonite Worship and Song Committee. Come add your voice in sharing hopes and dreams for a new hymnal as we sing praise to God! Thanks! –Benjamin Bergey, Music Editor, Mennonite Worship and Song Committee
Engage with pastor Mandy Smith as she comes to Harrisonburg for a series of chapels, forums and lectures on “Being Human in Ministry,” September 19-20, 2017. Originally from Australia, Mandy Smith is lead pastor of University Christian Church, a campus and neighborhood congregation with its own fair-trade café in Cincinnati, Ohio. She is a contributing editor for Leadership Journal and the author of Making a Mess and Meeting God. Her latest book is The Vulnerable Pastor: How Human Limitations Empower Our Ministry (IVP). Her books will be available for purchase. These events are sponsored by Eastern Mennonite Seminary, Eastern Mennonite University, Virginia Mennonite Conference, and Virginia Mennonite Missions. See the schedule of events and learn more at virginiaconference.org/news/being-human-in-ministry-with-mandy-smith/
MHI Dinner. The Mennonite Hispanic Initiative Friends Dinner will be Friday, September 22, 7-9 pm, at Park View Mennonite Church. Join us for a Latino meal served by MHI people from three congregations. A special program will highlight MHI's accomplishments in the last year. There will also be opportunity to financially support the work and mission of MHI.
Papusa Fundraiser. Please consider supporting this fundraising event at Our Community Place on Sunday, September 24 from 5-8 pm, sent to us through Faith in Action. This Papusa Fundraiser is to support a woman in our community who is currently facing a deportation order. She has been in the USA-Harrisonburg for ten years. She has three U.S. born daughters and a chance to get the deportation order dropped, and hopefully a permanent legal status. We want to diminish the threat of losing her daughters, and help achieve the assurance that she can safely provide for them. It is our desire to raise funds to help her with her legal fees, and to show her our love and support from the community she and her family have called home for the last 10 years. For more information or to make donations, call 540-209-1422.
Men’s Retreat: A retreat experience known as MROP (Men's Rites of Passage) was birthed almost 20 years ago by the work of Richard Rohr and others. Application is now open for next month's event near Harper's Ferry, West Virginia, October 4–8, 2017. CMCers/Harrisonburg residents who have participated include Brian Martin Burkholder, Keith Gnagey, Tim Godshall, Craig Serrels, and Keaton Shenk. For more information and application: https://www.illuman.org/mens-rites-of-passage/
A Focus on Racial Equity Seminar will be held at the Eastern Mennonite Seminary chapel, on Saturday, October 21 from 8:30 am-1 pm (light refreshments provided). Faith in Action covenant congregations and NAACP members are invited to send representatives to a lively and interactive presentation by the Racial Equity Institute (www.racialequityinstitute.org). This presentation will provide introductory information about the structural nature of racism, the characteristics of modern-day racial inequity, and the relationships between people, communities, and racial inequity. Faith in Action congregants and NAACP members are asked to register by September 22nd. (If you would be helped by a language translator, please e-mail faithinactionva@gmail.com. Please include your name and language needed in your message.)
Light Up the Log House. CrossRoads Valley Brethren-Mennonite Heritage Center Fundraiser invites individuals, Sunday school classes, small groups, and families to consider donating gifts to "Light Up the Log House" at CrossRoads. The 1829 log house building on the CrossRoads campus is nearing completion, with a number of $150.00 lights being one of the last pieces needed before the house is fully functional. Gifts are welcomed in honor of those in your lives who have modeled light shining in the darkness. Send us a note about the person/people you would like to honor with your gift, and send along with check made payable to VBMHC and mailed to "Valley Brethren-Mennonite Heritage Center, P.O. Box 1563, Harrisonburg, VA 22803." Memo: Log House Lights. Contact info@vbmhc.org with questions or to learn more about the log