Clandestine Fiddling

Clandestine Fiddling 2013 - Watch it now.

A Trip to Conoy

The Compassion Core team and musicians from our network traveled to Elizabethtown to Conoy BIC Church on Sunday. Following Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 25, Jonny Rashid shared why we would care to have compassion on others and Megan Rosenbach gave the details about how we are doing it through our compassion teams. Our musicians shared original and foreign language songs. Our fourteen compassion teams give people fourteen different opportunities to help spread justice and peace in the Philadelphia region and beyond, and the Compassion Core team is working to find creative ways to expand our reach. Sunday was a great start! The good people at Conoy BIC welcomed us with hospitality and even orchestrated a love offering of $300! We are looking for more venues to share the stories from our compassion teams in the coming months.

Reporting: Megan Rosenbach

Missionary Mindset

On Saturday, our cell leaders gathered to learn a bit more about what Paul was really talking about when he told Corinthian women to veil their heads. We concluded that he was really trying to be on a mission, striving to be all things to all people as he had written about just a few chapters earlier. Our cell leaders then brainstormed about ways that we could make connections within our neighborhoods and meet the next person by being cultural sensitive and flexibly presenting the Gospel.

The summary of Jonny's complete talk at the training can be read at his blog: http://jonnyrashid.wordpress.com/ 

Reporting: Jonny Rashid

Circle Thrift shares nearly triple so far in 2013!

Last year by the end of April Circle Thrift had shared $12,750 with the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC). This year they have already shared $33,700 with MCC! That is nearly a tripling in giving!

The money donated to the Mennonite Central Committee is used to support peace, education, health, food, and water programs around the globe. Here are a few real ways that Circle Thrift's donations to MCC are impacting people:

Syria: MCC's work with Syrian partner organizations to respond to the basic human needs of Syrians by distributing food, blankets and kits, and supporting peacebuilding and education in Syria, Jordan and Lebanon.

HIV AIDS Prevention: MCC supports volunteers, churches and organizations who are courageously speaking out to prevent the spread of HIV, caring for their neighbors and supporting those orphaned by the pandemic.

Clean Drinking Water: folks in Zambian villages are trained by Brethren in Christ Churches to maintain hand water pumps in their communities to provide access to clean drinking water.

Fixing Up

On Saturday May 25th, twenty-five people from across the Network descended on the Marlton & Crescent space to get some crucial work done. It felt like an autumn day, but the cool breezes helped keep them moving! Parking lot cracks were fixed, trees and bushes planted in freshly weeded beds, and mulch was put everywhere. Marlton & Crescent is gearing up for the final push toward getting their Site Plan finished/signed off on and gaining their permanent certificate of occupancy. The additional love and effort went a long way! There were a lot of sore backs, dirty kids, and joyous smiles...well worth every second!

Imaginarium: Getting Free of Mammon

Joshua Grace speaking to us on sharing, saving, spending.

On Monday night, Circle of Hopers gathered for an hour to discuss money and how as a community we should use it. Among the personal anecdotes shared, there was also some insight that the common perspective of spending, saving, and sharing—a perspective that is rooted in how much one makes—should in fact be flipped to sharing, saving, and spending, and that sharing money was even reported by research studies to bring much more happiness than spending on yourself. 

The group also took an in-depth look at how Circle of Hope gives away our money and the various ways in which we are attempting to practice sharing, saving, and spending. The hour ended with Vanessa Caruso leading the group in pooling ideas that would help us take steps to getting more responsible with the way we spend and how we share. Some of those ideas included war tax resistance, sharing stories of giving, learning economic policy, tracking a congregation's spending, and practical workshops.

Rob Wetherington ended the hour by leading the group in a prayer toss where the group prayed for our wisdom in how to handle money, and as a symbolic action threw money at the wall.

Some of the results of our prayer toss.

 

Seminar: Sexuality, Spirituality, and the Politics of Identity

Jenell Paris brought some of her brilliance to us this Saturday. She’s an anthropology professor at Messiah College and wrote “The End of Sexual Identity.” She came to Frankford & Norris to teach about ourselves, sexuality, and our souls. She brought a great deal of eloquence and taught us to be conversant about such a so-called “controversial” topic. Jenell did the good work of deconstructing our bifurcated and compartmentalized sexuality identity and pointed us to an identity as the beloved of Christ. There was a great degree of universal praise for the seminar, and we had well over 100 people present. An MP3 recording is soon to come.

Written by: Jonny Rashid