Cleveland Park Congregational UCC
Nurturing love of God and love of neighbor in the world
I invite you to read my bi-weekly newsletters below for reflections on Sunday worship and updates on congregational life. I hope, and believe, you will also enjoy my Sermons. I look forward to seeing you and sharing worship with you.
- Blessings,
Pastor Ellen
Here are some spiritual resources that I find myself returning to time and again. I hope you will also enjoy them.
UCC Feed Your Spirit
Bite in the Apple
Patheos.com
The Listening Hermit
RickMorley.com
Larry Patten.com
Happy Easter!
In Christian tradition, Easter is a season that lasts until Pentecost (June 5). This year I’m especially glad we have fifty days to celebrate resurrection and new life.
One way we can do this is by practicing a more embodied faith. With its emphasis on incarnation, Christianity is, at core, a religion that embraces physical being. Yet, far too often, our tradition has spiritualized human existence and denied or rejected human bodies in this world.
As our congregation
Read More
Greetings this Holy Week,
As we progress from Palm Sunday to Easter, I’m mindful of the many facets of life this story mirrors: friendship and betrayal, suffering and joy, cruelty and love, hope and despair. In one short week, Jesus goes from the “high” of entering Jerusalem, cheered by his followers, to state execution on a cross. But that’s not the end! Though the powers that be try over and over to kill the spirit of freedom, crush the
Read More
Spring Greetings,
In like a lamb, out like a lion. March is typically a month of extremes, and this year we’ve seen it all: snow, heat, rain, sleet, sun, and temperature changes over 30 degrees in 24 hours. Yet the cherry trees and daffodils still bloom! Early spring flowers seem to have a special ability to withstand whatever weather arises. I’m grateful for their hardiness and choosing to model my own resilience after theirs.
Last Sunday, I preached on the
Read More
Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
Whenever I remember the Irish Troubles and the good news of Ireland today, I always feel more hopeful. People can change for the better. Peace is possible. Healing does happen.
There’s so much going on in the world right now, both good and bad. Often, it feels overwhelming. And with the news we see, hear, and read typically synonymous with bad news, we’re justifiably horrified and angry—not just at the cruelty and injustice we observe,
Read More
Dear Church Community,
I write this on Ash Wednesday, as Putin marches on Ukraine, many other people suffer under violence and tyranny worldwide, and LGBTQ+ children and adults in our own country are oppressed by attitudes and laws that prevent them from being safe, accepted, and equal.
This is the time and place in which we live. Yet, as T.S. Eliot wrote in Ash Wednesday, “Time is always time, and place is always and only place.”
Read More