This important, ecumenical, worldwide offering starts on Sunday. You are invited to make your contribution to OGHS anytime in the next 3 three weeks. To see why you might do that, click on this video below. It’s 50 seconds and beautifully done.
Category: Newsletter
Ava Skis On!
Ava Thurston, daughter of Tom Thurston and Heidi Hill is in Anchorage, Alaska competing in the Junior National Ski Competition. She has raced both freestyle and classic, taking a 5th in the former and a 3rd place in the later. She competed against 74 other championship level skiers from around the country in the under 16 bracket. Congratuations Ava!
Climate March Through Waterbury
350Vermont is creating a five-day, 53-mile sacred walk for climate justice, called Next Steps. Together we will celebrate solutions to the climate crisis already underway, while also grieving the pipeline, ecosystem destruction, and the ever-growing, multi-faceted injustices of the “Industrial Growth Society.” We invite you to take this journey with us to deepen our connections with each other and the land.
Our plan is to walk from Middlebury to Montpelier, April 5 to 9, 2019. Along the way, we’ll witness the pipeline’s impact on land and lives and witness the creative solutions and changes being implemented — from homesteads to solar panels, from mass transit to mass compost. When we land at the State House in Montpelier, we will escalate our call for a ban on fossil fuel infrastructure. Each day will offer unique opportunities for activism, reflection, and community-building; each day will have a focus connected to place and to healing our world and ourselves.
Why now? we’re walking because we’re in an emergency — a climate emergency, a justice emergency. We’re walking to focus this emergency both for ourselves and the broader community. At this moment, the communities along the Addison County pipeline are at risk because of safety violations by VT Gas. At this moment, legislators are not acting swiftly to pass a ban on fossil fuel infrastructure or other policies commensurate with the crisis at hand. And, also, at this moment, youth are striking across Europe, the Green New Deal is shining brightly, and people across Vermont are seeking fair and equitable alternatives.
Why this walk? especially when the crisis is so urgent? Because creating strong ties between us, the changemakers, are essential in this movement. Because we need to practice working collaboratively in challenging situations. Because we know that our collective power is stronger than our individualist pursuits. Together, we will co-create an interdependent community dedicated to collective liberation, personal transformation, and realizing and reclaiming our power. We’ll share our stories; we’ll listen to each other; we’ll engage in real dialogue and consensus process. We’ll join together in ceremony and shared meals, in silence and in song, with laughter, tears, deep friendship, and blisters.
Curious about joining? We are committed to inclusivity, and all people are welcome in building this beloved Next Steps community. You are welcome to join for one day, five days, or for as many days as you are able. If you are unable to join the walk in body, we invite you to join in spirit – in prayer, in sponsorship, in silent vigil, or in some meaningful act of solidarity. We will also have opportunities for the public to join at our Middlebury send-off, at an outdoor worship ceremony at Geprags Park, and in Montpelier for the final day of action.
Next Steps walking route:
Day 1: Middlebury to Bristol
Reunion: building community and our relationships with each other
Day 2: Bristol to Hinesburg
Resistance: bearing witness to the pipeline
Day 3: Hinesburg to Richmond
Reimagine: shifting consciousness
Day 4: Richmond to Middlesex (Through Waterbury — Monday, April 8)
Recreate: seeking solutions, alternatives, transitions
Day 5: Middlesex to Montpelier
Reform: speaking truth to power
2019 Silent Auction
We will be having our second annual silent auction this year on June 28, 2019. The auction will be held in conjunction with the Strawberry Supper and will be set up in the sanctuary / chapel.
We had our first silent auction last year and it was a success, but we were not able to reach people beyond the congregation, so we decided to hold it during the Strawberry Supper while we already have many people from the community and make the auction an even bigger success. This will freshen up the Strawberry Supper too.
Also, this year we hope to reach even beyond Waterbury and the surrounding area by putting some of our higher-end auction items on an auction bidding site like Biddingforgood.com. This site is a nonprofit fundraising auction site. While reaching more people we are also likely to get higher bids on the items, which is the ultimate goal.
We are seeking volunteers for the following tasks:
- Multiple people to get donation items for the auction.
- Last year experiential items were a big hit, i.e. the half-day sailing on Lake Champlain, tickets to a UVM game and the Venison and Salmon dinner. So, if you have that nice appliance to donate, great, but experiences to share with you such as the venison dinner or experiences apart from you such as an Air BNB rental you could donate, that would be even better.
- Donation items from the congregation are great and we also want to try to go beyond the congregation to get even more items.
- You don’t need to be on a committee to help with this. If you have an item to donate that you think would be good for a silent auction, please call the church (at least until we get a point person for donations!)
- Set up and pick up the day of the auction. Only need a couple of people as there isn’t that much work. (June Hibbs will be there but will need 1 or 2 more.)
- A few people to stay with the items and answer any questions regarding the auction items. (June Hibbs will be there but will need 1 or 2 more.)
- A promotion team to really market the supper and auction.
Thanks for your attention to this,
June Hibbs, and your Board of Finance
Our Automated External Defibrillator
At the annual meeting a few weeks ago, the Board of Deacons proposed that we purchase an Automated External Defibrillator (AED). The proposal was accepted with a caveat that we seek a grant. We explored here and there and were mostly turned down, but one of the places that turned us down did offer a sale price that was better than the best sale price we’d previously found.
We took delivery of the AED and will install it in a box mounted on the wall in the chapel, to the left of the fireplace. See the forthcoming photo. (We’re installing it this afternoon, and I’ll post a picture when we’re done.)
An AED is a computer that reads the rhythms of the heart of someone who has stopped breathing and upon whom a rescue team is doing CPR. It can be used by anyone who knows how to do CPR. One of the advantages to using an AED if someone goes down with a heart attack in our building, is that when the Waterbury Ambulance Service comes, they will be able to immediately hook up their equipment to ours and thus begin more specialized treatment immediately.
On February 5, eight of us from the congregation were trained in CPR by the Waterbury Ambulance Service and in the use of our new AED. We certainly hope we never need to use it. But it is good to know and be prepared.