Article by Rick Summy, Senior Pastor
Home, writes Frederick Buechner, is “a place where you feel you belong and that in some sense belongs to you…”
Welcome Home! is our SOTV tagline. It reflects what so many people say about this congregation. “I just felt at home.”
As we continue to make our way out of this pandemic, begin a fall programming season that is ambitious in both scope and breadth, and come back together in new and familiar ways, it’s the perfect time to welcome all of our SOTV family and friends home again. September is the month to come home!
The Block Party in the parking lot will be at 4:00 – 7:00 pm on Saturday, September 10. Everything is free: food, games, bingo (with great prizes for the winners), ice cream, door prizes, and music, all anchored in a Saturday evening outdoor worship service. Be sure to invite your neighbors and friends to enjoy the festivities with you!
We will celebrate Grandparents Day during worship services on Sunday, September 11.
A Mission and Ministry Fair will take place around worship hours on September 17 and 18. Come find out about our many ministries, discover new ways to connect, and learn about how you might lend your talents to the work we do together.
But wait…there is more! In addition to these headlining events, there is a movie night and book discussion evening; two Eco Savvy Steward events; Community Breakfasts; Adult Fall Retreat at Camp Wapo; two RIC listening and learning sessions; the start of GodZone, Zone 45, and Confirmation as well as several other Children, Youth, and Family programs; a discussion of our mission, vision, and values; and so much more! Welcome home! This is the place to be to hear the good news, to share in recreation and learning, to discover how we are connecting our faith and the world in which we live, and to ponder how you fit in this place where you belong and that belongs to you.
Sometimes, by the grace of God, I have it in me to be Christ to other people…I believe that it is when that power is alive in me and through me that I come closest to being truly home, come closest to finding or being found by that holiness that I may have glimpsed in the charity and justice and order and peace of other homes I have known, but that in its fullness was always missing… I believe…that the home we long for and belong to is finally where Christ is. I believe that home is Christ’s kingdom, which exists both within us and among us as we wend our prodigal ways through the world in search of it.
From Longing for Home by Frederick Buechner
