“Have you ever felt that God was calling you to do something? How did you feel about that? Were you certain, afraid, unsure? How did you know, and what did you do with that?” ~Pastor Robbin Ferriman
We welcome you to join in that exploration with Pastor Robbin Ferriman from Urbana. Our service will be hybrid in person and online (Zoom) service. We begin fellowship at 10:30 am, and worship at 11:00 am. Hope to see you there.
This morning we shared our hearts, our prayers and comfort as we worshipped and ate together. Thank you for this beautiful weekend, the meals together, for our lovely service (Rev. Sherrie, Betsy and Robbin) and to all of our extended church family in Urbana and Cleveland who were able to make the drive.
Have a good week and be good stewards!
Enjoying our morning of meditation on caring for creation! Discussing our personal responsibility of stewardship toward our earth and managing our inner selves to have a greater effect on the external world.
Photo by Eileen Franz
Photo by Eileen Franz
Photo by Eileen Franz
Photo by Eileen Franz
Photo by Eileen Franz
Photo by Eileen Franz
Photo by Eileen Franz
Photo by Eileen Franz
Swedenborg Scholar in Residence and 2019 Award Recipient, Rev. Anna Woofenden (Founder of the Garden Church, Feed and Be Fed Far, and the co-host of the Food and Faith Podcast) will deliver two lectures at Urbana University in the coming weeks. Mark your calendar to attend:
“Food and Faith: Conversations from the Soil and Around the Table” March 27, 2019, 7:00 pm, Urbana University Library; Quiet Wing
“Urban Gardening and Community Engagement” March 28, 2019, 1:00 pm, Student Center; Moore Conference Room
https://www.evensi.us/swedenborg-scholar-residence-2019-urbana-university/294975706
Anna grew up in the San Juan Islands in Washington State. She has lived around the country and traveled throughout the world. Anna is now based in Gambier, Ohio, with her husband, David. She enjoys nature, gardening, art, children, writing, community, singing, laughter, and a good cup of chai. She is passionate about spirituality, justice, food, the earth, beauty, compassion, and community, and is still driven by a calling to re-imagine church.
For more information, contact Samantha Kapp-Williamson at samantha.kappwilliamson@urbana.edu
The Ohio Association of Swedenborgian churches meets Friday 9/29 – Sunday 10/1/17, in Urbana, OH.
Friday
Saturday
Sunday
Fill out the form and email it to Betsy Coffman or call 931-631-0899 to give the following information:
Registrant Information:
Room Information:
Dietary Information:
Do you have any special dietary needs/restrictions ? (gluten-free, vegetarian)
Are you planning to arrive Friday and stay through the service on Sunday? Yes___No___
John Chapman, or Johnny Appleseed as he came to be known, was a missionary for the Swedenborgian Church, pronouncing “Good news, right fresh from heaven.” Along the way he not only planted ideas of a new way to think about Christianity, but apple seeds, which some purport, would’ve resulted in unsweet, inedible apples. In the documentary and book, “The Botany of Desire: A Plant’s-Eye View of the World,” Michael Pollan discusses John Chapman; referring to him as a “modern-day” Dionysus, the Greek God of wine and merriment. Tart apples, once grown, would’ve been made into alcoholic cider, a safe drinking-water alternative, and popular on the frontier.
He understood he was working for the apples as much as they were working for him. -Michael Pollan.
To get a different perspective on John Chapman’s spiritual goals, the Swedenborgian Foundation interviewed Ray Silverman, who wrote “The Core of Johnny Appleseed: The Unknown Story of a Spiritual Trailblazer”. Chapman was a shrewd, yet kind businessman who had a love for nature and his fellow human.
Johnny owned at least twelve thousand acres of land and planted numerous nurseries in nineteen counties (in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana). This kind of documentation helps to demonstrate that Johnny was not just a wandering, good-natured vagabond, but rather a skilled businessman and visionary entrepreneur who anticipated people’s needs and filled them. At the same time, it should be remembered that business was not Johnny’s primary love—it was the heavenly doctrines of the New Jerusalem. -Swedenborgian Foundation
You can find out more about Johnny Chapman in Urbana, OH, at the Johnny Appleseed Educational Center and Museum. There is also a Johnny Appleseed Festival in the town where, John Chapman died: Ft. Wayne, Indiana. And, in Cincinnati, Ohio, you can see a bench (pew) likely used by Johnny Appleseed during prayer meetings, at the Glendale New Church.
In the late 1800’s, artist Alice Archer Sewall James or “Archie,” as she was known, was encouraged by her family, including her father, a Swedenborgian minister, to pursue art in all forms, be an educated woman and travel around Europe. In her later years, she “reemerged as an artist and teacher,” taught sculptor John Cavanaugh in Urbana, OH, and also “inspir(ed) a new generation of painters at Urbana University.” ~http://www.swedenborg.com/product/stay-by-me-roses/
New Church of Montgomery, in Glendale 