Guest Minister: Rev. John Ballance

Coordinator: Bobbie Colt Rev. John Ballance of Pittsburgh will lead this service Mother’s Day themed service.

Imad Diab has spent his entire career building cultural understanding. He originally went to Baghdad University in his Iraqi homeland for Petroleum Engineering and French Language. Once he started working in the oil industry his supervisors could see he was adept at interpersonal relationships and was then trained to help solve problems and build relationships among clients and workers representing many different cultures. He has since resettled in Erie and has put those same skills to work helping former refugees integrate into American society and trained the broader community about the many New Americans who now live here. He has degrees in conflict resolution, international studies, and communications from Cambridge University and PennWest Edinboro. He taught Middle Eastern Culture and Arabic language at Mercyhurst University for several years. Currently he is Program Manager and Diversity Trainer at the Multicultural Community Resource Center and on the faculty at the Erie Community College. Hear him reflect on his vast experience of different cultures.

Led by Rev. Kristina Church

Let’s celebrate Earth Day with Indigenous Wisdom to guide us. In a broken landscape of our own creation, can we find the courage to envision, and then live into, a more connected way? How can we avoid the paralysis of despair, and instead face and begin to heal the harm that’s been done?

Led by Reverend Kristina Church

Our globally interconnected existence shows up in the most intimate and surprising places, like the very clothing we put on our bodies. Let’s explore Interdependence and Inter-being with a deep dive into the international garment industry. How can we live our values through our fashion choices, and why does it matter?

Speaker: Rev. Kristina Church Let’s celebrate Easter and the season of spring, as we tell stories of transformation and rebirth.

Led by Bobbi Colt

Basically, yeast is often associated with growth, expansion, and transformation. When added to dough, it causes the bread to rise and become larger. Yeast permeates every part of the dough. Likewise, transformation affects our thoughts, emotions, behaviors, and relationships. Therefore, encourage openness to change. Let it seep into all aspects of life, creating a holistic transformation. The yeast also symbolizes that transformation is a gradual hidden process with great potential. So, It’s not about what we will become, but rather about who we are now and who we are becoming.

led By Rev. Kristina Church

As we consider to the future of our congregation, what is our vision of the way forward? What gifts, resources, and attitudes do we need to bring it about? Let’s celebrate where we are, and bring some vocal energy to our spring stewardship campaign!

Presented and coordinated by Denny Fiscus

This week’s service features a symposium of live music performances by an array of Congregational members celebrating their musical heritage and its transforming effect upon their lives. Join us in exploring the depth and beauty of the essence of sound and its expansiveness as a medium of consciousness within our daily life.

led by Jim Scott

We will celebrate the earth with Jim’s original songs, readings and personal reflections on Mother Earth or “Gaia” being one living organism.  Jim’s uplifting songs provide the balance to a timely wake-up call, leaving us with vision and inspiration to take the healing into our own hands.

Join us for this service, dedicated to keepin’ on keepin’ on. This is a special service with a topic selected by our winning auction bidder, Dixie Morrow!

Guest Speakers Kendrick Tate and Autumn Parker; Coordinators Mary Desmone and Tabitha Wolf.  The guest speakers are partners with Mary in the Erie Racial Justice Policy Initiative. They will share their thoughts on the journey from current Reality and Equality to the desired Equity and Justice. Kendrick Tate will explain what equity is, why it’s different from equality, and detail how we can work to achieve it. Autumn Parker, will expand upon how practices of equity result in the establishment of justice, “dismantling systems and practices of oppression and replacing them with ones that promote equity.” Audience participation in her interactive activity is welcomed!

Speaker: Rev. Kristina Church

With this joyful service, we celebrate Valentines Day, and wrap up a whole month of focusing on Love, Justice, and Equity– even as we recognize how far we have to go in creating the world we dream about.