Responding to Houston

Dear friends, The tragedy unfolding in Houston (and southeast Texas more generally) is weighing heavily on our hearts.  I’m sure that many of you are already wondering how best to respond.   Right now the most immediate need is for relief support and assistance for the millions of people displaced from their homes.  This support […]

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Prayrs for Peace

Prayer Vigil for Peace

Dear friends, In light of recent events in Charlottesville and, now, Barcelona, the Black Mountain/Swannanoa Ministerial Association will host a prayer vigil for peace this Sunday (August 20) in the town park in Black Mountain.     The ecumenical vigil will start at 12:30.  All people of faith and conscience are welcome to attend.   As many of

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Steve Runholt

Steve’s Slant

Georges-Pierre Seurat was a French painter from the 19th century.  He is most famous for helping to pioneer a style of painting known as pointillism.  In this method, the artist applied hundreds of small individual dots of paint to a canvas.  Up close these dots looked just like the name implies–like a blotch of tiny

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Steve Runholt

Steve’s Slant

I want to use this space this month to update all of you about the status of the Waldrop bequest.  In particular, and in the spirit of transparency, I want to fill you in on where we are in our discernment process centered on how to steward this gift to maximize its benefit. And I

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Pentecost Sunday 2017

Pentecost Sunday

Children help with Pentecost Sunday  June 4, 2017 The children helped “chime” in our Pentecost service up in the choir loft with Ms Vivian.  After a lesson with Ms Sandy on what a special day this is for the church, they frolicked through the sanctuary with rings of red, ribbon “fire” during the first hymn.  They were enacting the

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Steve’s Slant

In 2014 Rutger Bregman, a Dutch historian and journalist, published a book called Utopia for Realists.  In it, he makes a surprisingly convincing case that, despite what we might currently believe about the state of the world, life is getting better for the overwhelming majority of the world’s citizens. He carefully documents how human beings

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Steve’s Slant

“What’s in a name?”  It’s one of the most famous lines from one of the world’s greatest plays.  The question is posed by Juliet, who asks it of Romeo, by way of arguing that their love can overcome the bitter rivalry that separates their two families, the Montagues and Capulets. With Easter now in our

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Easter Banner

“God Within Us” The children’s Sunday school class went on a painting journey together to discover the season of Lent.  We read Bible stories that followed the lectionary and discussed how Lent can help us focus on being the best versions of ourselves.  Our painting reflects how God’s love lives in all of us, even

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