This month our worship services center around the theme of WATER. (For inspiration, enjoy this Peter Meyer song, “Water.”)

Our services, learning, and gatherings are geared to support your rest and nurture our sense of community this summer.

OUR SUMMER WORSHIP

Sunday worship services held at 11:45 am (Zoom link is available of our website’s home page):

Our services will have a noticeably different feel for the summer, with an intergenerational focus centering our services on Time for All Ages and music to guide our personal reflections and connections to the themes of the month (TFAA and music are our summer sermons). You’ll also notice that some of the music and readings will repeat throughout the month, offering us a chance to deepen our experience with them. Our Zoom tech may also look a little different as we offer simpler camera angles for the summer. We’ll also pause our potluck and popcorn after services in exchange for popsicles each Sunday. Our summer services allow us to allow Sundays to function with a slightly smaller worship team and volunteer team (allowing for varied travel schedules, summer school schedules, family needs, and the heat of the day) and offer more time for meaningful connections after the service.

JULY

Our worship services will explore the theme of WATER. 

Our Wildflower band’s music theme for the month is “Happy” by Pharrell.

• July 7 (blended): Story: Tale of the Sands – by Idries Shah. Do you resist changes? How have changes transformed you?
  • Join us for popsicles and conversation in the Community Room after service.
• July 14 (on Zoom): Story “Rainbow in the Cloud” (Maya Angelou) How can you be a blessing in someone else’s life?
• July 21 (blended): Guest Worship Leader Jesus Garcia, of The Herbal Action Project. Nature gives us tools for our healing. With garden herbs and water,  Jesus Garcia will guide us in co-creating blessing water as a spiritual practice and a way to nurture our sense of community. We will also learn about the history of indigenous groups of Tejas that have been harvesting native botanicals through their lineage rites.
  • Join us for popsicles and conversation in the Community Room after service.
• July 28 (blended): Story: Splashdance by Liz Starin. Community is more fun when we’re all included, and working together can make a positive change. How do we work together to ensure we’re all included?
  • After the worship service, we will have some creative water play for all ages. (If you are participating in the afternoon activity, we recommend wearing clothes that you don’t mind getting wet).

AUGUST

• Our worship services will explore the theme of CARING AND SHARING. Our  Wildflower band’s music theme for the month is “Rise Again” as performed by the Urban Voices Project. (Special Back to School celebration on August 18.)

And Save the date for the annual WATER COMMUNION held on Sunday, September 1.

SPIRITUAL FORMATION

OUR SUMMER CONGREGATIONAL-WIDE BOOK READING

Wildflower’s Spiritual Life team met for a half day retreat in the Community Room on Saturday, June 29, 2024, to begin to plan for Fall at Wildflower, as well as have time to nurture ourselves as staff and lay leaders of the congregation. It was a gathering of 15 people representing worship, adult religious education, membership, fun and fellowship, children and youth religious education, music, and the director’s teams. As part of our day, together, we worked on the spider web exercises in Chapter One of We Heal Together (and also in Practice One of the journal), mapping our community and our relationships as individuals, and then mapping Wildflower’s community and relationships as a congregation.

Throughout the summer, we hope YOU, too, will read through the exercises of the book and the journal, and post your comments here: https://padlet.com/wildflowerchurch/we_heal_together

OUR SUMMER READING LIST

• We Heal Together: Rituals and Practices for Building Community and Connection by Michelle Cassandra Johnson (and the supplemental We Heal Together Ritual and Practice Journal)
• You Are Not Alone by Alphabet Rockers (picture book)

Both titles are available at your favorite online and local bookstores, the UUA bookstore, and the public library (including its Libby App). The We Heal Together journal is a free PDF download. These are what I call slow reads, meant to be savored and read as they nourish your spirit and sense of community.

OUR SUMMER ACTION: WATER

• Keep our community hydrated. Be it unhoused neighbors, service and utilities workers, pets, elderly, family, or friends, a cold drink of water is a summer kindness. We encourage everyone to keep spare bottles of water to share with the people and pets in our community as needed. (Bonus: freeze a few bottles to give away so you can offer a cool drink during a hot day or night). 
• CYRE will be assembling care packages on July 7th, and asks the congregation to pick up a few packs, and then hand them out in the community during the week. Caring for our unhoused neighbors and others at risk for dehydration and isolation is a way for us to share that we are not alone and that we heal together.
• Pick up trash whenever you are outside to help keep our rivers, lakes, and streams free of debris.

2nd Offering Recipients for the Third Quarter of 2024

In our work to support the community, we collect an offering for a non-profit who is making a difference in the world and who is in alignment with our values. The beneficiary of our 3rd quarter gifts (July, August, and September 2024) is Austin Youth River Watch. This organization transforms and inspires youth (including youth at Travis ECHS) through environmental education, community engagement, and adventure. There’s also a Wildflower serving on their board. We’ll be sharing ways that Wildflowers can engage with the organization, through service projects, and other community activities.

We also continue our summer at Wildflower focus on REST. How are you nurturing your spirit this summer?

This essay by Omid Safi, The Disease of Being Busy, is a meaningful, worthwhile read. In the essay he writes:

“In many Muslim cultures, when you want to ask them how they’re doing, you ask: in Arabic, Kayf haal-ik? or, in Persian, Haal-e shomaa chetoreh? How is your haal?

What is this haal that you inquire about? It is the transient state of one’s heart. In reality, we ask, “How is your heart doing at this very moment, at this breath?” When I ask, “How are you?” that is really what I want to know.

“I am not asking how many items are on your to-do list, nor asking how many items are in your inbox. I want to know how your heart is doing, at this very moment. Tell me. Tell me your heart is joyous, tell me your heart is aching, tell me your heart is sad, tell me your heart craves a human touch. Examine your own heart, explore your soul, and then tell me something about your heart and your soul.”

Omid Safi

I was grateful that I had taken some time off this week for rest; a few days without meetings or being tethered to my laptop or phone. As a result, when I asked a dear friend how they were doing, I had the capacity to fully listen, unrushed, to their heartfelt answer. Rest supports our ability to have a “ministry of presence” for ourselves and for those in our lives.

This summer, I hope we all have time to ask, and to be asked, “How are you? How is your heart doing?” and that we each have the time to listen, and to be listened to when questions are answered.

As a lay led congregation, we are all lay leaders in this community. In closing, I leave you with the wise words of the “Less is More: Keep Church Simple” by Rev. Susan Frederick Gray, Past UUA President:

“As leaders, be sure to spend as much time in worship, small groups, social gatherings, etc. as you do in meetings. Encourage one another to pay attention to meeting the spiritual needs of everyone, especially you — the leaders.”

Peace,

~ Simone

Simone Monique Barnes
Director of Membership and Spiritual Life
Wildflower UU Church, Austin TX