Artwork by Carol Fields using words of members and friends to describe our church. Original now on display in the sanctuary.
Thank you to Dr. Marsha Kindall-Smith for singing us to the communion table. Thank you to Adam DeSorgo for helping us celebrate Cinco de Mayo with beautiful music…we are delighted to have Adam with us for the next three months. Thank you to our Worship Team for helping with communion and to everyone who participates in making a joyful noise to God. We are blessed by the gifts of so many people! If you have not had a chance to participate in worship from Sunday, please click here.
We are gathering your favorite hymns. This week, the Morning Meditations are reflecting on how we can prayerfully ponder the hymnal of our soul. Here is the post from Monday:
If music is the language of the soul made audible, then human voices, raised in concert and in human gatherings, are primary instruments of the soul. Music conveys common memories, with powerful association. Don Saliers
There is a musical soundtrack to your life that hums on repeat, replaying in your soul, perhaps just beneath the surface of consciousness. It is a compilation of experiences and encounters with music that moved you, leaving an imprint upon you. The soundtrack is not just hymns from church, but from concerts where your breath was caught in the back of your throat as tears welled up, dripped from your eyes. The soundtrack of road trips where you and your friends sang along at the top of your lungs whilst rolling down the highway passing the miles. Your high school dances or your wedding day or an ordinary Tuesday when a melody came from the speaker that stopped time. The jukebox of your life is comprised collection of when/how/where and what awoke the holy hum that moves us through the day.
In May, I’ve invited the church to offer your favorite hymns. If you read the fine print, I do ask that if you submit more than five to me, you do so alphabetically, please!
The question is, how? How do we begin to name and notice what is part of the soundtrack of our life? There is no one way to do this. This week, I will offer some structure for how you can begin to reflect on the music that is your soul’s shy voice made audible.
First, I invite you to start with a blank piece of paper and write down all the hymns you can think of right now. This is a soul-stirring and searching exercise, so tell your inner editor who wants to offer strikes or say, “Oh no…not that one!!” to go take a coffee break. For example, I might write down, “In the Garden.” This doesn’t mean that “In the Garden” will make the final cut, but this hymn is certainly there in my soul and you might even be humming the melody right now ~ and for the rest of the day. You are welcome.
The point is to write down as many hymns as you can. Don’t hold back. Pro tip: this is NOT a timed test! As a matter of fact, I hope you start the list now and come back to it at lunch and then before you go to bed and then again tomorrow morning. I apologize in advance that you may wake up tonight with a hymn humming you hadn’t thought about in years. As a matter of fact, you don’t ever need to stop this exercise. This is also an open book invitation…or open hymnal. There is an index right there in the back of the first lines to set your mind singing!
Pro tip number two: if you have difficulty getting started, center your thoughts on a season. What Christmas Carols warm your heart? Silent Night, O Come All Ye Faithful, or maybe Joy to the World. Next, think about hymns you sang at meaningful moments in your life: I am thinking here of summer camp with a campfire blazing in front of you and s’mores stuffing your stomach while stars shine down blessing the ground. Or maybe funeral services for your parents or grandparents. Or maybe a hymn that you sang recently in church. Rewind and review your life for the melodies that cause goosebumps to race up and down your life.
Pro tip number three: there is no wrong way to do this. Listen to your shy soul start to sing reminding you of moment that made you feel alive and awake to the unfinished symphony that is within us and around us which our Composer, Conductor and Collaborator God is still writing every day. May you fill a page with hymns that sing to your soul in such a time as this.
8:45 a.m. ~ Bring a photo of your mother or a special women whose fingerprints are imprinted on your heart as we celebrate Mother’s Day!! We will sing our prayers and praise to God and Pastor Wes will preach on Luke 18:15-17 ~ Embracing our Inner-Child-Like Faith.
11:00 a.m. ~ We continue to celebrate the season of Easter. Our Chancel Choir will sing, “For the Beauty”, and Pastor Wes will preach on Embracing our Inner-Child-Like Faith (Luke 18:15-17)
We welcome Adam DeSorgo to lead our choir and music this weekend and through the month of July.
Following 11 a.m. worship COLLAGE is hosting a Mother’s Day brunch. Bring a labeled photo of your mother or mother-like figure who has blessed your life. During the lunch we will share stories about the women who have left fingerprints upon our hearts and how each have shaped our lives. This will be a holy time. Thank you to COLLAGE for sponsoring this wonderful gathering.
Sacred Conversations on Race ~ gathers at 3 pm in the Oasis Center and on Zoom on the following date: May 8 ~ video interview of Sho Baraka
May 22 ~ Director of Music follow-up conversation
All are welcome! You can join either in person in the Oasis Center or on Zoom. Please see Jim Crumel for more information.
Wayless Way Bookclub is listening to Brian McLaren’s Learning How to See podcast on the Seventh Story. We live in a world where narratives of domination, purification, consumerization swirl within us. The Gospel of being an Easter People calls us to live a different way.
Join us on Monday, May 13th at 4 p.m. in the Oasis Center or Zoom as we reflect on the seventh story and how to live this way ~ support and caring for each other. Please let Pastor Wes know if you plan to attend.
The Art Center Manatee this week recognized our very own, Gary LaParl, with a First Place Award. We celebrate Gary’s gift and celebrate with him. Here’s a link to the art center’s website. Scroll down a bit and you’ll see an ad for the Dreamscapes show and his piece that was honored.
NEXT UCC MEN’S BREAKFAST ON MAY 18 ~ The UCC Men’s breakfast series continues on Saturday, May 18 and all the men of the congregation are invited to join for breakfast in Syster Hall then. Coffee will be on at 8 am and breakfast served at 8:30 am. Dick Miller will be our chef this month and, after breakfast, Josh Burch will share challenges faced and adaptations made by visually impaired individuals. You may register by Thursday, May16 by calling Sherry at the church office at 941-953-7044. We hope to see you there!
Director of Music Search Update:
Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who participated in one of the focus groups regarding our search for the next Director of Music. We are so grateful for the feedback and have over four pages of notes! Thank you to Lori White for typing up the notes. Thank you to our Search Team: Jane Hunder, Jeff Smith, Peggye Mezile, Linda Pursley, Gregg Matthews, Diane Miller, and Nancy Morris for leading these sessions. We will continue to go through your comments prayerfully and seeking God’s guidance as we shape the process. Here is where we are as of right now:
1. The Search Team and The Staffing Team are finalizing the job description. The Search Team was blessed to have Sam Nelson (Dean of the American Guild of Organist [AGO] in Sarasota and Organist/Choir Master at Redeemer) to go over the job description with us line-by-line. Sam is willing to help us in our search and we are so grateful for his help.
2. We hope to have the job description finalized for the May Council Meeting to be approved.
3. Once Council has approved the job description we will post nationally through the American Guild of Organists, UCC Musicians Network as well as other denominational Musicians Networks, Music Conservatories (Eastman, U of I, Oberlin), and word-of-mouth through Sarasota musicians who love our church and friends of our congregation. We will let you know when the job is posted so you can share with others you know to apply.
4. We will ask all candidates to submit resume and repertoire for us to review hopefully through June and July ~ although we will take the necessary time to find the person who fits with our covenants, core values, choir, congregation and staff ~ this is a tall order.
We ask for your prayers!!
In the meantime, we are blessed by Adam DeSorgo’s music ministry through July. In August, Stephen Fancher will play as will Glenn Priest. Glenn will fill in through mid-September. Beyond September will be clarified as we make our way through this process.
I trust that God is guiding us and sense God’s love leading us each prayerful steps. While I don’t know who will be conducting the choir from the organ and piano bench fulltime, I do know that as a church we are seeking to be open to the guidance of the spirit.
Please pray with me:
O God, our life flows on in endless song, above all the lamentations around us and within us. We pray we would continue to glorify You in our music, moments of silence, laughter’s healing art, and times of care. God of grace and God of glory, guide us through this wilderness where we feel like the Israelites, longing to go back to what was comfortable. Precious Lord, take our hand through us. Help us embody caring and love for each other. Help us resist rushing ahead for the sake of efficiency, trusting that You are with us and You are working in the life of whoever we will call ~ though we know not the name or who that individual might be. We need You every hour and especially through this time. Guide our feet as we run this race that we may do so with Your love as our means and goal. All this we pray in the name of Your love divine, all love’s excelling. Amen.
I encourage you to please come and talk to me or Lori White if you have any questions or concerns.
With great love to you all ~ Wes
Wednesday, May 8 Wednesday morning Bible Study, 11 a.m., Oasis Center and Zoom
Sacred Conversations on Race, Oasis Center and Zoom
Choir Rehearsal, 7 p.m., Chapel
Thursday, May 9
Staffing Team meeting, 2 p.m., Oasis Center and Zoom
Sunday, May 12 ~ Mother’s Day Early Worship, 8:45 a.m., Chapel ~ bring a photo of your mother or special woman of your life to worship!
Sunday Worship, 11 a.m. in Sanctuary and online
COLLAGE Mother’s Day Brunch, noon, Syster Hall ~ bring a labeled photo of your mother or special woman in your life to the brunch!
Monday, May 13
Wayless Way Bookclub, 4 p.m., Oasis Center and Zoom
Tuesday, May 14
COLLAGE Advisory Group, 11 a.m., Zoom
Peace and Justice, 3 p.m., Oasis Center
Bible Study, 6:30 p.m., Zoom
Pastor Wes will be on vacation Wednesday, May 22- Tuesday, May 28. Rev. Jeff Jones will preach for Pastor Wes on Sunday, May 26th and there will be ONE service at 11 a.m. in the sanctuary and online that day.
If music is the language of the soul made audible, then human voices, raised in concert and in human gatherings, are primary instruments of the soul. Music conveys common memories, with powerful association. Don Saliers
Following 11 a.m. worship COLLAGE is hosting a Mother’s Day brunch. Bring a labeled photo of your mother or mother-like figure who has blessed your life. During the lunch we will share stories about the women who have left fingerprints upon our hearts and how each have shaped our lives. This will be a holy time. Thank you to COLLAGE for sponsoring this wonderful gathering. 
and on Zoom on the following date:
Wayless Way Bookclub is listening to Brian McLaren’s Learning How to See podcast on the Seventh Story. We live in a world where narratives of domination, purification, consumerization swirl within us. The Gospel of being an Easter People calls us to live a different way. 
NEXT UCC MEN’S BREAKFAST ON MAY 18 ~ The UCC Men’s breakfast series continues on Saturday, May 18 and all the men of the congregation are invited to join for breakfast in Syster Hall then. Coffee will be on at 8 am and breakfast served at 8:30 am. Dick Miller will be our chef this month and, after breakfast, Josh Burch will share challenges faced and adaptations made by visually impaired individuals. You may register by Thursday, May16 by calling Sherry at the church office at 941-953-7044. We hope to see you there!
Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who participated in one of the focus groups regarding our search for the next Director of Music. We are so grateful for the feedback and have over four pages of notes! Thank you to Lori White for typing up the notes. Thank you to our Search Team: Jane Hunder, Jeff Smith, Peggye Mezile, Linda Pursley, Gregg Matthews, Diane Miller, and Nancy Morris for leading these sessions. We will continue to go through your comments prayerfully and seeking God’s guidance as we shape the process. Here is where we are as of right now:
