Happy Thanksgiving!

This is a strange Thanksgiving week as covid numbers skyrocket around the country and around the world. In our house, we are forgoing our usual gathering of twenty to thirty people and just celebrating with our family and the family that lives downstairs from us. There’s a sense of underlying sadness and uncertainty even as we look forward to a good meal (deep-fried turkey!) with people we love.

I hope however you are celebrating – ideally socially distanced, masked, and outdoors if not with your immediate “bubble!” – that you are able to enter into the spirit of gratitude for all the gifts of the year, tempered as they have been by the pandemic. In Sundays’ service, we opened up our Zoom call for people to share what they are thankful for this year.  Many people said covid has helped them become more dependent on God and more grateful for their loved ones. They were thankful for help received when they needed it – and help they were able to give when they had extra.

What are you thankful for this year? How has God been present to you in the midst of the pandemic? And what are your hopes for a new season?

My partners and I at Soul Space have put together two guided meditations that we hope will help you enter into the spirit of thanksgiving. The first meditation is on Psalm 100. It was written specifically for this Thanksgiving and invites you to reflect on God’s faithfulness even in the midst of struggle.  The second is a Daily Examen, a daily prayer practice that begins with gratitude and moves to building awareness of God’s presence in each moment of our lives. I hope that you will spend time with both meditations and that you will come away with increased peace and centeredness in God.

May you all have a blessed, safe Thanksgiving.

Grateful for all of you-

Carrie

Spiritual Director

Vineyard One NYC

 

Featured image by Karolina Grabowska from Pexels

Psalm 100 image by Janine Rohher @soulspace.center

News and Updates

Dear Vineyard One Family and Friends,

It’s been a long, strange spring and summer. Here in New York City, we are getting ready for public schools for re-open and our covid numbers thankfully remain low, thanks to social-distancing and mask-wearing.

Through it all, God has done great things in our community.

  1. Through our benevolence fund, we’ve been able to support families who have been without work during the pandemic. We’ve supplied food, expense money, and other necessities. We are also supporting a formerly homeless individual who, through the efforts and prayers of several people in our church, is now in a Teen Challenge rehab program.
  2. In August, we had a baptism service! Five people chose to take the next step towards following Jesus! We met outdoors at a backyard pool and rotated our five baptizees (I know this isn’t a word, but just go with it. :)) and their guests in and out so that we could maintain social distancing.
  3. The church has just purchased 8 dozen glass bottles and lids to be filled with cooking oil and given to our friend Atty. Atty, who runs Love of God Ministries, is planning to send 5 barrels of food and clothing to St. Lucia and the Dominican Republic later this year.  Our church family is contributing towards the cost of the bottles and the oil.
  4. Our food friend Stephanie Mayer, a frontline worker with an organization that serves the homeless in NYC, launched a family business that will help prevent human trafficking and provide supporters with work and marketable skills. Take a look at the Nary Resort website to read her inspirational story and to buy women’s clothing and cloth masks for men, women, and children!
  5. Through our partnership with Silver Springs Vineyard and Hudson Vineyard, we’ve shared: Wednesday night intercessory prayer nights, “Get Up and Move” exercise and accountability class, an Ephesians Bible Study, and three “Communication without Conflict” classes for couples. Beginning this week: a Women’s Coffee and Chat group on Wednesday nights and a Bible study called “Back to Basics: Galatians.” See our Vineyard United NY page for more information.
  6. While we desperately miss meeting in person, our online Zoom services and classes have opened up opportunities for people in other parts of the country and world to join us. We’ve been able to connect with people from other cities in New York, Pennsylvania, Florida, California, even Germany!
  7. Pastor Ryan led a small discussion group on the video series “The Color of Compromise.” This study looks at the Christian church in America’s long history of complicity in racism. As a church built from the diversity of God’s Kingdom, we continue to support immigrants, Black Lives Matter, and other movements that promote the God-given dignity of all people and work against structural racism and inequality.
  8. A new “Read, Pray, Obey” discipleship group also debuts this week! Participants will read key passages that tell the story of God, pray to hear how God is speaking to them through Scripture, and then take steps of obedience in response to God’s voice.

How has God been working in your life and community?

Would you like to support our work? Make a general donation to the church or direct it to our benevolence fund, and we’ll see that it gets used to support our ministries. Use this link to see our options for donation.

 

Virtual Church this Sunday (Instead of On-Site Meeting)

Good morning Vineyard One Family!

God is with us.

I wear a necklace made out of patterned beads in Morse Code that spell out the words to Joshua 1:9 – This is my command – be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. 

These are words that were spoken and prayed over me when I was ordained to become a pastor. These are words that have stuck with me for years – especially when times have seemed most difficult. I need the reminder that God is with me always.

God is with us right now – in the midst of a coronavirus pandemic. Deuteronomy 31:6 says the same as Joshua:  Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.

Since God is with us, we do not need to fear anything – not man, not virus – nothing. Instead, we know that “there is no fear in love – God’s perfect love drives out fear” (1 John 4:18). Because of God’s presence and love for us, we need not fear, but instead we have freedom to act in love to those around us. Now is our time to show those around us, especially those who are afraid and those who are most vulnerable, that God loves them and God is with them through this.

So out of love for our neighbors at PS 132, we will not meet at the school tomorrow for worship. We don’t want to bring anything into the school and we don’t want anything that has been brought to the school to come to us. That’s just not the loving thing to do – for us to put the children at the school at risk – or to put our Vineyard One family at risk.

(Side note: most of the advice we are getting is that it is wise for smaller churches like ours to meet rather than cancel. Now is the time when we need to be together and to worship our God. It’s only our brothers and sisters in churches over 100 people who should cancel their services. However, since the school is not a place that we own and have strict control over, and since there are hundreds of children in the cafeteria every day, and since it has been shown that the coronavirus can survive on hard surfaces for up to 3 days, it just is not wise nor loving to put people at unnecessary risk at this time, even for a small church like ours. If anyone wants to read the articles that I have read that lead me to this conclusion, please contact me directly and I’ll share with you.)

Therefore, tomorrow at 10:30 am, we will meet by Zoom video call! We are a manageable size so that we can meet together online and share together in worship and prayer. If you need instructions for how to join a Zoom call, they will be provided at the end of this email. If you know how to use Zoom, then simply join with this link tomorrow morning at 10:30 am.

Zoom link:  https://us04web.zoom.us/j/9983878948

For our Zoom church tomorrow, someone has already contacted me to share Psalm 91 as a good word for our church right now. Maybe you want to read and meditate on that Psalm today? Or maybe God is leading you to some different scriptures? Please come prepared to share the scriptures that God is speaking to you or the ones that he may be sharing with our church.

For today, I would encourage us all to

get some rest – take a nap,

wash your hands,

enjoy some time outside in the beautiful sunshine that we have,

wash your hands,

avoid crowds,

wash your hands,

spend some time catching up on your bible reading (for those that might have fallen behind),

wash your hands,

call your mom and tell her that you love her,

wash your hands,

check in with a neighbor who might be struggling,

are your hands clean?

remember to sneeze & cough into your sleeve,

hey! how about those clean hands of yours!,

look for opportunities to pray and to speak words of peace to others,

wash your hands,

limit the news that you take in

and wash your hands.

We’ve been talking about the story of God in the bible on Sundays. Again and again we have seen God say:  I will bless you and you will be a blessing. Vineyard One family, this is a word for us right now. God has blessed us with his loving presence, now let’s go be a blessing to those around us!

God is with us.

Grace & Peace,

Pastor Ryan

 

Zoom Instructions:

On your phone or tablet, download Zoom from the App store or the Play store

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/zoom-cloud-meetings/id546505307

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=us.zoom.videomeetings&hl=en_US

Open the app

Click on “Join” (located at the top of the screen)

Enter the meeting ID:  998-387-8948 (in the field at the top of the screen)

Select Join Audio (located in the lower left corner of the screen)

 

On your laptop or desktop computer

https://youtu.be/UAa3MADuvsg

https://zoom.us/download

Click on the link:  https://us04web.zoom.us/j/9983878948

When prompted, download the Zoom application

 

Lent Begins

 

This past Wednesday, we began the Lent season. Traditionally, it’s a time of fasting and prayer as we identify with Jesus’ 40 days of fasting and temptation in the wilderness as he prepared to embark on his ministry. It’s also a time of preparation for Easter, when we become increasingly aware of the price Jesus paid on our behalf. During Lent, we look forward to new life . . . but we also see that the way there is through the death that first must take place. Fasting is a way answering Jesus’s call to die to ourselves in order to receive his new life. What is Jesus inviting you to fast from this Lent? What new life is he inviting you to receive in exchange?

Lent is also a time of repentance – not just as individuals, but also as the corporate body of Christ. How have we failed to live up to Christ’s call to love God and to love one another? Where have we looked the other way when confronted with suffering and injustice? And how can we repent –  turn around and look towards God and towards those in need of our help?

As you enter into this season of fasting, repentance, prayer, and solidarity with Jesus, consider how you can use this time to draw nearer to Jesus and to the poor and the overlooked he came to serve.

Carrie Myers

Spiritual Director, Vineyard One NYC