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

Easter Sunday – Breakout Rooms and a New Guided Meditation

 

Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!

Share this traditional Easter greeting with us Sunday, April 12 as we celebrate the Resurrected Christ via Zoom at 10:30 am.

In this time of precautionary social-distancing, we’ve been encouraged to find real community online with our fellow Vineyard One members as well as new friends and visitors. We’ve spent much time interceding for those affected by the covid-19 crisis: people who have caught the virus, frontline and essential workers, and the vulnerable of society who have become even more so in this time of illness and economic uncertainty.

This past Wednesday, on our weekly prayer night, we tried something new: Zoom’s breakout rooms. We used them to get into small groups for more intimate times of prayer and fellowship. They were a hit, and we’re going to use them again this Sunday for prayer and ministry time.

On Easter Sunday, we look forward to joining together again as a diverse family empowered by the Holy Spirit and by the promise of new life in Jesus. We hope you will join us! Use this link: https://zoom.us/j/9983878948

We also want to make this Easter guided meditation available to you. We hope that letting the Holy Spirit guide your imagination while you listen to John 20:1-18 will bring you hope, peace, and renewed faith for the season.

Carrie Myers

Spiritual Director, Vineyard One NYC

 

*Meditation written by Janine Rohrer and Carrie Myers @ravishedbylight. Voiceover and music by David Buchs @sleepwithmusic.com

 

 

Good Friday News

Today, as we commemorate the passion of Christ, we have a few offerings to help us mark the day.

First, here is a guided contemplative prayer created by spiritual director Janine Rohrer, musician and composer David Buchs, and me. This prayer invites you to walk with Jesus through his experience of suffering, loss, and death in light of your own suffering and losses during this past month when the covid-19 crisis has been raging in New York City and many other places in the nation and world. It invites you to breathe deeply of God’s presence and partake of his grace even in this dark season.

 

 

Second, we are having a Good Friday Movie Watch Party! Jude D’Souza is inviting all of us to join him at 6pm sharp to watch “Risen,” a movie about a Roman soldier who is determined to disprove the rumors of a risen Christ, but instead finds his skepticism challenged by the truth.

 

 

Steps to join the Live watch Party

Please click on the address below:

https://s.kast.live/g/7dj62thvwl7

You will need to download and install the Kast app on your viewing device (i.e. PC, IOS device or Android). The app is free and easy to install. You will be asked to create a free account which itself is also very simple. Once the account is created and you’re logged in, please click on the ‘Vineyard One Party’

We will begin the movie at 6pm sharp!

We hope you find rest and peace in your encounter with God through your prayer time. And then join us tonight for the movie!

May Christ dwell with you today-

Carrie

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