First, we’re thankful that our little congregation has raised $900 – three times our original goal! –  to support our friend Atty Maynard’s “Love of God Ministries.” These funds will go towards sending barrels of food and other necessities to Haiti and Belize in time for Christmas.

Our 2021 sermon series, “Finding Peace in Tumultuous Times” is winding down with a short series on the Beatitudes, where we talk about the “upside-down Kingdom” – how Jesus values and blesses precisely those who are not valued and rewarded by the world: the poor, the meek, the mourning, those who seek what’s right. We have one more Sunday in this series and then we’ll launch right into Thanksgiving and then the Advent season. We’ve been thankful for the year of seeking peace through loving, serving, and praising God together and for reminders that we can be graced with inner peace regardless of external circumstances.

We’re hoping to resume hybrid in-person/online  meetings in December, and we’re grateful to Mary Lynn Errigo and Steven Rosen for opening their home in Staten Island for Sunday morning services.

Our family is also hoping to relocate to Staten Island at the beginning of 2022, in order to help our small community there grow. We’re thankful for the support of the leadership team in making this move possible and for those who have been praying and planning for this to happen for many years now.

Over at Soul Space Center (recently renamed The Stillness Collective), which I founded with two spiritual director friends of mine, there is a new, free guided meditation for Thanksgiving based on Colossians 3:12-17.  To have it delivered to your inbox, sign up here. You can also find a free sample meditation on Romans 8, “Inseparable from God’s Love,” plus options to sign up for four themed meditations a month, spiritual direction sessions, and more. I personally am grateful for the chance to share guided meditations both in church and to our email subscribers. Contemplative prayer practices have been so transformative for me that I want everyone to be able to experience them.

As always, we are thankful for everyone who is part of our community, whether you join us every Sunday or just drop in when you’re in town. We welcome you to join us online Sunday mornings at 10:30, with children’s church following. We’re still an eclectic assortment of people from all five boroughs of the city and a few international cities as well. We would love to meet you!

Carrie Myers

Spiritual Director

Vineyard One NYC