Earth Month Begins

April is Earth Month at Watershed and First Presbyterian. Each service we'll focus on not only what it means to practise ressurrection this Easter season, but also on what it means to practise earth-care as we attempt to tred lighter on this one world we've got. Be sure to check out below for upcoming eco-events. See you sunday.

Earth hour - a Fast from Energy - this Sat. 8-9pm

Imagine how much energy can be saved if the entire world fasted from energy use for just one hour? We have the chance to do our small part this Sat. 3/29 from 8-9pm. Find some friends, light some candles, go for a night walk, or go to bed early...whatever - it will make a difference. And then join us sunday for Watershed and the first sunday of this Easter season. http://www.earthhour.org/downloads/EH_728x90.swf

alleluia!

Christ is risen indeed. Easter peace!

A word from Wendell Berry (excerpts from Wendell Berry’s Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front, 1991) :

So, friends, every day do something
that won't compute. Love the Lord.
Love the world. Work for nothing.
Take all that you have and be poor.
Love someone who does not deserve it.
Ask the questions that have no answers. Plant sequoias. Say that your main crop is the forest
that you did not plant,
that you will not live to harvest.
Say that the leaves are harvested
when they have rotted into the mold.
Call that profit…
Listen to carrion - put your ear
close, and hear the faint chattering
of the songs that are to come.
Expect the end of the world. Laugh.
Laughter is immeasurable. Be joyful
though you have considered all the facts.
So long as women do not go cheap
for power, please women more than men.
Ask yourself: Will this satisfy
a woman satisfied to bear a child?
Will this disturb the sleep
of a woman near to giving birth?…
Practice resurrection.

holy week

Each day this sacred week has special significance. Let's all take an intentional moment each day this week and pause in the midst of our busy lives and simply contemplate the mystery of GRACE. And as you can, please join us for the ecumenical community services starting tonight (Maundy Thurs.) (listed below), and especially the EASTER VIGIL starting at 7pm with an Agape (love)-Seder-esque meal, and then 8pm service starting with bonfire outside. There will be an optional post-service late night vigil-to-Easter in Watershed style - please let Rob know if you are interested. Together we walk in solidarity this week with Christ and the poor, through death, and into new life, new HOPE.

eco-palm sunday

Friends- come join us sunday night at 7pm for palm sunday - "eco"-style. http://www.pcusa.org/palms/ And today (sat) is the 5th year anniversary of the war in Iraq - let us pray for peace to come just like Jesus came into Jerusalem on that donkey. Radical peace. See you sunday. (also still looking for a reader for Maundy Thurs tenebrae service, and one for Easter Vigil as well...let me know if interested).

call to peace-prayer / holy week help/ prophetic voice of Carroll

This friday 3/7 at NOON, we are joining many Christians around the country to uphold Iraq and her peace in our prayers. Take a moment in the midst of your day to pray - or come join us at the church for a short vigil together.
Also, since March is here, we are approaching what we consider Holy Week. This begins with (Eco-) Palm Sunday on 3/16, and then we are joining the wider Waltham community for a services starting with a Tenebrae service (service of the lights) on Maundey Thurs at Beth Eden Baptist (7pm), Good Friday at Immanual Methodist (7pm), and then we host an Easter Vigil Service at 8pm on 3/22. This will be proceeded by a unique AGAPE-SEDAR-ESQUE meal at 7pm. Please join us.
Also- we need a reader or two for the Tenebrae service on Maundey Thurs - any takers? please let me know.
And finally - James Carroll's Constantine's Sword was amazing - a serious must see for anyone who desires deeper peace and reconciliation in our globalized and religiously divided world. Especially powerful during this seasonal approach to Easter.
Hope to see you for Watershed this sunday 3/9 at 7pm for 5th sunday in lent and some Taize.

snow & water & kingsolver

Loving this wonderful blanket of fluffy white-stuff on the ground! Come on by this sunday for watershed, and we'll hear the profound story of when an outcast and a savior meet...and share water. PS- thanks for those who came to serve lunch on monday- it went great, many kudos to the chefs!! PPS- I totally shared an organic & local meal in VA with Barbara Kingsolver's husband (and 5 other young presby minister types) on Thurs. So eco-inspiring!!

the journey of Faith continues... AND SERVE LUNCH

We are pilgrims and we are strangers, as we walk along in faith. Tonight (2/17) at 7pm we meet both Abraham and Nicodemus, and think together about this journey we are on as fellow pilgrims. Come join us!
Also, tomorrow (President's Day, Monday)- we will meet at 12:30 downstairs in the kitchen to prepare and then serve a lunch to our guests at the Community Day Center. Many homeless go without breakfast and lunch on holidays as the Salvation Army is closed - so we can help fill this gap - and put into practise some of our lenten call to "works of love".

our journey begins...

Lent 2008. A great opportunity for us to open our eyes in a new way. Come this sunday as we think about ashes, wilderness and bread. "You are invited to a holy lent, a time of self-examination & penitence, prayer & fasting, giving to the poor & works of love, and reading & meditation on the Word of God.”

Lent begins...

Ash Wednesday is this coming Weds, Feb. 6th. We're having a service with imposition of ashes (where we get ashes put on our foreheads and remember that we are but ash and to ash we will return), and communion. The service will be at the Burlington Pres. church at 7:30pm - we'll meet to carpool at 6:30 at the church. Hope to see you there. Come on sunday Feb 10 to learn more about what the season of Lent is all about. And this week, let's keep the nation of Chad in our prayers, as we also continue to pray for Kenya.

"Souper Bowl" of Caring - 6:30pm, sunday Feb 3 / Ash Weds. Service Feb 6, 7:30pm

Friends, we've decided not to compete with Tom Brady & company this sunday, and so we'll gather at 6:30 at the church downstairs to watch the superbowl on our HUGE tv and simply share some fellowship together (be prepared for some serious anti-consumption/ US materialism running commentary from rob during commercials however...). Presbyterians focus in on hunger each year, and call for a Souper Bowl of Caring - so, please bring along some canned goods to donate for the Day Center and our homeless guests. Rob is preaching at the 10:45am service on the transfiguration - so come then for worship if you can.

ALSO- come this sunday to watch the game AND help burn some palms into ashes for our Ash Weds. Service on Weds. Feb 6th at 7:30pm at Burlington Presbyterian Church. We'll carpool from the church at 6:30pm that night.

peace.

Taize

Friends- join us tonight at 7pm for a service in the spirit of Taize. Songs, readings, silence, prayer, candles.
"There are cracks, cracks in everything, that's how the light gets in." -Leonard Cohen

in the name of love

After helping serve a meal downstairs at the Day Center, we had a very meaningful interfaith service monday in honor of MLKjr this monday - thanks to those who came and helped out. Check out this clip we played in the service- http://youtube.com/watch?v=_HY-WfDPm7s - i'm warning you, this one is moving. Let's all continue to work for justice, end the unjust war our country is involved in- and spread peace in our communities. And thanks to Melissa for singing beautifully at watershed on sunday night! If yer interested, come hear me talk about "global warming and you" this Saturday at BU at 10am: http://www.bu.edu/alumni/interests/events/winterfest/schedule/
mountaintop peace.

Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 1/21, 4pm

In my book, the most important national holiday for the States is this monday, when we remember a true prophet of the 20th century. Come to church at 4pm on Monday for an interfaith prayer service to remember together, and be challenged anew to the call of peace & justice. Check out MLKjr's speach on Vietnam (hear any connections to Iraq??): http://youtube.com/watch?v=92-r05TH9qs&feature=related . Also, come to Watershed on Sunday Jan. 20th at 7pm for regular service. We may just hear from Andrew Mudge sing...

New Year- New TIME - 7:00 PM

Yes- watershed is now starting at 7:00PM - starting Sunday Jan. 13, 2008. We hope to see you this coming sunday! Last night, we lit the Christmas candles for the last time, and we thought together about the coming of the magi. As we each continue to seek out that star and follow it in our own lives, let's remember W.H. Auden's poem, "For the Time Being": "To discover how to be human now... is the reason we follow this star."

new year, new hope

Friends- peace to you this new year! May it bring about deeper realized wholeness and peace in our lives and in our world. Come this sunday Jan 6 for Epiphany. This is a day the church celebrates the wise-folk who showed up to Mary and Jesus, bearing gifts that recognized this child as the one ushering in a new kingdom. Let's come together to share our own gifts and help recognize this new kingdom here and now (and share some organic coffee...)

so, what about mary?

A teenage pregnancy. God becoming a baby. The longest night of the year. The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. Come this sunday 23rd to think together about Mary, the blues of Christmas, winter solstice and light our last advent candle. We also have a joint Dec. 24 christmas eve service at 6pm (with a coffeehour at 5pm before hand). Come to both and i'll be your best friend...(or at least take you out for coffee:) PEACE ON EARTH! -rob

Snow rocks... :) watershed canceled :(

Friends- what wonderful white stuff all about. We hope you've been able to enjoy this blanketing of God's grace (ah, with a little rain to top things off?!). Since there is still a parking ban here in Waltham, we are CANCELING tonight's watershed service. We're on again for next sunday the 23rd at 7:30pm- and then also a service on Christmas Eve at 6pm. If you happen to get a chance tonight, feel free to light a 3rd candle of advent - and as a devotional on today's scripture, check out: http://www.mtsm.org/preaching/homilies.htm and also, this song from Vienna Teng - called The Atheist's Christmas Carol- and ask yourself how it may speak to us this advent. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4wVRcE5gIs&feature=related Also, the Christmas caroling that was slated for today is postponed until next sunday the 23rd- same bat-time, same place....

wait for the peaceable kingdom

Our second week of advent had us listening to Jason Harrod's "waiting for my day", hearing about Isaiah's vision of a peaceable kingdom where lion and lamb hang out, where the poor are cared for, and asking ourselves where are the contemporary John-the-baptists in our midst - calling us to prepare, turn around, and to wait in hope for something totally new. Come join us next week when we light the third candle...

Eyes Wide Open: advent begins

Join us tonight for the first sunday in advent - a time of waiting and opening our eyes. We'll listen to a little Bono (U2) and help set the tone for a spiritually centered holiday season.