The Church has accepted the gracious offer of the Canaan firefighters to use their fire house for Sunday worship services. So through the winter, the congregation will be holding regular 10 a.m. Sunday worship services at the Canaan Fire House. Sitting in the round, participating in the service and the sermon, the congregation is thankful for its temporary home. As an Open and Affirming congregation, all are welcome to participate in the church’s services.

Sundays

10 a.m.

Canaan Fire House

2126 State Route 295

Canaan, NY 12029

The Canaan Congregational Church Celebrates Christmas Eve with Family Friendly Service at 5:00 p.m. at St. Peter’s Presbyterian Church, Spencertown, NY

Canaan Congregational Church will hold its Christmas Eve service at St. Peter’s Presbyterian Church, 5219 County Route 7, Spencertown, NY 12165 at 5:00 p.m. on Sunday, December 24. Led by Rev. Dr. Charles Close, the service includes familiar Christmas readings, interspersed with traditional carols and special music by the choir. The final hymn will be sung in a sanctuary lit only by candles held by each participant, which is sure to delight young and old alike.

Celebrate Christmas on Sunday, December 24, 5 p.m., at St. Peter’s Presbyterian Church in Spencertown, NY

Award-winning musician Delana Thomsen will be the evening’s accompanist. Thomsen is a highly accomplished solo and collaborative pianist who has given recitals throughout Europe and the United States, as well as master classes in Iceland and Bulgaria. Thomsen has been affiliated with the Aspen Music Festival, the Juilliard School, and the Mannes College of Music. In New York, she has appeared at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, Carnegie Recital Hall, and other venues. Locally, Delana was the pianist and assistant conductor of the Dalton Chorale, organist and music director at the Hillsdale (NY) Methodist Church, as well as concert pianist for the Hudson Valley Choral Society.

Dismantling Racism: Building Capacity for White People to Understand Racial Injustice

There is one remaining session after August 19 (“Allies in resisting racism and white supremacy”), but you need not have attended any of the previous workshops to come to the final workshop in the “Cracking the Shell of Whiteness” series being held at QIV-C. Taken from a proven curriculum to build the capacity for white people to be in solidarity with people of color, this series creates space for white people interested in being effective allies with people of color in the work of dismantling racism and undoing white privilege. The workshops are free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served. For more information, see www.qivc.org.

Final session:  September 16—“Creating action plans for the future”

Save the date for the Annual Outdoor Worship Service and Pot Luck Picnic

Sunday, August 13, 2017

Call or email for directions!

Dismantling Racism: Building Capacity for White People to Understand Racial Injustice (Racism Series at the Quaker Intentional Village–Canaan)

The first workshop—Identifying Whiteness—was held Saturday, April 15, 2017. This was the first of six monthly workshops from a proven curriculum to build the capacity for white people to be in solidarity with people of color. This curriculum was developed to create a space for white people interested in being effective allies with people of color in the work of dismantling racism and undoing white privilege.

The workshops are free and open to the public. It is not necessary to attend every workshop in the series. Refreshments will be served. RSVPs are requested but not required. For more information call 518-392-0289 and ask for Noah. The series is held at 235 Bradley’s Crossing Road, East Chatham, NY 12060.

Called Cracking the Shell of Whiteness, the next sessions include:

• May 20—“Socialized into Whiteness”
• June 10—“Where and When We Come From”
• July 8—“The Legacy of White Privilege”
• August 19—“Allies in Resisting Racism and White Supremacy”
• September 16—“Creating Action Plans for the Future”

Nadia Bolz-Weber’s book, Accidental Saints: Finding God in All the Wrong People, is an engaging, funny, and inspiring read. It’s just what many of us need right now when the temptation to separate ourselves from people we don’t agree with or don’t like is so strong.

“What if that person you’ve been trying to avoid is your best shot at grace today? And what if that’s the point?”

Bolz-Weber is a Lutheran pastor of a church she founded, the House for All Sinners and Saints in Denver. She also is a tattooed former stand-up comic who swears a lot. She is open about her own struggles and foibles and finds healing when she is known and loved anyway. She has to force herself to reach out to people she doesn’t like or who make her angry or who she just doesn’t understand, but finds grace when she does. She believes that Jesus loves us for who we are, including our “uncool parts,” and reminds us that Jesus was a radical who hung out with people scorned by the society of his day.

Bolz-Weber writes of the need for church to be a place where we can face the realities of our world together, not escape them. Church, and religion in general, give us “rootedness.” She writes, “When I say I’m religious, it has to do less with belief than with what I’m exposed to on a regular basis, what my symbol system is, what my practice is in terms of being a Christian in a community . . . (and these) help us to know how to hold the tragedy, violence and suffering we experience in the world and in our lives.”

The Missions Group of the Canaan Congregational Church has created “a tool for encouraging local participation and support” in environmental action. Newly published November 21, 2016 and updated January 2017, for a downloadable copy of the Directory of Environmental Organizations in Columbia County, NY.

 

The Canaan Congregational Church Annual Meeting will be held Sunday, January 29 at 11 a.m., following the 10 a.m. Worship Service.

We will conduct our church’s business, including voting for officers and committee members, reviewing and adopting the annual budget, and reviewing the past year’s activities.

All are welcome to attend the potluck luncheon and meeting, however, only members of the church may vote. Please mark your calendar and join us!