Bible Study
Revd. Deborah Duguid-May
Bible study is back on Wednesday September 6th at 6pm, starting with a bring-and-share meal and continuing at 6:30pm with the next season of “The Chosen”. Come, bring a friend or family member, but most of all bring YOU!
Greece Ecumenical Churches Book Study
Pastor Cheryl Frank, Greece Baptist Church
Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer.
As a botanist, Robin Wall Kimmerer has been trained to ask questions of nature with the tools of science. As a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, she embraces the notion that plants and animals are our oldest teachers. In Braiding Sweetgrass, Kimmerer brings these two lenses of knowledge together to take us on “a journey that is every bit as mythic as it is scientific, as sacred as it is historical, as clever as it is wise.”
Discussion with simple meal, Mondays 6:00-7:30pm
- Oct 7 – Trinity. Led by Pr. Deborah, Planting sweetgrass
- Oct 14 – Messiah. Led by Pr. Cheryl, Tending sweetgrass, picking Sweetgrass
- Oct 21 – Greece Baptist. Led by Pr. Aileen, Braiding Sweetgrass
- Oct 28 – Greece Baptist. Led by Pr. Aileen, Burning sweetgrass, returning the gift.
RSVP to Cheryl at office@greecebaptistchurch.org or 225-6160, and let us know if you need a book. (There are 50+ copies in the Monroe County Library system.) Books available at GBC office, $12 each.
Pick up Tuesdays 10-1, Wednesdays 12-4:30, Fridays 10-1, or Sunday mornings.
Fear of a Muslim Planet: Global Islamophobia in the New World Order
Monday, October 14, 7:00pm at Shults Center at Nazareth University.
Arsalan Iftkar will discuss his views on overcoming Islamophobia, fear, and polarization in our current world affairs. Question and Answers to follow. Open to the Nazareth community and the greater Rochester community.
Arsalan Iftikhar is an American human rights lawyer, global media commentator and author of Fear of the Muslim Planet: Islamophobia in the New World Order and Scapegoats: How Islamophobia Helps Our Enemies & Threatens Our Freedoms.
He is founder of TheMuslimGuy.com and serves as senior editor for The Islamic Monthly magazine. He has also served as a faculty member at Georgetown University’s Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service as a Senior Fellow for The Bridge Initiative.
RSVP for this event by going to https://trinity-greeceny.org/go/FearRSVP.
Interfaith Celebration of Children
All are welcome!
When: October 27, 2024
Where: Spiritus Christi Church, 121 Fitzhugh St., Rochester, NY
Why: We come together, grounded in our belief that all children deserve to live, learn, grow, and play in safe, joy-filled environments. When diverse faith communities band together, we can take action to build a more equitable and just future for children.
RSVP at https://trinity-greeceny.org/go/InterfaithChildren or by scanning this QR code.
Angel Tree Potluck
Join us on Sunday, October 13 at 12:00 noon at Greece United Methodist Church (1924 Maiden Lane) for a Potluck lunch. Our guest speaker, John Brennan, is from Prison Fellowship and will be teaching us about Angel Tree Ministry. Learn about how we can adopt families with incarcerated loved ones into our church communities.
Bring a dish to pass, your own place settings, and an open heart. RSVP: greeceumc@outlook.com or 225-1880.
Book Study – The Backwater Sermons
Carl and Elizabeth Thorpe
This fall, the leaders of the Rainbow Ministry Team will lead a book study on Jay Hulme’s collection of poetry, The Backwater Sermons.
Hulme is a trans man who found God during the COVID shut down years. However, his journey to the faith is unique. Hulme had always been fascinated by church and gothic architecture. In the desolation of the COVID shutdowns, he found himself free to explore the then-empty churches. He found the experience moving – even spiritual. He spoke with priests and pastors at the various churches, and eventually developed an Anglican faith of his own.
This book is an exploration of what it means to be Queer, and specifically trans, in the church today. Carl and Elizabeth Thorpe will offer guided conversation on the work both as cultural commentary and as poetry.
This is a different kind of book study, but please don’t let that stop you! We don’t often study art in church, but we believe God has much to teach us, or warn us about, in our creative lives. We will also bring in examples of Christian music and visual art celebrating Queer.
This study will start the first week in November and will last six weeks. The weekday and time will be announced at a later date.
Reflections on Indigenous People’s Day
By Bradley S. Hauff, Oglala Sioux
Since 1934, Columbus Day has been celebrated throughout the United States. In 1970 Congress designated the second Monday in October as the date. It is a federal holiday as well as one that is recognized in many states and local municipalities.
What is Columbus Day about, fundamentally? While it is commonly seen as a day to honor Italian Americans and their contributions to our country (which, in and of itself, is an appropriate and honorable thing to do, in my opinion), at its core is a narrative that extols the Doctrine of Discovery and its devastating effects on the Indigenous people of the Western Hemisphere, millions of Indigenous people from hundreds of tribes who had been living in organized societies for at least 30,000 years, according to anthropologists. It is a narrative teaching that none of this existed until it was “discovered” by those who believed they were given the right, by God, to capture and dominate the people and the land. It is a narrative teaching that these Indigenous people were heathens and that God was an absentee landlord of the Western Hemisphere until 1492.
Columbus Day is about a narrative of America, one that is rooted in the Columbus Discovery and Manifest Destiny mythologies, which go back to the Doctrine of Discovery, which had its origins in the Christian church. It is a narrative of European dominance, Christian dominance, and white supremacy. It justified slavery, land theft, and genocide. It continues today as the unacknowledged foundation for systemic racism. It is why many in the United States who are white supremacists also consider themselves to be Christians and don’t see any conflict in it.
Since the 1980s, as Americans have come to terms with the painful events of our country’s past, there have been calls for the discontinuation of Columbus Day as a national holiday and the replacement of it with Native American Day or Indigenous Peoples Day. As a Native person (Oglala Sioux, Lakota), I prefer the term “Indigenous” as it is more universal and does not include the word “America,” which many of us associate with colonization. Americans need to come to terms with their history and how it compares to the mythological narrative. To do this, we need to consider and take seriously the interpretations of past events from alternative perspectives. Abandoning the Columbus Discovery narrative is central to this. Replacing Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples Day allows for the acknowledgment of Indigenous people in this country and what happened to us. It allows for truth-telling. It promotes an honest examination of our past. It dispels the myth and the atrocity of white dominance. It tells Indigenous people that we are not relics of the past, that we are very much still here, and we are a significant part of the American story. The church should be a central part of making this transition happen.
The Rev. Dr. Bradley S. Hauff serves as missioner for Indigenous Ministries on the presiding bishop’s staff.
October 11 is National Coming Out Day
Rev. Shug Goodlow
I am 71, Black, an only child, and the oldest of nine. I was born in New York and will die a New Yorker at heart. I am an Episcopal priest. I have been with my wife for 42 years. We have two daughters and a granddaughter.
When I was invited to tell my coming-out story, I readily agreed to do so. Then I had a moment of panic. See, I don’t have a coming-out story, at least not in the usual sense. My family always had the attitude that everyone should just be who and what they are. I’ve heard “do you” and “be you” more times than I can count.
I never really had to struggle with coming out in terms of my sexuality—at least not with other people. My struggle was within. No one had ever spoken to me about the important stuff in life: banking, taxes, and sexuality. So my struggle had to do with confusion about some feelings I was having and my obsession with paisley.
I have a distinct memory of my mother’s friend coming for a weekend visit. My mother told me to make sure my room was clean because her friend would be sleeping in my room. I took extra care to make my bed and straighten my room. When my mother’s guest arrived, I took her to my room and showed her where she could freshen up. That’s what you did in those days after a long car ride; you freshened up. She wanted to take a nap, and as I turned to leave the room, she called out to me. I walked toward her; she grabbed my hand and pulled me close. She never said a word; she just held me.
I remember having a feeling I had never felt before. I felt “found,” like I was exactly where I was supposed to be but I didn’t have a name for it. Years later I would wonder if she saw something in me that I didn’t see in myself. I wondered if she was trying to help me find myself. In fact, that moment did help me find myself. I knew in that moment that I would find my true happiness in the embrace of another female.
If I had a coming out it was when I came out to myself. I would discover the truth about myself and my sexuality in high school in the back seat of a car parked on the grounds of the state mental institution. As dangerous and ridiculous as that sounds, it was the defining moment in my life. It was the moment when I came to know who I was and how I would live my life.
I think we all struggle to find our joy. My joy is centered in my ability to love and live an authentic life.
The Rev. Shug Goodlow serves as the missioner for racial reconciliation in the Episcopal Diocese of Missouri and rector at Christ Church in Rolla, Missouri. She serves in multiple other roles throughout the church, her diocese, and enjoys being active in local community theater productions.