Sunday, March 14, 2010, Edwards Church UCC, Framingham, MA

Potluck Supper at 5:30 pm, OpenSpirit Worship at 7:00 pm

The journey home is rarely a straight line. 

Instead, it is full of twists and turns, of circling around, of coming close and moving away.

It is a journey of discovery: discovering that what seemed to be a wrong turn might instead be an opportunity, awakening to grace revealed on the road.

On Sunday, March 14, join OpenSpirit as we reflect on this circuitous, grace-filled journey home.  We will seek to hear the familiar story of the Prodigal son with new ears.

We will have the opportunity to walk a labyrinth, drawing upon an ancient spiritual tradition to reclaim our own experience of journey and home.  As always, we will be inspired by lively music and nourished by bread and cup.

We will gather at 5:30 pm for a potluck supper.  Worship will begin at 7 p.m. Come for one or both!

February 14, 2010 at Edwards Church UCC in Framingham

Community Meal begins at 5:30, Drum Circle at 6:30, and Worship at 7pm!

Valentine’s Day, February 14, is the occasion for a special OpenSpirit gathering, as we listen for the ‘heartbeat of the holy.’  The Spark of Love Joy Band will be featured, leading you in playing percussion at this OpenSpirit evening at Edwards Church in Framingham.

This will be the second of our reconfigured OpenSpirit gatherings, having gone from once a week to once a month as of the new year.  Our new format begins with a potluck supper starting at 6:00 pm.

This time around, we’ll follow that with a half hour percussion workshop beginning at 6:30 before moving into worship at 7:00.  You’re invited to come to any or all parts of that, so come when you can and leave when you have to!

Pianist/vocalist extraordinaire David Hunte and jazz saxophonist Willie Sordillo will be joining the Sparks band, and there will be ample opportunity for you to use your newly acquired (or perhaps seasoned and honed) percussion skills as well.

Come and experience some of the ways in which the heartbeat of a drum can help us tap into a deep sense of spirituality.  Bring your own drum if you have one, and if not, we’ll hook you up!  Edwards Church is located at 39 Edwards Road, Framingham.  You’ll find us in Edwards Hall, off of the parking lot below the main building.

Potluck Meal at 5:30 pm, and Worship at 7:00pm.  Bring something yummy to share!

Join us at Edwards Church UCC, Framingham.  39 Edwards Street.  We’ll gather in Edwards Hall.

Directions:  www.edwardschurch.org/directions.html

Ice.  Cold.  The ornaments are put away, the tree is down … and we’re settling in for a chilly weekend.  “In the bleak midwinter”… the echoing words of the carol seem so true, too true.  In this season of ice, we long for our world, our hearts to melt and thaw.

Ice.  A season to endure.  And yet … are there lessons that ice can teach us?  Its beauty can sparkle from every twig and branch!  What energy is trapped in its frozen mass, waiting to be released?  What rivers of life are running beneath its surface?

In the depth of winter, let us learn from the ice.  And let us take comfort in the warmth of the Spirit’s fire as we find it in our midst.  Come, join OpenSpirit as we gather for experiential worship, moving music and prayer.

We meet at 5:30 for a potluck Sunday dinner, and then gather for worship from 7 – 8.  Come for part or all of the evening, as your schedule permits.  OpenSpirit is a spiritual community in the Christian tradition focusing on creative worship, prayer, and the arts.  All are welcome!

5:30 pm Potluck Supper, 7:00 pm Worship

39 Edwards Street, Framingham, Education Building

Directions:  http://www.edwardschurch.org/directions.html

With input from those who’ve joined us in this experiment, we’ve decided to continue to gather on the second Sunday evening of each month, rather than a weekly basis, from now on.  So there will not be an OpenSpirit gathering this Sunday, and our next meeting will be on Sunday, January 10.

In addition, we’re changing both the location and the format.  We’ve appreciated the warm welcome we’ve received from the staff at the Performing Arts Center of MetroWest, as well as the flexibility of the space, which is both intimate and easily transformed to meet the needs of our weekly focus.  But both because it’s been challenging to park and because the feedback we’ve received has told us that participants are looking for a greater sense of community, we’ve decided to move to a space which affords both easier parking and a full kitchen.

So while we may experiment with different spaces in the coming months, when we meet on January 10, we’ll gather at 5:30 pm at Edwards Church, UCC, 39 Edwards Street, Framingham, in the Education Building, for a potluck supper, followed by worship at 7:00.  All are invited to join us to share a meal and worship, or any part of that.

Come, mark the Solstice with OpenSpirit!  The weekend’s snowfall announces the arrival of the season of winter, but the Longest Night, the Solstice, heralds the sure return of the light!  We gather on a different night (time enough to shovel out!) and in a different place this week, but the same Spirit will be with us.  Monday evening, at Edwards Church in Framingham; directions below. 

The sounds and sights of the Christmas season stir a wide range of emotions.  There are joyous memories and painful ones.  There are moments of connection and times of loneliness.  There is hope for the future and grief at lost opportunities.  Too often, in this season, we do not pause to acknowledge the complicated mix of emotions we experience in this season.

On Monday night, December 21,  we will honor this complicated mix of emotions with a Longest Night Service. On the longest night of the year, we acknowledge the spiritual and emotional “nights” in our lives, and we also lift up the promise that new light is coming. The service will include lighting of candles of remembrance and hope, poetry, silence, story, and saxophone and piano music.

Our service will be held at 7 p.m. at Edwards Church, in the Edwards Hall building.  Directions to Edwards Church can be found below.  Turn right at the first parking lot; Edwards Hall is a long, low building by the lot.  There is plenty of parking!

From the Mass Pike and Route 30:

Take the Mass Pike to Exit 13 (Route 30).
Take Route 30 West through four signals.
Turn right onto Route 126 North, Concord St., towards Saxonville.
Follow Route 126 North for about 2 miles.
When 126 abruptly turns right at School Street, continue straight, staying on Concord St.
Go by the mill and through the light. Concord St. becomes Elm St.
At Stapleton Elementary School, turn right just after the school parking lot onto Maplewood St.
Turn left onto Edwards St. You will see the sanctuary and education building ahead. Park to the right.

From Route 9:

From Route 9 in Framingham, watch for signs for Route 126 North.
Take 126 North (Concord Street), going away from downtown Framingham, towards Saxonville.
Follow Route 126 North for about 2 miles.
When 126 abruptly turns right at School Street, continue straight, staying on Concord St.
Go by the mill and through the light. Concord St. becomes Elm St.
At Stapleton Elementary School, turn right just after the school parking lot onto Maplewood St.
Turn left onto Edwards St. You will see the sanctuary and education building ahead. Park to the right.

From Route 20:

From Route 20 in Sudbury, turn south at Landham Rd. (a left turn going west or a right turn going east).
Follow Landham Rd, into Framingham, where it becomes Elm St.
You will cross the aqueduct and pass Cameron Middle School on the left.
Shortly after, on the left, look for Maplewood St which is just before Stapleton Elementary School’s parking lot. Turn left onto Maplewood St.
Turn left onto Edwards St. You will see the sanctuary and education building ahead. Park to the right.

Sunday, December 13, 2009; 7 – 8pm

Performing Arts Center of MetroWest; Framingham, MA

Longing.  Each week during this Advent season, our OpenSpirit gatherings open us into the deepening dimensions of our longings.  This week, we offer ourselves to the gift and calling of peace – not as the absence of violence but as the positive energy that gathers us together into community. 

On this night, our praise and prayer will find its shape in poets’ and prophets’ yearning for peace, from Isaiah writing as an exile from his beloved Israel to the longings of contemporary prophets.

Our music, as always, will open us through an eclectic blend of sounds both ancient and new.  In this gathering, we’ll join the medieval tradition in voicing the great “O antiphons” found in the carol, “O Come, O come, Emmanuel.”

Join us, at 7 p.m. in the Metro-West Performing Arts Center as we mark the third Sunday of Advent.

The light is growing.  The gift of peace is calling to all in our time.  Will you, too, hear her voice, and come?

Greetings in this Advent season!  We continue to gather on Sunday evenings at the Metro-West Performing Arts Center, from 7 – 8 p.m., for spirited, engaging worship.

Now, about our upcoming schedule:  note that we will meet, as usual, this Sunday evening at the normal time and place.  The theme, continuing our Advent reflections on the theme of longing, is our longing for peace.  The following week, we will not meet on Sunday but rather on Monday evening, December 21, at Edwards Church in Framingham (for directions, www.edwardschurch.org) for a “longest night” (solstice) service.  Also, we will NOT gather on December 27th.

The reason for this letter, beyond saying that we’re delighted you’ve been among us during the nine months of our life together, it to invite your help.  We are writing at a crucial juncture in our OpenSpirit life.  Attendance this fall has been erratic – as many as 35, as few as 2.  As a result, we find ourselves reflecting on where we are – and, more to the point, who this “we” is and what this “we” desires in terms of a future.

If you would help in our discernment, we would be most grateful.  You could do so by contacting one of us whom you know or replying directly to this email.  What are we interested in knowing?  Such things as:

1.    Love the worship, but the time on Sunday nights is difficult for me; if the latter, what day/time might work better?
2.    Enjoy what you are doing, but want something more – such as…?
3.    Would come regularly, but the space doesn’t work well for me because. . .
4.    I’d come more regularly if OpenSpirit took place monthly, instead of weekly.

If there are other concerns, questions, or ideas, feel free to express them.  We are here, after all, to be a lively gathering of folks intent on finding a form of worship that would not be possible in many local churches.

We are also clear that we do not intend to be a “new church start.”  We would value your response.  Contact us by return email, or by contacting one of us directly.  Kind thanks!

Mark Burrows (msburrows@comcast.net)
Debbie Clark (debbiecl@aol.com)
Debbie Guest (vaguest@mac.com)
Willie Sordillo (wsax@rcn.com)
Andrea Castner Wyatt (revandrea@gmail.com)

OpenSpirit Sunday Evening; December 6, 2009; 7 – 8pm

Performing Arts Center of MetroWest, Framingham; Pearl St., Red Door, 3rd Floor

Advent Longing.  OpenSpirit continues exploring our deepest desire for God’s presence, our yearning for God-with-us.  Last Sunday, at our retreat, we prayed with Isaiah, that God would tear open the heavens and come down.

Longing.  This week, we pray with people of faith around the world in preparation for the international conference on climate in Copenhagen.  We focus on our yearning for the redemption of all of creation, all life, all around us. 

Together, we shall explore both the challenges creation faces, and the vision required to move forward as sisters and brothers, in new ways.

Theologian Sallie McFague says the world itself is God’s body.  What, then, does it mean to speak of Incarnation?  As we prepare to celebrate the embodiment of the holy in a baby’s vulnerable flesh, can our ‘Christology,’ our understanding of Jesus, include all of created life?

This Advent, praying for Copenhagen, can we see the divine embodied in all created life, and commit ourselves to participate in redeeming it?

In poetry and song, with today’s newspapers and ancient scriptures, let us come together in prayer.  This Advent, our prayer is not just for ourselves, although we need God’s presence in our own lives more than ever.  This Advent, we pray for the redemption of all of creation.  Join us at OpenSpirit:  come in longing, to be met in the presence of God; bring your hunger, to be filled at a table of hope.

If you are able to come to tomorrow’s Advent Retreat, we have a little more detail about what to bring with you.  A revised packing list!

You are invited to bring something (anything!) that reflects your artistic or spiritual practice – a painting, a poem, a story, a song.  Is there some particular spiritual gift that you’d be willing to share?

Again, if you are joining us for dinner, bring some yummy food to share.  If you can only join us for worship at 7, that’s okay, too!  Advent Blessings!

Directions: http://www.ants.edu/ants-difference/map
Please Bring: Potluck Dish, Old Fabric, Poem About Longing

Longing.    Longing calls us as the theme for our evening gatherings during the coming four Sundays of Advent. It is the deep wellspring of creativity, and yet remains an all too neglected impulse in the busy weeks that precede Christmas.

Longing: not for things, but for connection – the desire that takes shape at the place of our emptiness, our uncertainties, all that calls us toward greater wholeness, at-one-ment.

In a poem entitled “On the Hours in the Night Garden,” the poet Ellen Hinsey speaks of love as “seeking to build, braid, knit together / Two breaths, preciously hewn twin desires. . .” Advent is the season devoted to this brave seeking, this holy longing.

In the church’s ancient reckoning, this season marks the beginning of the year; how else to begin but with longing – which is to say, God’s longing for humanity, and ours for union with the divine. A yearning the poet conceives of as a “braiding” of breath, of ruach or spirit, “preciously hewn twin desires.”

During the coming four weeks of Advent, our OpenSpirit gatherings will explore the depth and shape of longing, and how desire draws us ever more profoundly into the mystery of life.

We’ll sing and pray, breathe and “be” together, wondering what it is that draws us in our depths. Asking together, what is it that our hearts truly desire? Seeking the One who breathes in us, longs for our coming, wonders at the beauty of our being.

Join us, as we live into the stirrings of that ancient hymn, “O come, o come, Emmanuel!”