Pilgrim Congregational Church, United Church of Christ, like many other Congregational churches, values higher education. Congregationalists started many schools of higher education and were especially committed to schooling for those to whom education was denied. The large stained glass window in the front of our sanctuary pictures buildings from several colleges founded by our Congregational forbearers.
Pilgrim is located close to the University of Minnesota-Duluth, the College of St. Scholastica, and is not far from Lake Superior College and the University of Wisconsin-Superior. On Sunday, September 23, the 2nd hour Adult Education event will feature the Rev. Cynthia Coffin-Langdon, campus minister at UMD. Come to learn more about Pilgrim's ties to United Campus Ministry.
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
Wednesday, September 12, 2012
Civility
Pilgrim Congregational Church has a rich heritage in promoting participation in civic dialogue. Our forebearers helped shape democracy as a governance that required citizen input and fostered lively discussion among people of differing viewpoints. As a congregation, we encourage civility and kindness in all conversations, especially during this season of political debate. Civil dialogue, respect for various points of view, and a willingness to engage in difficult conversations have been themes in recent Sunday sermons. Our Social Justice Ministry has been promoting Civility in public meetings and candidate forums as well as school board meetings and other community events. On Sunday, September 16th, Pilgrim will host a training session for People of Faith: Starting the Conversation about the proposed marriage amendment. The training will take place from 11:30-12:30 and child care is available.
Pilgrim is an Open and Affirming Congregation of the United Church of Christ and by congregational vote in May, 2010, took a stand for marriage equality. Addressing the current proposed amendment is one way of following through on the congregation's commitment to justice and equality.
People of Faith training on Sunday is open to visitors and guests as well as members of neighboring communities of faith.
Pilgrim is currently seeking volunteers to encourage civility in public forums and debates scheduled during September and October. If interested, contact Anita Stech at monardamom@yahoo.com.
Pilgrim is an Open and Affirming Congregation of the United Church of Christ and by congregational vote in May, 2010, took a stand for marriage equality. Addressing the current proposed amendment is one way of following through on the congregation's commitment to justice and equality.
People of Faith training on Sunday is open to visitors and guests as well as members of neighboring communities of faith.
Pilgrim is currently seeking volunteers to encourage civility in public forums and debates scheduled during September and October. If interested, contact Anita Stech at monardamom@yahoo.com.
Monday, September 3, 2012
Gathering Sunday September 9
Life at Pilgrim has its seasons and September 9th marks the beginning of another program year. Worship is at 10:00; Sunday school classes begin for children ages 4-Middle School; and Brunch for everyone at 11:20.
We are planning on three classrooms in the Sunday School--one for children ages 4-1st grade; one for children 2nd-5th grade; and a middle school class.
Music is a big part of our life as a congregation: the Pilgrim Choir sings under the direction of Bret Amundson and Rachael Kresha will be directing Bellissimo. Plus the 2nd-5th grade Sunday school class will begin a unit using recorders!
Stay after worship on September 9th for our traditional brunch--it's a good time to catch up with Pilgrim friends and get to know acquaintances a little better.
We are planning on three classrooms in the Sunday School--one for children ages 4-1st grade; one for children 2nd-5th grade; and a middle school class.
Music is a big part of our life as a congregation: the Pilgrim Choir sings under the direction of Bret Amundson and Rachael Kresha will be directing Bellissimo. Plus the 2nd-5th grade Sunday school class will begin a unit using recorders!
Stay after worship on September 9th for our traditional brunch--it's a good time to catch up with Pilgrim friends and get to know acquaintances a little better.
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
Joint Worship Service September 2
Pilgrim members and friends will worship at Hope United Methodist Church, 301 W. St. Marie Street, this Sunday. The service begins at 10:00 a.m. The Rev. Lauri Boche, pastor at Hope, will preach and the Rev. Charlotte Frantz, minister at Pilgrim, will serve as liturgist. We will celebrate communion as one expression that we are "One in Christ," though different in heritage and denomination. Hope and Pilgrim will be joined by United Baptist Christian Church. Following worship, some members of the congregations will carpool to the Pride Parade in Superior to join the Communities of Faith float in the parade.
Friday, June 22, 2012
Guatemala Service Learning--House Building and Service near Antigua
On Thursday, we built the house! Half the team got the walls up during the morning work session and the other half put the roof on and cleaned up the site in the afternoon. The family, consisting of a single mother and six children, are currently living in a single room, with a kitchen and wood stove behind. Chickens and a rabbit share the living quarters. The new house, for which the family has worked, will allow them more space and give the growing boys more room. The family´s oldest son helped throughout the construction process.
While some team members were putting up walls, others of us were in a partnership school in Antigua. This time the teacher had a series of activites with which our team assisted--making balloon lions in a kindergarten class and engaging in some physical education activities with older children. Ed and Charlotte made the last sponsored child visit--Gustavo is the oldest of six or seven children living with parents in a small single room ¨¨apartment¨¨ in a village not far from Antigua. We visited, took pictures, and played a card game with the children. We cannot imagine living in such a small, dark space with so many people. On weekends, the children visit grandparents in a nearby village where there is more room to play.
After the mid-day break Sophie, Dane, Travis and Taylor spent time with a youth group that meets here at Common Hope. They took along the balloons we brought along with some of the other craft supplies--it didn´t take long to discover how creative the Guatemalan kids are.
Nan and Gregg worked in the day care provided by Common Hope for the youngest children of its employees. For a while they entertained children with soap bubbles and then when the kids were down for naps, they helped the staff with cleaning toys.
Our dinner out was at Don Roderigez--a beautiful, old colonial building now restored to a fine hotel and restaurant in Antigua.
While some team members were putting up walls, others of us were in a partnership school in Antigua. This time the teacher had a series of activites with which our team assisted--making balloon lions in a kindergarten class and engaging in some physical education activities with older children. Ed and Charlotte made the last sponsored child visit--Gustavo is the oldest of six or seven children living with parents in a small single room ¨¨apartment¨¨ in a village not far from Antigua. We visited, took pictures, and played a card game with the children. We cannot imagine living in such a small, dark space with so many people. On weekends, the children visit grandparents in a nearby village where there is more room to play.
After the mid-day break Sophie, Dane, Travis and Taylor spent time with a youth group that meets here at Common Hope. They took along the balloons we brought along with some of the other craft supplies--it didn´t take long to discover how creative the Guatemalan kids are.
Nan and Gregg worked in the day care provided by Common Hope for the youngest children of its employees. For a while they entertained children with soap bubbles and then when the kids were down for naps, they helped the staff with cleaning toys.
Our dinner out was at Don Roderigez--a beautiful, old colonial building now restored to a fine hotel and restaurant in Antigua.
Thursday, June 21, 2012
Guatemala Service Learning--Village Visits
On Wednesday our team visited two villages where Common Hope has satellite programs. Nan, Sophie, Ed, Jose, Travis, Gregg and Taylor visited San Raphael and Janine, Dane, Charlotte, Alex, Jay and Jay R. visited San Miguel Milpas Altas.
San Raphael is an indigenous agricultural community northwest of Antigua. There is a clinic there with which Common Hope has partnered and the school is now a partnership school, meaning that a Common Hope educator is in the school, mentoring teachers, teaching class room management and offering teaching resources. In Guatemala, teachers are only required to be high school graduates, and many have little training specifically for their classroom experience.
The day in San Raphael began with a tour of the village and later a visit to a 2nd grade classroom. Our team helped the children make pipe cleaner bracelets decorated with bells and beads. There are three children in San Raphael sponsored by members of Pilgrim, and each of those children received a home visit from one or more members of our team. The children and their families look forward to these visits and they are generally quite fun for both sponsors (or their representatives) and Guatemalan families. Because most of these children have no role models for completing their education, and families often need children to work as soon as they are able, sponsors play an important role in mentoring and modeling the benefits of remaining in school.
San Miguel Milpas Altas is about half way between Antigua and Guatemala City, high on a hill. It is the site of Common Hope´s newest satellite. The team spent time in the 4th grade classroom of the partnership school, helping the children in making a large mural. Afterwards, the team and boys from the school challenged one another to a game of soccer. From there the team went to one of three Common Hope homes in the village to paint. Quarters were tight, but we managed to paint the house in cheerful yellow, red and peach colors! The home belongs to an older couple who are caring for their grand-daughter, a Common Hope affiliate.
After lunch, Janine and Dane visited their sponsored child and the rest of the team helped a family fertilize and hoe a cornfield. There is nothing like even 30 minutes of field work to help one appreciate the physical strength and endurance of Guatemalan campesinos.
Both teams arrived back at Common Hope in the late afternoon. After supper, Tamalyn Guitierrez, the incounty director of Common Hope visited with us and we saw a film about the years of war here in Guatemala. We celebrated Nan's 50th birthday and gathered around the computer to look at pictures of the floods in Duluth. Pouring rain, washed out roads, and mudslides are part of the rainy season here in Guatemala--this week, the same phenomena is hitting Duluth! Worlds apart? Maybe. Maybe not.
San Raphael is an indigenous agricultural community northwest of Antigua. There is a clinic there with which Common Hope has partnered and the school is now a partnership school, meaning that a Common Hope educator is in the school, mentoring teachers, teaching class room management and offering teaching resources. In Guatemala, teachers are only required to be high school graduates, and many have little training specifically for their classroom experience.
The day in San Raphael began with a tour of the village and later a visit to a 2nd grade classroom. Our team helped the children make pipe cleaner bracelets decorated with bells and beads. There are three children in San Raphael sponsored by members of Pilgrim, and each of those children received a home visit from one or more members of our team. The children and their families look forward to these visits and they are generally quite fun for both sponsors (or their representatives) and Guatemalan families. Because most of these children have no role models for completing their education, and families often need children to work as soon as they are able, sponsors play an important role in mentoring and modeling the benefits of remaining in school.
San Miguel Milpas Altas is about half way between Antigua and Guatemala City, high on a hill. It is the site of Common Hope´s newest satellite. The team spent time in the 4th grade classroom of the partnership school, helping the children in making a large mural. Afterwards, the team and boys from the school challenged one another to a game of soccer. From there the team went to one of three Common Hope homes in the village to paint. Quarters were tight, but we managed to paint the house in cheerful yellow, red and peach colors! The home belongs to an older couple who are caring for their grand-daughter, a Common Hope affiliate.
After lunch, Janine and Dane visited their sponsored child and the rest of the team helped a family fertilize and hoe a cornfield. There is nothing like even 30 minutes of field work to help one appreciate the physical strength and endurance of Guatemalan campesinos.
Both teams arrived back at Common Hope in the late afternoon. After supper, Tamalyn Guitierrez, the incounty director of Common Hope visited with us and we saw a film about the years of war here in Guatemala. We celebrated Nan's 50th birthday and gathered around the computer to look at pictures of the floods in Duluth. Pouring rain, washed out roads, and mudslides are part of the rainy season here in Guatemala--this week, the same phenomena is hitting Duluth! Worlds apart? Maybe. Maybe not.
Guatemala Service Learning-A Typical Day
Typically, the work day for Common Hope volunteers is divided into two work sessions--8:00-noon and 2:00 to 5:00. Each member of the team receives two assignments, with almost everyone getting one assignment to construction. Volunteers who work construction in the morning will visit in homes or work with children in afterschool programs in the afternoon. Volunteers who go on social work visits in the morning will work construction in the afternoon.
Our team is building a home for a family in San Miguel Escobar, a village not far from Antigua. Homes are simple structures made of fiberlite panels with concrete floor and lamina roof. They provide shelter from the rains and an improvement over cornstalk homes in which many people still live. If a family needs to move, the house can be deconstructed and moved with them. Teams build the panels here at Common Hope and make concrete blocks which serve as the floor--then transport the materials to the work site and erect the house. On Monday and Tuesday, members of our team laid the floor of the home we are building with blocks already made by prior teams. Then we made blocks to be used by the next team. Tuesday afternoon, members of our team carried the panels that will be used to the building site. Thursday will be the house build.
Accompanying social workers into homes is an awesome and sobering experience for our team members. Even without knowing Spanish, for many of us this is an up close encounter with Guatemalan poverty and circumstances. Two of our volunteers walked into a home in the midst of a wake for a family member who died last weekend. Others heard stories about family crises related to medical needs and violence. Common Hope provides each team with translators who help team members debrief after visits. All the social workers are Guatemalans. The disparity between our lives and the lives of those we visit is enormous, and social work visits raise sometimes uncomfortable questions for us. We are also humbled by this opportunity to overhear deeply personal and intimate conversations. Sometimes our hearts are heavy following these calls.
Common Hope has a library which serves as site for after school activities for children approximately 6-12 years old. Monday afternoon Janine and Nan helped the kids make snowflakes out of coffee filters and Tuesday afternoon Ed and Dane had them making God´s eyes out of craft sticks and yarn. The children were delighted and the afternoon passed more quickly than our volunteers expected!
We eat meals in a dining room here at Common Hope and both Monday and Tuesday spent some time together at the end of the day debriefing and sharing our experiences.
Our team is building a home for a family in San Miguel Escobar, a village not far from Antigua. Homes are simple structures made of fiberlite panels with concrete floor and lamina roof. They provide shelter from the rains and an improvement over cornstalk homes in which many people still live. If a family needs to move, the house can be deconstructed and moved with them. Teams build the panels here at Common Hope and make concrete blocks which serve as the floor--then transport the materials to the work site and erect the house. On Monday and Tuesday, members of our team laid the floor of the home we are building with blocks already made by prior teams. Then we made blocks to be used by the next team. Tuesday afternoon, members of our team carried the panels that will be used to the building site. Thursday will be the house build.
Accompanying social workers into homes is an awesome and sobering experience for our team members. Even without knowing Spanish, for many of us this is an up close encounter with Guatemalan poverty and circumstances. Two of our volunteers walked into a home in the midst of a wake for a family member who died last weekend. Others heard stories about family crises related to medical needs and violence. Common Hope provides each team with translators who help team members debrief after visits. All the social workers are Guatemalans. The disparity between our lives and the lives of those we visit is enormous, and social work visits raise sometimes uncomfortable questions for us. We are also humbled by this opportunity to overhear deeply personal and intimate conversations. Sometimes our hearts are heavy following these calls.
Common Hope has a library which serves as site for after school activities for children approximately 6-12 years old. Monday afternoon Janine and Nan helped the kids make snowflakes out of coffee filters and Tuesday afternoon Ed and Dane had them making God´s eyes out of craft sticks and yarn. The children were delighted and the afternoon passed more quickly than our volunteers expected!
We eat meals in a dining room here at Common Hope and both Monday and Tuesday spent some time together at the end of the day debriefing and sharing our experiences.
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