April 2025 - Discipleship by Sharon Astle

*The following article is from URE which is a not-for-profit, member-owned electric and natural gas distribution utility headquartered in Marysville, Ohio.

Celebrate Earth Day: Why Taking Steps to Conserve Matters

April 22nd -- Earth Day -- is a time when we celebrate this beautiful planet we are lucky to call home. Electricity is essential to our daily lives. It gives us opportunities to learn, keeps us safe and comfortable, and provides entertainment. The downside is that every source of energy generation has consequences. Fossil fuels emit carbon. Hydropower dams limit the passage of migrating fish. Even solar panels can’t be made without mining minerals. Using less electricity is a way to mitigate the impact of producing the electricity that powers our lives

Conservation has the best return on investment. It’s often free and can save a little or a lot — depending on what you are changing and how drastic of a change you make. Your biggest energy user in the average household is your heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) equipment. Save energy while you sleep by programming your thermostat to be a few degrees closer to the outside temperature at night. The second biggest energy user is the water heater. Replacing an electric storage water heater with a heat pump/hybrid water heater is a great example of an energy efficient project. Adjusting the temperature setting to the recommended 120 degrees and using less hot water in your home conserves energy. Wash clothes in cold water. When washing dishes by hand, don’t let the hot water run longer than necessary.

Earth Day also lends itself to thinking of ways we can connect with electricity-free opportunities with family or community…Unplug and get outside with friends and family by going for a hike, taking a walk, or just spending time in your yard or local park. We can all be grateful for this planet we call home. It offers so much to sustain us. Any small changes we can make to benefit the planet can add up if we all pitch in.

Celebrate Earth Day every day!

April 2025 - Moderator's Report

The first three months of this year have been an overall success for our church community. Attendance is averaging almost 100 people in person each Sunday, plus we are averaging over 250 people that watch us remotely each and every week. As we approach the end of the 2024/2025 Florida season, I look back at the strides we have made as a community with excitement for what the future holds.

We have been able to support a number of organizations this year, and many of these organizations have been able to be with us when we present their gifts, to make certain everyone in our congregation can see where your generous donations are being used and who is benefiting from these gifts. We will be making the third Sunday of every month – GIVING SUNDAY. It is our hope that during this monthly service, those organizations that we support can come in to receive their gifts for the entire congregation to experience. If you are making arrangements for these types of presentations, please check with Pastor Mike and/or Jade to get this on our calendar.

We are planning to generate and distribute a new church survey over the coming months. This survey will provide the entire congregation - both those that physically attend our services and those that watch us online, with an opportunity to help us improve the services C.U.C.C. provides and to make certain we are meeting and hopefully exceeding your expectations. Jean Finks will be providing more details.

We have much to do as summer approaches. I wish all of you the best and safe travels to those that are heading north soon.

More to come…

“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do nothing.” — Edmund Burke

Thank you and may God Bless.

- Tom Cartwright

April 2025 - From The Pastor's Desk

“Waiting Again?!”

We are fully into the post Easter slump. We go a hundred miles an hour from the beginning of December until the Easter celebrations, this year on April 20th! Don’t get me wrong, I love the full calendar of activities, special worship services, the Fellowship and contemplation. It seems that we jam the brakes on after Easter until the next celebration, Pentecost.

The word Pentecost means fifty, as in the 50 days between Easter Day and the giving of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost. It can get a bit confusing though. Just this past Sunday, from the Gospel of John, we read that Jesus breathed into the disciples and said receive the Holy Spirit. That was behind closed doors, for a select audience. Jesus wanted to empower the disciples to leave the locked room and continue to spread the word about the Resurrection and the giving of new life. If you think about it for a few seconds, we might understand what one of the things Jesus wanted them to spread the word about was an unbelievable story. They might have been a bit apprehensive to talk about that in public until they grasped its full meaning.

So, we wait with them until the day of Pentecost, when I feel that the larger community received the Holy Spirit to empower the proclamation of Resurrected life for all. Until that day, we enter in, again, to a time of waiting, until we once again hear of the rushing wind and the tongues of fire that rest on the heads of believers. Perhaps this time of waiting is for us to better understand what happened early in the morning on that Easter Day. Perhaps we wait to be empowered to speak of the defeat of Death and Empire. Perhaps we take a while to catch our breath before we sprint out of our places of confinement to spread the Good News. Not a bad idea.

However, if we are hunkered down to stay safe and out of trouble, we miss the point of the Resurrection story. When Jesus walked out of the tomb into the fading darkness, he was liberating us from the fear that sometimes grips the church. Fear that someone will disagree with us, or worse, hold us responsible for the sad state of the church universal or that we aren’t “Christian enough”.

I could think of worse things to be accused of. Like remaining quiet when we see injustice and violence. For remaining still when ten people of Filipino descent are run over at a celebration of their culture. For keeping to ourselves when gun violence is a daily event in our country, rather than naming it as the evil it is simply because we don’t want to be seen as wanting to take guns away from bad people. Or burying our heads in the sand as women and children die in Ukraine. You get the point.

Jesus walked out of that tomb to change the narrative that death and Empire have the final say in our lives. Jesus walked out of the tomb and through locked doors to give a message of hope, a hope that changes the world. Jesus walked out of that tomb into our lives to empower us to stand against injustice and tyranny. Jesus gave us Resurrected life the morning he walked toward the dawn of a new day, a new creation, and a new world.

He comes to us to take us by the hand to walk into a better world and a future where violence isn’t routine and where children don’t die because of apathy. Jesus walked out of the tomb to give us new life. What better to do with our time until the whole community is inspired by the giving of Spirit. As we sit and wait for that day, why don’t we let our imaginations run wild with the possibilities Jesus gave us on that first morning nearly 2500 years ago. Let us imagine and dream of the better days to come. Let us see that those days will only come if we are brave enough to walk out of the tomb with Jesus!