News: October 18, 2024

Cover October 20, 2024
Dear Members and Friends,

This is my favorite time of year.  Living in the mostly hot climate of Houston, the promise of a new season and the experience of cooler mornings is absolutely lovely and soul restoring.  We don’t have the dramatic changes that they do in the northeastern US with brilliant fall colors covering the hills, but we do have migratory birds arriving, less moist air, Fall garden plants ready to grow, as well as earlier evenings and later mornings.

And I love Halloween…what an unusual way to spend a night!  Everyone is dressing up in a costume and going door to door.  Charlie and I enjoy seeing our neighbors and exchanging short greetings with folks we rarely see, as we follow the tradition of handing out candy to the young ones.  Nearby neighbors sometimes invite us over to see their decorations up close and we get a chance for more visiting with them as the train of families slows down.

I hope you enjoy the Fall weather.  I encourage you to get outside to notice anything you can about what changes are happening in your yard or on your neighborhood walk.  While you are out there, make up a poem. Or just feel the cooler air on your face.  Be present.  Allow for a bit of spiritual connection with the changing world. Maybe when you return home, create Fall-inspired art.

At church we celebrate Fall too.  Our annual Pumpkin Carving (10/27) invites our families to create a jack-o-lantern together, alongside the other folks in our religious education program.  It’s a fun chance to get creative and work together, while visiting with other families.    

You may have noticed the ofrenda in the doorway to the sanctuary.  It is there for the Dia de Los Muertos service which this year will be in Spanish at our 9:30 service (10/27) and we will have an All Souls Service at the 11:30 service.  An ofrenda, from the Mexican tradition, is there for us to remember those important to us, who have passed away.  So, if you have something you want to share that reminds you of a loved one, you can bring it in the next few weeks.

Let's celebrate Fall!  See you Sunday.

Carol Burrus

Director of Religious Community