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[et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text”]Hello Beloveds,
I’m Pastor Miranda, the current minister at Millburn. Welcome to our website! I hope you find answers you are seeking and maybe a few surprises! We are a small but mighty church that has a long history in our community. While we have been around for more than 175 years, we are just getting started. This website and my blog will be a place we invite you to visit regularly. Here, you will find our upcoming events and learn a little more about who we are and why you may belong here.
I begin every worship service with our vision statement: “Empowered by the Holy Spirit, we worship God as a spiritually alive church, welcoming all and reaching out as Christ’s disciples.” What exactly does that mean? As a member of the United Church of Christ, a progressive denomination, we often say, “No matter who you are or where you are on life’s journey, you are welcome here.” We really mean that. We are actively engaging and imagining what it looks like to build a bigger table, instead of taking away chairs.
We consider ourselves to be the Body of Christ in this world. This means we treat each person with the inherent worth and dignity they deserve. We are continually finding ways to be more accessible and more inclusive. We also believe we are to go out into our community and do good works, as well as listening and learning how to be good allies as we do so. You will currently find us partnered with several other churches and a synagogue to help resettle an Afghan refugee family in our area.
The Holy Spirit is alive and well, moving in and through us, inviting us to be community in ways we have yet to discover. We do this through lively worship experiences – most recently through a special blues service. A group of us are finishing John Lewis’s March trilogy and another group of us will begin Malcolm Gladwell’s Talking to Strangers. In the fall, we had our first Messy Church and will have another one on Palm Sunday. We will share a meal and then engage in activities that help us think about Holy Week. It’s such a fabulous way for us to gather in intergenerational ways. And as Lent approaches, we are going to learn the art of storytelling. We will learn how to share our stories and hold others’ stories in a sacred space.
So, I invite you. I invite you to join us on a Sunday morning or maybe a cup of coffee. I invite you to a space where your soul may be fed, in this exhausting and chaotic world. I invite you to meet God, strangers, and neighbors, alike. I invite you to this space to see what may be possible. Welcome.
Take Good Care,
Pastor Miranda[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column]
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