VGCC’s Silent Auction to be held on Oct 7, 2017
Women’s Fellowship
Women’s Retreat
Scandalous and Sacred: Honoring Our Scandalous and Sacred Selves
This will be the theme of the Women’s Retreat this year which will be held at the Garden of the Gods Conference Center located at the Garden of the God Trading Post at 324 Beckers Lane on October 7th. Crystal Karr will be our facilitator this year. Crystal has asked that we bring something that reminds you of your Scandalous and/or Sacred “S-heroes”.
We will meet about 9:00 am for coffee and begin about 9:30. We will conclude somewhere between 3:00 and 4:00 pm. All women are welcome and please feel free to bring a friend. A sign-up sheet will be available soon in Fellowship Hall. We will be able to keep the cost the same as last year — $35.00 per person, and this will include lunch. Please make checks payable to the church and mark “Women’s Retreat” in the memo line. We will order off the menu from the Trading Post’s café. These will be available a little closer to the date.
Hope to see ALL our women there.
The Wider Church
The Southeastern Association
Saturday October 14, 2017 at Black Forest Community UCC. The theme will be “So That” a continuation from last year’s theme to “Be The Church.”
Our keynote speaker will be Rev Erin Gilmore, our newly installed Associate Conference Minister. Plan to come and be radically connected outside of our church walls. We try to connect with many of our churches throughout the year. During the 2016-2017 year:
- First Congregational Church in Pueblo hosted the 2016 Fall Annual Association Meeting;
- Broadmoor UCC and Community Cong’l in Manitou Springs offered space for the monthly Church and Ministry Mtgs:
- First Congregational Church in Colorado Springs hosted an Ecclesiastical Council (and another one is coming up in August);
- Church in the Wildwood in Green Mountain Falls hosted the workshop on “Online Tools”;
- Westside CARES and Vista Grande UCC offered space for the Southeastern Association Executive Committee to gather; and
- Black Forest Community will host our 2017 Fall Annual Mtg. That’s connecting with 7 churches.
We share the opportunity to host so during 2017-2018, more churches will host SEA activities as others have in the past.
Ecclesiastical Council for Logan Bennett
You are invited to an Ecclesiastical Council for Logan Bennett, a Member in Discernment with the Southeastern Association on Sunday Aug. 13 at 3 p.m. at First Congregational UCC in Colorado Springs. Rev Clare Twomey is Logan’s advisor during this journey.
What is an ECCLESIASTICAL COUNCIL?
When a ministerial candidate who we call a Member in Discernment has graduated from seminary and has completed all the additional requirements to move toward ordination, he or she is examined by the local Church and Ministry Committee. After successfully completing that ordination examination, the next step in the approval process is an ecclesiastical council. The ecclesiastical council is an official meeting held before or following the point at which the candidate has received a call to an ordained ministry position recognized by the Association.
As the Association is the ordaining body, the candidate must be examined by voting delegates from the churches in the Association. An official meeting is called where lay and clergy members of our churches hear a brief presentation from the candidate’s ordination paper, have the opportunity to ask questions, and are given the responsibility to vote to approve ordination, pending a call to ministry.
The ordination paper consists of three parts: the candidate’s theological perspective; knowledge and understanding of UCC history, polity, and practice; and personal faith journey.
Ideally, the candidate’s ordination paper is distributed to the delegates in time for their reading before the ecclesiastical council. The purpose of the ecclesiastical council is to authorize the ordination of the candidate. Logan’s paper is available at Vista Grande.
According to our Association bylaws, each church, based on membership size, is given voting delegate responsibilities. Vista Grande UCC is allotted 3 delegates, although more members may be present. It is our responsibility as a covenantal church to support these official meetings with voting representation.
If you’d like to read more about the ordaining process, check out Section Three of the Manual on Ministry;
Prayer Shawl Ministry
This group meets the first and third Wednesdays of the month in the mornings from 9:30 to 10:30 AM at Vista Grande Community Church.
The purpose and mission of this ministry is to combine the care and love of knitting into a prayerful ministry that reaches out to those in need of comfort.
After more than 5 years in this ministry, we are still continuing to receive lots of yarn and have industrious women constructing more gifts with loving attention and fellowship.
The yarn is blessed before its knitted; the knitters, knotters, and fringers are blessed to fulfill this ministry; and the completed shawls are blessed before given away. We have knit over 100 prayer shawls and counting. These shawls are presented to congregation members, visitors, friends, family members, and hospital patients; wherever there is a need for added blessings in times of illness, recovery, loss and even joy.
You are invited to join our shawl ministry. The more knitters and knotters we have, the more blessings will be shared throughout the world. If you have any questions, please call Donna at the church office at 719-599-3057.