Dear friends and colleagues, As you well know, yesterday the Wisconsin Supreme Court issued a decision striking down the Governor’s safer-at-home order, thus lifting restrictions on businesses and public gatherings. The court did not challenge the wisdom or medical prudence of the Badger Bounce Back plan. The “lifting of restrictions” ruling came as a response to a legal challenge arguing that the…
For updates on everything that’s been happening in and around Immanuel Church, please check out our 2nd Modified Journey Connection. Now, more than ever, we encourage you to take some time to read through it and stay connected!
Dear Members and Friends of Immanuel United Church of Christ, What a strange Holy Week this will be! We are used to gathering together with great joy at the end of Lent to raise our palm branches high, shout hosanna, and welcome Jesus into Jerusalem. We are used to gathering together on Maundy Thursday to wash feet, celebrate communion, and then begin…
Catch me in my anxious quarantine, Lord, and hold me in this Lenten season: hold my feet to the fire of your grace and make me attentive to my mortality that I may begin to die now to those things that keep me from living with you and with my neighbors on this earth; to grudges and indifference, to certainties that smother…
A letter from Immanuel Church’s President Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. 1 Corinthians 12:27 The taverns are fair full of gadabouts making merry this eve. Though I may press my face against the window like an urchin at a confectioner’s, I am tempted not by the sweetmeat within, a dram in exchange for the pox…
Lenten Devotion – Week Four Opening Thoughts The dictionary describes “interruption” as a stoppage or hindering of an activity for a time, or a break in the continuity of something. Interruptions have been happening since the world began, but certainly now more than ever we recognize that everyone on earth is being interrupted… and currently for the same reason. Therefore, the question…
In an effort to stay connected during this time of disconnect, we invite you to pause in the solitude of your home and read through our “modified” Journey Connection.
Opening Prayer ~ Gather Me to Be with You by Ted Loder O God, gather me now to be with you as you are with me. Soothe my tiredness… quiet my fretfulness… curb my aimlessness… relieve my compulsiveness… let me be easy for a moment. O Lord, release me from the fears and guilts which grip me so tightly; from the expectations…
Dear Immanuel Church Family, How does the church respond in this era of COVID-19? Over the last 24 hours, the corona virus situation in the U.S. and in Wisconsin has changed drastically. Globally, we are in a “pandemic.” The U.S. has instituted emergency precautions. Yesterday, the Governor of Wisconsin declared a state of emergency. Cases in Wisconsin have gone from 1, last…