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Equinox
Vespers, September 20, 2008 at 6:00pm
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The Autumnal Equinox Celebration was held on Saturday, September
20, 2008 starting at 6:00pm. It was held in the Jubilee Garden, which is growing
fabulously this year. We met at the Church at
6pm and walked across the street to the Jubilee Garden for a ceremony and
music led by Joan Brown, OSF, President of the Partnership for Earth Spirituality,
with her usual verve and intelligence,
marking the season and giving thanks for the earth and all it provides
us.
During the water prayer, it began to drizzle
and then a beautiful rainbow appeared!
Afterwards, participants enjoyed a delicious
potluck supper in the courtyard, featuring many fine dishes, including
steamed Chinese dumplings courtesy of Susan B, and autumn harvest apple
crisp fresh-baked from the kitchen of Gene and Linda M, made from the church
apple trees.
This was a great way to honor the earth as the
days grow shorter and we transition into Fall.
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 Sept
23, 2006:
The
fall-harvest Earth Vespers celebration was organized by LPPC
Earth Care Committee and the Partnership for Earth Spirituality and
held at the Jubilee Garden of our church. Leading
the service was Sister Joan Brown, osf, president of the Partnership. As
she has written, "Within our prayer ritual circle were
Presbyterians, Catholics, Methodists, Episcopalians, and those whose
spirituality springs from a deep connection with earth. After praying in
gratitude for the waters of the acequia that blessed the fields through
the summer we remembered the ancestors. As we spoke names, small rain
drops fell making present the spirits of those who had passed. As we
blessed seed packets to be held over the winter until spring planting a
brother chanted a deep guttural Tibetan prayer and the only thunder of
the evening joined him. When his chant ended so did the thunder. As we
shared the communion of peppers, grapes, squash, onions and apples,
gardeners shared the sacred parables given them through working with the
earth. We were that evening a community partnership of humans and earth
within the Heart of the Holy One."
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Sister Joan Brown,
osf, in the Jubilee Garden.
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Equinox celebrants in the Memorial Garden
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