THE BUSINESS OF CHURCH by Emilie Congleton, Board Treasurer

I never gave much thought to all that goes on behind the scenes each week to bring our services and gatherings together. Things seem to happen so effortlessly and without fan fare. It was such an honor for me last month to be part of the preparation for the luncheon to thank our numerous volunteers for all your wonderful service over this past year. In sending out the invitations, it was enlightening to discover that nearly two-thirds of our membership actively participate in some way to make our church function as our spiritual home. Our loving volunteers help in the office and bookstore, with the Sunday and Wednesday services, as practitioners, teachers and board members, with hospitality in the kitchen on special projects, and so many other endeavors.
Our church operates smoothly because of the generous gifts of time and efforts of so many people. In so giving we are each blessed by the satisfaction of participation with our church family. I encourage everyone to take part in whatever way you are drawn to express yourself. I appreciate all that you have done and look forward to working with each of you in the future. Thank you for being part of our Sanctuary for Spiritual Living family.

With love and gratitude,

Emilie Congleton

FROM OUR BOARD PRESIDENT

It is always an honor to begin a new year with our magnificent Church family. Even though we may have seen each other at many of the activities that were given during the Christmas season, there always seems to be something special as we begin a new year. On behalf of the Board of Trustees, Rev. Kris, Rev. Carol and Rev. greg, it is with love and gratitude, that we welcome you into another exciting year. We know that many blessings await us in this new year.

It is to you that we are so grateful for your trust in us to continue to hold this church to such high standards. Knowing that your prayers and support is with us, we will continue to justify upgrading our property when necessary and to keep our church solvent financially. Our Church was thrilled with many astonishing Christmas events as we closed out the past year. It is rather lengthy to mention all of them, however there were three events that were exceptional. The first one was given on December 4. The excitement of this event was the introduction of our Sanctuary Choir.

Under the leadership of our Music Director, Mary Ekler, who worked with eighteen members of our congregation to form our Choir. On the day of the concert, before a well attended audience, we had the spot light shining on us. It was an exciting day for us. All of the Choir members are interested in keeping the Choir together and we are discussing ways that can happen. In addition to our Choir and Mary, we were thrilled to have Tina Meeks and Christy Cohen Cohen lending their professional voices to just blow us away. They were super.

Words cannot begin to praise our magnificent and talented Mary! For her to have blended the voices of the Choir, to have played the piano while leading us, and then to play for Tina and Christy; she is an amazing person. How blessed we are to have her in our community.

As Mary worked with the Choir, an amazing thing happened, she discovered that we have some gifted members, that have beautiful voices. We look forward to hearing more from Jeffery Buckner and Kare Castle. It was beautiful to watch Peggy Huber sign songs as they were being performed. She is like watching poetry in motion.

The second event that I will mention is our Candle Light Service. If you haven't ever attended one of these services you are missing a beautiful service. Our Ministers really brought some extraordinary messages, regarding the spirit of Christmas. We are so fortunate to have three excellent Ministers to lead us. Again we were honored to have Mary to play for us at this service. We were delighted to have Paula Aghajanian as our guest soloist, and again our Choir sang! Paula has appeared at our Church many times and has overwhelmed us with her terrific voice. After the service was over, many of our members gathered around Mary and Paula at the piano and kept singing Christmas songs. It was a night of happiness. As you know, we are a church that love each other.

The third event was our Kwanzaa program and feast. Shirley Hardman, Dinah Watson and Claudia Shields brought together a magnificent program, with our members and children presenting the community qualities of Kwanzaa. Harmony Hall was fully decorated with art and cultural items as well as a traditional Kwanzaa table. Each presenter handled their part exquisitely, music and dance were included and our children did an amazing job in their presentations. Our community really came together to put on a feast beyond compare! Not to mention the wonderful gifts everyone received. What a night to be proud of. Thank you Shirley, Dinah and Claudia.

You are urged to join us in February and March and enjoy the fun in all of our events.

With a Joyful Heart,
Wilvesta Morgan Jr.

Women's Focus Group News

The Women's Focus Group was created in 1996 with the express purpose of being a place for the women of our church to gather together for spiritual nourishment, give service to our church and serve our larger community. Over the years this purpose has guided us. Our Mini Retreat has become the major source of nourishment, because so many of us are involved in classes at the church. We have become primarily a service group putting on events and fund raisers for our church and sharing the profits in gifts to charities in our community.

We have been extremely blessed to always have the help and service of men of our church whenever we sponsor and create the magnificent events and activities we do. In truth we could not do these events without our spiritual partners, the men of our church.

It has been expressed that it is now time to re-invent this amazing and passionate group. We see the creation of a group that would officially be open to the remarkable talents of both the men and women who desire to contribute. Of course, this is also in alignment with the all- inclusive stance that our Sanctuary for Spiritual Living, so lovingly demonstrates.

How exciting to be in this place where we can come together and really connect and bond with each other. We invite all of you (both men and women) who are interested in being a part of something wonderful, where all are welcomed and encouraged to participate in ways that you can express the Spirit in you.

We will be having a Visioning Meeting, Sunday after church on March 11, 2012 at 1pm in the Jr. Church. In this manner, we can truly capture the essence of inspiration and be of ONE heart and ONE mind and with ONE goal that will promote continued fun, service and outreach, with harmony and creativity while embracing the love that is open to all the possibilities for continued growth both personally and collectively! Wow! How cool is that!!

By the way, rest assured that our church will continue to have a women's mini retreat. Rev. Kris is also trusting that a Men's mini retreat will be created in the future to create the same opportunity for bonding and spiritual growth for our men.

Enthusiastically,

Kellie Davis R.Sc.P.,

Women's Focus Group President

Copyright 2012 Covina Sanctuary for Spiritual Living
Please email comments and questions to the webmaster.
HOME