Strengthening Community Through Nature

by Brian Dugas

Sorry, I’m going to get real for a few minutes:

• Loss of civil liberties LGBTQ+, minorities, women
  
• Voting disenfranchisement
• Environmental degradation
• Restrictions on institutions of higher education
• Dismantling of public institutions meant to protect us: education, health services, environment
• Corruption, graft, and greed conducted in the open, in front of an ineffective or complicit Judicial and Legislative Branches.
• Rising costs on everything from: services, utilities, and rent, to products, goods and groceries.
• Stagnant and declining wages due to corporate greed and manufactured inflation.

The list seems endless, and I’m sure that it barely scratches the surface. Who knows what deals and corruption are occurring behind the closed doors of our hallowed government institutions.

I realize that I don’t have to tell many of you this depressing news, we see and hear it on a daily basis—--- unless you are lucky enough to be able to turn it all off and avoid the news and social media - might be a good idea if you can do it. In order to avoid being overwhelmed, I am finding that it is easier to deal with issues that impact me at the local level rather than focusing on the collapse of an empire. Things like pollution from fracking, corruption of elected officials, loss of support for public schools, and the denial of rights of friends and neighbors are all local issues that I feel I can focus on, and it is at this level that we as a church community can be most effective. If you would like to get involved with any of these issues, please join us on the social action committee or speak to me at any time.

Today, I would like to share with you an opportunity to strengthen our community at the same time that we reconnect with nature. Some of you might remember that our original intention with buying this church in the country was to have an environmental theme. The efforts of the Green Team and those congregation members and friends who supported our projects was exceptional. In addition to those projects we had a wonderful custom of camping each year at a campground in Tunkhannock in order to reconnect with each other and nature. Over the last few years we have had some success with reinvigorating this nature experience. This year, many of us feel that we need to reconnect and build community more than ever.

Our planning team has met and begun organizing the events and logistics for our camping trip on August 23 and 24 at Bear Creek Camp. This is a Saturday and Sunday with the service being held on Sunday, August 24th in the woods of Bear Creek. There are events and activities planned for both Saturday and Sunday.

There are: Cabins, tent space, a kitchen, an in-door bathroom and showers, a fire pit, and a playground right next to our site. There are costs for the cabins and tents, but assistance and support is available to those in need. The bottom line is that we want everyone to be able to participate, so if there is a way we can help, let us know. Please sign up using the online questionnaire in the announcements, or in person here in the church so we know how many people are coming and what their preferences are.

And for those of you willing and able to get involved with an important issue facing many people in our country and recently in our own communities, we are working with other organizations to organize a meeting between concerned community members, legal experts, and leaders from the Latino community. Our initial intentions are to meet and discuss how we can make personal connections and find ways to support the Latino community in this region. The meeting is on Monday, June 9th at 5:30PM at King’s College. Please see me for any additional information or questions. This is a closed meeting, by invitation only for obvious reasons, but consider yourselves to be invited. Thank you.