Comments for Not Ordinary Church https://allyson.revsawtell.org Resources & reflections by Allyson Sawtell Tue, 29 Aug 2023 17:18:40 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.5.5 Comment on Advent for Ordinary People in Not Ordinary Times by Marti Holmes https://allyson.revsawtell.org/advent-for-ordinary-people-in-not-ordinary-times/#comment-326 Tue, 29 Aug 2023 17:18:40 +0000 https://allyson.revsawtell.org/?p=491#comment-326 I love the way you think and express. Thank you!

]]> Comment on We Will Not Keep From Singing by Karen MacLeod-Wilkie https://allyson.revsawtell.org/we-will-not-keep-from-singing/#comment-258 Sat, 19 Nov 2022 16:55:12 +0000 https://allyson.revsawtell.org/?p=423#comment-258 Dear Allyson,
Thought I would send a quick note to let you know how much we appreciated having your hymn “We Will Not Keep From Singing” as our choir selection last Sunday. The words so perfectly fit the scriptures and my sermon theme. Many people folks commented on how they found the words so meaningful.
Thank you for your creative efforts that support worship experiences around the world!
Sincerely,
Rev. Dr. Karen MacLeod-Wilkie, South Shore United Church, PEI, Canada

]]> Comment on Advent for a New Creation by Marti Holmes https://allyson.revsawtell.org/advent-for-a-new-creation/#comment-120 Mon, 21 Feb 2022 17:10:52 +0000 https://allyson.revsawtell.org/?p=432#comment-120 Allyson has a wonderful gift with words, but a special skill in pulling me away and causing me to re-examine the words I have said by rote for decades. I found more meaning in this Advent worship than I ever have.

In her Advent for a New Creation, I find tears in my eyes when I read: “We are an Advent people. We are an Advent church. We are living in waiting for something, yearning for something, facing an unknown future. We proclaim hope, we yearn for peace, we still find occasions for joy, and we live as lovers of all God’s creation.”

As Allyson tells us, what follows for four weeks is “both deeply serious, and often playful. They focus on the power of community, and the call to justice and the healing of all creation.”

]]> Comment on Lent: A Journey from Separation to Connection, for the Love of Creation by Lisa Eller Davis https://allyson.revsawtell.org/lent-a-journey-from-separation-to-connection-for-the-love-of-creation/#comment-100 Sun, 06 Feb 2022 15:00:29 +0000 https://allyson.revsawtell.org/?p=461#comment-100 Thank you for addressing the universal concerns of every conscious human being. Great hope and healing might arise from practicing these principles of Lent.

]]> Comment on Just the Facts, Ma’am* by Eric Dundore https://allyson.revsawtell.org/just-the-facts-maam/#comment-96 Tue, 25 Jan 2022 19:11:29 +0000 https://allyson.revsawtell.org/?page_id=161#comment-96 Rev. Sawtell,

I am the Editor of the UCCMA Journal and we are looking to publish our Summer Issue on “Serving Smaller Congregations” and your name came up as someone who could write for us on a topic related to how we can best serve smaller churches in the UCC. Could you please contact me if this might be something you would consider doing for our membership of church musicians, clergy and worship planners?

]]> Comment on Advent for a New Creation by Amy Prater https://allyson.revsawtell.org/advent-for-a-new-creation/#comment-66 Tue, 21 Dec 2021 07:10:56 +0000 https://allyson.revsawtell.org/?p=432#comment-66 I missed weeks 1&2 but so enjoyed and appreciated your beautiful way with words and sense of humor in exploring Joy and Love in weeks 3 & 4 of Advent. Wow, so much to savor, re-read and ponder here!
The following particularly spoke to me:
“This holy season of love calls us to co-create and move towards God’s new creation. It will not be handed to us, a brightly-wrapped gift, but will emerge from the womb of our hard work and tears, our lament and our courage, our tenacity and our laughter.”
Thank you, Allyson.

]]> Comment on Advent for a New Creation by Lisa Eller Davis https://allyson.revsawtell.org/advent-for-a-new-creation/#comment-31 Thu, 02 Dec 2021 15:45:25 +0000 https://allyson.revsawtell.org/?p=432#comment-31 Allyson, The way this acknowledges so many aspects of what to be reverent about is beautiful.
Thanks for your writing and for your perspective!

]]> Comment on Come, Thou Unexpected Jesus by Jim Antal https://allyson.revsawtell.org/come-thou-unexpected-jesus/#comment-7 Tue, 28 Sep 2021 13:47:30 +0000 https://allyson.revsawtell.org/?p=428#comment-7 I love this new Advent hymn! Thanks Allyson for giving us some Advent LIGHT

]]> Comment on Advent for a New Creation by Rev. Nancy Rosas https://allyson.revsawtell.org/advent-for-a-new-creation/#comment-4 Tue, 21 Sep 2021 22:52:28 +0000 https://allyson.revsawtell.org/?p=432#comment-4 Allyson,
I love your Advent for a New creation Liturgies. It offers a wider and contextual perspective to reflect on during the season and invite us to a faithful and active prayer for the Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love for all of creation. I also love your re-writing of Come Thou Expected Jesus that becomes “Come Thou Un-Expected Jesus!”
Thanks for the sharing of your creative gifts!
Paz,

]]> Comment on Thanks, I Think by Gaye Denley https://allyson.revsawtell.org/thanks-i-think/#comment-3 Thu, 16 Sep 2021 00:07:39 +0000 https://allyson.revsawtell.org/?p=389#comment-3 I love this poem and Allyson’s use of imagery. That curve that gives your path a tender shape, but answers you have to find for yourself. I keep coming back to this. And “turn here for your life” makes me smile every time.

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