We will celebrate Holy Week together this year with an outdoor service on Good Friday evening and two services on Easter Sunday morning, an early outdoor service and a 10:30AM service in the sanctuary that will be live-streamed. Continue reading
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We have been blessed to have Pastor Ryan and the Boes family serving with us for ten years this month! Enjoy these photos that tell some of the story of this journey together in faith, relive a few memories, share in Jaime’s reflections, and maybe think about sending them a note sharing your own memories and appreciation. Continue reading
The 40 days of Lent are a time when we pause to consider our relationship with God, the world, others, and ourselves. It is a time to reconnect and find a restoration of relationship, a renewed space of “withness.”
This Lent, we invite you into a Lenten prayer practice. This tactile prayer experience uses simple actions with paper and a scissors to invite us into a space of contemplation and commitment to our walk with Jesus. As we create leaf-like diamonds, we mourn our disconnect from Jesus, name what keeps us apart, ponder the Spirit’s call to return, and imagine what saying yes to God looks like right now. How is God with us? How might we be called to be “with” ? Continue reading
Ash Wednesday
Ash Wednesday, February 17, 2021, marks the beginning of the Lenten season. This day serves as a reminder of our human mortality and the need for reconciliation with God.
Ann Arbor CRC would typically have a family-oriented worship service with communion and imposition of ashes, but this year, we will mark it with an at-home worship liturgy that you are invited to use in your homes: liturgy and playlist.
The Ecumenical Ann Arbor Taize Ash Wednesday worship will be at 7:30pm and is going virtual this year. The worship will be live-streamed on the First Presbyterian Church of Ann Arbor’s Facebook page and YouTube channel or join the zoom link found here. Continue reading
Guest post by
Matt Admiraal, AACRC Volunteer
On December 19, I had the opportunity to serve alongside members of Hesed Community Church in Detroit and Grace Church of Ann Arbor and Grace Church of Canton at the Hesed Community Church’s Pride for Parents’ Christmas Store. This is the second year in which these churches have been active in helping individuals in the Brightmoor neighborhood of Detroit in this amazing activity. The Pride for Parents’ Christmas Store allows parents to purchase Christmas gifts for their children at a very reduced rate. New items are purchased and donated by individuals from churches (some from members of Ann Arbor CRC as well as from members of Grace Church of Ann Arbor and Grace Church of Canton) and then sold at a “store” (in actuality at a church) for prices ranging from $.25 to $5. Items that parents could shop for included toys, games, sports equipment, electronics, books, and clothing. Parents were allowed to purchase two toys for each child in their family, one piece of sports equipment and one game per family, and one winter coat for each child in their family. Continue reading
Guest post by
Barb Okonkwo, AACRC Parish Nurse
In this year of Covid-19 where we have experienced such disorientation, distance, disinformation and death we are now encouraged by the gift of a vaccine that will allow us to return to a semblance of normalcy (we hope).
We are so grateful for the front-line workers in our AACRC community who have been in the thick of the fight against this disease, who have daily been faced with its devastating effects. We are also grateful that they now have some protection by having been given the vaccine. Let’s continue to pray for their protection—physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. (Pictured above are health care workers Dan and Tanya receiving their vaccines.)
Now, the rest of us eagerly await news of when we can be vaccinated. It’s possible, even probable that by the time you read this the directives for accessing the vaccine will have changed (again). Many, if not most of you know this already but it doesn’t hurt to repeat it. The vaccine will be distributed (when available) across the state through different providers. I recommend that you visit the following websites for the most current information for us in this community:
Michigan Medicine Patients: Mich Med – click here
St Joes and IHA Patients: St Joe/IHA – click here
All others, Washtenaw County: Washtenaw – click here
All others, State of Michigan: MI- click here
Here is another good website for information about appropriate masking and how to get free masks: Mask information and free masks – click here
I’m thankful to know that that you are all taking the necessary precautions to be as safe as possible and that you will continue to follow the CDC guidelines even after getting vaccinated: wearing a mask, physical distancing, frequent hand washing. It will be wonderful when this virus is contained and we can all be together again won’t it? Meanwhile, please let me know if you have questions or concerns about the vaccine and I will try to answer or direct you to the appropriate source.
Stay safe,
Barb Okonkwo PN
Our church Council is taking January 2021 to work on unpacking the CRC Report on Human Sexuality. This is work that Council does not take lightly. Council is using the following questions to help frame their time of sharing and listening:
- What about the report do you affirm? What did you appreciate?
- What resistance do you feel? Where do you feel disappointment, anger, or anxiety?
- Who is affected? In what ways?
- What are the main issues for us as a congregation?
- What needs to be done to move forward? What are you prepared to do to help move things forward?
Hello, dear women!
After much prayerful discussion and discernment, we are excited to announce that our Women’s Ministry 2021 spring study will be Latasha’s Morrison’s Be the Bridge: Pursuing God’s Heart for Racial Reconciliation. This book won Christianity Today’s 2020 award for Christian Living and Discipleship and invites us to the work of racial justice, reconciliation, and personal transformation. Rich themes of confession, repentance, forgiveness, and reconciliation shape the book along with engagement with Scripture and prayer. This book is an invitation to personal and communal responsibility, while it also affirms that it is the work of Christ who enables us to engage in work of racial reconciliation and justice. While we anticipate several more months of social distancing in this pandemic, our work as the diverse, multigenerational women of the Ann Arbor Christian Reformed Church is to continue to answer God’s invitation to discipleship—and this call is both challenging and deeply hopeful as those called by Christ. Continue reading
Jesus is coming. That is what the celebration of Christmas is all about. Christmas is about celebrating that Jesus has come into the world to be with us, near us, one of us. Jesus is coming again. He will return to bring the fullness of the kingdom of God. Christmas is about Jesus being with us.
But, before Christmas, we have to wait. That is what Advent is all about. In Advent we wait for Jesus in remembrance and hope. This year our Advent theme is “Almost.” . All of our waiting and yearning in this season for God to be near us when we are experiencing loss, loneliness and isolation is wrapped up in God’s promise to never leave nor forsake us. So, this Advent we wait together, like our sisters and brothers from long ago, and we wait with confidence that not only has Christ come to be with us, but that he will come again and make all things new.
As you mark the season this year—something that seems more important now than ever—we wanted to offer some thoughts on ways you could mark this season. Continue reading
We were able to gather 133 CAP Thanksgiving Basket meals to send off this past Sunday! Thanks to everyone who helped make this possible. You rock!
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1717 Broadway
Ann Arbor, MI 48105
Phone: (734) 665-0105
Fax: (734) 665-9532
office@aacrc.org • webteam@aacrc.org
Ann Arbor, MI 48105
Phone: (734) 665-0105
Fax: (734) 665-9532
office@aacrc.org • webteam@aacrc.org
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