Dear Beloved,
It has been a difficult week with the passing of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and the resulting political turmoil, the ongoing pandemic and increase of COVID cases, the severe drought and wildfires, no indictments meaning no justice for the killing of Breonna Taylor and the shooting of two police officers during a night of protest.
The topics of division, health and care of others, stewardship of our environment and justice are properly the subject of our prayer. They need not be politically divisive. They are the subject of our relationship with each other, with our earth and with God. God weeps with us. God deeply desires wholeness in the midst of such brokenness.
While we are called to act in these areas through our prayer, our vote and our action, God desires wholeness and wellbeing for us as individuals too. In this very stressful time, we need to take care of ourselves and sometimes that means turning the news off and tuning into God instead.
Tuning into God can be familiar if it's something you do often, but if you're out of practice, here's a meditation to help you focus on the divine. Sitting quietly, look around at your surroundings and take note of five things you can see. Appreciate each thing as being created by God and think of its significance in your life and how it manifests love and connection. Next note four things you can hear.Think about the memories each thing invokes. Next are three things that you can touch. What emotions rise in you as you engage this sense? Next are two things that you can smell. After you've appreciated these two things currently in your surroundings, contempate the question, "What does God smell like?" (For me, it's spring mud, earthy and full of the expectation of new life blooming.) Finally, think of one thing you can taste right now. Think of why it's important and then reflect on the words of the hymn "Taste and see that the Lord is good" as they pertain to Holy Communion. How have you experienced God in this exercise? Have you found a brief respite from the news? If so, try it again tomorrow and be blessed.
God bless you.
Rev. Cheryl L. Meachen, Pastor
Wesley United Methodist Church
Concord NH
Join us for worship Sundays at 10:30
Rejuvenation! and sing with EP each week and begin my time at Boston University School of Theology. This precious community holds a dear place in my heart. My field education (internship) was to a second church, East Lempster UMC to see what Christian community might rise from the ashes after that church had closed four years previously. 
I was then appointed to Brattleboro VT to First United Methodist Church from 2009-2016 where I finished my seminary career traveling to Boston several times a week and serving the church full-time. Some of the unique characteristics of that church were that we did billowing - a form of dance with long flowing bands of cloth. We had a community garden that produced hundreds of pounds of vegetables for community feeding programs. We held an annual Drive Through Nativity driving around the church with luminaries lighting the path through nine scenes of scripture leading up to Christ's birth. I also enjoyed significant ministry with incarcerated individuals through the Brattleboro Community Justice Center
during my tenure here. In the last two years of my appointment here I also served Leyden United Methodist Church in MA. I would conduct an early worship service in Leyden and then travel to Brattleboro for a second service each week. Leyden is a farming community with wholesome and loving people whose teddy bear prayer ministry is heartwarming as they pray over the bears and deliver them to those in need. Leyden has a booth at the Franklin County Fair where they make the most delicious homemade meals for fairgoers each year with pounds and pounds of carrots and onions and potatoes. We would hold our worship service in that booth on the Sunday of the fair for all to join!
From 2016-2019 I served Lake Sunapee United Methodist Church (2/3) and Grantham United Methodist Church (1/3) as a full-time appointment. Grantham is a healthy, service oriented church that innovated wonderful ways to serve the community like bringing dozens of Advent boxes filled with 24 thoughtful gifts prepared by congregants to dozens of homebound people in the community and community servants. We also innovated a delightful Gas Giveaway event each spring where we had the local gas station roll back the pumps ten cents a gallon. We th
en pumped gas, washed windows and brought coffee to patrons in their cars, with the church paying ten cents for every gallon and for all of the coffee we gave away. We
got to know the community and shared a lot of joy and laughter! We had many successful leadership retreats, fundraisers for our partners bringing education to Sierra Leone and Blessings of the Pets. In Sunapee, I reached out to the community by serving a buffet every Friday night to the coffee house which used our space, offered weekly worship services at three area nursing homes and trained to become an Emergency Medical Responder and Firefighter with Sunapee Fire Department, spending my Tuesday evenings with 20-30 of the most wonderful firefighters and going on calls ministering to people in the community. I even got to play Mrs. Claus for the annual children's party. Santa and I arrived at the event riding on Ladder 5!
