During our second breakfast service, SCC’s writers circle shared pieces of poetry and prose spanning a spectrum of styles, topics, and emotions. It was a rich and tender morning full of vulnerability and love. Then Jacob Rose closed the morning with his song, Hold Your Head Up High. SCC’s writers circle is open to anyone — we meet on the 2nd Tuesday of each month at 7pm.
During our Second Breakfast Potluck, Jess shared a selection of readings about practicing rest, and opened up a conversation about what gets in the way of prioritizing rest in our lives.
During our Second Breakfast service this Sunday, Jess shared a poem by Padraig O’Tuama and an excerpt from an essay by Ross Gay, and then we took some time to gather around our tables to share our joys, our sorrows, and our hopes together.
On this 2nd Breakfast (and last service before his sabbatical begins), Walter shares his inability to tell whether the fact that it’s taken him ten years since he admitted to himself that he was unhealthily over-stressed with work responsibilities is a confession (of rationalizations and justifications) or a celebration that he’s finally made it to a reduced workload. He then invites everyone to reflect on whether they are avoiding or facing reality as 2025 begins.
In advance of a coming small group, Walter gets us thinking (and chatting) at our “2nd Breakfast” about the attitudes toward the Bible that we grew up with – some helpful and some not.
At this Sunday’s “second breakfast,” Jess invited the tables to share with each other stories of community resilience. But first there was an introduction that included Alex Henderson sharing some thoughtful material on community resilience and Walter shared a brief story of what helped SSU to be a resilient community.
During our 2nd Breakfast potluck, the Leadership Collective shared some thoughts on the new teaching theme. Together, we reflected on what it’s looked like to “be rooted in love together” these last months, and shared a few thoughts on what we’ll begin to explore as we consider “the roots of resilience” individually and communally in the season ahead.
At our Second Breakfast potluck, Janell shared about the variety of intergenerational connections she’s had throughout her life, and continues to enjoy today. From growing up in a close knit church community, to moving to St. Stephen, and now working as a piano teacher and fitness coach for older adults, Janell has experienced the value and joy of nurturing relationships across the ages, and helped us all think about this as a way of being rooted together in Love as a community
At our 2nd Breakfast service, Walter followed up on his fall workshops by inviting discussion of how we can stay in good relationships with those whose views differ greatly from our own on many issues of the day. We concluded that we’re tired of referring to these folks (often family members, co-workers and neighbours) as ‘enemies.’
After enjoying a Second Breakfast potluck together, we turned our attention toward gratitude and celebration in recognition of SCC’s 31st birthday and Thanksgiving weekend. Jess and Walter reflected on some of the markers of SCC they’re grateful for, recognizing the work and growth/change that has transpired over the years.