MPR Commentary "Fear 'Redistribution of Weatlh'? Don't Look Now" published December 14, 2010 and re-published by Wealth for the Common Good.

"PERSONAL STORIES" - A SERIES OF TELEVISED INTERVIEWS AND CONVERSATIONS with First Tuesday Dialogues guests and local residents with interesting life stories - is now online on this website and on Blip.TV.  Here's the link for the first show, a half-hour conversation with First Tuesday Dialogues guests from coastal Louisiana Richard Krajeski and Kristina Peterson. Shepherd of the Hill Pastor Gordon Stewart hosts the show; Chuck Lieber serves as the videographer. Plans are in the works for "Personal Stories" to appear regularly on cable television. 

FIRST TUESDAY DIALOGUES DREW 50 PEOPLE the evening of December 7 for a look at sustainable energy: beyond oil addiction.  Thanks to Ken Bradley, Program Director of Environment Minnesota, and Rebecca Lundberg, President and CEO of Powerfully Green (a MN solar provider), and to all who joined the discussion, for a great evening. 

THANKS TO MARIAN GARRISON-MARLOW, PAUL AND RENE for a wonderful ADVENT FESTIVAL WORKSHOP AND DINNER December 4. A good time was had by all.

MEET THE CANDIDATES NIGHT for people with disabilities drew a crowd of 75, including 20 candidates for office,  on a blustery night Tuesday, October 26 at Clover Ridge Elementary School. The event was hosted by the BEACON Council of Eastern Carver County in partnership with Chaska Human Rights Commission and Shepherd of the Hill Presbyterian Church in Chaska.  Shepherd of the Hill Pastor Gordon Stewart, a member of the Beacon Council and its Community Engagement group, served as moderator.  Here's a story in the Victoria Town Square in advance of the event.

"I am rarely exposed to physically challenged adults.  I heard them and listened closely and made my notes, including talking to our Community Development Director as to whether or not we have included anything in our Comprehensive Plan who need special services.  Thank you for doing this." - Candidate for office writing to Beacon Council following Meeting with the Candidates for people with disabilities. See event description below.

HOLY EARTH, First Tuesday Dialogues' January 4 event featuring Saint Luke Pastor Gwin Pratt, was a very thoughtful evening of lively interaction among participants and the speaker about Celtic Christianity, the motivation for sustainability work, and the Earth as part of God's body.

ECOLOGICAL ECONOMICS: LESSONS FROM DEEPWATER HORIZON, First Tuesday Dialogues second event in the year-long series Toward a Sustainable Abundance drew a crowd on Election Day. Kris Peterson and Dick Krajeski, pastors and researchers with the Center for Hazard Assessment, Response and Technology at the University of New Orleans, led the the evening's discussion.  

Worship at Shepherd of the Hill was featured by WCCO & Fox 9 on the evening news Sept. 12.  Click The Power of a Single Voice to watch the sermon of September 12, 2010.  Then view The Fruit of Righteousness, the follow-up sermon of September 19. The following message from Australia came through the Contact Us page on this website:

"I was touched when I read about your recent Sunday service in the news.  I just wanted to thank you for your open arms.  Hopefully the service went well for those who attended.  I for one can testify that it has certainly comforted a far away Muslim to know that there are neighbors who will stand together in difficult times.  My salaam to Pastor Gordon, the congregation and Mr. Ghafar.  May we all grow together to attain Allah's* pleasure." - Anan, Sydney, Australia. *Shepherd of the Hill footnote: As the speaker made clear Sunday morning, "Allah" is the word for "God" in Arabic. The word is not a name; it is translated differently by different languages. The Sunday speaker and Anan, like us, look to the One whose name cannot be named.  In Hebrew the Name of God is no name: "I am who I am."  And, as the text of last Sunday's sermon from the New Testament Letter of James (chapter 3, verse 9) makes clear, no person can glorify God and curse other human beings who are also created in God's image.

Updates and Other News

The Education page tells you about

• Nursery and child care
• Children's Sunday School
• Adult course "A Social Creed for the 21st Century"
• Thursday evening course "Toward Civility: Faith & American Politics"
• Monday Morning Bible Study

The Dialogues page tells you about First Tuesday Dialogues: examining critical public issues locally and globally, including the new series "Embracing a Sustainable Abundance" - the first Tuesday of the month Oct. - May.  The series will look at a new framework for "abundance" that meets real human needs while seeing those needs in the context of the rest of nature. The series addresses sustainable practices with respect to water, land and energy use; the food we eat and sustainable agriculture; sustainable economic models for development and planning; and consideration of  philosophical and theological positions that view the planet itself as a sacred trust.

The Society Page will tell you about A New Social Creed for the 21st Century and a bit of how we see faith and the world through the eyes of Christian ethics.  The Mission page gives you a larger overview of how we see ourselves as participants in the process of transformation and reconciliation.

Sermons are available in written form on the Sermons page and re-broadcast sermons are available at the top of the Home page and the Worship page.

The Commentary page makes available links to MPR commentaries aired on "All Things Considered" and written essays by Pastor Gordon Stewart published by Minnesota Public Radio, MinnPost, The Chaska Herald, Chanhassen Villager, and The Presbyterian Outlook.

Read Pastor Gordon's commentary "The Space of God's Inner Life" published September 5, 2010 in The Presbyterian Outlook reflecting theologically on the Palestianian-Israeli conflict.