Last Friday, we came together for another installment in our Sacred Conversations series, focused on the relationship between supporting farmers and families through local food.

Together we learned how to strengthen this relationship in our own communities, and why doing so is important for local economies throughout the state. 

For so many faith communities, food is central to ministry. Food is the medicine that nourishes our bodies, but also our spirits through bringing us together in communion. 

Since food is so important in our lives, we have to maintain a healthy relationship with it. In this issue, we will highlight resources that help us develop and sustain a positive relationship with food. We offer these resources as a practice of strengthening our faith through a deepened understanding of healthy, whole living. 

The Rev. Jessica Stokes, Associate Director of Mental Health Advocacy, was recently featured in a Raleigh News & Observer article on mental health during the coronavirus pandemic. More specifically, Jessica discussed the role of clergy in mental health.

Click the button below to access the full article. 

We are expanding our mental health advocacy and awareness work for faith communities across North Carolina. Please consider participating in our survey  to share your house of worship’s experience as it relates to mental health.

We will use responses to equip houses of worship with the tools to address mental health through a lens of compassion and hope.

Click the button below to complete the survey.

September is National Suicide Awareness Month. We invite you and your congregation to utilize the tools provided below in your worship spaces and help destigmatize the conversation around this growing public health concern.

Click here to access the resource pamphlet; click here to access sample prayers, and click the button below to read our official letter.

High Country United Church of Christ (UCC), located in the beautiful western region of North Carolina, has been a member of the PHW Collaborative for about two years now. The Rev. Tamara Franks, pastor at High Country UCC, shared with us some of the reflections on the challenges and opportunities that have arisen for their congregation during this season of COVID: "March 15th will be one of those dates etched in my memory as a Worship Leader within a small church. This first Sunday, of #StayHome due to COVID-19, we met on Facebook Live. 

This meant rigging up a way to prop a tablet for broadcasting a message out to 'our' people. Sitting on our covered porch while my partner sat on a ladder propping the tablet on a box for stability, the whole idea was to offer a face, a voice and some sense of togetherness without the screen shaking!  Because I had returned the day previous from a service mission trip to Ocracoke Island, we returned to a self-imposed 14-day quarantine. 

Our Pianist and Minister to Young Adults were in our Sanctuary with another tablet propped up for a 'live' prelude, a welcome, a song and a spoken prayer time. They would begin the 'live' Facebook broadcast.Then, we all attempted to 'pop' onto my livestream from my home. Needless to say, we lost people in the transition from one 'live' window to another.Very soon, we went to recorded clips edited together into one video for a Facebook 'Premier' to get the live feel with the opportunity for live, active comments. Those recorded clips were made quietly in the confines of our own spaces for the next few weeks with Easter on the horizon. 

For me, hearing the Easter message of coming up out of the tomb, imagining a life beyond death, and moving towards the Pentecostal message of the gathered diverse body of many voices, the “talking head” recorded sermon didn’t fit in my theology. I know that my theology is community centered. I hear that we are in one incredibly divisive time in our humanity. I watch us struggle to talk to one another beyond the weather and cursory greetings. Organically, the idea of 'wrestling with the text in context' with another began to enter my consciousness. Who would I trust enough for dialogue exposed and on the internet for all to see? And, who would trust me enough, to sit at a table, unscripted to pour out our vulnerabilities of living in a pandemic, seeking to make sense out of our biblical stories and wanting to search and name the meaning and purpose of our contextual lives? This felt daunting; but, important enough to take the risk. 

Our congregation, High Country UCC, is mostly white. Privileged. Safe. Without many physical needs. Mostly over the age of 50. And, we want to cross the lines of theology, politics, values, and beliefs to engage one another. How do we engage each other in truth, with respect and integrity? Can we regain a civility where we can have conversations of openness, allowing ourselves to 'hear' all of our human connections deeper within our heart spaces? This was and has been the intention: to demonstrate that theological conversation can be practical, respectful, offer meaning and create connections that widen and deepen our spiritualities."