Stir the Soul Cafe
Who we are:
We are of people with different backgrounds and interests who are seeking to study Celtic and other forms of Spirituality and spiritual practice; looking for ways to remain creative, or embrace more creative forms of expression; who wish to continue learning through study, and discussion.
We gather in the Library, drink a ‘cuppa’ and just talk, laugh and cry a little sometimes:
Winter Women who meet the second Thursday of each month discuss, discern and concern ourselves with issues of sisterhood and are brought together through the study of Celtic Spirituality. This group is open to all ‘mature’ women and ones who recognize the potential of the wisdom-bringers among us.
The Creative Age-ers, open to all genders, strive to understand aging in a world which does not wish to acknowledge it or embrace it. We meet on the fourth Thursday to contemplate what we must learn, offer, and embrace.
The other Thursdays are open to all persons for various activities such as ‘bookless book’ studies, and spirited movies, and one Thursday a month we have gentle conversation while working in our Library.
What we do:
We have discussion times for Bible study, Celtic study, Spirituality study, Book study. We have meditation time for Advent, for Lent and ‘Just Because’. We host women’s retreats seasonally, including Women’s Christmas in January. We go on pilgrimage: Iona, Ghost Ranch, New York City are a few. We seek ways to be creative and to live in creative ways. Stir the Soul Café is a concept that is evolving, unfolding, and re-creating.
Come join us anytime but until Covid-19 has been managed so that we can re-open our building for face-to-face contact, we will work with email and zoom to remain in conversation. If you have any questions, email Loraine Tuenge at ltuenge44@gmail.com.
We are of people with different backgrounds and interests who are seeking to study Celtic and other forms of Spirituality and spiritual practice; looking for ways to remain creative, or embrace more creative forms of expression; who wish to continue learning through study, and discussion.
We gather in the Library, drink a ‘cuppa’ and just talk, laugh and cry a little sometimes:
Winter Women who meet the second Thursday of each month discuss, discern and concern ourselves with issues of sisterhood and are brought together through the study of Celtic Spirituality. This group is open to all ‘mature’ women and ones who recognize the potential of the wisdom-bringers among us.
The Creative Age-ers, open to all genders, strive to understand aging in a world which does not wish to acknowledge it or embrace it. We meet on the fourth Thursday to contemplate what we must learn, offer, and embrace.
The other Thursdays are open to all persons for various activities such as ‘bookless book’ studies, and spirited movies, and one Thursday a month we have gentle conversation while working in our Library.
What we do:
We have discussion times for Bible study, Celtic study, Spirituality study, Book study. We have meditation time for Advent, for Lent and ‘Just Because’. We host women’s retreats seasonally, including Women’s Christmas in January. We go on pilgrimage: Iona, Ghost Ranch, New York City are a few. We seek ways to be creative and to live in creative ways. Stir the Soul Café is a concept that is evolving, unfolding, and re-creating.
Come join us anytime but until Covid-19 has been managed so that we can re-open our building for face-to-face contact, we will work with email and zoom to remain in conversation. If you have any questions, email Loraine Tuenge at ltuenge44@gmail.com.
Our motto for this year for Stir the Soul Café Ministries:
“In times of bleakness, darkness, fear, hopelessness,
there is God, present in blessed acts of Incarnational Work.”
“In times of bleakness, darkness, fear, hopelessness,
there is God, present in blessed acts of Incarnational Work.”
November 26, 2021
Stirrings Amongst the Stacks: It is almost here, it is almost time! For those of us from the E & R side of the UCC family, the custom of the Advent Calendar ritual is the best time of the year. On Dec. 1 and for 24 days after, we will faithfully open one window to maybe find a treat, but always to find a snippet for the story we are waiting to hear – the familiar, though not always the same – story of love.
So enjoy your Thanksgiving weekend, do your black Friday shopping, but don’t forget to pick up your Advent Calendar and walk the journey to Bethlehem with thoughts of hope and praise.
Stirrings Amongst the Stacks: It is almost here, it is almost time! For those of us from the E & R side of the UCC family, the custom of the Advent Calendar ritual is the best time of the year. On Dec. 1 and for 24 days after, we will faithfully open one window to maybe find a treat, but always to find a snippet for the story we are waiting to hear – the familiar, though not always the same – story of love.
So enjoy your Thanksgiving weekend, do your black Friday shopping, but don’t forget to pick up your Advent Calendar and walk the journey to Bethlehem with thoughts of hope and praise.
November 12, 2021
Stirrings Amongst the Stacks:
Christine Sine introduced a “season of gratitude” in her Sept 20 blog by sharing her new mantra “I thank you God for the gift of life, a wondrous gift so freely given”. Christine said, “each morning as I sit in my sacred space with my cup of tea in my hand, I recite these words and relish the thoughts that come to me. I am amazed at what has welled up from the centre of my being. God has placed so many gratitudes within me that need to be expressed.”
Last week, you were invited to share your ideas on gratitude whether or not you engaged in the STSC Ministries or not. On Sunday mornings, until Thanksgiving, there will be a Gratitude Jar and slips of paper on the table at the back of the Sanctuary where you can share your thoughts anonymously. During the week, if you are stopping by the building, the Jar will be on the White Altar outside the Office. Your contributions will be shared in this column. Thus far, one brave soul has ventured to contribute.
It is not too late to share your words of gratitude. Here is the message from that one soul: As I approach this Thanksgiving, I find myself most thankful for everybody and everything in my life right now – especially loving, caring, sharing friends and family and God! What thoughts of gratitude are bubbling inside of you? Please share with us.
Stirrings Amongst the Stacks:
Christine Sine introduced a “season of gratitude” in her Sept 20 blog by sharing her new mantra “I thank you God for the gift of life, a wondrous gift so freely given”. Christine said, “each morning as I sit in my sacred space with my cup of tea in my hand, I recite these words and relish the thoughts that come to me. I am amazed at what has welled up from the centre of my being. God has placed so many gratitudes within me that need to be expressed.”
Last week, you were invited to share your ideas on gratitude whether or not you engaged in the STSC Ministries or not. On Sunday mornings, until Thanksgiving, there will be a Gratitude Jar and slips of paper on the table at the back of the Sanctuary where you can share your thoughts anonymously. During the week, if you are stopping by the building, the Jar will be on the White Altar outside the Office. Your contributions will be shared in this column. Thus far, one brave soul has ventured to contribute.
It is not too late to share your words of gratitude. Here is the message from that one soul: As I approach this Thanksgiving, I find myself most thankful for everybody and everything in my life right now – especially loving, caring, sharing friends and family and God! What thoughts of gratitude are bubbling inside of you? Please share with us.
November 5, 2021
Dear Folk,
This Henri Nouwen quote is from Return of the Prodigal Son: “Gratitude as a discipline involves a conscious choice. I can choose to be grateful even when my emotions and feelings are still steeped in hurt and resentment. Yet, the choice for gratitude rarely comes without some real effort. But each time I make it, the next choice is a little easier, a little freer, a little less self-conscious. Because every gift I acknowledge reveals another and another until, finally, even the most normal, obvious, and seemingly mundane event or encounter proves to be filled with grace.”
We are entering a season of gratitude. It is a season shared with other countries who are approaching the harvest time, the autumn time, the time we begin preparation for the darkness of the long winter season. Some of you are participating in our Autumnal Ramblings, a meditation self-study, and are invited to contemplate your approach to gratitude. If you are not on the email list for Winter Women or Creative Aging, you may pick up a copy of this study in Sunday mornings.
Whether or not you engaged in our ministries, you are invited to share your ideas of what you are gratitude for, how you celebrate your gratitude, etc. On Sunday mornings, until Thanksgiving, there will be a jar and slips of paper on the table in back of the Sanctuary where you can share your thoughts anonymously. During the week, if you are stop by the building, the Jar will be on the White Altar outside the Office. Your contributions will be shared in this column at the end of month.
“Earth is amazing! There are these things called farms. They put seeds in the ground, pour water on them, and they grow into food, like pizzas!” – Captain from the Movie Wall-E
Dear Folk,
This Henri Nouwen quote is from Return of the Prodigal Son: “Gratitude as a discipline involves a conscious choice. I can choose to be grateful even when my emotions and feelings are still steeped in hurt and resentment. Yet, the choice for gratitude rarely comes without some real effort. But each time I make it, the next choice is a little easier, a little freer, a little less self-conscious. Because every gift I acknowledge reveals another and another until, finally, even the most normal, obvious, and seemingly mundane event or encounter proves to be filled with grace.”
We are entering a season of gratitude. It is a season shared with other countries who are approaching the harvest time, the autumn time, the time we begin preparation for the darkness of the long winter season. Some of you are participating in our Autumnal Ramblings, a meditation self-study, and are invited to contemplate your approach to gratitude. If you are not on the email list for Winter Women or Creative Aging, you may pick up a copy of this study in Sunday mornings.
Whether or not you engaged in our ministries, you are invited to share your ideas of what you are gratitude for, how you celebrate your gratitude, etc. On Sunday mornings, until Thanksgiving, there will be a jar and slips of paper on the table in back of the Sanctuary where you can share your thoughts anonymously. During the week, if you are stop by the building, the Jar will be on the White Altar outside the Office. Your contributions will be shared in this column at the end of month.
“Earth is amazing! There are these things called farms. They put seeds in the ground, pour water on them, and they grow into food, like pizzas!” – Captain from the Movie Wall-E
October 29, 2021
Dear Folk,
This is going to be a busy weekend. First, on Saturday, we have to remember to buy candy for the trick or treaters and make sure that all the costumes are ready for both those who hand out the treats, and those who promise tricks if they don’t get the treats. This popular and highly commercialized holiday of Halloween is a secular folk festival that descended from pagan festivals. But for Christian Celts the festival of All Hallows Eve and All Saints Day are days of remembering in thankfulness ‘all the saints who from their labors rest’, and also be reminder that we are one with all those who have gone before in the faith of Christ, and that their presence in some way still encourages us on our faith journeys today. It is also believed to be a time in the year when the veil between this world and the other world is believed to the at its thinnest. In the Christian tradition, this Sunday we will take time in worship to remember, to give thanks, and to sit in a thin place where we can truly sense that we are all one and that we are never alone.
Stirrings Amongst the Stacks
Some people new to our congregation asked why I use the above title in my column. Well, that is easy to answer. Simple answer is that we generally meet in the Church Library. But there is more to that answer. When our few groups that are part of our Stir the Soul Ministries meet in that space, we are surrounded by volumes of books filled with people who struggle with who they are, and how should we live our lives, with how the scriptures have spoken to others through the ages, and how do we listen to those texts with contemporary ears? There are books on social justice, healing and wellbeing, poetry, art, meditation, and much more. We are surrounded by many witnesses and thereby this Library becomes a sacred place in which we pray, discuss, laugh, cry and drink tea and coffee (that is the Café part). I was asked when we would be able to meet together again as Wise Winter Women, Creative Agers, Bookless Book Club Readers, etc. We have been dislocated, but I promise that in January we will resume our monthly meetings. Watch this space!
Dear Folk,
This is going to be a busy weekend. First, on Saturday, we have to remember to buy candy for the trick or treaters and make sure that all the costumes are ready for both those who hand out the treats, and those who promise tricks if they don’t get the treats. This popular and highly commercialized holiday of Halloween is a secular folk festival that descended from pagan festivals. But for Christian Celts the festival of All Hallows Eve and All Saints Day are days of remembering in thankfulness ‘all the saints who from their labors rest’, and also be reminder that we are one with all those who have gone before in the faith of Christ, and that their presence in some way still encourages us on our faith journeys today. It is also believed to be a time in the year when the veil between this world and the other world is believed to the at its thinnest. In the Christian tradition, this Sunday we will take time in worship to remember, to give thanks, and to sit in a thin place where we can truly sense that we are all one and that we are never alone.
Stirrings Amongst the Stacks
Some people new to our congregation asked why I use the above title in my column. Well, that is easy to answer. Simple answer is that we generally meet in the Church Library. But there is more to that answer. When our few groups that are part of our Stir the Soul Ministries meet in that space, we are surrounded by volumes of books filled with people who struggle with who they are, and how should we live our lives, with how the scriptures have spoken to others through the ages, and how do we listen to those texts with contemporary ears? There are books on social justice, healing and wellbeing, poetry, art, meditation, and much more. We are surrounded by many witnesses and thereby this Library becomes a sacred place in which we pray, discuss, laugh, cry and drink tea and coffee (that is the Café part). I was asked when we would be able to meet together again as Wise Winter Women, Creative Agers, Bookless Book Club Readers, etc. We have been dislocated, but I promise that in January we will resume our monthly meetings. Watch this space!
October 22, 2021
Well, should I begin with the good news or the bad news? It is not really bad news. Sometimes one has to make decisions based on caution. Thus I am sorry to say that our Nov. 13 Fall Women's Retreat will be cancelled. As this Covid stuff has not been sorted out yet, it is better to err on the side of wellness.
However, I did say that there was good news! There is a self-study guide now ready for all our Winter Women and Creative Age-ers as a replacement for the Retreat. It is entitled Autumnal Ramblings, based on material written by Jan MacLean (Canada) and Caroline Bindon (New Zealand) and is a compilation of photos, poetry, prayers, thoughts to provoke imagination, recipes to tempt your hunger, and prompts to stimulate your gratitude.
It is available in two forms: a Hands-on pamphlet (see me on Sunday), or an email attachment. If there are persons who cannot access attachments, I will work out a way that you can read it in your regular email, as in the past - we just need to work out the details.
Stirrings Amongst the Stacks: I am presently sitting here at my desk, looking out over my neighbor's garden. In his preparation for winter, he is carefully pruning and tending his flowers, setting out a few more mums to hold the autumn colors longer. The first real frost will set upon the garden soon, then I will sit here watching the garden change and wait for the first sign of spring.
However it seems that signs of spring are popping up at our church. Somehow the rhythm of the seasons had been stopped for these past months, and now in the time when things outside are adjusting to the coming winter, the repressed rhythm just can't wait. Though the building is quiet most days, there is an energy bubbling up. Plans are being made and ideas are being shared for future programming. New people are worshipping with us and joining our community. Bell ringers are filling the church with eternal sounds, singers are rehearsing music that had been patiently waiting in file cabinets. The Benevolence Team joyfully bounce in and out the church as they accomplish their mission in our community. The Art Gallery tenderly opens and closes art shows monthly, the Board members are working hard on a new budget - consequences of being a church, Deacons are engaged in caring for their flocks, Hospitality responds to need for coffee and conversation every Sunday.
Quietly every Thursday in the Stir the Soul Cafe, a group of women (but that need not be the rule!) file the books and fill the shelves in the Library plus work on cleaning and clearing in the children's classroom, Soon the many, many boxes of papers and files that were hidden in the attics, will be opened and an adventure of discovery will begin.
I look around and there is much awakening. There are many tasks to be done or rather need to be chosen. There are nooks and crannies that should be explored, gardens that await preparation for the winter, and how I miss the smell of Murphy's Soap after a group of workers finish cleaning the pews. Do you feel it? Do you see spring rippling through the darkness? Do you smell the aroma of hope in new beginnings?
Bless you all...
October 8, 2021
Stirrings Amongst the Stacks: While the weather is switching between crisp Fall weather and monsoons, life manages to cope with it in all its forms. Cricket sounds fill my evenings and geese honks get my attention in the morning. So much is going on around me. Gardens are transitioning into their dormant period, but not without showering us with magnificent colors – a reminder perhaps that what we call dormant is really preparation for new birth.
Reminders to you new self-studies will be ready soon, and there is a Fall Women’s Retreat scheduled for November 13. More details to follow soon.
Stirrings Amongst the Stacks: While the weather is switching between crisp Fall weather and monsoons, life manages to cope with it in all its forms. Cricket sounds fill my evenings and geese honks get my attention in the morning. So much is going on around me. Gardens are transitioning into their dormant period, but not without showering us with magnificent colors – a reminder perhaps that what we call dormant is really preparation for new birth.
Reminders to you new self-studies will be ready soon, and there is a Fall Women’s Retreat scheduled for November 13. More details to follow soon.
October 1, 2021
Stirrings Amongst the Stacks: I am so excited! Fall is coming! Material has been gathering around me like fallen leaves - full of color and stories! Courses are coming together for our studies these next few months. Wise Winter Women and Creative Age-ers will be able to stroll through a self-study on Gratitude, Advent will bring studies of waiting and hope. WWW will again meet with the women of First Christian Church for our November Retreat in Candler.
I am hoping to be able to construct ways that we can meet together in person and via zoom at least monthly in addition to the self-studies..So keep checking this space, and also check your emails. In order to make things easier and less confusing, will all of you who do not wish to continue receiving materials from Stir the Soul notify me via email to drop your name? Those who are new or persons now wishing to pursue some new spiritual perspective in your lives, drop me a line to sign you up.
For those who do not know about us: Stir the Soul Cafe is located in the Library and maintains the Hospitality Center located there. You are all invited to stop by, brew a cup of coffee or tea, sit down, peruse a book or two, watch TV, a DVD or just sit quietly tucked away from the world. You are welcome to stop by anytime. Just be sure to clean up after yourselves - it is just like home, except, Mom does not do the dishes!
Our groups meet on Thursdays, or at least that is the schedule - covid has made that hard to do, but on Thursdays, a few of us do come to chat and work on the Library books.
Stir the Soul Cafe Ministries is a place for spiritual exploration, studying Celtic concepts and tracing other spiritual practices. Wise Winter Women is designed for women to embrace all the facets of their being, with emphasis on the more mature years, beyond 'mother' into 'matriarch'. The Creative Age-ers group is for all genders and deals with the art of aging. Both of these groups are not exclusive to only the mature, but often the younger people are not yet ready to embrace the reality of aging.
Stirrings Amongst the Stacks: I am so excited! Fall is coming! Material has been gathering around me like fallen leaves - full of color and stories! Courses are coming together for our studies these next few months. Wise Winter Women and Creative Age-ers will be able to stroll through a self-study on Gratitude, Advent will bring studies of waiting and hope. WWW will again meet with the women of First Christian Church for our November Retreat in Candler.
I am hoping to be able to construct ways that we can meet together in person and via zoom at least monthly in addition to the self-studies..So keep checking this space, and also check your emails. In order to make things easier and less confusing, will all of you who do not wish to continue receiving materials from Stir the Soul notify me via email to drop your name? Those who are new or persons now wishing to pursue some new spiritual perspective in your lives, drop me a line to sign you up.
For those who do not know about us: Stir the Soul Cafe is located in the Library and maintains the Hospitality Center located there. You are all invited to stop by, brew a cup of coffee or tea, sit down, peruse a book or two, watch TV, a DVD or just sit quietly tucked away from the world. You are welcome to stop by anytime. Just be sure to clean up after yourselves - it is just like home, except, Mom does not do the dishes!
Our groups meet on Thursdays, or at least that is the schedule - covid has made that hard to do, but on Thursdays, a few of us do come to chat and work on the Library books.
Stir the Soul Cafe Ministries is a place for spiritual exploration, studying Celtic concepts and tracing other spiritual practices. Wise Winter Women is designed for women to embrace all the facets of their being, with emphasis on the more mature years, beyond 'mother' into 'matriarch'. The Creative Age-ers group is for all genders and deals with the art of aging. Both of these groups are not exclusive to only the mature, but often the younger people are not yet ready to embrace the reality of aging.
September 24, 2021
Stirrings Amongst the Stacks: A special event happened this week - it creeped in between all the terrible, hectic and weird news items that preoccupied us. Thus I offer this Autumnal Equinox prayer for you and your balance.
Stirrings Amongst the Stacks: A special event happened this week - it creeped in between all the terrible, hectic and weird news items that preoccupied us. Thus I offer this Autumnal Equinox prayer for you and your balance.
