Spiritual Growth Opportunities

Sunday School for Children

Sunday 10:15 am - 11 am

Sunday School is for 1st-6th graders! We are using the Growing in God's Love curriculum and have an amazing team of volunteer teachers. The first Sunday is the only Sunday that the grade school children remain in worship. All other Sundays, Sunday School is from 10:15-11:00. Child care available every Sunday for children 2-5 years old from 10:15-11. If you're a parent / grandparent with questions about Sunday School please contact Nicole through the church office.

Pray-ground and Rocking Chairs

During worship children are invited to play in our "pray-ground" located in the sanctuary. Books, blocks, and other tools for entertainment are available. Rocking chairs are also available for rocking babies (or just for the sake of rocking!).

Portland Youth Service Corp

We are excited to a part of a greater Portland Youth group consisting of young people from multiple congregations who meet monthly. Fall plans are in the making. If you are interested, please contact the church office for more information.

Soul Food Scripture Discussion(Hybrid)

Sundays at 11:30 am (after worship) in-person AND online. Click here for Zoom.

Soul Food Scripture Discussion meets in person after worship most Sundays in the Parlor at 11:30am. We also warmly welcome online folks to join us through Zoom. Our time is spent learning more about the scripture that Sunday and exploring theme and the message preached. This is a great opportunity for those who watch on YouTube or Facebook to build community with others who call Williston-Immanuel their spiritual home! That Zoom link can be found here and on our Website on the home page at www.wiuc.org.

Awakenings: A Recovery Worship Experience

First Wednesday of every month at 7:00 pm on Zoom (click here for link)

Awakenings: Recovery Worship Experience meets New Year’s Day, Wednesday, January 1st on Zoom at 7pm. Our topic will be “New Beginnings”. Awakenings is for anyone in recovery or who is seeking recovery. Confidentiality is expected! We hope you’ll join us or pass the link on to someone else who would appreciate the blending of 12-Step Spirituality and the Christian faith. The Zoom link is on our website on the home page, www.wiuc.org, or you can use this link to join the gathering.

Sojourners

Wednesdays at 7:00 pm via Zoom (click here for link)

Sojourners meets most Wednesdays (except 1st Wednesday) at 7pm on Zoom

This is a small group that meets online for an hour to discuss matters of faith through the lens of various topics. This month, we will hear from people finding ways to bring peace and hope to the world. May El-Khalil, a Lebanese marathon runner who survived being hit by bus, who has for organized Marathons in her country since 2003, discusses how the running event units people; Rabbi Lord Johathan Sacks talks about facing the future together without fear; and from Lear deBessonet we learn about the power of the Arts that bring hope to the participants and the audience. Come listen to powerful Ted Talks and share your own experience, reflections, and faith as it relates to the topic. The link can be found here as well as on our website under the tab “Spiritual Formation”. We will meet online on January 8th, 22nd, and 29th.

Sojourners does NOT meet on the first Wednesday of the month which is dedicated to our Awakenings: Recovery Worship Experience service.

Dinner Church

Seeking Community beyond Sunday Worship?

Would you like to share a meal and some meaningful, spirit-filled conversation? Then Dinner Church might be for you! Our second Tuesday group will meet at Nicole home in Scarborough, January 14th at 6:30 pm. Our other group meets on the second Wednesday, January 15th at 6:30pm at in Portland.

Prefer a different time? Willing to host another time? Let Pastor Reba know at reba@wiuc.org.

Book Groups

We have two book groups.

Our Monday night group meets every other Monday at 7pm. We are currently discussing Love Wins by Rob Bell who takes a fresh look at our understanding of Heaven and Hell. Watch the author's introduction to his book HERE

Our other group meets Tuesdays at 4 pm

This Book Group commences our fall conversations on Tuesday, November 5 at 4:00 PM via Zoom. All are welcome. If you wish to participate in our conversation, please contact our church office at office@wiuc.org.

About The Universal Christ

In his decades as a globally recognized teacher, Richard Rohr has helped millions realize what is at stake in matters of faith and spirituality. Yet Rohr has never written on the most perennially talked about topic in Christianity: Jesus. Most know who Jesus was, but who was Christ? Is the word simply Jesus’s last name? Too often, Rohr writes, our under-standings have been limited by culture, religious debate, and the human tendency to put ourselves at the center.

Drawing on scripture, history, and spiritual practice, Rohr articulates a transformative view of Jesus Christ as a portrait of God’s constant, unfolding work in the world. “God loves things by becoming them,” he writes, and Jesus’s life was meant to declare that humanity has never been separate from God—except by its own negative choice. When we recover this fundamental truth, faith becomes less about proving Jesus was God, and more about learning to recognize the Creator’s presence all around us, and in everyone we meet.

Thought-provoking, practical, and full of deep hope and vision, The Universal Christ is a landmark book from one of our most beloved spiritual writers, and an invitation to contemplate how God liberates and loves all that is.

That’s the official blurb from the web. Here is my personal addition: The Universal Christ launched the Book Group four years ago with my invitation to members of WIUC to join a conversation about a book whose insights transformed my thinking about Jesus + Christ. Virtually every paragraph had an idea that gave me pause... literally. I would often ponder a sentence for several minutes, not so much because it was so convoluted, but more so because it was so revelatory. I learned from Richard Rohr a new word: panentheism.

God is in all things, and all things are of God. I learned that God is both immanent (right here, right now) and transcendent (much more than right here, right now). I learned from Fr. Rohr that the visible world is an active gateway to the invisible, and the invisible is so much greater. I invite you to join our Zoom conversation.