"It's a Girl" Movie showing

Join Urban Skye next Thursday for a showing of the documentary "It's a Girl" about gendercide.   

Thursday, February 28, 2013
7:00 p.m.
The Sanctuary Downtown
2215 W. 30th Ave.

Denver 80211

A Guide to Lent

Dave Meserve has written a great little guide for Lent.  It is never too late to observe Lent for 40 days or even one.  Download the guide here. 

A Post-Election Liturgy of Confession and Unity

CALL TO WORSHIP::
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the love of God,
and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit
be with you all.
And also with you.

We have come together as one:
...

One people,
gathered in the name of the one GOD.
We are being empowered as one by One:
One body, one Spirit, called to one hope.
one Lord, one faith, one baptism,
one GOD who is above all + through all + in all.
Now, in the name of the Three-in-One,
we act as one:
One people giving witness to the power of One.

PRAYER FOR UNITY::
To the GOD of many tongues and powerful words, the GOD of tribes and political parties,
to the GOD of idealists, patriots,
immigrants, and rebels,
we come with the bold language of heart-break.
We come with our prayers for restoration.
We come with our quiet resentment
and our gloating celebration.
We come with our dreams of shalom.
We come with our belief that you are the GOD
who makes all things new
including a broken and bloodied Body.
We carry to the river of mercy
this wounded Church
and pray to the GOD-Who-Is-Bigger
that we would be knit together again...
beyond affiliations, black boxes inked,
yard-sign taunts....
into a living expression
of love, goodness, and grace.
Amen.

CONFESSION::
Claiming to be a people of peace,
we have participated in war:
in battle cry graffiti on Facebook walls
and soap-box rants,
in stone-heavy words hurled against
the glass houses of the others’ character.
Merciful GOD, return us to wholeness.

Claiming to be a people of love, we have participated in harshness:
in loving our neighbor as ourselves
only when our neighbor shares our vote,
in creating inhospitable environments for conversations to flourish, in choosing to forget
that the greatest of these things is love.
Merciful GOD, return us to wholeness.

Claiming to be a people of humility,
we have participated in pharisaical arrogance:
in declaring boldly
that we know “how Jesus would vote,”
in spreading the stench of sulphur
over issues with which we disagree,
in using the Story of Grace
to justify our puffed-out chests.
Merciful GOD, return us to wholeness.

Claiming to be a people of unity,
we have participated in divisiveness:
in conversational subtext
that whoever is not for us is against us,
in the quiet sneers and eye-rolls
made in the euphoria of our self-righteousness,
in letting our choice of Caesar define
who will be invited to share our Table.
Merciful GOD, return us to wholeness.

In the humble silence we create here together,
you are invited to take a quiet inventory of the ways in which you’ve participated in war,
in harshness, in arrogance, in divisiveness.
Make your confession to the GOD-Who-Hears.
Kyrie Eleison. Lord, have mercy.

[silence for personal confession]

WORDS OF ABSOLUTION::
As a minister of the gospel,
a servant to the Good News, I boldly and gladly remind you that your sins have been forgiven,
cast beyond the boundaries of our land,
and wiped from the mind of our Merciful GOD.
May you live in the reckless joy of forgiveness.

AFFIRMATION OF OUR BELIEF::
We who are the waiting ones, find our hope and unity in this:
We believe in God, Three in One,
Father, Son, Spirit
Paradox, Mystery, Elemental.
We believe in a God of Justice: compassion, mercy, hope
And first, a God of love -
Love personified, incarnated, born vulnerable.

We believe in God, the artist of Creation
God, the life-giver of humanity
God, the lover of us all.

We believe we are called:
To activity out of passivity and apathy,
by the Son of God, born into one place and time for the sake of every place and time;
Calling down through history; borne on the wings of the Spirit.

We believe we are called:
To community, with each other, through Christ, the thread weaving us all together.

We believe that God plays no favorites,
pulls no punches, leaves no stone unturned.

We believe that life is hard.
We believe that life is beautiful.
So, we believe, does God.

[communion together..
after you receive, you are invited to reflect on this time and leave in silence]
Thank you for sharing your prayers with us.

PREPARING FOR THE TABLE::
The first time this story was told
they gathered around a table a ragged collection of people –
sinners
betrayers
the power-hungry
fragile lonely lost.
The first time this story was told, Jesus promised that it was for all time; that whenever the bread was broken and the wine was poured, wherever the story was told around the table,
he would be there.
Today we tell the story
as its been told a thousand times over;
we break the bread, and we pour the wine;
sure, as we do, that we belong at this table
and that Jesus is here with us.

If we come to this table angry,
let this bread and wine be our peace.
If we come to the table as sinners,
let this bread and wine be our grace.
If we come to the table betrayed,
let this bread and wine be our wholeness.
If we come to the table in despair,
let this bread and wine be our hope.
If we come to the table empty,
let this bread and wine be our life.
For this is a holy table,
with food to fill a hungry world
and wine to quench thirsty hearts.
It's GOD’s in the making,
and ours for the taking.

We came today in memory of the past.
We will leave today
to grasp our together-future.
We came today in hope of healing.
We will leave today
another step along the road.
We came today in suspicion and as strangers.
We will leave today as sisters and brothers.

Give us strength to travel.
Give us hope to heal. Give us cause to celebrate.
Give us peace and bless us
In the name of the One who breathed life In the name of the One who lived with us In the name of the One who helps us live now.
In the name of the Father, Son and Spirit,
interdependent, community, One GOD. Amen.

written by Jodi Renee Giron

ADVENT BEGINS DEC. 2

URBAN SKYE continues to be Advent enthusiasts through our creative, devotional writings. We now offer FOUR ADVENT GUIDES as a counter-cultural attempt to slow us down and bring some spiritual intention to the frantic Christmas season. For the four weeks of Advent you’ll enter the Story through a character revealing one aspect of a unique theme.  From there, you’ll be guided on creative responses of prayer, reflection, action or exercise.  All of our guides are family-friendly but are designed for personal journeys as well.

A NEW URBAN SKYE ADVENT GUIDE!

It has been several years since Urban Skye created a new guide for Advent, but the stars aligned this fall (appropriate metaphor considering the season) for the creation of a new guide.  Our theme is TRANSCENDENCE seen in three "eternal virtues" (see description at left).  This guide is in our familiar four-week format but is distinct in two ways: the devotions were written by different Colorado pastors and we have included our first Christmas Eve reflection.

ORDERING YOUR ADVENT GUIDES

ORDER BY MONDAY, NOVEMBER 19th to make our first printing; we will mail the guides on Monday, November 26th. (We take late orders but can't guarantee they will make it to you by Dec. 2.)  To order up to 100 guides, simply go to our Advent page. Payments are made through Paypal. For other payment options or if you have orders over 100, contact Dave by email for pricing, payment and shipping arrangments.

The Story of Urban Skye

By Dave Meserve, Urban Skye Director 

© 2010 Amy Clifford. http://soulandculture.blogspot.comUrban Skye was birthed out of restlessness, friendship and three passions. 

In 2003, I left the big, suburban church world seeking a new adventure in the city.  I knew I wanted to do something deeply meaningful for people - something that honored faith but was much broader.  With my wife, Shari, we sweet-talked Roxann Lloyd, David and Jill Cleveland, and Scotty and Joy Sawyer into joining the journey.  

The original idea was simple.  We wanted to create the kind of space that facilitated meaning for folks. “What’s meaningful for you?” was the obvious starting point.  Our answers provided the venues that began and continue for Urban Skye

• Scotty was a writer, so he started a book salon.
• Joy was a poet (among many things), so she gathered a creating writing group.
• Roxann was a designer, so she began to do art walks and shared studio.
• David was a film student, so he hosted art films at a bar. (Also a drinker, apparently)
• Jill was a city planner with a big heart, so she created service projects.

I was a pastor who didn’t want to “do church”.  So, I rented a house in the Highland neighborhood and began conversations about this crazy thing called faith for anyone who wanted to come.  Shari, a passionate cook, offered up the tastiest part of Urban Skye in our weekly gathering and Urban Skye Soul was born. 

Over time we realized that the passionate pursuits of service, faith and art have provided meaning for people as long as there have been people.  In ancient times, poets, philosophers and prophets spoke of The Good, The True and The Beautiful as eternal values.  We began to see our 21^st century mission as a way to carry on this ancient wisdom.  We now believe that the meaning is found in the balanced pursuit of all three: 

• Service: the sharing of another’s burden (The Good)  
• Faith: the common journey of seeking God (The True)
• Art: the love and pursuit of beauty (The Beautiful)

These would become our Urban Skye motto: Share Burdens, Pursue Beauty, Learn Grace (our way of describing the faith journey).  

I hope you’ll consider becoming part of our story.  There’s much more to be written! 

Dave