Lent 2025: Rising Up from our Roots
This Lent you are invited to journey with one another in an exploration of your ancestral roots and how they call you to rise up for love in the here and now.
“As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; yet such a person has no root, but endures only for awhile, and when trouble or persecution arises on account of the word, that person immediately falls away … But as for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields …”
—Matthew 13:20-23
“We must become the wind and the current that diverts the oncoming storm. We must offer a new glimpse into the old and wounded hearts for a new hope … [to] build societies that are more genuine, more just, and which take root in sharing and love.”
—Bernard Nokobi, “Pacific Identity and Solidarity”
Small Groups
Meeting over five weeks beginning the week of March 9, our facilitated small groups in homes across the Metro area will engage as a primary source the book Healing Haunted Histories (all reading materials will be provided to participants). Sign up for the meeting time or location that works best for you on the bulletin board across from the church office or online here. Email Peggy Johnson for more info.
Adult Education
Adult education hours feature speakers and groups connected to our theme, who will inspire and provoke us. Each session takes place on Sunday from 9:45-10:45am in The Chapel.
March 16: Morgan Curtis on ancestral healing and social change
March 23: Rise and Repair: organizing with Minesota’s Indigenous community to protect wild rice
March 30: Nordic land-based practices and culture with Kari Tauring.
April 6: Healing collective trauma with Patrick Dougherty
April 13: John Stoesz, founder of the Minnesota Repair Community
Taizé Worship and Soup Dinner
Wednesdays at 5:45 pm beginning March 5 for Ash Wednesday and ending April 9.
Join Marty Haugen for our Lenten tradition of a thirty-minute contemplative worship service by candlelight in The Chapel, followed by a soup dinner in the Fireside Room.
Additional Opportunities
Friday and Saturday, April 4 & 5: Creekside is co-sponsoring the visit of Sarah Augustine (Pueblo/Tewa), co-founder of the Coalition to Dismantle the Doctrine of Discovery, to the Twin Cities. There are three opportunities to learn from her during her visit.
- April 4, 7 pm: public talk at United Theological Seminary entitled “Embodying Solidarity with Indigenous People by Becoming Kin,” with online zoom option. Learn more and register here.
- April 5, 10 am-2 pm: Decolonization and Organizing for Systems Change. Learn more and register here.
- April 5, 3 pm: a discussion for those who’ve read Sarah’s first book, The Land is Not Empty: Following Jesus in Dismantling the Doctrine of Discovery. Email Rev. Susie if you’d like to join.
Saturday, April 12, 10 am: Creekside has organized a guided group tour to Hoċokata Ṫi, the culture center of the Shakopee Mdewankaton Sioux/Dakota community. Email Rev. Susie if you’d like to join. We will meet at 9 am in the Creekside parking lot to carpool.
