30 Oct

Posted at 10:19h in Upcoming Events

Sunday Services

10:00am: Live Zoom Worship/ 10:30am: Live Zoom Fellowship

The Worship Service will also be live streamed on Channing’s YouTube channel:   YOUTUBE Channing Memorial Church Newport RI and will be available for viewing afterwards. 

10:45am: Channing Chimes Play, listen from Touro Park (masked and socially distanced)

November 1: Upon What We Can Depend

Rev. Bill Zelazny

Within a very short time our world, which seemed pretty secure, has become filled with uncertainties. Stable relationships between countries have become fragile, a routine election process that has been routine for decades is now fraught with difficulties, man and women who advocate destroying the government have come out of the back woods with their guns. Voices from the right and left and middle all proclaim to have the truth.  What can we depend on?  Bill will look at this question in his sermon this Sunday.  

This is our Fun First Sunday.  This month Rev. Bill is inviting us to show a mask or costume on screen to mark Halloween.  We’ll take a moment to peruse the screens to see what amusement we brought to the service.

November 8: Religion and Spirituality Represented in Film

Dr. Vanessa Ament

Religion intersects with film not only in film content and presentation, but also in the production and experience of film. Seminary classmate of Rev. Bill, author and professor of film, Dr Ament, will discuss the role and place of religion in the movies. 

 Dr. Ament held the Edmund F. and Virginia B. Bell Endowed Chair as Professor of Telecommunications at Ball State University, taught film history, sound and aesthetics and popular culture at Georgia State University and is currently Senior Consultant for Undergraduate Education at UC Riverside. She has written several books on film sound and is a foley (sound effects) artist, singer, songwriter, and performer. 

 This Sunday is our Community Service Second Sunday!  Please bring a non-perishable food donation to the in person Fellowship or drop off your donation to the church office before noon on Friday, Nov. 6th.  You can leave your donation on the covered front porch of Channing House.

November 15: Gifting in Stone

Prof. Robert “Thor” Thorson

Professor Thorson will tell the story of why pink granite, rather than some other material, came to be used for the physical Channing Memorial Church, which envelops the spiritual church.  Reaching back into history, and then into deep time, he will explain how this human gift emerged from a series natural gifts extending eons back in time.

Robert M. Thorson is a member and former board member of of Channing Memorial Church. Since 2007 he has spoken twice a year for his fellow members.  His vitae boils down to this statement, written as a byline for Orion Magazine:  Midwestern native turned Western geologist turned New England academic.  

November 22: The Other half of the Thanksgiving Story

Rev. Bill Zelazny

The Thanksgiving story we learned as children comes from a perspective of the Pilgrims as the main characters.  The story puts the Wampanoag Indians into a supporting role. As part of our endeavor to become more attuned to the multi-cultural aspect of our country’s history, Bill will talk about the Wampanoag’s place in our New England/American cultural story.

November 29: Running Against the Absurd

Dr. John Kaag

This sermon or lecture will address the existential crisis that our society is currently living through. Drawing on figures such as Albert Camus and Jean Paul Sartre Dr. Kaag will talk us through the possibilities for making meaning in a very difficult world.  Many of us have faced unprecedented challenges in the last year. These challenges will be faced straight on in an honest and philosophically sophisticated way and practical solutions will be offered.

John Kaag is an award-winning author, and Chair of the Philosophy Department at UMASS Lowell. You may remember John, he gave a presentation here for TLC last November entitled: Sick Souls, Healthy Minds: Can Philosophy Save Your Life?