Church of the Good Shepherd

UNITED CHURCH
O F C H R I S T

Join us for Sunday Service at 8:30 or 10:30 a.m.


	Events 2007


	This page contains prior events and activities involving the congregation of the Church of The Good Shepherd.


	List of Topics
	2007

	A Natural Advent (2007)

	Forever Young Christmas Party 2007

	COGS Train (Stewardship)

	CrossWalk America Returns

	LaLuz Hike

	Collections for Veterans

	Family-Community Drumming

2007

The Church of the Good Shepherd partners with Albuquerque Parks & Recreation to bring you a Natural Advent away from the usual hectic pace.

The City of Albuquerque, Department of Parks and Recreation, Open Spaces Manager, proves to be a reliable partner to the community in environmental matters. Church of the Good Shepherd is grateful to the City and its Forestry crew for their cooperation and assistance in making this pilate project a success. Our Christmas wish: that some form of A Natural Christmas, will become a New Tradition for the holiday season!

Giving of real trees is wonderful! We will be able to contribute a small forest to the city for an Open Space area. Trees help process smog, provide shade, prevent erosion, and create places for critters to live. Members and friends of COGS have contributed enough to purchase at least 18 trees!

The trees will change during Advent. Some will be adorned with hand-made ornaments and others will have presents to the less fortunate place beneath them. We will change the photos here as Advent progresses.

Trees are loaded onto the truck

Friday morning December 7, 2007 - the City assisted the Church in selecting and transferring the trees from the nursery, where they are locally acclimated. Here, two Austrian Pine trees are the first to be loaded for their journey into Advent season.

More trees are lifted onto the truck

Two Fat Albert Blue Spruce are loaded by nursery workers onto the truck, where they are destined to become part of a natural forest at Church of the Good Shepherd.

The truck arrives at the Church of the Good Shepherd

Thirteen living trees were selected for the Advent and Christmas season, purchased by generous donations from the congregation. Three will be placed in classrooms where preschool children will decorate them with natural �ornaments� (environmentally friendly) that they make in class.

The trees are unloaded from the truck

�Could you give us a hand?� �Sure. It's Christmas isn't it?� The Church and the City work together to unload the living trees.

A tree goes feet first through the door

The trees must be large enough to plant in the city's open spaces, but not so large that they won't go through restricted spaces within the church. Six to Seven feet, potted trees, seem to work best for all.

Into the Sanctuary

Although the smallest trees were carried in, the wheeled transport is easier on the back!

Trees are pulled/shoved onto the chancel

Not-so-easy does it! Be careful!

At last the trees are all in place

In keeping with the theme of A Natural Christmas, no electrical lights will be placed on any of the trees. Environmentally-friendly accessories only!

	Sunday morning - a forest of trees for a Natural Advent! A Natural Christmas does not come without effort � Naturally! There is a rotation plan among church members to keep the trees uniformly watered while they are in the sanctuary. Heat is kept to a minimum (about 55 degrees F.) during the week, but energy conservation is part of the goal, of A Natural Christmas.


	A COGS Advent would not be complete without the bell choir playing.

Gifts to community agencies, particularly those serving children, will be offered by members of the congregation, and placed under the forest of trees, so that at Christmas time, the Spirit of Giving will be at the center of Christmas at UCC.

Cards were placed on the tree at the entrance to the Sanctuary and members and friends picked out one or more cards for the gifts they wished to give. Many are items that might be around the house - bath towels, mittens, etc. (if clean and in good condition).

Advent Transforms trees and people - with decorations and giving.

Sunday December 16 - the gifts begin to arrive!

The Spirit of Giving encompasses the congregation! Many placed their gifts under the trees - diapers, blankets, towels, mittens, razors, cases of canned goods, you-name-it .... and more gifts are expected in the coming days.

Daily watering of the trees

Everyone lends a hand with the watering (including the staff when needed).

Hand-made ornaments adorn the trees!

Tree tags were made with environmental messages. As the congregants arrived for the Sunday morning service, they chose tags which they either hung on the trees in the Sanctuary or took home to put on their own trees.

More environmental messages

The variety of messages include (first two at left):

Programmable thermostat
LED Exit lights save energy
Exercise - walk or bike to do chores
Buy local produce
Do not shine lights up into the trees; the birds do not like it
Do not shop until you drop
Live simply so others can simple live

A special message

We are to ponder the environmental messages and take action where we can - not just hang them on a tree.

Children make ornaments for the trees

In addition to the Sanctuary, trees were placed in the Pre-school/Sunday-school class rooms. The children made decorations to hang on the trees and were responsible for watering the tree in their classroom. The tree decorating made a big hit with the children. Here is one of their decorated trees.

- Merry Christmas to Albuquerque from the Church of the Good Shepherd! -

Trees for an Open Space area and gifts for the homeless, the store house, and needy families.

Luminaria on Christmas eve

Luminaria lit up the entrance of COGS for the two services. These photos are from the midnight service.

Christmas eve midnight service (11 pm)

All the trees in the sanctuary (plus many more) are COGS gift to an Open space area of the City of Albuquerque and the gifts beneath them are destined for the homeless, the store house, and needy families in the area.

Close up of Chancel area

The chancel is alive with trees, gifts, and the communion table - heralding the arrival of the Christ child into our lives once again.

Communion is served on Christmas eve

This was the first time ever that Pastor Sue served communion during a Christmas eve service but it seemed fitting for a Natural Christmas to remember the Christ child in this way.

Time to move the trees!

Epiphany Sunday - January 6, 2008

All the non-edible decorations have been removed. The call went out and a group of strong men and women set to work to move the trees from the Chancel to the back of the Sanctuary so that the members of the City of Albuquerque Parks and Recreation Department can pick up the trees between 8 am and 9 am in the morning on Monday January 7.

Trees on the move

We've got some strong people in the congregation!

A forest grows

One by one, the trees are moved to the back of the Sanctuary.

Did we water them too much?

A little draining required before moving some of the trees.

Trees are ready for Albuquerque

Many hands make light(?) work.
It took only 1/2 hour to move all the trees to the back of the Sanctuary.

Aftermath - - Cleanup

Now - that's heavy duty cleaning.

The trees were planted on January 7, 2008 in two nearby parks:
Rancho de Palomas and Rotary Park, both in the Northeast Heights.

An article with a series of photos appeared at New Mexico Interfaith Power and Light and also in their Quarterly Newsletter - Faroloto: Winter 2008.

Rotary Park

Some of the trees were planted in Rotary Park.

Rancho de Palomas Park

Other trees were planted in Rancho de Palomas Park.

A group of trees

Some of the trees from the COGS Natural Advent planted in the Rotary Park are shown here. They look very lively, and they are planted (in both parks) so as to line the walkways.

Blue Spruce

Close up of one of COGS trees - looks like it survived niecely! Birds are already seeking shelter in the trees.

That's it folks! A job well done.

	events-archive: master list return to 2007 list

COGS Forever Young Christmas Party

Members of the Forever Young group enjoyed the potluck feast and fun gift exchange at the Hailstone home on December 11, 2007.

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COGS Stewardship Train

The COGS Stewardship train arrives at COGS Station - November 2007

All Aboard the COGS Train!

At COGS, we give with enthusiasm and gratitude spiced with a bit of drama!

	events-archive: master list return to 2007 list

CrossWalk America returns to Albuquerque
with The Asphalt Gospel

This documentary was produced after a group of progressive Christians walked 2,500 miles last year from Phoenix, AZ thru New Mexico to Washington DC seeking to foster conversations about what it means to be a Christian. The CrossWalk America group found thousands of people in every state and every kind of church, who welcomed them and shared their hunger for a more generous inclusive Christian faith. They came through Albuquerque in May 2006 and some of them returned on November 4, 2007 for the premier of the film.

Members of local UCC churches view the Asphalt Gospel documentary

Some of the CrossWalk America Team are present

Walker, Rebecca Glen, fields questions after the film.

Talk and Refreshments after the film

Rebecca's father, Ray Gentry (to right) drove the van from Phoenix to Washington D.C.during the five month CrossWalk trek.

Scroll down to see earlier photos from CrossWalk America finale in Washington D.C. and during their visit to Albuquerque.

	events-archive: master list return to 2007 list


	At 7 am on a beautiful Saturday morning June 2, 2007, members and friends of COGS met at the La Luz trail head for the hike up Sandia Mtn. This photo was taken from the Bear Canyon Arroyo in Albuquerque and shows the approximate location of the La Luz trail from the trail head to the upper tram terminal on Sandia Crest.