Ottaquechee (in Natick, a language of the Algonquin nation)
means a swift mountain stream”
Connecticut originates from another Algonquin word:
Quinnehtukqut meaning “beside the long tidal river”.
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LOOKING AHEAD
- WILD CHURCH Second Sundays 1:30pm Meadow View Farm, home of the Wolfe pack
- JULY MennoCon21 July 6-10. Creation care related seminars are trending. The organizers said that proposals for topics related to creation care were submitted more than any other theme. Heather Wolfe had a seminar proposal accepted related to Food, Faith and Climate Change, but because Herald Press has decided not to attend MennoCon21 due to forecasted low attendance related to the pandemic, it was decided to postpone Heather's seminar until the next conference. There is a separate online conference option if you are interesting in "going" from the comfort of home this year.
- AUGUST Groton camping. BBC outdoor service.
- SEPTEMBER is the Season of Creation 2021. This years theme: A home for all? Renewing the Oikos of God.
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KAIROS
(Greek for “right time,” “season” or “opportunity”)
noun
: the opportune and decisive moment
: a time when conditions are right for the accomplishment of a crucial action
This is a Kairos moment.
Climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution pose a triple threat to human health and prosperity that may be averted only by transforming how we power our economies and feed ourselves, t\he United Nations said in Februrary.
“The bottom line is that we need to transform how we view and value nature”, said the UN Secretary-General. “The rewards will be immense. With a new consciousness, we can direct investment into policies and activities that protect and restore nature”.

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Meet a TCMF Permaculture Garden plant: Garden Strawberries (Fragaria)
Cultivated first in France, this fruit is just this week ripening in our apple guild. Botanists call strawberries a ‘false fruit’ or ‘multiple fruit’, because what looks like seeds are actually the true fruit- each of these "seeds" is an ovary which contain seeds inside. Strawberries are picked by hand as you must wait until they are ripe since they don’t continue to ripen after picking. Strawberries function in our guild as an edible ground cover that helps to shade the soil, prevent wind and rain erosion, as well as providing weed suppression.
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Quarterly Update
SOLAR GENERATION
@ TCMF
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MARCH
APRIL
MAY

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This Quarter
Generated: 4,062 kWh
Used: 1,304 kWh
Donated: 2,758 kWh
Estimated Value to BBC: $646
Estimated Value to TCMF: $246
Total Value for Quarter: $892
Grand Total
Generated: 49,883 kWh
Used: 21,468 kWh (20,021 kWh from Solar, 1,447 kWh from the grid)
Donated: 29,862 kWh
Estimated Value to BBC: $7,473
Estimated Value to TCMF: $3,793
Total Value: $11,265
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MEMBER SPOTLIGHT - Courtney Hollingsworth
photo caption: Last week my dog, Panda, and I went swimming at the 20ft hole in Reading. It was beautiful, and a great place to beat the 90 degree heat.
Q: What is something you love about creation?
A: I love the beauty and diversity of creation. Whether it is standing on the top of a mountain and taking in a glorious sunset, or sitting by a lake and having a dragon fly land on your leg... this world we get to live in is truly amazing and awe inspiring. I also love how it is created in such a way that everything is so intricately interconnected. Life is designed to create more life, and when everything is in balance all things will thrive. That is why it is so sad to see our planet and creation suffering so much.
Q: What is something you do to care for creation?
A: I am trying to care for creation by taking practical steps to REDUCE the amount of waste I create. Our family loves fizzy drinks, and so I just bought a Soda Stream- which will eliminate all the cans and bottles we have been buying.
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KIDS CARE CORNER
The WATER CYCLE!
Summer is a time for sun and swimming. We enjoy warm days and cooling off in water. The sun and water both play roles in the water cycle which all life on Earth depends on. There are 4 stages of the water cycle. The sun evaporates (1) water which goes up into the sky, condenses (2) in clouds and comes back down as precipitation (3) like rain or snow and collects (4) before repeating the cycle. Check out this catchy Water Cycle kids song.

REMEMBER LAST MONTH's challenge? Add another R for Earth. What are your ideas for another R for Earth in addition to Rethink, Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Repurpose, Recycle, Rot.
Here are YOUR responses that were submitted...
Regift - Recover - Recruit - Repair
This brings the total count up to 11 R's for Earth.
Yeah you! Yeah Earth!
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DO JUST ONE THING
Check out this graphic from MCCN. Contemplate, where do you see opportunity, sense energy for us to focus as a church? There is a second page online that follows this graphic with more details if you want to read more.
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NEW! Join the TCMF Green Team
We've had an official creation care liaison since August 2016. This summer is
our 5th year anniversary
of an intentional commitment to creation care! It is time to expand beyond a liaison to having a green team. This will be a voluntary team for anyone interested in helping to guide our church's involvement in creation care and have input into this newsletter. We will plan to meet quarterly and connect informally between meetings on an as needed basis. There are 2 signup slots on the church slate of volunteers currently but that can expand if there is more interest!
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A NOTE FROM STEVE
During a Wild Church service last summer, I remember asking God for clarity about the future of my marriage and family. I knew that we were in a difficult place, and I saw two butterflies above my head--as though dancing. They circled around each other for a few moments and then they parted ways. I tried to track one of them, and it flew to a field of lilies near the Wolfe’s family home where there were at least a dozen other butterflies.
I took this to mean that though the brief “dance” that two butterflies had shared had ended, there was a community of support and love awaiting ahead.
When I think about this past 18 months, during the pandemic, I have held on to the image of the butterfly in a variety of ways. Over a year ago, we were headed into the unknown and unfamiliar. In the midst of this uncertainty this past year, the image of the butterfly has been helpful to think about loss.
A caterpillar enters the uncertainty of the chrysalis--the dark unknown and the loss of the familiar. The body of the caterpillar must turn to complete goo (it experiences the “death” of its identity as a caterpillar) as a necessary step for the transformation to take place--but this transformation leads it to something new and wonderful---a flying butterfly with wings.
The reappearance of the butterfly, the blossoming of flowers, the reappearance of green leaves on trees, and other spring-time hints of the reemergence of signs of life are hopeful metaphors of transformation.
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Like the metaphor of the caterpillar and the butterfly, the experience of loss and death can be a necessary part of transformation to something even more beautiful on the other side. As Sadhu Sundar Singh, a missionary from India in the early twentieth century, wrote:
“A silkworm was struggling out of the cocoon and an ignorant man saw it battling as if in pain, so he went and helped it to get free, but very soon after it fluttered and died. The other silkworms that struggled out without help suffered, but they came out into full life and beauty, with wings made strong for flight by their battle for fresh existence.”
What I take from these words is that the struggle through uncertainty and loss is a necessary part of transformation. On a global level, we have struggled through the challenges of the past 18 months, but we are seeing hints of hope that we are approaching the other side: vaccines, new treatments for COVID-19, adjustments to a new way of life that makes the most of local, simple, living at home.
It is possible that, like the silkworm, through our present struggle we will come away stronger and transformed; and that death will not have the last word--but death itself can be overcome by resurrection to new life. And that we are not alone, but if we can embrace our own transformation, we will find love in the fellowship of others on the other side.
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EXPLORE MORE
Wild Church Network
https://www.wildchurchnetwork.com/
Center for Sustainable Climate Solutions
https://sustainableclimatesolutions.org/
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CONTACT US
Have ideas, stories, resources you'd like to share related to creation care?
Contact Heather Wolfe,
Taftsville Chapel's creation care liaison
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