Women in healthcare professions often face unique challenges. Providing skilled care with compassion while managing demanding hours requires significant emotional labor and often leads to spiritual stress. There are also many rewarding and fulfilling experiences and lessons learned that can be shared. We warmly invite women in all areas of healthcare to join us for fellowship and conversations, to share wisdom, triumphs, and challenges.
Blacknall's Durham Ministry Engagement Team (DMET) is conducting a community service survey this year, running from January 12-31. Your responses will assist DMET and the Session in organizing our resources to serve our neighbors in Durham. The poll will also inform how DMET supports people at Blacknall who are interested in new service opportunities in Durham.
The Sunday School class schedule and descriptions for the spring semester are now available.
Adult classes will cover a variety of ongoing and new topics. You can jump right into any of these classes, even if you did not attend the prior semester of an ongoing study. There is no reason to hesitate, please come!
Want to know more about Blacknall and what it means to be a member? Join us for our next Inquirers and New Members Weekend, Saturday morning, February 15, and Sunday afternoon and evening, February 16. Visit the registration page to sign up and see more details.
Be on the lookout for an opportunity to share how you and your household are engaged in community service. The survey will assist Blacknall’s Durham Ministry Engagement Team and inform how DMET might provide better onramps for people at Blacknall who are interested in service opportunities in Durham.
Food needs appear to be increasing in Durham. The Food Bank in Walltown is now serving well over 100 families each month. Volunteers are needed to shop, sort, and distribute food. You can sign up at the above link.
Contact: Sylvia Belcher.
This event has passed, but you’re invited to listen and follow along with the order of service below.
The last few months have been an intense time for us as a congregation and as a nation. In addition to the stresses and losses of COVID-19, we have witnessed the killings of Ahmaud Arbery and George Floyd and the protests and turmoil that have followed. In times like this it is good for us to come together and humble ourselves in prayer. We will be led over Zoom in a time of lament, confession, and asking for God’s Kingdom to come.
Welcome and Introduction to Lament | David Dunderdale
Invocation | Goodie Bell
Prayer of Lament | Julie Leyva
Prayer of Confession | Margaret Frothigham, prayer; Dana McCarty, song
Prayer of Healing and Hope | Paul Tshihamba
Song “Your Peace Will Make Us One” | Dana McCarty
Closing & Benediction | Allan Poole
As we strive to stay connected while apart, consider joining others virtually.
Join a gathering over Zoom to go through the Blacknall liturgy together. Contact hosts for more information.
Sundays at 9 a.m. | Contact Steve Hinkle
Sundays at 10 a.m. | Contact Stefanie Tokiyama
Sundays at 11:15 a.m. with Young Adults & Friends | Contact Julie Leyva
Participate in a Sunday school class through a regular telephone call or Zoom computer link! The following classes are meeting and would welcome your participation. To receive a zoom link, reach out to the group contact person. All classes meet on Sundays at 10 a.m.
Growing in Grace
Class Leader: Paul Immanuel
Topic: In depth study of the Gospel of John
Teaching style: discussion
Contact: Paul Immanuel, 919-489-0321
Reading Scripture Together
Class Leaders: John Hamilton and Michael Whisenhunt
Topic: A study of Romans
Teaching style: reading of assigned scripture passage before class and discussion of this text together.
Contact: John Hamilton, 919-599-3519
30s, 40s, & Friends
Class Leaders: Matt Bridges, Tanya Moore, Alicia Ramos, Roxanne & James Van Farowe, et al
Topic: Stories from class members about encounters with God and scripture
Teaching style: 5-10 minute story followed by discussion in small groups
Contact: Kendra Varnell
Mondays-Fridays, 8:30-8:50 a.m.
A group of Young Adults will gather for a short welcome, reading aloud for 15 minutes, and a short prayer as we head off into our days. We would love to have Blacknall friends of all ages join us. For zoom details, contact Justin Rasmussen.
Photos of Blacknall families’ Easter resurrection gardens, created during our time apart with supplies delivered by Leslie Petree and Beth Solie.
As part of "Know Your Neighbor" month, we encourage you to get to know your Blacknall neighbors. To help with this, we've created "Neighborhood Groups" for those who live locally, using the address we have on file.
This year for “Know Your Neighbor” month, we encourage you to read the book The Art of Neighboring by Jay Pathak and Dave Runyon. Their web site has a COVID-19 Neighboring Toolkit with specific ways to connect safely, and the book includes a six-session study guide.
Sign up here to join Pastor David Dunderdale for the six week study over Zoom. Thursdays, 7:30-8:30 p.m. May 14, 21, 28, and June 4, 11, & 18.
We hope you’ll join us in this neighboring journey by doing the following:
Order the book (Support our Blacknall neighbor The Regulator by ordering locally. Enter the code “DISCOUNT CLUB” for 10% off.)
Get to know your Blacknall neighbors (More information about Neighborhood Groups here).
Pray for your neighbors, and for opportunities to interact with them (using social distancing).
Fill out your Block Map (instructions on pp. 37-39) and spend some time outdoors in your front yard or on walks. Greet neighbors and try to engage them in conversation. Ask them how they’re doing in the midst of this pandemic.
Try out some of the best practices from the COVID-19 Neighboring Toolkit, perhaps together with some Blacknall neighbors.
Encourage and pray for one another!
Please contact David Dunderdale or Ali Shoenfelt with questions or feedback.
These are strange times, and there is much uncertainty about the months and weeks ahead. Yet, our call remains the same: We worship the crucified and risen Lord. What does endurance and patience look like during this difficult season? How do we bear faithful witness to Christ during the Coronavirus?
This week is the second in a series of conversations to explore these and other questions. Blacknall staff will interview members and missions partners about life right now. We hope you enjoy Margaret Frothingham’s conversation with Blacknall elder Ashley Weinard.
A Note from Goodie Bell
Dear Friends,
These are strange times, and there is much uncertainty about the months and weeks ahead. Yet, our call remains the same: We worship the crucified and risen Lord. What does endurance and patience look like during this difficult season? How do we bear faithful witness to Christ during the Coronavirus?
This week, we begin a series of conversations to explore these and other questions. Blacknall staff will interview members and missions partners about life right now. Hope you enjoy my conversation with Jeff Baker, elder and chair of Blacknall's Infectious Disease Response Team.
In Christ,
Goodie
A Richmond Time’s Dispatch article on former Blacknall member Jay Huff with quotes from Brad Turnage. Read here and here.
Blacknallite and Duke senior Grace Smith was awarded the Sullivan Award for outstanding commitment to service to others. Grace says “I am very grateful for the models of spirituality and service that Blacknall has surrounded me with in Durham, both through the support of Duke PCM+ and through the mentors, friends, and role models in the congregation." Read more here.
Ivy and Joey Pointer, CEO of Fleet Feet, donated 500 pairs of feetures socks to healthcare workers at Wake Med!
“World Relief Durham has entered a new phase, even before the COVID-19 crisis hit. With few arrivals, we had worked on deepening relationships with refugees already in our community. The Blacknall teams are the role models for this kind of deeper connection. Your support of families goes beyond "good neighbors" as WR parlance has it; you are brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles, confidants and support systems. This latest act of radical generosity of spirit and finances in the face of a crisis that is also hitting you and your families hard shows that being the hands and feet of Christ, while difficult, is what we are here to do. Your hope has changed a hopeless situation. Your gifts have literally brought light to the darkness. You've heard a specific Mr. Rogers quote several times in recent days, I bet. Well, I found the helpers. Here you are. Thank you.”
- Susan Baldwin, volunteer coordinator at World Relief
Share your story of how Christ has shown up in an unexpected way.
Short daily reflections on Easter in the midst of COVID-19, each anchored to a Psalm and ranging from praise to lament to gratitude to head-scratching. (If you signed up for the Lenten reflections, you don’t need to sign up again.)
