According to research by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one-third of all births in the United States are unintended. The report also notes that rates are often higher in Southern states.
For more than 20 years, Choices Resource Center has offered support to men and women facing unplanned pregnancies and related sexual issues. Located in Oak Ridge, Choices offers a host of services including:
Sharon Youngs
Some of the words we use most every day can be the most challenging to define or describe. A few of the examples that come to mind are love, peace, joy, puppy breath, and the angst of watching the University of Tennessee men’s basketball team during the last minute of their games!
Another word is heart. February is National Heart Month, with a focus on doing those things that contribute to having a healthy organ in one’s body that will pump blood efficiently and for many years to come. It is no coincidence that February is designated such because of a particular day of the month that involves chocolate and valentines and flowers and, yes, hearts.
“The body and spirit are too intertwined to easily separate them from each other,” explains Meg Tonne, a registered nurse and parish nurse for First Presbyterian Church. Part nurse, part social worker, part patient advocate—the parish nurse fills roles we rarely think to associate with church ministry. While Meg Tonne (pronounced Tony) is the only parish nurse in Oak Ridge, she says that tending to the whole person—body, mind, and spirit—is her goal while serving on the church staff.
Meg Tonne ministers to church members as a medical professional, spending her time in a plethora of ways. Sometimes she is visiting those who are homebound or hospitalized or in a nursing home; waiting with family during surgery; praying with someone; providing a listening ear; holding a hand; giving emotional support; attending a church staff meeting; or planning a monthly luncheon for senior adults.
Other times, she is advising church members of patient rights, discussing health insurance, referring the sick for appropriate medical assistance, accompanying someone to a doctor appointment, lending medical equipment, assisting with home health care, holding health screenings, taking blood pressure, or doing EKG screening at a health fair. While she cannot do hands-on nursing or treatment, her responsibility is to refer members to the assistance they need.
Several times I thought I saw the silhouette of angels moving around behind Chaplain Sills as I recently interviewed him in the Methodist Medical Center chapel. Reverend Jack Sills certainly needs angelic assistance in his role as the hospital chaplain here in Oak Ridge.
Just as you would expect, Chaplain Sills is a calm, gentle man who exudes kindness and understanding. This year, he will celebrate his 25th anniversary as the only full-time hospital chaplain Oak Ridge has ever had. He calls his role a “specialized form of ministry.”
Chaplain Sills describes his ministry as “the representative presence of the hospital’s belief that God is important in the care of patients, families, and staff.” He explained this to mean that the belief in God for human beings is important. His role in practical terms comes down to being a visible presence. Chaplain Sills continued: “Being present gives opportunity to others to discuss spiritual or emotional concerns without an agenda. I consider these to be holy moments.
The Women’s Interfaith Dialogue of Oak Ridge will discuss “Discriminatory and Prejudicial Thinking” during a Monday meeting at Grace Covenant Church.
The presenter will be Michele DeRieux. DeRieux has almost 15 years as a certified trainer for the National Coalition Building Institute, an international organization for mediating conflict and celebrating diversity, a press release said.
For many of us, it is emotionally challenging to move on from those momentous occasions which have gifted us with abundant joy, especially the celebration of Christmas. The warm and joyous presence of family and friends, unfortunately, fades quickly.
Just the other day, I passed a large pile of discarded Christmas trees waiting to be picked up, fodder for the fire or chipper. It brought to mind something we all face every year at this time: How does one come down from the glorious celebration of Christmas? The question, though, is really about the transition we all must make when, in the afterglow, we find ourselves landed squarely in all the drabness of the anticlimax of Christmas.
The Oak Ridge Unitarian Universalist Church has a free community meal on Friday, and nurses from the Free Medical Clinic of Oak Ridge have volunteered to give flu shots to those in need, a press release said.
Free coats and blankets will also be available on a first-come, first-serve basis due to a limited supply.
The faces are eagerly anticipating the needed food. As individuals line up every Thursday to receive the bag of groceries provided, words of thanks and gratitude are expressed. Retired men and hungry families are joined together in common care and genuine response.
Times are tough for families in the Oak Ridge area. This difficult set of circumstances is felt at the family breakfast, lunch, and dinner table daily. With mouths to feed and bills to pay, so many families are feeling the anguish of the crunch that only seems to be ever tightening around their pocketbooks and their hearts. It is to this situation that the retired men of the Highland View Church of Christ have responded to the call that God has placed on their hearts.
It was a line from a Dirty Harry movie. The first time I heard it, I loved it. Such wisdom for a violent movie, yet the truth was so obvious. Make no mistake…man does have limitations! We may refuse to accept that; we may not want to recognize it, but it is a physical and spiritual truth.
I want to address this as our great church problem. We are supposed to be a people of faith in God. Yet, we consistently attempt to do things, in our own strength, which are beyond our ability. We seek new programs, new ideas, new pastors, NEW ANYTHING, rather than admit we are unable. As that old cliché says about Grandma finally giving up: “I guess we’re gonna’ have ta pray. It looks like it has came down to that!”
Members of the Oak Ridge Unitarian Universalist Church voted 131-2 to try to buy this 4.6-acre site in front of the Joe L. Evins Federal Building for a new church. (Photo courtesy of Jake B. Morrill)
They’ve agreed to sell their current church to make way for a new shopping center, and on Sunday, members of the Oak Ridge Unitarian Universalist Church voted overwhelmingly to try to move to the east end of town.
The congregation voted 131-2 to buy a 4.6-acre site in front of the Joe L. Evins Federal Building, home of the U.S. Department of Energy Oak Ridge Office. The plot is beside Summit Medical on Laboratory Road.
But they haven’t closed on the deal yet, the church’s minister, Rev. Jake B. Morrill, said Monday morning. In a press release Monday afternoon, members of the Church’s Relocation Steering Committee said the due diligence process is not complete, and a closing date hasn’t been set.
Assuming the deal is completed, the next step would be to design a building. The church said it is working with an architect “to begin a congregation-wide process to design a new church using a sustainable, green design for the new facility and preservation of as much of the existing park-like setting of the parcel as possible.”
Church members expect to be in their new home by Thanksgiving 2014.
In the world there are people, institutions, and certain things that God has set apart as “holy.” When something is ordained as “holy,” it must be treated with a fearful respect.
Why do I say a “fearful respect”? Because, according to the Bible, a lack of respect for things that are holy brings consequences. There is an inherent power in the things that God considers to be “holy” in the earth. That inherent power can release upon us a state of happiness, healing, provision, peace, and other forms of blessing; or it can invoke a state of difficulty, and THAT should be feared.
This blessing occurs when we cultivate an attitude of the heart that responds with a fearful respect. “Fearful,” because we realize that God has both grace and judgment to give away; and “respect,” because we realize that God is worthy of our love and devotion. It doesn’t matter who you are, if you show a proper respect for holy people, places, and things you will draw a blessing upon your life.
A Christmastide Festival, featuring four church choirs, will be held at 6 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 6, at First Presbyterian Church, Oak Ridge Turnpike at Lafayette Drive. The public is invited.
In addition to the First Presbyterian choir, the choirs from the Grace Covenant, First United Methodist, and Unitarian Universalist churches in Oak Ridge are also singing.
Christmastide is traditionally the period from Christmas Eve to Epiphany, which falls on Jan. 6. This Christian feast day, the last of the Twelve Days of Christmas, commemorates the visitation of the Three Magi (three wise kings) to the Baby Jesus.
It also celebrates the revelation of God the Son as a human being in Jesus Christ, said the Rev. Sharon Youngs, pastor at First Presbyterian Church.
