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The Beloved Community at The Trees Newsletter
An Episcopal faith community exploring together what a life of faith "outside of a church" may be.
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1701 Pleasant Green Road, Durham, NC 27705.
Look for the sign by the mailbox. When you arrive, you'll find a winding driveway. We will have signs along the way to direct you to our gatherings. |
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THIS WEEK AT THE BELOVED COMMUNITY |
Wednesday, March 19
Thursday, March 20
Sunday, March 23 - Second Sunday in Lent 3:30 PM - Parents, Families, & Friends of Queer Youth Support Group 4:45 PM - Gathering and Time for Prayer 5:00 PM - Worship with Eucharist Each week during our worship gathering we will have a lectionary discussion. If you are interested in exploring the lectionary readings ahead of time, we’ve put together a list of resources, including podcasts, websites, and blogs. They are found on our “This Week” page.
6:00 PM - Shared Meal of soup & bread
Keep up with all that's going on with The Beloved Community at The Trees with our online calendar. |
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1701 Pleasant Green Road, Durham, NC 27705. Look for the sign by the mailbox. When you arrive, you'll find a winding driveway. We will have signs along the way to direct you to our gatherings. |
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Bring a device and save paper: |
At The Beloved Community at The Trees we are committed to being as environmentally friendly as possible. We will have a sign when you enter with a QR code for you to access the order of worship. You can also view the order of worship ahead of time, here. |
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Each week at The Beloved Community at The Trees we have a lectionary discussion as part of our time together. If you are interested in preparing ahead of time, below are some links to resources you may enjoy. |
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Religious Trauma Recovery Support Group 1st and 3rd Sundays of each month, 3:00 - 4:30 PM
Religious trauma occurs when a person’s religious experience is stressful, degrading, dangerous, abusive, or damaging. Traumatic religious experiences may harm or threaten to harm someone’s physical, emotional, mental, sexual, or spiritual health and safety. You are invited to join us as we gather weekly to discuss personal experiences of religious trauma and learn together about healing.
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Parents, Families, & Friends of Queer Youth Support Group
2nd and 4th Sundays of each month, 3:30 - 4:30 PM Meeting this Sunday!
This group is offered for anyone who considers themselves family or friends of a queer youth. The purpose of this group is to explore together what the bible actually says about being queer, how to be supportive family, and how to process your own experiences someone who loves a queer youth. |
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When Religion Hurts You Zoom Book Study Wednesdays from 7:00 - 8:30PM February 26 - March 26, 2025 Led by Rev. Phillip Bass
Thursday, Feb. 27: Chapters 1- 3 Wednesday, March 12: Chapters 4-7 Wednesday, March 19: Chapters 8-10 Wednesday, March 26: Chapters 11-13
In When Religion Hurts You, Dr. Laura Anderson takes an honest look at a side of religion that few like to talk about. Drawing from her own life and therapy practice, she helps readers understand what religious trauma is and isn't, and how high-control churches can be harmful and abusive, often resulting in trauma. She shows how elements of fundamentalist church life--such as fear of hell, purity culture, corporal punishment, and authoritarian leaders--can cause psychological, relational, physical, and spiritual damage. |
The Gift of Being Yourself: The Sacred Call to Self Discovery Zoom Book Study Wednesdays from 7:00 - 8:30PM April 2 - April 30 Led Chris Reed
Discerning your true self is inextricably related to discerning God's purposes for you. Paradoxically, the more you become like Christ, the more you become authentically yourself. In this profound exploration of Christian identity, psychologist and spiritual director David G. Benner illuminates the spirituality of self-discovery. |
You can look ahead to what we will be studying in 2025 here.
Below are some other formation opportunities offered locally:
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Even though we are in the middle of our Lenten journey, Easter will be here soon. In preparation for Easter, we are looking forward to Holy Week. The Beloved Community at the Trees will mark Holy Week with several special gatherings.
Sunday, April 13 - Palm Sunday, Gathering at 5:00 PM Thursday, April 17 - Maundy Thursday, Gathering at 6:30PM Friday, April 18 - Good Friday. We will join St. Philip's for the Stations of the Cross in downtown Durham.
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EPISCOPAL 101: THE CREEDS |
"Creeds are statements of our basic beliefs about God. The term comes from the Latin credo, meaning I believe.
While we will always have questions about God, the Church, and our own faith, we have two foundational creeds that we use during worship: the Apostles’ Creed used at baptism, funerals, and daily worship, and the Nicene Creed used at communion. In reciting and affirming these creeds, we join Christians across the world and throughout the ages in affirming our faith in the one God who created us, redeemed us, and sanctifies us."
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INVITATION FROM THE LARGER COMMUNITY |
April 4-6 @ Avila
In this moment, it’s important to be in community. In our communities, we can find strength, connection, healing, and support. How are you bringing your full, authentic self to your communities? How do we move together in community? Flow of Community explores these questions and more through conversation, meditation, and movement. Retreat leader Tony C. Johnson will guide retreat participants through the journey of building community, reimagining the experience of being in community as loving, compassionate, and accepting. The retreat will culminate with a community dance, celebrating the connections formed and exploring what it feels like to move together in community. |
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Our next Worship Team Meeting will take place via zoom on Tuesday, April 1, at 7:00 pm. This will be an opportunity to plan our upcoming gatherings, including the prayers and music we will be using. If you are on the team, or if you are interested in helping plan our next few months of worship, please join us. |
We had such a great time at our previous social gathering that we've decided to do it again! On Friday, March 28, we will have a game night from 6:00-8:30. As we did last time, we'll have pizza. You are invited to bring games, friends, and some snacks. We hope to see you there! |
As we approach our second year of being The Beloved Community at The Trees, we'd like to start sharing our gifts and ministries with others. During our recent "Where Are We" meeting it was decided that on every "5th Sunday" TBC would engage in a service project to minister to others.
For the Community Service Fifth Sunday Project (March 30, 2025) of the Beloved Community, we are raising money for a very worthy organization, The LGBTQ Center of Durham. They are in great need for funds to continue the very important work of supporting the LGBTQ community in our area. They have recently had to reduce their staff to a bare minimum while still carrying on the work of the organization. So please give from your heart and spread the word to everyone you know. In the current political atmosphere, there is a greater need than ever to support those doing this vital work. - Anthony Bishop
To donate to The LGBTQ Center of Durham you can make a check out to The Beloved Community and include "LGBTQ Center Donation" on the subject line. You can also donate via PayPal using the QR code below. Be sure to indicate "LGBTQ Center Donation" with your donation. |
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If you would like to coordinate an outreach Sunday, please let us know. The other 5th Sundays in 2025 will fall on August 31 and November 30. |
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Although June is still a few months away, it's time to start planning for Pride Month. As we did last year, we will hold a Pride Sunday Gathering in June. We will also participate in OutRaleigh! and Pride:Durham, NC. We need a small group to help plan for our Pride events. If you are interested in volunteering for this effort, please email revphillip@belovedcommunitydurham.org or talk to Phillip on Sunday. |
On Saturday, June 7, we will hold a Queer Relationship Workshop, from 9:00am - 12:00pm, at The Trees. This workshop will explore how hetero- and cis-normative trauma negatively impacts queer relationships. This is open to anyone interested in learning more about queer relationships and trauma, as well as tools to navigate healthy queer relationships.
We will also have our first Spiritual Retreat from Friday, September 19 - Sunday, September 20. This will be an opportunity to explore spiritual practices individually and in community, worship together, pray together and for quiet reflection.
More information about both of these opportunities will be coming in the near future. |
DISCERNMENT: QUEER YOUTH GROUP |
One of the dreams for The Beloved Community at The Trees for 2025 is to begin offering a youth group for queer youth and allies. To make this dream a reality, we need a small group to plan, advertise, and run the group. Here's how you can help: Be in prayer for this period of discernment, for a team to come together to support this ministry, and for queer youth who need to know that they too are God's Beloved. Join the team! Help us dream about how we can support queer youth in their faith journeys. Spread the word to others about this ministry.
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During our weekly worship gathering, we set aside time to remember those who are in our prayers. It is our practice to name them individually and to remember them communally. In addition to this practice, we will be adding an ongoing prayer list to our order of worship for those who appreciate having the names recorded for their prayer practices between worship gatherings. If you would like to add yourself or someone else to the prayer list, please contact us at welcome@belovedcommunitydurham.org. You are welcome to share as much or as little as you feel comfortable. Only the person's first name will be included in the order of worship.
This week we remember Anthony, Gregory, Julia, Kathy, Laurie, Melody, Paul, and September. |
As we are starting to form a community, we are hoping to put together a directory to make contacting one another outside of our gatherings easier. If you would like to be included in the directory, please send your preferred name, email address, phone number, pronouns, mailing address, and a photo (or whatever combination you are comfortable with) to welcome@belovedcommunitydurham.org. We have a few of our community already in the directory. A copy of the directory can be found on our website. |
We rely on your gifts to offer the ministries of The Beloved Community. Although we strive to keep our overhead low, we do face financial responsibility. Your financial donations support our weekly meals, our formation opportunities, supplies for our healing ministries and worship, etc. If you would like to contribute to the ministries of The Beloved Community you can do so via cash or check donation, as well as through PayPal.
Check donations can be mailed to: The Beloved Community at The Trees 1701 Pleasant Green Road Durham, NC 27705
PayPal donations can be made using the QR code or link below: You can donate directly through the PayPal site here. |
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We are grateful for our sending parish, The Church of the Nativity, Raleigh, which supports our community through their prayers and the sharing of their resources.
We are grateful for the use of The Trees, graciously provided to us at no cost by St. Philip’s Episcopal Church, Durham. We also give thanks to St. Philip’s for the gift of flowers. Each Sunday, St. Philip’s shares their flowers with The Beloved Community so that we too may enjoy the beauty of God’s creation.
We also acknowledge that we gathering on the ancestral territory of the Eno, the Tuscarora, the Occaneechi, and others. |
1701 Pleasant Green Road
Durham
NC
27705
United States of America
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