Worship
All are welcome on Sundays!
Service begins at 10:30am
Potluck begins at 12pm
Service format: Inclusive language. All are welcome. Participatory design that included dialogue and responsive sermons. Exploring the decolonization of christianity.
Rev. Denise Griebler is a pastor, human rights and social justice activist, retreat leader and potter living in Detroit, Michigan. Denise connects the dots between faith, creativity and justice.
Denise has served as a pastor in congregations in Illinois and Michigan for over 30 years. She was one of the organizers of the Sanctuary Movement of the 1980’s when tens of thousands of Salvadorans and Guatemalans sought refuge in the U.S. fleeing the violence of civil wars and widespread human rights violations in their countries. The U.S. government refused to recognize them as refugees and ordered their deportation, but risking felony convictions, fine and jail time, over 500 churches and synagogues defied immigration laws and provided sanctuary.
Denise has traveled many times to Central America and Southern Mexico as part of fact-finding and accompaniment delegations and serves on the board of directors of SIPAZ (www.sipaz.org) an international human rights organization in Chiapas, Mexico. She advocates for compassionate immigration policy and an end to deportations and the separation of families and regularly visits immigrants detained in the Monroe County Jail.
In Detroit, she joins in the struggle calling for an end to water shut-offs and for an affordable water plan and is part of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for a Moral Revival. At MannaWorks clay studio she enjoys inviting people to put their hands in clay as a way of reflecting on their lives, listening to their dreams and being renewed in their spirits.
Rev. Denise Griebler is an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ. She’s the Director of Pastoral Ministry and Community Engagement and functions as the pastor of St. Peter’s Detroit, with sacramental support from Episcopal priests in our diocese. She is a potter and directs MannaWorks Clay Studio in the Hive at St. Peter’s Episcopal Detroit.
Thank you, Rev. Denise, for your commitments to social justice and human rights around the globe!
Listen to Rev. Dr. Bonnie A. Perry's sermon entitled We Are By Ourselves, But Not Alone:
Preaching in the Age of COVID-19
John 4:5-42
March 15, 2020
Cathedral Church of St. Paul, Detroit
"My friends, in this time, of increasing fear, in this time when it truly is a Christian virtue to put space between us all, it is hard for us not to feel as if we are all alone in this world: unconnected, abandoned, without near enough toilet paper or hand sanitizer, yet I am here to say, that all of the social distancing in the world cannot separate us from Christ Jesus. Just as he crossed the distance of the day, to love and to care for the unnamed woman at the well, he is here for us now.
And though we may be quarantined and only venturing to the well at mid-day when no one is around, We are not alone. I am not alone for here you are listening to me, hearing me, seeing me, missing me, maybe even loving me."
For the full transcript, visit https://www.edomi.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/We-are-by-ourselves-but-not-alone-women-at-the-well.pdf.
Church Art
We welcome inclusive and welcoming worship space visual art suggestions to be more relevant and inclusive. Send us your idea of visual images that help you connect to God so we can consider using the image in our prayer space.