In the fall issue of NEW Spirit the Rev. Christopher Kurien, Director of Connectional Ministries, invites us to celebrate Native American Heritage Month in November by joining the Committee on Native American Ministries in a special worship service on Sunday, November 6th at 4:00

The celebration, at Innabah Camp & Retreat Center in Spring City, will also include music, Native American-style social dances, a fellowship meal and a slide presentation by CONAM member Bob Hinderliter from his recent visit with Native communities in Montana.

Prior to the service, participants will plant a Tree of Peace, a symbol for peaceful unity among early Iroquois people and the Five Nations Confederacy. “In such troubling, divisive times as these,” writes Kurien, “this symbolic tree can be a prayerful plea for peace in our many contemporary struggles.” He describes situations that seem to cry out for peace in our church, our nation and our world. But the first planting he calls for are seeds of prayer to seek God’s help.

“Prayer is always the right place to begin because it brings us together in community before the God we love and serve,” writes Kurien. “In prayer we can discern what God wants us to do about the issues that face us. In prayer we will be led to act in ways we did not anticipate, because prayer changes everything.”