See Saguaro’s latest news and upcoming events!
It's easy to help: Bring in a few bags of candy soon and sign up to host your trunk on Halloween night.
There are other fun volunteer opps, too! Check out the other sign up page in our gathering space on Sunday.
Invite family and friends and neighbors to attend.
The event begins at 6 pm. See you there.
Sunday, October 12, 11:30 am
Lunch and a movie
Q&A with the filmmaker afterward!
Documentary filmmaker David Damian Figueroa has spent the last few years working on this film. "Samaritans" examines a seldom-explored aspect of extreme volunteering and migration, specifically focusing on Nogales and Sasabe, as well as a twenty-three-mile stretch of one of the deadliest land crossings in the world: the US-Mexico border in Southern Arizona.
In the shadow of remarkable human struggle, Samaritans weaves a poignant narrative of hope and humanity along the US-Mexico border in Southern Arizona. The film highlights the importance of extreme volunteering and the compassion shown by those providing life-saving aid to migrants facing harsh realities and often deadly challenges in the Sonoran Desert.
Read MoreSaguaro is a long-time faith community partner of the Tucson Interfaith HIV/AIDS Network (TIHAN), a local non-profit that brings together religious, secular, corporate, and non-profit organizations to create an inclusive support network for people living with HIV.
One of TIHAN’s programs is a monthly lunch for people in the wider community who live with HIV/AIDS. This event is known as Poz Café. Poz Café is an opportunity for persons living with HIV/AIDS to get out of the house, take a break, meet other positive people, and enjoy great food!
Volunteers from local faith communities (that’s us!) provide a fantastic, delicious, and nutritious lunch. This is followed by time to “hang out,” chat, participate in a game or two of bingo, enjoy the raffle of fun and useful gifts, and receive a CarePackage.
Click through to see how you can help!
Read MoreSaguaro invites your animal friends to be in worship with you on Sunday, October 5!
We'll provide communion for pets as well as people that day when you come forward. To remember your dearly departed furry ones, bring framed photos to place on the communion table. If you desire a personal blessing/prayer with the pastors, they'll do that after worship with your pet or a photo of them.
You make a difference to our hungry neighbors!
Read More“Creating With God: Earth, Wind, Fire, Fido, You, and Me…”
September 7–October 12
In our season of Creation this year, we are pausing together to discover, to consider, to remember that alongside God, every part of the world, the water and wind, the mountains and mesas, the creatures who fly and crawl and bloom, are co-creators with God. Together, they weave the wonder of life itself.
We will also be naming some of the ways that humanity has broken and strayed away from what God’s vision for Creation might have been, and by naming the ways that we might find ourselves reunifying with those intentions to create and exist in beauty and flourishing.
You are invited to join in worship and celebration, lifting our voices, opening our hearts, and embodying a hope for our world where all creation is honored and cherished. Come, be part of this sacred season, as we rejoice in the gifts of the earth and commit ourselves anew to God’s dream of flourishing for all.
Over the past few months, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has made several proposals which, if instated, will roll back regulations on pollutants that harm human health and exacerbate the climate crisis. In today’s newsletter, I’ll briefly explain three recent proposals and include links where you can make a comment on the proposals to be used in the EPA’s decision-making process.
Note the deadlines for commenting on each proposal: August 7 for the repeal of power plant emission standards, August 11 for the repeal of tighter standards for emission of hazardous air pollutants, and September 15 for repeal of vehicle emissions standards.
Warbler’s Wisdom has been a weekly column this summer by Jocelyn Hartley, our Creation and Justice Fellow from Disciples Home Mission and Green Chalice.
Read MoreIn previous newsletters, I’ve written that the structure of modern society precludes sustainable living. To live sustainably in modern society, we must actively choose sustainability in every aspect of our lives, and in so doing go against the grain of the entirety of society. And even for those who make sustainability their life’s work, that is simply too much to ask. But for a moment today, let’s free our minds from what is and allow our imaginations to explore what could be: what if sustainable living was a given instead of something we had to actively choose? What if, in this new sustainable society, we reduced income disparity? Increased access to healthy, affordable food? Addressed driving factors of immigration?
We know we must overhaul our society’s infrastructure if we want to mitigate further environmental catastrophes. But this overhaul is the perfect opportunity to reinvent our society. While we reconstruct the literal structures of our society–our housing, roads, farms, power plants, cities, we also have the opportunity to reconstruct our social and economic structures.
The good news is, the possibilities that come with societal reinvention are not purely figments of our imagination.
Read MoreFollowing worship we will have lunch together!
Wendy Lopez, one of our partners this summer, will make her pupusas for us for lunch. She will also have her own and other women’s artwork of earrings, tortilla cloths, and small bags to sell.
What's a Pupusa? A pupusa is a thick, handmade corn flatbread, traditionally from El Salvador, that is stuffed with a savory filling. We will have vegetarian and vegan options and all pupusas are gluten-free.
Have dietary restrictions?Fill out this form! Try to let us know by Wednesday afternoon of dietary restrictions.
Want to prepay?Select July 27 Meal Here!
Paying the day of? Cash, card, check, Zelle, all of it works!
Just want to come and have some lunch? All will be fed from our tables, no matter what you can afford.
Cost:
$10 - 3 Pupusas
$10 - 2 Pupusa and Jamaica (a drink)
Read MoreWarbler’s Wisdom is a weekly column by Jocelyn Hartley, our Creation and Justice Fellow from Disciples Home Mission and Green Chalice.
I may have mom in sight ahead of me and turn around to look for dad, and discover he’s nowhere in sight. When I go back to fetch him, he’s looking intently into the trees in search of the singer of an unfamiliar bird song.
How and when exactly it happened that the family got so enthused about our feathered friends is hard to pinpoint. But how the enthusiasm continues to grow is no mystery. Once you’ve started noticing who lives in your neighborhood, you also start noticing where they hang out, where they make their homes, and where they hunt for food. And so it is that while I couldn’t tell a flycatcher from a finch two years ago, I can now tell you that’s a Verdin family cheeping in the Palo Verde or a Gila Woodpecker poking its head out of a mighty saguaro.
Read MoreSee how Saguaro was represented (so well!) at General Assembly.
Two of us were nominated to the General Board. Two of us led workshops. and several important resolutions were passed.
See all the details!
Read MoreWarbler’s Wisdom is a weekly column by Jocelyn Hartley, our Creation and Justice Fellow from Disciples Home Mission and Green Chalice.
In past newsletters, I’ve included tips for simple actions we can take to reduce our daily environmental impact. Incorporating even just one of these actions into daily life is a rewarding spiritual practice. Taking the action each day reminds us that we are a part of the sacred balance of God’s creation. If you haven’t yet incorporated one of these actions into your life and are reading this, I encourage you to commit to one action right now, plan how you are going to make it happen, and keep a tally of your daily “streak” doing this action. (Some past suggestions: use reusable grocery bags, switch to the free web browser Ecosia, have a daily vegetarian/vegan meal)
That said, with the rollbacks on clean energy in the new federal budget, I am particularly weighed down by the impossibility of living sustainably in modern society. I think to myself:
Read MorePastor Kelley and Pastor Jessica are in Memphis for General Assembly! And guess what...you can join them virtually!
Join the General Assembly livestream and experience powerful worship, inspiring keynote speakers, and the connection of our wider church family — no matter where you are. Wherever you’re watching from, you’re part of this sacred moment.
It started on Saturday, July 12. Times are listed HERE (note: Memphis is two hours ahead of Tucson).
Warbler’s Wisdom is a weekly column by Jocelyn Hartley, our Creation and Justice Fellow from Disciples Home Mission and Green Chalice.
On June 27, 2023, three days after my brother’s wedding, my family had the unexpected pleasure of welcoming three more members to our number. But unlike my very human sister-in-law, these new members were Sonoran Desert tortoises.
We named our adult tortoise, Willow, after her favorite snack–the flower of a Desert Willow tree. The two juvenile tortoises we called Della and Cruz, after Cincinnati Reds’ baseball player Elly de la Cruz (de la Cruz is astonishingly fast, and we were surprised by how fast the little tortoises could get around when there was shade to be found).
Over the past two years, we’ve enjoyed watching the little ones’ personalities develop.
Read MoreSaguaro will be participating in an eco-friendly FUNDrive® with Savers. Most churches and nonprofits make $500+ the first time using this fundraiser. The program will pay us by the pound (5-20 cents per pound depending on the category) for the gently-used donations we collect during the month of July:
Clothing -- clean, folded clothing for all ages (please pack in tall white kitchen bags)
Small housewares -- boxed (please use sturdy boxes with lids or fold-down tops for easy stacking)
Books -- boxed (please use sturdy boxes with lids or fold-down tops for easy stacking)
Furniture
Other large items
Drop off your donations in the Saguaro Center from now through August 2nd; please stack and arrange neatly in the northeast corner. Saguaro volunteers and those with vans or pickup trucks are requested to help load and deliver our donations to a Savers location on an August date to be announced; please let Deb in the Saguaro office know if you'll be available to help.
Every bit helps!
Donation receipts will be available for tax purposes.
