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Blue Theology completes its third year of ministry
Blue Theology Field Guides
Throughout the last year Pastor Sadie and Pastor Ryan were able to work with professional curriculum designer, Jamie O’Hara to create a Field Guide for our participants. This comprehensive curriculum was only possible to create after the last two years of running the program and learning what needed to be included. These Field Guides are flexible and will be updated yearly to reflect our evolving ministry program. If you’d like to see our entire guide, take a look at the samples in our sanctuary.
Blue Theology Reels
This summer, our Blue Theology Intern Natalie and our own Gabriella Earnhart made some fun reels to showcase some of the field trips our visiting groups were able to enjoy.
Worship
In addition to many exciting field trips, our Blue Theology program invites participants into an experience of ecological spirituality and communal living for the week.
If you are interested in learning more about our Blue Theology volunteer opportunities, please reach out to Pastor Ryan and he will get you connected.
We have volunteer roles that range from very small and focused (like helping with our welcome potluck for each visiting group) all the way to being trained as a Harbor Field Guide (where you can take lead on a field trip or a sacred experience). Reach out, and also keep your eyes open this year for new opportunities.
Towel Donation
We asked, and you provided!
This past summer, Pastor Ryan put a call out to the community to donate beach towels for our Blue Theology program. No sooner did we ask, and Ron Lauzon and Rhoda Watson and her daughter Tammy had us completely covered.
Thank you so much for donating beach towels and for helping make our Blue Theology program run as smoothly as possible! We appreciate you.
Intern - Natalie Alderton
We had an amazing summer with our Blue Theology Intern, Natalie Alderton. We asked her to share with us one more time for our end of summer/beginning of fall newsletter, and she crafted a beautiful message. We hope you enjoy reading it!
We also asked some of our zoom members to share their reflections on the sermon Natalie shared with us on August 25, 2024. You’ll find reflections from Anabel Quintanilla and Janelle Vannoy below.
On earth as it is in heaven
Natalie Alderton, Blue Theology Intern 2024
When I meditate on the Lord’s Prayer, there’s usually a certain verse or phrase that sticks out to me. It often has something to do with the season of life I’m in, what I’m struggling with, or what I’m actively thinking about. This summer, these are the words that have come alive: “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”
My senior year of college, I examined this verse from literary, theological, and philosophical perspectives. It was an enriching study, but I felt like it was missing something. Looking back on my experience as the Blue Theology intern, I feel like I’m starting to see the missing puzzle pieces.
It was the vibrant colors of the Back Bay. The sound of high schoolers laughing in the sanctuary. It was the sacred hush of moments spent in worship, where our little circle became aware of the ceaseless presence of God. It was the exchange of surprised glances when one of our tour guides shared an interesting fact. It was watching plates scraped into the compost, knowing that food was on its way to becoming rich soil again. It was weeks of revising curriculum and then watching the progress unfold in front of our eyes.
During my time with Blue Theology, it became apparent to me that this is a ministry that is actively bringing the kingdom of God. It is doing its part to create a corner of the world that is indistinguishable from heaven. We are building a garden–just as God’s people are instructed to do in scripture–right where we are, in Newport Beach. We are filling the open palms of the students with seeds to bring home, seeds to plant in their own native soils. Group by group, summer by summer, the garden is spreading.
One morning, walking through Harbor’s campus, a vision for the future filled my mind’s eye. There were native plants inviting insects and birds to rest on their journey. There, our own community members were engaging with visiting groups in a new community garden, picking homegrown vegetables that they would cook and eat in fellowship, together. Harbor, a light on the hill, existing as a thriving example of what our world could be if we all sowed seeds.
I was blessed to spend this summer with my hands in this very soil, but the greatest comfort is knowing that this program is only just beginning, and God willing, will outlast us all. It brings me hope to think of this real and thriving example of the Lord’s Prayer in action–to see the kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.
–Natalie Alderton
Reflecting on Natalie's sermon
“We are made OF the land and FOR it. We are soil people.”
When I heard Natalie say this in her sermon, it resonated through my entire body and I felt an actual shift in how I choose to walk through the land that I was called to connect with and to serve. Since then, my granddaughter and I have been intentional about looking at birds and wondering what type they are. We take walks and point at plants – noticing those that are common and those that stand out. We spend extra time outside, playing with rocks! When it comes to the food we eat, I notice myself being even more mindful about the choices I make, like shopping for seasonal foods and buying from small businesses rather than from “convenient” box stores whose products come with a price that I hadn’t sat down to evaluate. Mindfulness is the sentiment that comes to mind and heart since listening to Natalie preach. Am I being mindful? How can I be more mindful? These questions prompt me to dig deeper and to see how my choices affect our environment and what all this says about me. Am I teaching my family to be soil people or to continue living as we were programmed to do? I am grateful to Natalie for such an eye-opening sermon and I’m eager to learn more about the work she’s doing and how she inspires others to serve and care for our precious land.
–Anabel Quintanilla
Listening to Natalie’s sermon resonated with me in many ways. Her references to soil prompted me to feel a deeper connection, not only to the land and nature surrounding me but also to my loved ones. During the discussion period, I was amazed by how connected I felt to others. Anabel and I discovered some genuine natural connections. I often feel isolated from my church family, but learning that our soils are similar and that the same birds migrate through both Las Vegas and Kingman, along with the comparable weather patterns, made me realize that I am more connected to my church family than I had previously thought. I simply need to look around at the nature surrounding me, and there they are. My church family exists in the air, in the water that comes with the rain, and in the soil beneath my feet.
–Janelle Vannoy
Sea Turtle Outing
Special August Event: Sat August 31, Seal Beach National Wildlife Refuge.
About thirty of our Harbor members were able to participate in our field trip to Seal Beach National Wildlife Refuge. And we were excited to include several people from our UC Irvine network in this experience as well.
This was such an unique day for many reasons, but one of the biggest is that in order to get to the wildlife refuge, you have to cross into a military installation because the refuge is located at the Naval Weapons Station at Seal Beach.
After showing our IDs and being properly checked in with our guides, we were driven into the refuge. Once we arrived at the visitor’s station we got to view a movie about the unique marsh habitat of the refuge. We also were invited to tour their growing native plant garden to learn about plants and to hear about the challenges of maintaining the garden without enough volunteers.
And finally, we walked out into the marsh to view the wildlife and experience the learning stations that they had set up for us. We learned about the ecology of the marsh, how the tides feed the marsh, how the friends of the refuge and staff are finding creative ways to support fragile life and endangered species, how trash impacts the marsh in devastating ways and more.
On our return walk to the visitor center, some of the last group to be shuttled back outside the military installation were gifted with three glimpses of a sea turtle’s head popping up out of the water. Each glimpse was so fast, so precious! It was thrilling!!! To see the turtle’s silhouette felt like a generous gift from the marsh. Our small group stood shoulder to shoulder, gazing out over the marsh, straining to see just another glimpse. We were fairly quiet, eyes peeled, hopes high that the turtle would break the surface again. We would have stayed all day if our guides hadn’t needed to move us along.
One of the guides, who is a retired marine biologist, shared that he has visited the marsh many times, walked it over and over again and only seen turtles one other time. The rarity of our experience added to the magic and gift of it all.
We are so excited to be expanding our climate networks through our Blue Theology program. We look forward to future visits to the wildlife refuge at Seal Beach and we hope that if you haven’t been able to join us, that you will. It’s a truly special experience to be in nature, surrounded by your faith community, feeling deep connections to one another and to our sacred earth.
For more information about the Friends of Seal Beach National Wildlife Refuge, click here: https://sealbeachnwrfriends.org
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