Services

Torah calls it Yom T’ruah, a day of shofar sounds, of loud and joyful exclamation.  Rosh Hashanah is, according to our oldest texts, a day of celebration.

That’s exactly how we will mark our New Year.  Please, feel free to come to services in bright and beautiful colors to give honor to the world’s birthday.  Bring your Book of Life journals from last year or buy a new one, if you like — we’re supposed to have something new for the New Year!

Join us for services of joy and hope and new beginnings.  We look forward to seeing you there!

High Holy Day Service Schedule

• September 16: Erev Rosh Hashanah Service, 7 pm: McGill Baptist Church, 5300 Poplar Tent Rd, Concord, NC, 28027
• September 17: Rosh Hashanah Morning Services, 10:00 am-12:30 noon: McGill Baptist Church.   Followed by brunch and Tashlich: James Dorton Park Shelter #1, 5790 Poplar Tent Road
• September 25: Kol Nidre Service, 7 pm: McGill Baptist Church
• September 26: Yom Kippur Morning Service, 10:00-12:30 noon: McGill Baptist Church, 5300 Poplar Tent Rd, Concord, NC.  Followed by study groups for fasters and nonfasters alike, 1-4 pm, McGill Youth Fellowship rooms.
• September 26: Mincha, Ne’ilah, and Havdalah Services: Mincha 6:00 pm; Ne’ilah 6:30; Havdalah 7:30.  (Break fast following Havdalah.)  C. T. Sherrill Community Bldg. at Les Myers Park, 338 Lawndale Ave., Concord, NC 28025

Suggested donations for non-members:

• Families: $180
• Individuals: $90
• Students: gratis

High Holy Day donations can be applied to membership dues if guests join within three months.  Please call 704.720.7577 for more information.

Childcare provided for services at McGill.

At the close of this Shabbat we will come together for a deeply reflective service. Selichot, Hebrew for “forgiveness” is a loving element in the Jewish liturgical calendar. On Selichot, we take the time to consider the nature of forgiveness — both human and divine.

This Elul week, take the time to ask yourselves these questions: Who would you like to forgive? What do you need forgiveness for? What do you need to forgive in yourself?

Our service will begin with havdalah. We will say a sweet goodbye to Shabbat and make a tender entry into this next week. We will read and sing from psalms. We will begin the process of dissolving the burdens we carry. We will open to the reality and the nature of forgiveness.

Join us for Selichot. Dress comfortably, and bring journals or your Books of Life from last year with you.

Please also bring something to share at the oneg following the service.

Let us understand when we need to say we are sorry — even to ourselves.

Date and Time: September 8; 7 pm
Location: McGill Baptist Church, Concord

Dear Folks,

Many of you have mournfully declared that you no longer possess tie-dyed clothing to wear to tomorrow night’s Love Song service.

Funky will do just fine.  (See cat.)

So pull out those red shoes or that rainbow tie.  Join us on Shabbat.  Love is all you need…

Shabbat Shalom (a leetle early),

Rabbi Barbara

You’d think that people
Would have had enough
Of silly love songs.
I look around me and I see it isn’t so.
Some people wanna fill the world
With silly love songs.
And what’s wrong with that? I’d like to know.

Years ago, I created kippot with symbols of love songs I imagined singing to God.  There was the one with a moon and sun on it. I enjoyed having folks guess the song it represented (Night and Day).

This year, I suggested to our Temple Or Olam band that we think about doing an entire service of love songs our congregants could imagine singing to God. So we sent out emails, asked for ideas and contributions, and began rehearsing Don McClean and Elvis Presley, the Animals and Toad the Wet Sprocket. Yup, and Cat Stevens, the Beatles, and Van Morrison too. And more.

We created a whole service from the suggestions we received and used almost all we got. Love songs from the sixties through the nineties. Love songs that are joyous and free. Love songs that express sadness and longing. These, two, are part of our relationship with God.

At the service, we’ll find out how those words and melodies mirror the prayers we typically sings – from the Barchu to Mi Chamocha to Adon Olam.

So look in the closet for those headbands, fringes, love beads, and tie-died shirts. Tap into happy, free, and, if you like, what it feels like to be goofy with love.

Join us on August 17 for our first ever Love Song Service at 7 pm at McGill Baptist Church in Concord. There’s a lot that’s right on about all those silly love songs.  J

Shabbat Shalom!

Rabbi Barbara

In the 16th century, the rabbis of Safad and their followers welcomed Shabbat dressed in white.  As the sun went down, these rabbis and their congregations would go out into the fields singing “Come, my friend, let us go together and meet the Sabbath bride.”

We still sing Lecha Dodi at our own services and every summer we choose one service for wearing white. That Shabbat service is nearly upon us  —  tomorrow night in fact.  We’ll dress like angels and hear a story in which we will discover how to learn the secrets of God.

Please join us for a sweet summer Shabbat!

Time: 7 pm
Location: McGill Baptist Church, Concord
Date: July 13, 2012

It is about freedom.  How do we extract ourselves from narrow spaces where our souls are confined, our hearts hurt?

Each year, we find that there are struggles before us, times and places where we feel tense and strained.  We toil far too long each day.  Our resources don’t cover our needs.  We feel our efforts go unappreciated.

We face the illness of a beloved friend or family member.  There’s a conflict brewing we’d rather avoid.  We fear speaking out, we fear holding our frustrations in.  We struggle with our own patterns, our own mistakes, our own unrealized hopes and dreams.

But at Passover, we have an opportunity to remember the long road to freedom our ancestors took.  Their process can teach us about ours: Freedom is a prize we learn to earn.  We ourselves create the freedom we long for.

This year, we will start our seder by singing through the hallways around the sanctuary.  We will find the Sea of Reeds and break through to freedom.  On the other side, instruments and music and joy.  Avadim Hayinu – We were slaves but now we are free!

Before our seder begins, we will gather at long tables in groups to write down all those many things constraining us.  We will post them on the walls around us.  These are our own plagues.  When we name them, we can free ourselves from them.

We will eat the food our own congregation has prepared.  We will do some journaling in our Books of Life.  Our children will lead the singing.  We will celebrate our freedom and our joy. 

Join us, and help us make our stories (and yours) real.

Our Passover seder begins at 5:30, April 7 at McGill Baptist Church in Concord.  If you are interested in attending, please RSVP to info@or-olam.org