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At Valley Church, you will find a vibrant expression of the gospel of Jesus Christ and a place for you to grow in your faith.  We invite you to join us for a Sunday service!

Community Meal

March 13, 2026

“God raised him up! God freed him from death’s dreadful grip, since it was impossible for death to hang on to him.” (Acts 2:24, Common English Bible)

Members and Friends of Valley,

Last Sunday afternoon, a few of us from Valley attended an interfaith, interdenominational gathering at Fairmount Presbyterian Church called We Are Many, We Are One. We heard the stories of immigrants from around the world who have come to make Northeast Ohio their home, about how they were welcomed and integrated into their new communities, but how they now are fearful that these new lives they have built are at risk of being taken away.

We, also, heard from inspiring leaders of many different faith traditions who are committed to this ongoing work of offering welcome and support, referencing how their holy scriptures encourage, even command us, to love our neighbors and show hospitality to strangers; how all people – of any nation or faith – are beloved and created in the image of God.

To continue their work, this interfaith group of religious leaders and lay members is forming four working teams: Advocacy, Accompaniment, Aid, and Action. If you ae interested in learning more or being a part of it, please contact me.

In these final few weeks of Lent, we are focusing on the Passion story in John’s Gospel: a painful and dis-comforting account of the final days of Jesus’s life where he is betrayed, arrested, and beaten; put on trial and condemned to die by crucifixion.

It is difficult not to feel some of this pain ourselves, especially amid the events we see around us, where modern-day detainees are treated inhumanely, where innocent people die in the streets of Minneapolis as well as at schools, hospitals, and apartments buildings in nations all throughout the Middle East. Death’s dreadful grip seems to be all around us.

But the good news of the Gospel is that, by God’s power and grace, it was impossible for death to hang on to him. On Easter morn, Jesus is risen, risen indeed!

Retired Methodist bishop, William Willimon, in The Church We Carry reflects on the disaffiliation of his own home church from the denomination in which he was raised and served, says this:

Things keep dying in Christianity, but keep rising again due to Jesus, the only one who knows the way out of the grave. How he loves to show off by binding up the wounded, and welcoming those who thought they were excluded…revivifying the dead, befriending the omitted, healing the broken, and making a way when we thought there was none.

Yes, friends, the death’s grip can, at times, seem strong. But God has not, does not, and will not allow it to have the final word. Death may keep happening around us, but like the bulbs that are starting, even now, to poke through the thawing ground, new life will come.

In Christ,
Pastor John

Lenten resource links:

https://justiceunbound.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Lent-PDF-Final.pdf

https://pcusa.org/resource/lent-home-family-devotional

https://pcusa.org/resource/tread-lightly-lent-lent-calendar

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