Airo Community

06/06/2024

Airo Community was formed to cultivate spaces of lament, hope, and healing - to come together in community and carry (Airo) one another in these seasons.

This Sunday, June 9, at 6:30 pm Airo Community will be dedicating a garden space for community use on Asbury UMC's campus (806 Clarendon Street Durham, NC 27705).

All neighbors and community members are welcome to gather at 6:30PM for a short time of appreciation, dedication of the garden, and LocoPops!

This garden space for rest and prayer is Airo Community’s parting gift to health care workers, the Asbury UMC-Durham, NC church community, and the visitors and neighbors of Durham. This garden will be a stop on the North Carolina Wildlife Federation's Butterfly Highway so that this garden can be a place of rest and of hope for our non-human neighbors too.

We’re thankful for 2 years of partnership with UMC Durham, and their support of Pastor Schylar and the formation Airo Community through New Faith Communities of the United Methodist Church.

Airo Community has planted many expressions of church over the last 2 years. Several of these spaces will continue to be cultivated and grow and be incorporated into the worshipping life of Asbury UMC as Airo Community enters a new season of discernment. We will share more information in future communication!

04/12/2024

Gun Violence Memorial Tree Dedication / Dedicación del Monumento a la Violencia Armada

THIS SATURDAY!
Date: April 13th, 2024
Time: 11:00AM - 12:00PM
Location: 806 Clarendon St Durham, NC 27705

Fecha: 13 de April de 2024 - Este Sabado
Tiempo: 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Direccion: 806 Calle de Claredon Durham, NC 27704

Join us on Saturday morning as we create a Memorial Garden for victims of gun violence in our community.

We will lament the epidemic of gun violence that plagues our community and honor some of those who have been taken from us too soon.

Únase a nosotros el sábado por la mañana mientras creamos un Jardín Conmemorativo para las víctimas de la violencia armada en nuestra comunidad.

Lamentaremos la epidemia de violencia armada que azota a nuestra comunidad y honraremos a algunos de aquellos que nos han sido arrebatados demasiado pronto.

03/15/2024

All are invited to soak up the spring weather and play - I mean work - in the garden this week!

Community Garden Work Day: Friday, March 15th

Drop-in hours from 1PM-5PM. Drop-in as you’re able. We will be doing various preparation tasks for spring planting. All tools will be provided and some gloves will be available. If you have your own garden or work gloves, please bring them. First-time friends are more than welcome. All ages and abilities are welcome!

*Tools provided, gloves recommended, new friends highly encouraged*

806 Clarendon Street Durham, NC 27705

As always, these invitations to community gathering are come as you are & stay as you can.

More drop-in garden work days will soon be scheduled as the weather allows to connect to the dust of the land around us.

Whether you are in our local community or dispersed, may you find an invitation to join Airo Community or pass the invitation along as we find rhythms of care and lament, and journey together in Lent through the dust of Ash Wednesday and Jesus’ ministry on Earth.
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02/17/2024

My soul keeps watch.

“No hour is ever eternity, but it has its right to weep.” – Zora Neale Hurston

The season of Lent offers Christians and neighbors to lean into the faithfulness of lament. In this season of brokenness, corruption, oppression, and fearfulness, Illumine offers space and community to lament all that which seems unredeemable. During these services, we gather to sing and pray in lament, in hope, and in expectation of a world healed. We draw strength from this season of the Church - Lent - which draws us closer to God and to one another in honesty, solidarity, & community.

Join us for Illumine on Sundays at 7:30PM as we gather for song, prayer, silence, and meditation in expectant preparation for a changed world.

Honoring Airo Community’s service with and for people in search of physical and spiritual healing, there will be space in the service to be prayed over, blessed, and anointed (if you choose) for your vocational work as healer or caregiver or for your own healing. Revs. Jerusha and Wes Neal & others will be available in the service’s time of Illumination and Silent Meditation among the other offerings of a communal wall of lament or wailing wall, and shared prayer request station with our Durham Central Mission Cooperative churches.

Illumine: Contemplative Prayer Services are held 7:30-8:00PM in the Asbury UMC Sanctuary at 806 Clarendon Street Durham, NC. These services are held on the 2nd Sundays and the Sundays of Lent (Feb 18, Feb 25, March 3, March 10, March 17, & March 24). All spiritual seekers are welcome to this space; come as you are.

“Rarely, if ever, are any of us healed in isolation.” - bell hooks
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What is Lent? The next six weeks (40 days without Sundays) Christians will be moving through the season of Lent which is a time of prayer, fasting, service, lament, and communal preparation for the day and season of Easter (Easter is March 31 this year!). Find more info at the link in our bio. Follow us on social media or join our mailing list to find other opportunities for community connection and spiritual practice in this season!
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02/17/2024

"In God we live, and move, and have our being," (Act 17:28) is guiding our communities to explore movement prayer this Spring during Lent. You are invited to join us over the next six weeks to practice movement that centers your breathing, your body, and your mind to be in deeper spiritual connection with God and with one another. We will be lead by Melissa in Qi Gong movements. All ages and physical abilities are welcome!

Starting today at 10AM! We will meet at Asbury UMC at 806 Clarendon Street Durham, NC 27705. In good weather we will be outside and meet under the cherry tree. For cold/rain/wind/dark evenings, we will meet inside in the first floor meeting room (Shepherd Room) or Community Hall both of which accessible by ramp.

We will meet on 3 Saturdays and 3 Thursdays so that those with varied schedules can have an opportunity to try out this spiritual practice during Lent.

All ages and physical abilities are welcome and we look forward to moving with you!

Saturdays @ 10AM - 2/17 • 3/15 • 3/23
Thursdays @ 7PM - 2/22 • 2/29 • 3/7

11/28/2023

Gifts That Give Back Christmas Market is happening this Saturday, Dec 2nd 10AM-1PM!

Shop local artists and artisans for Christmas gifts. They will be giving 10% of their profits from this market to the Spring Forest Community.

Come and enjoy the gathered community as we find meaningful ways to give back this holiday season.

Experience the joy of giving this Christmas season at our Gifts That Give Back: Christmas Market Saturday, December 2rd from 10AM-1PM.

Support local people and communities in their works of justice and compassion in and around Durham.

Vendors will include nonprofit organizations & local artisans (Still taking vendor sign-ups —> Link in Bio). All donors will take home a card created for this year’s market to mark their gift. 10% of all artisan sales will go directly to the Farm at Spring Forest and their work alongside immigrants and refugees in the Triangle.

We look forward to seeing you at the market and sharing meaningful Gifts That Give Back!

806 Clarendon Street Durham, NC 27705

11/27/2023

Midwives past and present have learned the art of embodied wisdom. This advent we will turn our attention to midwives, they pregnant patients they care for, and the communities that have nurtured and taught us all how to listen to the groaning of the world.

Tonight we will gather to center our season of Advent and sit with the complexity of HOPE in a broken world. Midwives and pregnant people know a lot about timid hope, expectant hope, and hope that changes the world.

Join us tonight at 7PM in the first floor meeting room at Asbury UMC next to Duke’s East Campus (806 Clarendon Street Durham, NC 27705). Please use the ramp door to Asbury UMC located on the parking lot side.

Come with your questions about the body, about pregnancy, and birth, and midwives.

Come with your questions about Jesus, and Christmas, and this season called Advent.

Come with your whole self. Your knowledge. Your embodied wisdom. Your unique createdness.

Come and join a community for this season of expectant waiting, purposeful preparation, and anticipation of a changed world.

“The whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.” Romas 8:22
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Upcoming Advent Study Topics:
Nov 27 - Hope
Dec 4 - Peace
Dec 11 - Joy
Dec 18 - Love

Can’t make it in-person but want to follow along with our shared resources this season?

Join Airo’s mailing list with Advent tools mailed out each week on Tuesday for the following Sunday’s week. You can sign-up at the link in our bio or by emailing us at [email protected]
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11/12/2023

Radishes, caterpillars, and lettuce… Oh, my! Adventures in Garden Sunday School never cease.

Pastor Schylar leads the Asbury UMC kids in the garden each month. Come join in December during 10:30AM worship!

11/09/2023

November's discussion topic is Faith & Global Health.

Dr. Jim Thomas, Ph.D., MPH will join us to co-facilitate these conversations both in-person and online. Dr. Thomas' work in public health spans more than 40 years and 35 countries. His principal interests are in social forces underlying epidemics, global health, ethical concerns in digital surveillance and the ethical practice of public health in a pandemic.

Our discussion will center around a chapter from “The Political Life of an Epidemic: Cholera, Crisis, and Citizenship in Zimbabwe” by Simukai Chigudu. We will focus on the chapter entitled, “The Salvation Agenda: Medical Humanitarianism and the Response to Cholera.” DM or email us for the reading.

Please join even if you are unable to complete the reading. There will be lots to discuss and you will have plenty to contribute with your own experiences.

In-Person Discussion:
Thursday, November 9th at 7PM at Namu (we will gather in the outdoor space, food and drinks available for individual order)
Online Discussion:
Thursday, November 16th at 7PM (Sign-up to receive the Zoom link at the link in our bio)

11/08/2023

• Rhythms of Autumn •
These snapshots remind us that in every season there is space for lament, hope, and healing and an opportunity for leaning into community.

Holding space for healthcare workers lament and grief of patients, colleagues, and loved ones who have died this year.

Thriving lettuce that will feed our growing kids (and some bugs).

Preparing the ground and planting companions for a tree of remembrance for victims of gun violence in our community.

Vibrant sunsets that light up the autumn leaves.

Curiously-colored mushrooms composting the earth. A vigil to decomposing matter and the cycle of all living things.

Okra flowers and grasshopper visitors.

Revived peppers - late producers in our garden.

Growing kids who have tenderly cared for and prayed over our dirt, and seeds, and stubborn yet delicious watermelons.

Movement transferred form body to canvas to community through the collective gathering of cultures, languages, and a multitude of forms of connection.

That’s are the glimpses of neighbor, of friend, of God that we seek and have found this season in Airo Community.

10/19/2023

Tonight we are discussing Faith & Mental Health in our online Faith & Health Book Club!

Our book for this month is "Christ on the Psych Ward" by David Finnegan-Hossey. Our in-person group last week had lots to discuss. Please come even if you have not read this book! There is plenty for you to contribute with your own experiences.

We look forward to having a rich discussion as we get to know one another and share in this time together. Please direct message us or send an email for the link to join tonight at 7PM EST on Zoom!

See you tonight!

P.S. If you are local to Durham, North Carolina, there is an opportunity to meet the author this Tuesday, October 24th from 4-5:15PM at Duke Divinity School in 0028 Westbrook. The event is titled "You are Not Alone." If you are interested in going and/or carpooling, let us know.