We will talk about the different kinds of forgiveness, where we hold it, the benefits of it and what it looks like for each of us.
Ms. Costantino is a Citizen and Activist with the Cherokee Nation. She has chaired several Cherokee grassroots initiatives, including First Nations Safe Space, providing free telehealth counseling to Native American people during the pandemic, and the Tribal Alliance Against Frauds, which is an intertribal anti-fraud task force. She teaches foreign languages at the local college. Costantino’s numerous activities include serving on the Executive Committee of the Jackson County Branch of the NAACP, where she also serves as chair of the religious affairs committee. In addition, she manages a non-profit organization called Diversity Zero to 13, focused on racial and social justice and equity.
Other activities include facilitating a Street Medic Collective called The Awesome Medicine Possums and its continuing ed medical skill sharing program. Currently a retired midwife, Costantino volunteered as a paramedic and midwife at Standing Rock during the winter of 2016 and many other protests.
Costantino has a BA degree in religion and philosophy. She has served at several hospitals, universities and prisons as well as the U.S. Army at several posts, as a Pagan chaplain and pastoral counselor. For 20 years, she has facilitated Sylvan Hearth Pagan Temple in Sylva, NC. The Temple is a non-profit organization that offers community sabbats, pastoral counseling and rites of passage.
Jenna Jaffe has been performing music, dancing and making art since she was a child. She has a vocal performance degree from the UC Santa Barbara and extensive graduate vocal work at the USC. Jenna is multifaceted. She is a multi-instrumentalist who has taught for thirty years. She is mixed media visual artist that focuses on equality for all life ( you can see her work at The Refinery, in Asheville). Jenna teaches ESL at AB Tech, is on the Board at AAPF, and both National & WNC Music Teachers Association.
In 2022 she received a Tzedek Social Justice Impact Award for her musical and artistic work engaged in community activism and system change.
In her “spare” time she gardens, studies languages, mindfulness, and energy healing. She also performs regularly in Asheville NC.
We gather for worship and fellowship each Sunday with a service at 10:30 followed by coffee hour. Dress is casual. Parking is plentiful. And our building is accessible.
Family Ministry staff and volunteers are ready to welcome children and youth at 10:15am. On the lower level, we have a nursery for infants and toddlers, and we have classes where children and youth learn about and explore faith, religion, justice, and community.
We welcome you: your whole self, with all your truths and your doubts, your worries and your hopes. Join us on this extraordinary adventure of faith!
Topics: Compassion, Empathy, Forgiveness, Generosity, Grace, Kindness, Perspective, reflection