Published today in Nature, researchers from the Center for Astrophysics and the Space Telescope Science Institute have created a 3D map that reconstructs the evolutionary history of the “Local Bubble,” a 1,000-light-year-wide cavity of cold gas and dust that’s responsible for the formation of all nearby young stars—including our sun.

The study reveals that Earth and all of the stars and star-forming regions within 500 light-years of the planet reside on the surface of this bubble, which is good insight, according to Catherine Zucker, astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute and lead author of the study. Learning more about how the Earth came to be inside the Local Bubble could be yet another definitive step in better understanding our galaxy.

Read the entire article here.

The NASA/ESA Hυbble Space Telescope imaged these two overlappiпg spiral galaxies named SDSS J115331 and LEDA 2073461, which lie more than a billion light-years from Earth. Despite appeariпg to collide in this image, the aligпmeпt of the two galaxies is likely jυst by chaпce—the two are пot actually iпteractiпg. While these two galaxies might simply be ships that pass iп the пight, Hυbble has captυred a dazzliпg array of other, trυly iпteractiпg galaxies.

Read the entire article here.

NGC 6872, also known as the Condor Galaxy, stretches 522,000 light years from tip to tip. The Milky Way is approximately 100,000 light-years across.

The galaxy is visible in the southern skies as part of the Pavo constellation, and is 212 million light-years from Earth.

It was always thought to be among the largest stellar systems in the universe, but NGC 6872 was officially designated the largest galaxy known to science by NASA in 2013.

Read the entire article here.

The ICC group at our table.

The Nevada Prayer Breakfast, organized by the Nevada Interfaith Association (NIA), was held Wednesday, May 17, 2023, 7-9 a.m. at the Paradise Ballroom of the Atlantis Casino Resort and Spa. The theme of this year’s Nevada Prayer Breakfast was “Living Art – Pathway to Peace”
Guests were welcomed by Lt. Governor Stavros Anthony. Nearly 400 people from the Reno-Sparks community attended the event. The keynote speaker of the program Mark Salinas, Chairman of the Reno Arts & Culture commission.

In attendance from the Church were: Gene Savoy Jr., Barbara Whitney, Shinobu Sonoda-Fuelling, Stephan Fuelling, Paige Hubbard, Amanda Buchanan, Francine Petrovich, and Robert Petrovich.

The purpose of the event is to gather community members of all religions to come together and offer prayerful support for state and local leaders according to their own traditions. Many of the City, County, and State leaders and their representatives were there to join those in attendance as they prayed in their own way.

The Nevada Prayer Breakfast is a gathering of citizens — as well as civic, business, and community leaders — who wish to pray on behalf of our State and bring the spiritual resources of the community together to bear on issues that face Nevadans. Although members of the community may believe differently in their approach to the Divine, they gather at the Nevada Prayer Breakfast as equals. Together, they devote their energies to the good of the State of Nevada. And together, they pray.

NIA is a non-profit interfaith network of religious and spiritual leaders in Nevada. Programs include the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Service, the interfaith Nevada Prayer Breakfast, the Annual Interfaith Thanksgiving Eve Service, and the biannual Interfaith Clergy Luncheon.

Bishop Gene Savoy, Jr. led the Nevada Interfaith Association (formerly the Nevada Clergy Association) as its president from 1999-2017.

Saturday, May 27, 2023
10:00 AM COMMUNION
Chapel of The Holy Child

RF Robert Petrovich
Lector: RC Amanda Buchanan
Cantor: Rev. Greg Klinedinst
Reader: Claudia Grady

Sunday, May 21, 2023
SUNRISE DIVINE SERVICE
New Pentecost Church
Leave: 4:30
Gate: 5:20
Sunrise: 5:41
RF Ted Staver
Concelebrants:
RF Robert Petrovich
Rev. Bruce Kanzelmeyer
Assistant: Rev. Barbara Whitney

OPEN-AIR COMMUNION

Church of The New Covenant Dea. Marilyn Taylor

Church of the Americas RC Amanda Buchanan

Wednesday, May 31, 2023
12:00 NOON COMMUNION
Chapel of The Holy Child
RC Peter Foust

Friday, June 2, 2023
9:00 AM PRAYER & FELLOWSHIP
Chapel of the Roses
Rev Noriko Roy

RRF Gene Savoy, Jr. making the announcements.

On May 20, 2023, Bishop Gene Savoy, Jr. announced some changes in the liturgical practices of The Church during the Communion of Fellowship Service at The Chapel of the Holy Child.

The first announcement was that on Second Advent Pentecost — June 6 — following Sunrise Divine  Service, ordinations for the new Patriarchs and Matriarchs will be performed at the Cathedral Church of the Americas. The new Patriarchs and Matriarchs are the Reverend Fathers Robert Petrovich and Ted Staver, and Reverend Mother Barbara Whitney. The Reverend Mother Elizabeth Reece will also receive matriarchal ordination. (The Reverend Mother Rebecca Willis is on medical leave.)

The second announcement was the proposal that Ministers would no longer be required to wear the traditional clerical collar for Sunday Sunrise or Sunday Communion services at the Red Rock Consecrated Sanctuary. The Bishop said he will leave it as a choice for each Minister to decide whether to wear it or not.

He also proposed a change in the vestments for Acolytes. He proposed that the red and black cassocks be phased out, and that Acolytes always wear white and blue with a gold Solar Cross, as seen in this photo. (White, blue and gold are the colors of The Community.)

Acolytes in white robes.

Regarding Emancipated youths who wear the black cassock, Bishop Savoy announced that in addition to the black cassock being phased out, the Emancipated would be considered to have received their First Level Ordination and would wear a simple white surplice with Cross. (Youths who are fifteen years of age or older are eligible to receive the Rite of Emancipation. This Rite bestows upon the youth full adult membership in the Congregation and entry into the The Academy of the Jamilian University of the Ordained for initial studies.)

The next announcement was the appointment of certain Ministers to the office of Lector. Lectors are authorized to read a particular prayer during the Saturday Communion of Fellowship Service. Lectors are distinguished from Cantors and Readers. The new Lectors are the Reverends Harold Boulette, Larry Coesens, Bruce Kanzelmeyer, Greg Klinedinst, Dorothy Kubiak, Michael McIntyre, Francine Petrovich, and Noriko Roy, and the Reverend Mother Barbara Whitney. They will join the Reverend Fathers Robert Petrovich and Ted Staver, the Reverend Mothers Rebecca Willis and Elizabeth Reece, and the Reverend Canons Amanda Buchanan, Peter Foust and Robert Roy.

Finally, the Bishop announced that Amanda Buchanan has been appointed Prioress of Steamboat Springs. (Amanda is also in the above photo of the Acolytes.)

Bishop Gene Savoy, Jr. and his wife, Radheka Patel Savoy will be attending the Geothermal Think Tank conference in New Zealand and Australia next month representing Steamboat Hot Springs Healing Center & Spa. They will leave Reno on 6/14 for Auckland, New Zealand and return to Reno on 7/5 via Sydney, Australia and Los Angeles, California. The full attendance for the conference is 150 people from around the world, however, only 25 slots were open to people from the United States.

The event begins on June 21st in Auckland, New Zealand. Events for that day include a trip to Aroha with a visit to the Te Aroha Museum and the Aroha Spa. The next day, they will visit the Okoroire Hot Springs and the Wai Ariki Hot Springs & Spa. The remaining days will include similar visits to various hot springs and spas in New Zealand and Australia as well as other sites of interest. There will also be seminar discussions regarding the hot springs and spa industry on most days.

Radheka was born in Auckland and grew up there until her family moved to the United States in 1991. Gene has never been to this part of the world. A full report will be provided upon their return.

A nearby star system is helping astronomers unravel the mystery of how water appeared in our solar system billions of years ago.

Scientists observed a young star, called V883 Orionis, located 1,300 light-years away using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array of telescopes, or ALMA, in northern Chile.

The star is surrounded by a planet-forming disk of clouds of gas and dust leftover from when the star was born. Eventually, material in the disk comes together to form comets, asteroids and planets over millions of years.

Read the entire article here.

Link contributed by Gene Savoy Jr.

You might not have heard of them if you aren’t an astronomer, but the largest known objects in the universe aren’t galaxies or the super-clusters they form together. They’re actually ghostly webs of dark matter that form the boundary between the voids of deep space and the clusters of galaxies where stars shine, planets form, and most of the astronomical phenomena you know reside.

This filament, which spreads throughout the cosmos forming a foam-like structure, attracts dust along its main stretches while galaxies seem to cluster at its nodes. Despite the massive size of these filaments—a typical length would be in the 200-500 million light-year range—it isn’t easy to actually see these things directly.

Read the entire article here.