It's hard to believe that it's been a whole year since the day that Multnomah County started issuing marriage licenses. As I write this it is March 2, the day before the licenses started being issued, and I remember what it was like to be in the BRO office on that day. At the time, we were a staff of 5, and we were madly preparing to help what we knew would be hundreds of couples get their licenses and get married the following day. Melissa was figuring out traffic patterns and recruiting volunteers for the Keller Auditorium, Jessica was making fact sheets and packing supplies for the lines outside the county office building, Dan was talking with couples who were planning to marry, Cathy was helping answer the phone and I was talking to the press and trying not to panic. All of us had our heads down, frantically getting the logistical questions answered, and none of us had any idea what the next day would mean for us personally.
Now, a year later, we all agree that March 3, 2004 changed our lives. It's hard to imagine that anything else we experience in our future work could ever have as huge an impact on us personally. I remember standing in the room as Mary Li and Becky Kennedy exchanged their vows, and all of a sudden I started to cry and realized that I couldn't stop. The emotion was overwhelming. Mary and Becky are a beautiful couple, with an adorable baby, and of course their wedding was touching. But what I was feeling was only partly about that. It was about something that I was to witness over and over, that day, the next, and the next, and it caught me completely off guard. I was watching people be transformed before my eyes, by taking their rightful place as equal citizens of our state, and I was equally changed. I spoke with hundreds of people, married couples and their friends and family, who were as overwhelmed as I was by their own joy and their pride and their gratitude to those four brave commissioners. In those first few days, the bar of our expectations and our sense of what we deserved was raised, and rightfully so. For most married couples, the words "I Do" are the most memorable of their ceremony. But we had been saying "I Do" for years. The couples I witnessed grinned and cried and cheered at the words "By the power vested in me by Multnomah County," because those words were both new and decades overdue. Over and over people told me that they never thought they'd live to see that day. Others spoke of their grief over partners who had passed away before their dream could be reality. Through it all, what united us was love, joy, and the power of equality.
Eight months later, almost to the day, Measure 36 passed, by a margin that felt impossibly cruel. When BRO toured the state in December, we heard from people who felt that Measure 36 was a referendum on them as people, and who felt vulnerable and disenfranchised in their own communities. We heard outrage and pain and disbelief from people all across the state. Our office was deluged with calls from people who wanted us to help them understand how this could have happened, and others who wanted to express their sorrow.Others told us how much they wanted to get involved more than ever or for the first time. The one thing we haven't heard much of is regret. Although the national press tried briefly to blame John Kerry's loss on GLBT people, and the Right continues to claim that we've learned our lesson and are retreating, that's just ridiculous. The bottom line is that even though we lost the ballot measure, and even though it hurta lot!most people I talk with believe that we are ahead of where we were a year ago. I agree. Think about it: same-sex couples have been getting married in Massachusetts for months, the California legislature passed a statewide domestic partner bill and is considering a marriage equality bill, and same-sex marriage has been spreading all across our nearest neighbor, Canada, and across many other countries in the world. Here in Oregon, legislators are discussing civil union legislation and Governor Kulongoski has made a nondiscrimination bill one of his top priorities this session. Our state has changed and our issues are now the mainstream,when at one time they were the fringe. And even if all of that weren't true, the truth is that once you've changed the way so many of us did last March, there's no going back. There's no lowering our expectations, there's no settling for second class status. In the last legislative session, many of us, including me, would have been very satisfied with civil unions. Now, civil unions are simply one step in the right, and inevitable, direction. This is how it should be, because in order to change others, we ourselves must first be changed. As we gather on the steps of the Capitol on March 3, we are celebrating our anniversaries in a very appropriate way. The modern first anniversary gift is a clock, which symbolizes the time that a couple will spend together. For us, it also symbolizes a movement whose time has come, and people who are unwilling to wait any longer for the rights they deserve. And it symbolizes this very special time, a momentous year in this civil rights movement of ours, and the courage and vision of all of those who took part in this historic moment. It is an honor to share this anniversary with all of you, in the spirit of love, justice, and equality.
CONNECTIONS UPUMC • Staff-Parish Relations Committee, Monday, March 14, 6:30pm, Errol Stephenson Hall. • Administrative Council meets Monday, March 14, 7:30pm, Errol Stephenson Hall. • Lunch Bunch meets at Ying Ying Restaurant, 8071 N Lombard Way, Tuesday, March 15, 12:30pm. • Liturgist Training, Tuesday, March 15, 7pm, Errol Stephenson Hall. • Dinner and Movie Night, Wednesday, March 16, stew at 6:30pm, On Golden Pond at 7pm.
• Trustees meet Monday, March 21, 7pm, Errol Stephenson Hall.
THE COMMUNITY • Portsmouth Tree Planting Festival, 8:30am, Saturday, March 19, Portsmouth Middle School. • Portland Gay Men’s Chorus 25th Anniversary Concert, Sunday, March 13, 2pm, Kaul Auditorium, Reed College, 503-226-2588. • Children’s Relief Nursery Volunteer Orientation, Wednesday, March 16, noon-1pm, 8425 N Lombard, Ann Duffy, 503-595-4512. • Spring Beach Clean-Up, Saturday, March 19, sign up at www.solv.org or 503-844-9571.
FUTURE EVENTS, FOR YOUR CALENDAR • Maundy Thursday meal and worship, March 24, 6:30pm, Easter egg coloring at 8pm, Errol Stephenson Hall. • Easter Breakfast, 8:30am, Errol Stephenson Hall. • Children’s Easter Egg Hunt, Sunday, March 27, 11:30am, Bell Tower Lawn. • Neighborhood Clean-Up Day, April 23 with a junk disposal site at St Johns Lutheran Church. • April Forum features Jefferson Smith, founder of the Oregon Bus Project, Sunday, April 24, All-church potluck, 11:30pm, forum at noon. • St Johns Parade, Saturday, May 7 [a new date.] • Plan to be a Family Friend at Creation Vacation, Tuesday-Saturday, July 5-9, 2005. • All-Church Beach Retreat at Camp Magruder, Friday-Sunday, September 16-18, 2005.
WEEKLY AT UPUMC • Choir practices Sundays at 9:30am, Tuesdays at 6pm, Sanctuary. • Men’s Group. Tuesdays, 10am, Narthex. • Let’s Go Walking, Wednesdays, 1pm, Narthex. • Morrison Child and Family Services, Errol Stephenson Hall and Nursery, Tuesdays, 1-4pm. • Alcoholics Anonymous, Narthex, Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays at 8pm, weekly. • Overeaters Anonymous, Wednesdays at 7pm, Saturdays at 3pm.
THE NURSERY IS STAFFED DURING WORSHIP
PLEASE DON’T GO HUNGRY. WE HAVE FOOD IN OUR PANTRY, LOCATED IN THE HALLWAY LEADING TO ERROL STEPHENSON HALL, TAKE WHAT YOU NEED.
God Will Take Care Of You? James 2:14-18, 26, Matthew 7:7-11 March 6, 2005 Rev. Marcia J. Hauer
The Christmas when I was 6, every kid in the neighborhood got a bicycle. Every kid except me, that is. At least that was the way it seemed. I wanted a bicycle in the worst way. It was a symbol of being grown up—one of the big kids. Since I didn’t get the bicycle I wanted, I decided that all I had to do was pray for one. After all, my Sunday School teacher had said that if you wanted something and if you prayed for it, you’d get it. “Ask and ye shall receive,†she had said. So every night, when I went to bed, I prayed for a bicycle. Every morning, I’d get up and rush to the front porch, expecting that it would be there. This routine went on for a long time before I gave up. You see, my parents couldn’t afford to buy a bicycle for me at that point and they didn’t think I was mature enough to ride it responsibly. I had to do something (grow up a little and contribute the bicycle fund) before that prayer request was granted.
We humans really like to believe in the notion of asking God for what we need, want or think we need and sitting back and there it is. We know that Jesus wasn’t preaching magic, but we really like the idea of God providing all we want without any effort on our part. When we fall into this trap, we’re forgetting the remainder of what Jesus had to say in this morning’s gospel reading. “Ask and you shall receive, knock and the door shall be opened; seek and you shall find.†And we’re forgetting that Jesus wasn’t talking about material things. He was talking about speaking truth to power, about confronting the officials of the Empire and that was risky business. Remember, Jesus and his band of followers were teaching that God’s realm, in all it’s fullness, is in the here and now and that the poor were the chosen ones of God. These things alone were subversive, treasonous teachings. In many ways, they still are. Good news for the poor is mostly bad news for the rich.
UPUMC • Dinner and Movie Night, Wednesday, March 9, soup at 6:00pm, Torch Song Trilogy at 6:30pm. • United Methodist Women meet Thursday, March 10, 10am Errol Stephenson Hall. • Outreach Committee meets with lunch, 12:30, Sunday, March 13, Errol Stephenson Hall. • Staff-Parish Relations Committee, Monday, March 14, 6:30pm, Errol Stephenson Hall. • Administrative Council meets Monday, March 14, 7:30pm, Errol Stephenson Hall. • Lunch Bunch meets at Ying Ying Restaurant, 8071 N Lombard Way, Tuesday, March 15, 12:30pm. • Liturgist Training, Tuesday, March 15, 7pm, Errol Stephenson Hall. • Trustees meet Monday, March 21, 7pm, Errol Stephenson Hall.
THE LARGER CHURCH • Unchartered Waters: Connecting with Emerging Generations, Monday-Wednesday, March 7-9, Salem First United Methodist.
THE COMMUNITY • Portsmouth Middle School Landscape Maintenance Project, Saturday, March 12, 10am. Bring weeding tools. • Portsmouth Tree Planting Festival, 8:30am, Saturday, March 19, Portsmouth Middle School. • Portland Gay Men’s Chorus 25th Anniversary Concert, Saturday, March 12, 8pm and Sunday, March 13, 2pm, Kaul Auditorium, Reed College. Tickets, call 503-226-2588. • Children’s Relief Nursery Volunteer Orientation, Wednesday, March 16, noon-1pm, 8425 N Lombard, Ann Duffy, 503-595-4512. • Spring Beach Clean-Up, Saturday, March 19, sign up at www.solv.org or 503-844-9571.
FUTURE EVENTS, FOR YOUR CALENDAR • Maundy Thursday meal and worship, March 24, 6:30pm, Easter egg coloring at 8pm, Errol Stephenson Hall. • Easter Breakfast, 8:30am, Errol Stephenson Hall. • Children’s Easter Egg Hunt, Sunday, March 27, 11:30am, Bell Tower Lawn. • Neighborhood Clean-Up Day, April 23 with a junk disposal site at St Johns Lutheran Church. • St Johns Parade, Saturday, May 14 • Plan to be a Family Friend at Creation Vacation, Tuesday-Saturday, July 5-9, 2005. • All-Church Beach Retreat at Camp Magruder, Friday-Sunday, September 16-18, 2005.
WEEKLY AT UPUMC • Choir practices Sundays at 9:30am, Tuesdays at 6pm, Sanctuary. • Men’s Group. Tuesdays, 10am, Narthex. • Let’s Go Walking, Wednesdays, 1pm, Narthex. • Morrison Child and Family Services, Errol Stephenson Hall and Nursery, Tuesdays, 1-4pm. • Alcoholics Anonymous, Narthex, Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays at 8pm, weekly. • Overeaters Anonymous, Wednesdays at 7pm, Saturdays at 3pm.
THE NURSERY IS STAFFED DURING WORSHIP
PLEASE DON’T GO HUNGRY. WE HAVE FOOD IN OUR PANTRY, LOCATED IN THE HALLWAY LEADING TO ERROL STEPHENSON HALL, TAKE WHAT YOU NEED.
WALKING OUR TALK Matthew 7:1-5; Romans 14:1-12 February 27, 2005 By Rev. Dr. Jeanne Knepper
I don’t see myself the way you see me. It’s taken me a while to really get that, but I’ve learned something about myself. Whenever I stand in front of my mirror, I do two things, just automatically. One is that I suck my tummy in and stand up real straight. The other is that I open my eyes up wide. I don’t do it consciously. I just do it, automatically. So I walk around the world thinking that I’m wide-eyed and tight-bellied, when you all see me looking more droop-eyed and soft all the time.
Isn’t it hard, to learn that other people see us so much more clearly than we sometimes see ourselves? Over time, I’ve learned, as I suppose you have as well, that I can’t “manage†my image, for there I am, out in the world for all to see even when I’m not thinking about what I look like, about how I appear in the world. And of course, that applies to all kinds of things beyond what we look like, you or I. People see what we do day by day, how we really behave, not how we want them—or ourselves—to think we behave. This is true of each of us, individually, and it’s true of us as a community of faith. What we do is so much more important than what we say we do.
And the difference between the two, between our teachings and our practices, between our self-images and the way we are in the world, the difference between the two is the source of the charge so often levied at religious folk: “Hypocrites!â€
University Park United Methodist Church (UPUMC) is located at 4775 N Lombard, Portland Oregon 97203. UPUMC is small, diverse, growing, laughing, committed, caring, serious, warm and REAL! We are a community that encourages each other as we grow in faith, in knowledge, in service, and in love of self, God and neighbor. At University Park we not only respect but welcome diversity in race, gender, national origin, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, physical and mental ability, economic status and profession. We believe all people are equal before God and entitled to Gods grace and abundance. Pastors: Rev. Dr. Jeanne Knepper & Rev. Marcia Hauer http://www.upumc.net
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