A STORM-TOSSED FAITH Hebrews 11:1-3; Mark 4:35-41 August 12, 2007
Mikey lived in Riverside, California. He was a gentle boy. His father thought he was a “sissy” who needed to be toughened up. He urged Mikey to beat up on his Elmo doll. He slapped the boy, trying to drive him into tougher behavior. He slapped, kicked, and punched Mikey. He dropped him on his head. One year ago, on August 15, 2006, Mikey Vallejo-Sieber died. He was three years old.
We’re accustomed to hearing the stories of adults, or even teens, who have come through periods of oppression to a stronger place, a place of self-acceptance where they can name themselves as lesbian or gay and claim their belovedness as children of God. We know people, here among us, who could tell stories of confusion and courage, grief and grace, rejection and redemption. We celebrate their stories and rejoice to be a community of faith blessed by their presence. These are all reasons to celebrate being a Reconciling Congregation on this day of our third annual North Portland Pride Festival. And we do celebrate.
It might be easy, on a day of celebration like this, to imagine that this is becoming pretty old hat. I mean, UPUMC has been a Reconciling Congregation for 15 years now. Could it be that this is almost a case of “been there, done that?” Why make such a big deal of something we all agree on, that the church is blessed when it can celebrate a wide diversity of peoples within its membership. Isn’t this a bit of preaching to the choir?
Actually, I think it’s more a case of preaching to the Sunday School, to the nursery, to the children among us. Let’s count them up for a moment. Among the kids who belong to us, we would name Alyssa, Mariah, Anthony, Aurora, Issac, Brett, Love, Christo, Sammy, Julian, Penelope, Solomon, Aaron, Sarah, Taylor, Morgan, Carey and Alex—that’s 18 kids, eleven of whom have been baptized in this sanctuary. If they are an ordinary bunch of kids, we can expect that at least one of them, likely more than one, will come to identify himself or herself as gay, lesbian, transgender, bisexual. But even more, any of them could be perceived as soft or butch, as a sissy or a dyke, regardless of whether the perception was true to who they “really” were or not.
Last week, we sent three of our kids to camp, to grow and thrive in an environment designed to teach them, in every way possible, that God loves them. It is our privilege, delight and duty to do this. We have all promised, at their baptisms in this church, that we will do all we can to raise them up to believe that they are beloved children of God. We tell them, as their sponsors, as their church, that we believe that we are all given the power to resist evil and oppression in whatever form it takes. And one of the forms that evil takes in our world is homophobia. Homophobia kills children. It killed Mikey. It also wounds children, teaching them to conform, to be cruel to other kids, to cut off the parts of themselves that don’t fit into rigid molds of male and female. And the cruelest, the most dangerous and deadly of all homophobias are the ones that are supported and undergirded by the language of faith. When churches teach that God hates gays or that “the practice of homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching,” they are fueling confusion and hatred that are the reason why one third of all homeless teens are lesbian or gay, kicked out of their homes because they are perceived to be sinful, damaged or deranged.
Our culture is not neutral on the subject of sexual orientation or gender identity. It teaches our children to be homophobic. If you have been around kids, you know that the worst names they call each other are names that spring from perceived sexual orientation. If we are to provide a counter-cultural environment, we must not be neutral either. We must be open, public, insistent, celebratory, and determined witnesses to a different vision, a vision that receives differences as a gift, a way of being that celebrates the courage and grace of people who have come through the fires of self-doubt to claim their place at the Lord’s table.
University Park UMC became a Reconciling Congregation 15 years ago. Some of you were here for that vote, and we honor you today. You started a process that has made this congregation a beacon of light in a tossed and stormy church, in a denomination torn between its proclamation that God loves and claims everyone and its fear that embracing people who are gay or lesbian, bisexual or transgender will undermine its attractiveness in a homophobic culture.
University Park United Methodist church has been a player in this struggle against the forces of evil for over 15 years. The United Methodist Church has been struggling with its own questions of identity since 1969. I don’t use the word “evil” easily or loosely. I believe that the attitudes and mindsets that try to convince us that we should hate, fear, or reject each other are forces of evil. They are forces that want us, more than anything, to be afraid, of each other, of being different, of chaos. They spring out of a mind-set that sees all being as a struggle between chaos and control. But our gospel lesson shows us a different way to see things.
Mark’s story of Jesus in the boat can be read as a simple tale of Jesus, who could even still the storm, and of disciples who just didn’t get it that he was really the Son of God. It can also be read at a deeper level. Do you remember the first verses of Genesis? They read: “In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters.” Many Middle Eastern creation stories identify chaos, the forces of confusion and evil, with the stormy and raging sea. When God swept over the face of the deep, bringing form and order out of chaos, God was establishing the essential nature of all being for all time. Creation, being, all that surrounds and underlies and sustains us—creation is not formless and void, it is not chaos, it is not a mad swirling of indifferent forces. Creation is also not a controlled and rigid framework for life, a set of rules that must be followed, to great peril. No, all being is an expression God’s interaction with chaos, of God’s loving breath, of God’s spirit moving across the face of the stormy sea, of the love and creativity and desire for relationship of a God who can create great beauty and wonderful being by encountering and moving with, moving upon, that which seems most terrifying.
Oh, that’s easy to say in the quiet of a Sunday morning sanctuary. Easy to affirm when God’s in the house and all is right with the world. But not so easy, not so easy when the storms are raging and our boat, our little ship of faith, is all tossed about on the chaotic sea. Haven’t we been there, caught in forces beyond our control, swirling, fearing, and crying out to God, “Are you asleep? Don’t you care that we are perishing!?!”
And Jesus said to his friends, the disciples in the boat with him, “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?”
For way too long, we Christians have been inclined to imagine that faith is the same thing as belief. We hear the promise, “You are saved by faith” to mean that we have to believe the right things, generally things about who Jesus was. But Jesus didn’t mean faith in that sense. His question makes much more sense if we understand that faith in God is about trust, trust in God, trust in life, trust that there is nothing, nothing beyond God’s presence, nothing to be afraid of, nothing that can separate us from the love of God which is our refuge and our enduring comfort.
God is creating life and beauty, even today, in a great dance with the stormy, raging sea. And we are called to be a part of that dance, of that on-going work of creation. Sometimes it frightens us to our very core. Sometimes we want to pull back, to force the wild sea into engineered channels, to shake our fists at God and cry, “Don’t you care that we are perishing?” Sometimes, we imagine that Mikey died alone, far from the presence of God. But this is not so. God was there, I believe, shouting “Stop!’ at Mikey’s father, who did not listen. God was there, catching that small broken spirit as he died. And God is here, demanding that we take Mikey’s death seriously, that we speak up and speak out and stand up and make our very lives a witness so that none of our children will grow up believing that he or she is less than God’s beloved. God is calling us, on the deep and raging sea, to be a safe harbor, to be a light house, to keep illuminating the rocks of destruction even as we are a beacon of hope. We are a part of the still continuing drama of creation. We have a role to play; we have a light to shine. Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine.
CONNECTIONS UPUMC • Staff-Parish Relations Committee meets Monday, August 13, 6:30pm, Errol Stephenson Hall. • Administrative Council meets Monday, August 13, 7:30pm, Errol Stephenson Hall. • Finance Committee meets Tuesday, August 14, 7:30pm, Errol Stephenson Hall. • UMW Bake Sale, Sunday, August 19, after church. • Education Committee meets Sunday, August 19, 12:45pm, Errol Stephenson Hall. • Lunch Bunch meets Tuesday, August 21, 12:30pm, Su Casa. • Outreach Committee meets Sunday, August 26, after the potluck, Narthex.
THE COMMUNITY • Game Days, First and Third Sundays, 2-5pm, University Park Coffee Shop, today. • Pack school supplies for North Portland children, Wednesday, August 29, 1-6pm, Weir’s Cyclery, 8621 N Lombard.
FUTURE EVENTS, FOR YOUR CALENDAR • UPUMC FUNd-raising Cruise, September 16-23, 2007. Talk to Betty Cruson to sign up. • Women’s Beach Trip, October 19-21, 2008, Neskowin. • All-church Charge Conference, Sunday, November 18, 4pm.
WEEKLY AT UPUMC • Choir practices Sundays at 9:30am, Tuesdays at 6:30pm, Sanctuary. • Men’s Group, Tuesdays, 10am, Narthex. • Alcoholics Anonymous, Narthex, Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays at 8pm, weekly. • Overeaters Anonymous, Wednesdays at 7pm. • Morrison Center Program, Thursdays 5-9pm, beginning June 21. STAYING IN TOUCH Edna Riddle, Sunrise Adult Care Center, 11945 SW Butner Rd., Portland OR 97225; 503-841-1295.
Harriet Bonhorst, Pioneer Tower, 515 P Street #202, Sacramento, CA 95814; phone: 1-916-446-4863.
Phil Herbach, Care Center East, 11325 NE Weidler, Portland, OR 97220.
Erica Martinez, 182 E Nevada St. Ashland, OR 97520. Cell phone: 1-503-791-3680.
Jeanne Pulliam, 8603 SE Causey Ave, Apt 202; Happy Valley, OR 97086-2604, Telephone 503-594-2539.
Aleena Sologar, 775 Cascade St. #1316, Oregon City, OR 97045, her son Jonathan’s home. Phone, 503-387-3813.
HOLDING IN PRAYER Carolyn Hammett—living with cancer—at home. Phil Herbach—recovering from hip surgery on 7/17—in rehab.
THE NURSERY IS STAFFED DURING WORSHIP FOR CHILDREN YOUNGER THAN SCHOOL AGE.
NORTH PORTLAND PRIDE FESTIVAL Today we celebrate the 15th anniversary of UPUMC’s decision to become a Reconciling Congregation, a church that publicly welcomes and celebrates lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people as a full part of our community of faith. We do this with a reconciling worship, followed by our Third Annual North Portland Pride Festival. We will have a great picnic, music, political speakers, room to visit and hang out. Long time member Donna Jose will be here to sing for us at the picnic. Do plan to join us.
JENN HERBACH TO WALK FOR FUNDS Hello! This year, I'll be taking part in JDRF's Walk to Cure Diabetes, along with one-half million other walkers across the country, as we try to reach our goal of raising $90 million. Type 1, or juvenile, diabetes, is a devastating disease that affects millions of people—a large and growing percentage of them children. Please visit my Walk Web page if you would like to donate online or see how close I am to reaching my personal goal: http://walk.jdrf.org/walker.cfm?id=86718397
MISSION: PENCILS FOR KIDS The big project: to provide school supplies for all the kids in North Portland, packaged and distributed through the schools. Our part: to collect 4,384 pencils Collected as of August 2: 2,356 pencils Collected as of August 9: 3,086 pencils How much longer? We will collect until Tuesday, August 28. And then? On Wednesday, August 29, we will join other volunteers at Weir’s Cyclery to bag school supplies for distribution at the schools.
BIRTHDAYS FUND-RAISER It’s a new thing. Each Sunday, after church and during the coffee and fellowship time we will celebrate birthdays, anniversaries, and other celebrations by putting pennies, dimes, quarters, dollars or whatever you choose into a Celebrations bank. Let’s make it fun!
CHILDREN’S TEACHERS Isn’t it wonderful to have so many children at UPUMC? Last year, we began to use a new Sunday School curriculum, Live B.I.G.. This program has many wonderful features. It comes in one-month modules, each with its own theme. There are printed teaching materials, pages to copy for the children, a CD of videos and music for each month, and lots of fun activities, all well explained. In addition, there are materials that appeal to children of different ages all in one class. It is a very good program, and very easy for even inexperienced teachers to use.
And that is where we come to you. Now it is time to sign up for the next year of Sunday School. We have the materials already on hand, so you will have as much time as you would like to prepare. It is one of our great privileges, as a community of faith, to witness to our children, by our love and presence and service, that they are all most wonderfully beloved children of God and dear members of our family of faith. And never doubt it—60 years from now there will be adults in the world who still remember, fondly and with much gratitude, that YOU were their Sunday School teacher who taught them lessons that have stayed with them for their whole lives. What a legacy! Do dare to say “Yes!” and sign up. WOMEN’S BEACH TRIP For over a decade, women of UPUMC have been going to the beach together each October and April. The trips started as a part of a Women’s spirituality Group that first met when Dee Dee Walters was the pastor and have continued ever since. The house in Neskowin, Oregon will sleep 10. What do we do? Walk the beach, talk, watch movies, talk deep and long, support one another, share cooking and care, refresh ourselves and grow closer to one another and to our faith. The next trip will be October 19-21. Talk to Judy Griffen, 503-283-4331, for more information or to sign up.
NO ONE LEAVES HUNGRY This is the Food Pantry protocol, developed in 2005. Anyone is welcome to use it as a guide to helping our neighbors who come to us with need.
ASSISTANCE PROTOCOL UNIVERSITY PARK UNITED METHOIDST CHURCH Use this guide if you desire and feel safe to help an individual who is hungry, cold or in need of shelter.
HUNGRY: There are TV dinners labeled “We Care” in the freezer. Heat in the microwave oven to provide immediate warm food.
FOOD INSECURE/NEEDS GROCERIES: There are plastic bags on the lowest of the three shelves of the pantry. Encourage the person you are assisting to take whatever he/she can use. All of the food in the pantry shelves is available, as are the toiletries.
WANTS TO KNOW ABOUT SHELTERS: There are copies of an 8-page list of services for the homeless in an envelope on the shelf with the plastic bags. If someone needs information, give them a copy to take with them.
ASKS FOR WARM CLOTHING OR A BLANKET: We have blankets and some clothing on the top shelf in the cupboard immediately below the Pantry. We are limited by space and won’t ever have space to store a lot of blankets. Give out what seems appropriate to you.
YOU DO NOT NEED TO ASK PERMISSION TO ASSIST PEOPLE IN NEED, BUT REMEMBER THAT WE DO NOT GIVE CASH TO ANYONE, FOR ANY REASON.
AT ALL TIMES BE AWARE TO RESPECT YOUR OWN SAFETY AND YOUR GUEST’S DIGNITY. THANK YOU.
THE WAY OF JOY Psalm 107; Colossians 3:1-14; Luke12:13-21 August 1, 2004
And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, and be merry.” Isn’t that the goal, so often, of our work, to get to the point where we can say to our souls, to our vulnerable and frightened parts, “Okay, there is enough on hand. Relax. Take it easy. Enjoy life. You’ve got it made.” Sometimes, when we work, or pay bills, or maybe on a morning when we’d rather sleep a while longer, doesn’t a part of us long to hear those words? Don’t they seem like the essence of happiness?
I was surprised to be reminded that the phrase, “eat, drink, and be merry” is Biblical. It sounds more like something out of Shakespeare, advice to enjoy life, to let the world be the world and see to our own happiness. But, here it is, the goal of the land-owner who finally had so much produce that his barns, ample enough to hold an ordinary year’s produce, that his barns just weren’t sufficient. Sort of like feeling, “I’ve gotten such a raise that my old wallet won’t hold it. Guess I’ll have to buy a new one, to show myself that I’ve finally got it made. Now I can be happy. Now I can enjoy life. Now, I can rejoice. Now, when I have it all laid out, now I can find joy.”
But of course, Jesus’ point in the parable was exactly that this was not the pathway to joy. No surprise there, maybe. But if not a barnful of goods, if not a bankful of accounts and stocks, if not food and drink and merriment—then what is it that brings joy?
Joy and happiness are not the same thing. Lots of things can make me happy: French vanilla ice cream on fresh picked blackberries; hearing my daughter’s voice on the phone; seeing the bright blue summer sky; listening to my cat purr. And just as many things can make me unhappy: being treated rudely; not getting enough sleep; pulling a muscle; having to do something that I don’t really want to do. Happiness is transitory; joy is not. Happiness is frosting on the cake; joy is the bread of life. Happiness, or unhappiness, can be set off by things outside of ourselves, but joy is the result of character and choices.
In this week just passed, I spent some time in prayer with Barbara Sawyer. She and Carolyn are living in difficult times, and many of us are holding them in our hearts and prayers. As I settled into a time of focused, silent prayer, I found myself led in a way that I hadn’t expected, led to a willingness to pray that they would experience joy they couldn’t have expected, a growing into the realm of God, a deep peace that could make even hard times a blessing. Could this be possible?
When Etty Hillesum was imprisoned in Auschwitz, a Nazi work and extermination camp for Jews during World War Two, she wrote in her diary:
You have made me so rich, oh God, please let me share out Your beauty with open hands. My life has become an uninterrupted dialog with You, oh God, one great dialog. Sometimes when I stand in some corner of the camp, my feet planted on Your earth, my eyes raised toward Your Heaven, tears sometimes run down my face, tears of deep emotion and gratitude. At night , too, when I lie in bed and rest in You, oh God, tears of gratitude run down my face, and that is my prayer.
I cannot imagine being happy in a concentration camp, but I can imagine being joyful, being immersed, even there, in a quiet, sure presence of God that holds me secure in all circumstances. I haven’t been in a concentration camp, but I have been in sorrow, in grief, in the pain of betrayal and fear and loss. And I have known, even there, that there is a God who loves, who shares the pain, who is present and loves, loves me, loves you, loves all of us, even when we goof, even when we go astray, even when we feel hopeless. When I couldn’t hope in the hard circumstances of my life, I could still hope in a God who knows me and stays with me through everything. And that, I think, is the first and most foundational base of steady joy, to know that there is a God who surrounds us in love and care at every moment; to know that we are loved, that we belong.
And then, I think, there are four more aspects of life, ways of being, choices we make, that contribute to joy. One is to belong to someone or something beyond ourselves—to God, to a family, to a beloved one, to a church, to a community, to be committed to something beyond ourselves. We seek and want a place to be known and loved, to be accepted, as we are, a place where we can help others to feel accepted as well. Some of us have known that acceptance all of our lives. Some of us have struggled through families and neighborhoods that were cruel and never showed us love. Regardless, we seek a place, a people, who will dare to know and love us. And when we have it, oh, that is a source of joy. And when we can become that place for others, we are creating God’s realm, here on earth.
A second aspect of joy, I believe, is to cultivate a sense of meaning to our lives, a sense generally enhanced by service to others, by kindness, by mercy, by works of love and justice. Reaching out to others makes us more joyful. Picking up litter; tending a garden; feeding the hungry; serving on a neighborhood committee; taking a role of leadership or service in a church, participating in a discipline of praying for others: these are all ways to joy, for they take us outside of preoccupation with ourselves even as they give our lives greater meaning.
Immersing ourselves, however we can, in beauty is another component of joy. We will experience beauty in different ways, one of us prizing a flute solo while another loves percussion; one seeking quiet streams while another longs for mountain heights; but the role of beauty in bringing joy is unmistakable. I believe that the ability to perceive and enjoy beauty is God’s signature, written indelibly on our souls, claiming us for all goodness, excellence and wonder. To cultivate the ability to see beauty, wherever we are, is to make ourselves open to God’s presence, everywhere, to make ourselves open to joy.
Finally, I think gratitude is essential for joy. The very act of expressing gratitude brings blessings back to mind, makes us aware that there is so much to be grateful for, helps us to see beyond whatever difficult part of life is right before us. And to express gratitude to God, as a matter of habit and practice, reminds us, daily, that we are not alone, that God is present in our lives, that we are beloved.
Knowing God’s love. Belonging, service, beauty and gratitude. These are the components of joy; these are the foundation of a life that can be good, fulfilling, joyful, whatever our circumstances. And knowing this, in our hearts, in our lives, can lift us off the treadmill of working for the full barns, laboring for the full bank account, postponing joy until some future time that may never come about.
Today, we celebrate our common feast, our commemoration of the reality that God’s love brings us to one table as one people. This is a radical, a hopeful, a joyful act, a ritual commitment to join ourselves with God’s realm, in spirit and in truth. Let us sing out, then, God’s welcome to all of God’s beloved people, everyone. May we, may we all, be joyful. Amen.
North Portland Pride Festival, Noon-4pm, August 12, 2007
Written by Jeanne Knepper
Thursday, 02 August 2007
NORTH PORTLAND PRIDE FESTIVAL It’s a festival; it’s a picnic; it’s a concert; it’s a neighborhood gathering; it’s a wonderful way to spend a Sunday afternoon. Pride events occur across the nation and around the world each summer, all commemorating the nights in June 1968 when some gay men and drag queens in New York City said “NO!” to routine police harassment and discriminatory laws, refused to be ashamed of themselves, and reclaimed pride in their identity. Our festival is special: it is perhaps the only Pride event that is sponsored by a local church. Sunday August 12, Noon-4pm. Free food, music by Donna Jose, words from Sam Adams, a great gathering, with everybody welcome. It’s our gift to the neighborhood and the community. Reconciling worship at 10am.
CONNECTIONS UPUMC • Unbinding the Gospel, Adult Sunday School meets Summer Sundays, 11:30pm, Errol Stephenson Hall. • Third Annual North Portland Pride Festival, Sunday, August 12, Noon-4pm, UPUMC. • Staff-Parish Relations Committee meets Monday, August 13, 6:30pm, Errol Stephenson Hall. • Administrative Council meets Monday, August 13, 7:30pm, Errol Stephenson Hall. • Finance Committee meets Tuesday, August 14, 7:30pm, Errol Stephenson Hall. • UMW Bake Sale, Sunday, August 19, after church. • Education Committee meets Sunday, August 19, 12:45pm, Errol Stephenson Hall. • Lunch Bunch meets Tuesday, August 21, 12:30pm, Su Casa. • Outreach Committee meets Sunday, August 26, after the potluck, Narthex.
THE LARGER CHURCH • Nature Detectives Camp for our Sunday School Children, August 8-11, Suttle Lake Camp.
THE COMMUNITY • Game Days, First and Third Sundays, 2-5pm, University Park Coffee Shop, today. • Pack school supplies for North Portland children, Wednesday, August 29, 1-6pm, Weir’s Cyclery, 8621 N Lombard.
FUTURE EVENTS, FOR YOUR CALENDAR • UPUMC FUNd-raising Cruise, September 16-23, 2007. Talk to Betty Cruson to sign up. • All-church Charge Conference, Sunday, November 18, 4pm.
WEEKLY AT UPUMC • Choir practices Sundays at 9:30am, Tuesdays at 6:30pm, Sanctuary. • Men’s Group, Tuesdays, 10am, Narthex. • Alcoholics Anonymous, Narthex, Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays at 8pm, weekly. • Overeaters Anonymous, Wednesdays at 7pm. • Morrison Center Program, Thursdays 5-9pm, beginning June 21. STAYING IN TOUCH Edna Riddle, Sunrise Adult Care Center, 11945 SW Butner Rd., Portland OR 97225; 503-841-1295.
Harriet Bonhorst, Pioneer Tower, 515 P Street #202, Sacramento, CA 95814; phone: 1-916-446-4863.
Phil Herbach, Care Center East, 11325 NE Weidler, Portland, OR 97220.
Erica Martinez, 182 E Nevada St. Ashland, OR 97520. Cell phone: 1-503-791-3680.
Jeanne Pulliam, 8603 SE Causey Ave, Apt 202; Happy Valley, OR 97086-2604, Telephone 503-594-2539.
Aleena Sologar, 775 Cascade St. #1316, Oregon City, OR 97045, her son Jonathan’s home. Phone, 503-387-3813.
HOLDING IN PRAYER Carolyn Hammett—living with cancer—at home. Phil Herbach—recovering from hip surgery on 7/17—in rehab.
PLEASE DON’T GO HUNGRY. WE HAVE FOOD IN OUR PANTRY, LOCATED IN THE HALLWAY LEADING TO ERROL STEPHENSON HALL. TAKE WHAT YOU NEED. PENCILS FOR KIDS Do you remember the excitement of getting your new school supplies each fall to start the new school year? Do you know that buying school supplies is a challenge for many of the families of school children in North Portland? There are 4,384 children enrolled in North Portland Public Schools in the Roosevelt cluster, the area UPUMC is in. We are a big part of a neighborhood effort to make sure that every one of those students starts school with the school supplies they need. Our own Lisa Horne is coordinating the collection of school supplies. We have two parts in this grand community adventure. The first is to collect as many pencils as we can. The second is to help pack the school supplies for distribution to the children. Volunteers will gather at Weir’s Cyclery, located at 8621 N Lombard, from 1-6pm on Wednesday, August 29. Last year we gathered 4,564 pencils. As of August 1, we have gathered 2,356 pencils. We have almost another month. How many pencils will we gather this year? Watch for the back to school sales. Bring them to the altar as our gift to God and to the kids of our community. Let’s show ourselves, once again, that we are the church that can, and does. We will collect through Tuesday, August 28 before taking them to Weir’s.
CHANGED E-ADDRESS Claudia Webster, who moved to Hawaii, has a new e-address:
THE NURSERY IS STAFFED DURING WORSHIP FOR CHILDREN YOUNGER THAN SCHOOL AGE.
BIRTHDAYS FUND-RAISER A July birthday fund-raiser brought in gifts of $410. Beginning with the first Sunday in August, we will have a birthday bank to celebrate our own and each other’s birthdays with gifts of pennies, dimes, quarters, dollars or ? to mark the number of years. We will celebrate birthdays in the Narthex right after worship, while people are visiting and getting coffee. Let’s make it fun!
CORRESPONDENCE To My Church Family,
Thank you for the kind words and condolences for the passing of my sister Elmina Jane. She was not only my sister but also my friend. We took care of each other and kept in touch. I miss her very much but I know she is now in god’s loving hands with no pain and He will take care of her.
Love and regards, Aleena
CHILDREN’S TEACHERS Isn’t it wonderful to have so many children at UPUMC? Do you know that Jennifer Herbach started the ball rolling to provide weekly children’s Sunday School during the worship service and taught the classes, mostly by herself, for over a year? Last year, we began to use a new Sunday School curriculum, Live B.I.G.. This program has many wonderful features. It comes in one-month modules, each with its own theme. There are printed teaching materials, pages to copy for the children, a CD of videos and music for each month, and lots of fun activities, all well explained. In addition, there are materials that appeal to children of different ages all in one class. It is a very good program, and very easy for even inexperienced teachers to use.
And that is where we come to you. Last year, these people taught one or more months of Children’s Sunday School: Jennifer Herbach, Deb Moseley, Barbara Herbach, Dana Brandt, Judy Griffen, Bev Read, and Stephen Hicks. Some of them taught in teams of two. Some of them taught more than one month. All of them gave something wonderful to our children, a sense that they are important and loved here. Now it is time to sign up for the next year. We have the materials already on hand, so you will have as much time as you would like to prepare. Do you wonder if you can do it? Talk to one of the ones who have. Do you think maybe you are too new at this church business? Sign up for a month later in the year and talk to others who are teaching—some of them were newcomers just a year ago.
It is one of our great privileges, as a community of faith, to witness to our children, by our love and presence and service, that they are all most wonderfully beloved children of God and dear members of our family of faith. And never doubt it—60 years from now there will be adults in the world who still remember, fondly and with much gratitude, that YOU were their Sunday School teacher who taught them lessons that have stayed with them for their whole lives. What a legacy! Do dare to say “Yes!” and sign up.
NORTH PORTLAND PRIDE FESTIVAL It’s a festival; it’s a picnic; it’s a concert; it’s a neighborhood gathering; it’s a wonderful way to spend a Sunday afternoon. Pride events occur across the nation and around the world each summer, all commemorating the nights in June 1968 when some gay men and drag queens in New York City said “NO!” to routine police harassment and discriminatory laws, refused to be ashamed of themselves, and reclaimed pride in their identity. Our festival is special: it is perhaps the only Pride event that is sponsored by a local church. Sunday August 12, Noon-4pm. Free food, music by Donna Jose, words from Sam Adams, a great gathering, with everybody welcome. It’s our gift to the neighborhood and the community. Reconciling worship at 10am.
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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