CONNECTIONS
UPUMC
• Education Committee meets with lunch, Sunday, February 5, 12:30pm, Errol Stephenson Hall.
• UMW meets Wednesday, February 8, 10am, Errol Stephenson Hall.
• Wednesday Dinner and Movie will continue on February 8 at 6:30 for dinner and 7pm for the next episode of Joan of Arcadia.
• Worship Committee meets Sunday, February 12, 11:30am, Choir area of Sanctuary.
• Staff-Parish Relations Committee meets Monday, February 13, 6:30pm, Errol Stephenson Hall.
• Administrative Council meets Monday, February 13, 7:30pm, Errol Stephenson Hall.
• Outreach Committee meets Tuesday, February 14, 7pm, Errol Stephenson Hall.
• Liturgist Training, Sunday, February 19, 11:30am, Chancel area.

THE COMMUNITY
• Portsmouth Neighborhood Association [formerly TCAP] Forum, 7pm, Tuesday, February 7, Columbia Cottage.

THE LARGER CHURCH
• A Cajun Feast and Music Fund-raiser for Our House and UMCOR, Saturday, February 11, 6pm, Mt Tabor UMC 6161 SE Stark, $15, reservations only, 503-232-8500.
• Methodist Federation for Social Action Spring Event, featuring Rev. Dr. Bob Edgar, General Secretary of the National Council of Churches, Saturday, March 4, 9am, Portland First UMC, $25 includes lunch.

FUTURE EVENTS, FOR YOUR CALENDAR
• Lunch Bunch meets at Nicola’s Restaurant, Tuesday, February 21, 12:30pm.
• Mardi Gras Sanctuary Spring Cleaning and Pancake Feast, Sunday, February 26. Come dressed to work together.
• All Is Ready—Join the Party! A weekend retreat for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender people, their families, and allies at Suttle Lake Camp in Sisters, Oregon, Friday-Sunday, March 17-19. Co-sponsored by Oregon-Idaho Camp and Retreat Ministries and Reconciling United Methodists of Oregon.

WEEKLY AT UPUMC
• Choir practices Sundays at 9:30am, Tuesdays at 6:30pm, Sanctuary.
• Morrison Child and Family Center program, Mondays, 4-6pm.
• Men’s Group, Tuesdays, 10am, Narthex.
• Alcoholics Anonymous, Narthex, Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays at 8pm, weekly.
• Supper and Movie, Joan of Arcadia episodes, Wednesdays, 6:30pm, weekly.
• Overeaters Anonymous, Wednesdays at 7pm, Saturdays at 3pm.
THE NURSERY IS STAFFED DURING WORSHIP FOR CHILDREN YOUNGER THAN SCHOOL AGE. SCHOOL AGE CHILDREN ARE INVITED INTO THE SANCTUARY UNTIL THE ‘PASSING OF THE PEACE’; THEN THEY GO TO SUNDAY SCHOOL.

LITURGIST TRAINING
Liturgists are the people who help to lead worship each Sunday, leading prayers and reading scripture from the left side podium. People who wish to share in worship leadership sign up for each Sunday. If you’ve thought you might like to do this, or if you’ve wondered if you could do it, please plan to attend a liturgist training class on Sunday, February 19 in the sanctuary at 11:30am. We’d love to expand the pool of people who feel confident to be liturgists!

PLEASE DON’T GO HUNGRY. WE HAVE FOOD IN OUR PANTRY, LOCATED IN THE HALLWAY LEADING TO ERROL STEPHENSON HALL, TAKE WHAT YOU NEED.

STANDING AGAINST WAR
In November 2005, bishops of The United Methodist Church signed a “Call To Repentance and Peace with Justice.� The General Board of Church and Society is now asking United Methodists to sign onto the statement:
As followers of Jesus Christ, who named peacemakers as blessed children of God, we call upon The United Methodist Church to join us in repentance and renewed commitment to Christ's reign of compassion, justice, reconciliation, and peace.
As elected and consecrated bishops of the church, we repent of our complicity in what we believe to be the unjust and immoral invasion and occupation of Iraq. In the face of the United States Administration's rush toward military action based on misleading information, too many of us were silent.
We confess our preoccupation with institutional enhancement and limited agendas while American men and women are sent to Iraq to kill and be killed, while thousands of Iraqi people needlessly suffer and die, while poverty increases and preventable diseases go untreated.
Although we value the sacrifices of the men and women who serve in the military, we confess our betrayal of the scriptural and prophetic authority to warn the nations that true security lies not in weapons of war, but in enabling the poor, the vulnerable, the marginalized to flourish as beloved daughters and sons of God.
We confess our failure to make disciples of Jesus Christ and to be a people who welcome and love all those for whom Christ died.
Aware that we are to bring forth fruit worthy of repentance, we personally and as bishops commit ourselves to:
• Pray daily for the end of war in general and the Iraq war specifically; for those who suffer as the result of war, including the soldiers and their families; the Iraqi people in their struggle to find a workable form of government; and for the leaders of the United States that they will turn to truth, humility, and policies of peace through justice.
• Reclaim the prophetic authority that calls nations, individuals, and communities to live faithfully in the light of God's new creation where all people know their identity as beloved children of God; where justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like an ever flowing stream; and where barriers are removed and all creation is healed, reconciled, and renewed.
• Commit ourselves to peacemaking as an integral component of our own Christian discipleship, which means advocating and actively working for the things that make for peace: personal, institutional, and governmental priorities that protect the poor and most vulnerable; modeling an end to prejudice toward people of other faiths and cultures; confronting differences and conflicts with grace, humility, dialogue, and respect without being so cautious in confronting evil that we lose our moral authority.
We call upon all United Methodists to join in the pursuit of peace through justice as revealed in Holy Scripture and incarnate in Jesus Christ.
• Let us move beyond caution rooted in self protection and recover moral authority anchored in commitment to Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace.
• Let us object with boldness when governing powers offer solutions of war that conflict with the gospel message of self-emptying love.
• Let us with compassion share the pain of God's children who suffer from the devastation of war and those who live in poverty resulting from misplaced priorities and misguided public policies.
• Let us work toward unity in a world of diversity, that all peoples will come to know that we belong to one another, and that "in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself . and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us" (2 Corinthians 5:19).
WOULD YOU SIGN ON? Click here, at the web site, www.upumc.net, UP-words for Feb 5, 2006.

MARDI GRAS SUNDAY
In “olden� days, people cleaned their homes of all fat and rich foods before the season of Lent, which always begins on Ash Wednesday. That is the origin of Mardi Gras, literally “Fat Tuesday,� with all its meanings of feasting and celebrating, including a traditional pancake meal. Ash Wednesday falls on March 1. On Sunday, February 26, we will celebrate our own Mardi Gras with a worship service of some humor and celebration, a time to make the sanctuary extra-clean before Lent and an extravagant pancake celebration after the cleaning. Come to church in clothes you would wear to help with the cleaning; stay for the feasting to follow. And think about the kinds of pancakes or toppings or side dishes you might like to suggest or contribute. We’ll need a few people with electric frying pans or griddles to volunteer them for the day.

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