CONNECTIONS
UPUMC
• 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.
• Wednesday Dinner and Movie, February 15 at 6:30 for dinner and 7pm movie.
• Liturgist Training, Sunday, February 19, 11:30am, Chancel area.
• 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.

THE COMMUNITY
• Friends of Rain Inaugural Concert at the Smithy, Lewis and Clark College, Smith Hall, Saturday, February 18, 7:30pm, $15 donation requested. Stephanie Thompson is a part of Friends of Rain.
• A Prayer Service for Peace in Iraq: A Service of Lamentation and Hope,� will include reflections, music and dance from diverse faith traditions. Sunday, Feb. 19 at 4 p.m. at Christ UMC, 12755 NW Dogwood, Portland. NOTE: This is a new address for the service.

THE LARGER CHURCH
• 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
• Ash Wednesday Service, Wednesday, March 1, 7:30pm.
• 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.
• Annual Meeting, Community of Welcoming Congregations, Sunday, March 26, 3-5pm, Morningside UMC, Salem OR.

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.
• 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
If you’ve thought you might like to be a liturgist, 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.

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.


GIFTS FROM HARRIET
Harriet Bonhorst, long-time member of UPUMC, is now living in Sacramento, CA. A neighbor is preparing her house for sale. Harriet could not take everything with her and hope that friends and members of UPUMC will feel welcome to visit her home today, February 12, between 1 and 4 pm to take what she left behind as a gift. There are many kitchen items, books, cook books, some tools, craft supplies, a dining table and chairs, a few other items of furniture. Jeanne has taken a crock pot, waffle iron, mixer, and some large bowls for the church. The address is 4506 N Amherst.

STEPHANIE IN CONCERT
When she isn’t our outstanding UPUMC pianist, Stephanie Thompson teaches piano at Lewis and Clark College. She is a member of the newly formed Lewis and Clark faculty contemporary ensemble, Friends of Rain. On Saturday, February 18, Friends of Rain will perform their first concert in Smith Hall on the Lewis and Clark campus. the concert is at 7:30pm, with a pre-concert presentation at 6:45pm. Suggested donation of $15 at the door.


STAYING IN TOUCH, NEW ADDRESSES
Edna Riddle, Sunrise Adult Care Center, 11945 SW Butner Rd., Portland OR 97225; 503-520-1278
Harriet Bonhorst, Pioneer Tower, 515 P Street #202, Sacramento, CA 95814; cell phone: 503-330-6915
Eddie Bush, 826 N Shepherd, Washougal, WA 98671; 1-360-835-9005.
Jo Ann Piehl, 6506 NE Forest Lane, Hillsboro OR 97124; home phone: 503-844-6737; cell phone 503-319-7610.

AN OPEN LETTER CONCERNING RELIGION AND SCIENCE
Jeanne and Marcia are among the 10,000 plus clergy who have signed the following letter.
Within the community of Christian believers there are areas of dispute and disagreement, including the proper way to interpret Holy Scripture. While virtually all Christians take the Bible seriously and hold it to be authoritative in matters of faith and practice, the overwhelming majority do not read the Bible literally, as they would a science textbook. Many of the beloved stories found in the Bible – the Creation, Adam and Eve, Noah and the ark – convey timeless truths about God, human beings, and the proper relationship between Creator and creation expressed in the only form capable of transmitting these truths from generation to generation. Religious truth is of a different order from scientific truth. Its purpose is not to convey scientific information but to transform hearts.
We the undersigned, Christian clergy from many different traditions, believe that the timeless truths of the Bible and the discoveries of modern science may comfortably coexist. We believe that the theory of evolution is a foundational scientific truth, one that has stood up to rigorous scrutiny and upon which much of human knowledge and achievement rests. To reject this truth or to treat it as “one theory among others� is to deliberately embrace scientific ignorance and transmit such ignorance to our children. We believe that among God’s good gifts are human minds capable of critical thought and that the failure to fully employ this gift is a rejection of the will of our Creator. To argue that God’s loving plan of salvation for humanity precludes the full employment of the God-given faculty of reason is to attempt to limit God, an act of hubris. We urge school board members to preserve the integrity of the science curriculum by affirming the teaching of the theory of evolution as a core component of human knowledge. We ask that science remain science and that religion remain religion, two very different, but complementary, forms of truth.

A FINAL THOUGHT
"It's sad when we must rely on a compassionate rock star, Bono, or a generous computer geek, Bill Gates, for moral vision on poverty -- instead of on our president. . . . Mr. Bush would do wonders for his legacy -- and, above all,
wonders for the poor -- if he'd summon the moral vision to launch a high-profile Global War on Poverty. That is one American-backed war that nearly all the world would thunderously applaud."
-Columnist Nicholas Kristof, New York Times, Jan. 10, 2006

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