CONNECTIONS
UPUMC
• No choir practice July 18.
• UMW bake sale, Sunday, July 16, after church.
• Lunch Bunch meets at Thai Ginger, Tuesday, July 18, 12:30pm. Bev Read is taking reservations.
• Trustees meet, Thursday, July 20, 6:30pm, Errol Stephenson Hall.

THE LARGER CHURCH
• Alton L Collins fundraising BBQ and Old Time Fiddlers, Sunday, July 16, 4pm. Reservations, 503-637-6411.
• United Methodist Women School of Missions, “Harvesting Peace.� July 27-30 in Nampa ID.

THE COMMUNITY
• Readiness Fair, Saturday, August 26, Roosevelt High School.

FUTURE EVENTS, FOR YOUR CALENDAR
• Second Annual North Portland Pride Festival, Sunday, August 13, Noon-4pm, UPUMC.
• Children’s Sunday School goes to Camp, Wednesday-Saturday, August 16-19, Suttle Lake Camp.
• UPUMC Yard Sale and BBQ, Saturday, September 2, 10am-4pm.
• Linnea Good Concert, Saturday, September 9, Tigard UMC, 7:30pm.
• Third Annual All-Church Retreat at Camp Magruder on the Oregon Coast, Friday-Sunday, September 15-17, 2006.
• Interfaith Transgender Conference, October 21-22, 2006 at Corvallis First United Methodist Church.

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, Saturdays at 3pm.
• Morrison Center Program, Wednesdays at 4:30pm, Thursdays at 3:30pm.
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.

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; cell phone: 503-330-6915.

Elmina Nath, 5525 NE 15th, Portland, OR 97213, phone: 503-285-1973.

Erica Martinez, 176 S Mountain Ave Apt A,
Ashland, OR 97520. Cell phone: 1-503-791-3680.

Jeanne Pulliam, 8603 SE Causey Ave., Apt 202; Happy Valley, OR 97086-2604.

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

OUR ATTENDANCE IS GROWING!
Attendance, July 9: 41
Attendance, July average: 40
Attendance, 2006 year average to date: 42
Attendance, 2005 year average: 37
OUR BUDGET, IN BRIEF
Budget, 2006, total: $ 112,469.00
Needed monthly, all sources: $ 9,373.00
Received July to date $ 6,266.00
Needed through July $ 65,607.00
Received 2006, to date: $ 59,609.00
Annual shortfall, to date: $ 5,998.00

VOLUNTEER WANTED, OFFICE, WEEKLY
Some people are part of our community but can’t come to church on a regular basis. Still, we don’t want them to be or feel forgotten. Now that we have a work space for volunteers in the pastor’s office, we’d like a volunteer to send UP-words, bulletins and short notes to those who can’t be here. If you volunteer for this position, you will find a mailing list, copies of the bulletin, sermon and UP-words, and notes to send along as well on the volunteer desk in a big envelope marked “Weekly Mailings.� You can come in at your leisure, prepare the materials for mailing, stamp them, and mail them. And if you do, sweet friends of ours will know that we still care about them. See Jeanne if you want to be the mail person.

20,000 PENCILS
20,000 pencils—that’s how many the Caring Community of North Portland plans to give to North Portland school children at the North Portland Readiness Fair, to be held at Roosevelt High School on Saturday, August 26. Every year, the Caring Community invites all North Portland school children to attend the event, where they receive packets with all the school supplies they need to begin their grade at school. This outreach is a tremendous blessing, because over 70% of the children of North Portland live in low-income households, for whom it is a difficulty to equip children for the beginning of school. Last year UPUMC gathered 10% of all the pencils given out, over 1800 in all. This year, we want to increase our gift to at least 2000 pencils—but wouldn’t it be a great bold witness to imagine we could come up with a quarter, or half, or even all of the pencils needed? Let’s challenge ourselves and tell our friends to take advantage of back to school sales. We’ll collect new # 2 pencils until Sunday, August 20, piled up under the altar as a sign that we accept our God-given responsibility to care for all the children of our community.

A CHURCH YARD SALE AND BBQ
Mark your calendar and start cleaning out the garage, basement, guest room or storage room. On Saturday September 2, UPUMC will hold a combination yard sale and BBQ, offering good quality used goods for sale along with pulled pork sandwiches, beverages and all the fixings. It will take three ingredients to make this a stunning fund-raiser: lots of clean, usable good stuff to sell; volunteers to prepare, sell, serve and clean up; and good publicity to bring out lots of people from the community. Together, let’s plan a stunningly wonderful community-building and fund-raising event. Sign up today, with promises to bring goods, cook, serve, set-up, sell, and/or clean up afterwards.

One more thing: we rent space in Errol Stephenson Hall twice each week, on Wednesdays and Thursdays. Therefore, plan to bring your clean items for sale on Friday, September 1. We will plan to have people here all day to receive and set up for the Saturday sale.

OREGON-IDAHO SUPPORT APPLAUDED
Reconciling United Methodists who attended the gathering of the Oregon-Idaho Annual Conference in Nampa, Idaho, signed a rainbow stole as a gift for Bishop Charlene Kammerer of the Virginia AC, the bishop who tried to insist that a pastor under her jurisdiction could not discriminate by denying a gay man membership in the church he served. Although the Judicial Council overturned her rulings, supporters hope to write welcome into the Discipline at the next General Conference. Bishop Kammerer responded to the gift of the stole with the following letter.

July 8, 2006

Dear Deborah,
When I returned from time away following your/our Annual Conferences, your package was waiting for me. I was stunned, and felt overwhelmed by God's grace, being poured upon me, by all of you OR-ID RUMs. Seeing the stole, the bright rainbow of hope and all the signatures was uplifting for my soul.

I can't thank you enough for wrapping me with hope and empowerment during what remains to be an exceedingly difficult/challenging ministry in the Va. Conference. The layers of woundedness are so deep. It is a long time to wait and act toward General Conference where these grievous injustices will be addressed.

Seeing Bob Hoshibata's and Cal McConnell's signatures on the stole gave me great strength as well.

Thank you for your ongoing witness to the love of God in Christ, from which NO ONE is excluded.

Grace and peace,
Charlene Kammerer

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