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Monday, April 11, 2016
Sunday, April 10, 2016
English Ministry News and Notes 2016-4-10
- We Welcome Deacon Mike Friedrich – Deacon Mike is a 3rd career Deacon, called to ordained ministry after careers in entertainment and union organizing. He graduated from PSR in 2013 and is on track to be ordained this coming June. He is appointed to the Bridges District as an Emerging Ministries Specialist, working primarily on the community micro-loan ministry called “Jubilee Initiative,” working with dozens of congregations in imagining their future through “Resurrection Conversations,” and is active in “Friends of Wadi Foquin,” a beleaguered village in Palestine. He lives in Berkeley with his partner Lee Marrs and 3 cats.
- The New Series is Off! Great thanks to Pastor Moon and Leon for leading us in tackling the book of Acts. Come join the learning and growing.
- Please Note: Pastor Emily and family will be on vacation starting Mar. 30th - Apr. 16th. For pastoral emergencies and needs, please connect with Pastor Meina. Additionally, Theresa is out of the church office until Apr. 5th.
- Shepherding Ministry Sunday - We will celebrate the ministry of care and connection next Sunday, Apr. 17th. Our faithful shepherds - Brenda, Donna, Ed, and Jane - will share in worship. Following worship, please plan to stay for a special fellowship lunch and a time of community building.
- The Kumi Benefit Ride is rolling along, and needs your support. Check the bulletin board in the social hall for ways you can help, and encourage your friends to donate online at www.ycvm.org. Help us "Brake the Cycle of Poverty" as we raise $30,000 for Kumi Christian Visionary School in Uganda. For details, see Burt, Ben, or Becky. We will be needing volunteers to transport riders and bikes back to Vallejo from Livermore at 4:30pm.
Keeping the Spirit of Easter Alive
Keeping
the spirit of Easter alive during Eastertide can be a challenge. Lent is only
40 days long, but Easter is 50! Somehow we don't seem to have a problem with
keeping the Lenten spirit of penitence and solemnity for 40 days. But 50 days
of joy and gladness and merriment? Maybe for a week or two...or possibly three.
But seven weeks of Easter joy? Hmmm...That can be difficult.
So, I was looking for suggestions on how to keep the spirit of Easter going and found a few that are listed below. These suggestions are easy and do-able. I hope these help:
So, I was looking for suggestions on how to keep the spirit of Easter going and found a few that are listed below. These suggestions are easy and do-able. I hope these help:
I have
seen Advent candles around, and so I don't see why we can't have an Easter
Candle in our homes. It can be a simple candle, but reasonably large enough to
last 50 days (it doesn't have to be as big as your Church's Paschal Candle
now). Set in a nice holder. Light it when reading, or meditating, or praying.
Or, set it in your home dining table and light it every Sunday at family meals.
Be on the
lookout for hidden blessings in unexpected places as you go about your day at
work or at home, with friends or co-workers. An Easter "egghunt"
shouldn't just be for eggs, but for moments of blessings and grace throughout the
day.
Know a
nice, catchy, upbeat tune? Let that be the "background" music in your
head as you work, or drive, or run errands, or go shopping. If it's a favorite
song or hymn of yours, the better: Go right ahead and "play" it.
Notice
the "good news" out there. The papers and TV news are full of dreary,
sad newsbits. But search for news items that catch your attention and which
raise your spirits: stories that affirm your belief in the nobility of every
person and of the hidden hand of God.
Remember
the times in your life when you had to overcome adversity and trials and worry.
Remember how you overcame those. Easter is all about overcoming death and
defeat. Cut blooms from your garden to enjoy in a vase indoors.
Or....
Bring new life into the world. Go to your backyard or front yard and plant
something. If you live in an apartment with no yard of your own, buy a potted plant
and take good care of it.
Find a
creek or river and enjoy the moving water. During a rainstorm, make the house
quiet, sit, and listen to the rain. Recognize Christ on your daily journey of
faith, the way the disciples encountered the resurrected Jesus on the road to
Emmaus. This encounter changed the disciples! Allow Christ to change you by
taking the time to listen, being present and "breaking bread" with
those on your journey.
Sunday, April 3, 2016
English Ministry News and Notes 2016-4-3
*Next Sunday, we welcome Deacon Mike Friedrich to CCUMC. Deacon Mike is a member of our circuit and works closely with DS Schuyler. He will invite us to consider Jesus’ leadership.
*The New Series is Off! Great thanks to Pastor Moon and Leon for leading us in tackling the book of Acts. Come join the learning and growing.
*Blessing Aeri – Please hold Aeri in your prayers as she travels to Uganda this Wednesday. She will teach at Reformed Theological College (RTC) for the next month, concluding her time there with a visit to Kumi and KCVS.
*Please Note: Pastor Emily and family will be on vacation starting Mar. 30th - Apr. 16th. For pastoral emergencies and needs, please connect with Pastor Meina. Additionally, Theresa is out of the church office until Apr. 5th.
*Shepherding Ministry Sunday - We will celebrate the ministry of care and connection on Sunday, Apr. 17th. Our faithful shepherds - Brenda, Donna, Ed, and Jane - will share in worship. Following worship, please plan to stay for a special fellowship lunch and a time of community building.
*The Kumi Benefit Ride is rolling along, and needs your support. Check the bulletin board in the social hall for ways you can help, and encourage your friends to donate online at www.ycvm.org.
Help us "Brake the Cycle of Poverty" as we raise $30,000 for Kumi Christian Visionary School in Uganda. For details, see Burt, Ben, or Becky. We will be needing volunteers to transport riders and bikes back to Vallejo from Livermore at 4:30pm.
We hope to ramp up the use of the crowdfunding site. Let people know we are at the $8,000+ mark, and encourage sharing on Facebook and other social media. Churches that are participating along the route are: Wayside UMC, EastBay Formosan UMC, Grace UMC, Lynnewood UMC and Asbury UMC. If people want to come cheer on the riders at the lunch site (San Ramon) or the closing celebration at 3:30-4:30 in Livermore, they are most welcome!
The Abundance of the Great 50 Days
As the Lenten fast ends, we can either applaud or chastise ourselves on how well we did with whatever we took on or gave up. Many of us have been trained to give Lent a lot of attention. For centuries the Christian family has been drawn into the via negativa dimension of Lent – engaging in the classic disciplines of prayer, fasting and self-denial.
That is all turned around at Easter. With the Resurrection, we enter into the season of via positiva. And strangely, we tend to drop whatever sort of discipline we put together for Lent and simply live into Easter. Many are exhausted from their Lenten project and are unwilling to take on anything more. Still others tend to think that the power of the Easter message obviates the need for intention or discipline.
Easter is pure gift, but it takes some discipline to live into that gift. First we need to receive the gift, which requires more than restoring some Alleluias into our lives, celebrating the return of baseball and basking in the blossoms of Spring. We are given fifty days – which, tellingly, is longer than Lent – to allow the Easter gift to be absorbed into the depth of our souls. Absorbed deeply enough so we can get beyond merely proclaiming the words of Easter to be more completely transformed by the new life that Easter brings.
The holy habits provide the foundational discipline for us to fully receive the abundance of the Easter blessing. The holy habits involve worship, prayer, study, and giving of self and treasure. Engaging the holy habits provides an Easter spiritual practice of via positiva – a practice which requires its own discipline challenging us to become bearers of God’s abundance.
We have a lot of work to do; life-giving and transforming work.
--The Rt. Rev. Mark Beckwith is Bishop of the Diocese of Newark.
Monday, March 28, 2016
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