Churches celebrating birthdays this year are getting creative!
-In celebration of their 40th Birthday, United Church of Santa Fe is planning to create a video of United choirs! They may even incorporate former singers and people who no longer live in the area but have strong ties to the church.
-The fundraising team at First Congregational UCC in Albuquerque is beginning to plan an online auction and the congregational life team is working on a creative online dinner option to celebrate their 140th Anniversary in October.
A pandemic is not going to stop Church of the Palm's commitment to supply needy teens with school supplies! The HART Pantry’s back-to-school drive to collect backpacks and school supplies for at-risk teens is off and running. On July 19 from 8-10 AM, the church will have a drive-by and drop-off donation event in the church parking lot.
The United Church of Christ invites you to an on demand showing of a new film on the life and work of congressman and civil rights activist John Lewis. Buy a $12 ticket HERE and $5 goes to support UCC justice ministries. Learn more about the film at johnlewisgoodtrouble.com.
When it feels as if the world’s falling apart, God’s people are still doing the work of the church, reaching out and making connections to share God’s grace through fellowship. The Desert Palm UCC Connections Task Force has been working to identify and establish ways for folks to feel in communion with each other by creating a phone buddy system for members who have expressed interest. This program allows church members to receive routine calls from a fellow member and, if so inclined, to make a call to another member.
Beloved longtime member and of, and first organist for Church of the Beatitudes, Ruth Elliot, turned 101 years old on July 6! She is an active lady who for the past 25 years or so, has directed a twenty-piece dance band, and is still doing so today. For a number of years her band practiced at the church, and they also played on Beatitudes Campus for major events such as New Year's Eve. Pastor Tony and the staff of Beatitudes Church wish Ruth the happiest of birthdays!
I especially enjoyed this reflection by Pastor Jocelyn Emerson from St Paul's UCC in Rio Rancho, NM this week. I will edit slightly to shorten. –Holly
"Our small groups have been reading The Book of Joy, a conversation between Archbishop Desmond Tutu and the Dalai Lama....Over and over again, both of these spiritual leaders remind us that Compassion is key to Joy....Compassion, using we, us, our, reminds us of our interconnectedness....We are not alone in anything. There is always another human being experiencing something similar . . . sharing our pain . . . somewhere on Earth.
I have been sitting and contemplating this as I pay attention to the divisiveness of this country. Division concerning masks...Division concerning racial justice and racism. Division concerning immigration. This county has been deeply divided and ...that division has increased....We now have the opportunity to address it, this divisive nature of our country. When we are focused so much on me, I, myself—my freedoms, my rights, my money, my business, me, me, me—we lose our interconnectedness. In a way, we lose our humanity. We lose our joy. When I think about masks, whether to wear them or not to wear them, I think about Compassion. What is the most compassionate thing I can do right now? I follow that thought. For example, if my wearing a mask to the grocery store allows an elderly person who is concerned about safety to go grocery shopping and interact with other people, is it not the compassionate thing to do to wear a mask? I think, What if this is the only time this elderly person has human interactions because he/she lives alone? What if going to the grocery store helps that elderly person feel independent? So, I choose compassion. I put my mask on and grocery shop...
Thinking about the “we, us, our” is so important in healing divisions, in creating justice. It is Compassion that creates change. As the clergy speak from our hearts and as we offer and share compassion with the Police Chief and Mayor, we pray that their hearts will crack open; that they will begin to hear at a deeper level what we are saying, what we are inviting them to. We are asking them to see the struggle of people of color ...and to do the work to uncover and end the institutional racism that sits just below the surface, hurting all of us. Compassion is about the “we, us, our.” None of us have true authentic freedom and justice until all of us do.....Compassion invites us to open ourselves to and share the hurts and pains of this world, as we work toward healing.
I invite you to ask yourself, What would the Compassionate Jesus invite me to do right now? I know it is a trite phrase, but so important for us to reflect upon as we seek to live in this divisive time. The question is not What would Jesus do? The question is, What would the Compassionate heart of Jesus invite us to do right now? What is the Compassionate response? ...I invite you to notice how living from the Compassionate Heart of Jesus shifts your inner self, shifts your experience of this Covid-19 time, calls you to the work of justice."