Ktizo UCC joined the St Mary’s Food Bank Truck Giveaway in its Saturday distribution last Saturday!
“We've been doing st Mary's food distribution about 5 years now. During the Covid crisis, we've had assistance from the National Guard in the distribution. We've also had help from LDS Missionaries, parents and their children. It seems once people experience the fast pace and respectful distribution, they want to come back every time! We set up tables with foods bagged for two people. As there are more in the family, they are given more provisions accordingly. It is set up as a drive thru. No one has to get oût of their car. We load foods into their trunk or back seat and they drive out. During March , June, October, and Nov 2020 we served 315 households. During summer months (June-sept) there us no food distribution, that's when we convert to a cooling station.”
At First Church UCC, members and friends donated to a scholarship fund, first set up in 2008 to help member Danny Rodriguez raise money for law school, and were successful in helping him cover out-of-state tuition for his last two years of school. He went back to law school in 2012 and graduated in 2014. In the years since, First Church has used the scholarship fund to pay for DACA application and renewal fees, and paid out-of-state tuition for Dreamers attending Phoenix Union high schools who were taking dual credit classes at our community colleges. A 3-credit class for students paying in-state tuition is $300; for out of state, it’s closer to $1000. Immigration Clinics are held twice a month at First Church. Support DACA application fees and renewals by using the Givelify app or write a check to First Church designated for the immigration clinics.
The last “Re-wilding” planting effort at Rincon UCC, with friends from Congregation M’kor Hayim, is bearing beautiful fruit, along with previous plantings! The prickly pear on the north end is flowering. The little palo verde and mesquite trees are taking root. A new little prickly pear has grown new pads. A cholla plant is settling in. Several penstemons showed off pink flowers. Agave plants of various types and sizes are looking happy. The cat’s claw acacia tree we planted in December has flowers that are attracting bees. This little patch of this beautiful desert is re-livening with a bit of our TLC!.
In response to rising temperatures and the needs of the most vulnerable in our community, Arizona Faith Network has launched an initiative to help establish cooling centers and hydration stations throughout the valley. In partnership with Arizona State University, Maricopa Association of Governments, the Salvation Army, and our faith-based organizations AFN's goal is to establish 10 new cooling centers throughout Maricopa County. These cooling centers will be strategically placed in areas with heat vulnerable residents as determined in partnership with Arizona State University and the Heat Relief Network. The coalition is working hard to provide resources, volunteer, and administrative support to help communities become faith-based cooling center locations. This is an excellent way to serve your neighbors as temperatures rise throughout this summer.
Vaccine Gratitude! Shadow Rock UCC had a grand total of 6 vaccine events and distributed over 600 doses of Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine. This is faith-in-action (or maybe faith IN ARMS). Volunteers made this possible - giving over 300 hours of work in April and May. Injectors, greeters, parking lot managers, and the clean-up crew... we are all so grateful. And a well-deserved tip of our hats to Dr. Patricia StandTal-Clarke for her leadership and expertise.
Congregational Church of the Valley is pleased to announce that MBL & Co. will be offering its 21st season of summer musical theatre camps at the CCOV campus. Please see the flyer for details and pass it along to anyone whom you think might be interested in the camps, which are designed for kids from age 6 on up. Help us spread the word!
Click Here for More Information
Pastor Derrick, at Desert Heritage, is currently a doctoral candidate enrolled at Wesley Theological Seminary, Washington, DC. This semester the course he is taking is called The Chaplain's Role in Healing Moral Injury, examining the causes and consequences of moral injury in service members. What Is Moral Injury?
In traumatic or unusually stressful circumstances, people may perpetrate, fail to prevent, or witness events that contradict deeply held moral beliefs and expectations (1) When someone does something that goes against their beliefs this is often referred to as an act of commission, and when they fail to do something in line with their beliefs, that is often referred to as an act of omission. Individuals may also experience betrayal from leadership, others in positions of power or peers that can result in adverse outcomes (2) Moral injury is the distressing psychological, behavioral, social, and sometimes spiritual aftermath of exposure to such events (3) A moral injury can occur in response to acting or witnessing behaviors that go against an individual's values and moral beliefs. (Seems pretty timely, right?)
The W.I.S.E. Committee of Desert Palm UCC will be discussing Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-First Century (Alice Wong ed.). They will be focusing on four favorite chapters: "I'm Tired of Chasing a Cure," "Falling/Burning: Hannah Gadsby: Nanette, and Being a Bipolar Creator," "Six Ways of Looking at Crip Time," and "How a Blind Astronomer Found a Way to Hear the Stars." The book is available in paperback through Changing Hands Bookstore. ( The chapter titles alone make me want to get the book!)