A Liberal Church, Welcoming of All, Passionately Committed to Social Justice

 

The Pilgrim - October 11, 2009

Sunday Celebration Notes from Jerry Stinson
Celebrating God’s Love Every Sunday at 10 am.

This Sunday David Cavanaugh will be our liturgist, Pam Chapin will offer the first of this year’s Stewardship Moments, and our new soprano soloist, Megan O’Toole, will provide special music.

Each year, I try to have two guest preachers from other religious traditions, one in the spring and one in the fall. Because the speaker coming in the spring had a family emergency and had to reschedule, we ended up with both interfaith guests scheduled with only two weeks between them.

This week’s guest preacher will be Cantor Steven Puzarne, a prominent Los Angeles leader in progressive Judaism. Jewish cantors are theologically trained musicians who are also ordained clergy. They work together with synagogue rabbis to lead and educate members of a congregation. The primary role of the cantor, also called a chazzan, is to lead a congregation in songful prayer. They also prepare children for their bar and bat mitzvah ceremonies and teach adult education classes.

Cantor Steven Puzarne is founder of Vision of Wholeness, providing the healing benefits of spirituality, recreation, travel and personal mentoring to children with autism and other developmental challenges. A graduate of Hebrew Union College, Cantor Puzarne has helped synagogues nationwide create musical ensembles and with equal creativity has helped special needs children become Bar and Bat Mitzvah. As co-creator of Vista del Mar's special bar mitzvah program, he designed curricular and worship materials, personally mentored each student, and explored new ways to translate the nurturing elements of ancient ritual into real life benefits. Vision of Wholeness builds on and expands this process to reach children of all backgrounds and abilities.

Cantor Puzarne recently taught at a summer camp in the ancient city of Nazareth. While there he helped design a two-day Nazareth Sojourn, which promises a deepened religious experience for travelers and economic benefits to local residents! As the founder of the Pilgrimage of Peace program, three years ago Cantor Puzane led an interfaith delegation to Israel and Palestine in which Alima Sherman and I participated.

Cantor Puzarne is also the founder of Breeyah, a non-profit organization that is revitalizing Jewish life by promoting vibrant music, deep spirituality, and social and environmental justice. In addition he is very active in the justice-seeking efforts of Israel’s Rabbis for Human Rights and the Interfaith Coalition for Justice and Peace in Los Angeles.

 

Music on Sunday

The choir will sing “Bashana Haba’ah” by Nurit Hirsch and Ehud Manor and arranged by John Leavitt. We will sing in Hebrew the following lyrics: “Next year, when peace will come, we shall return to the simple pleasures of life so long denied us. You will see, you will see, O how good it will be, next year!” I heard this performed at the Western Division ACDA Convention in Salt Lake City in 2006. The director told us that this song was often sung by those who were imprisoned in the death camps of Poland and Germany during World War II. How empowering to have such hope in the face of such devastation. In addition to the piano, we will Linda Kellogg on violin and Kathryn Boyd-Batstone on clarinet. The solo for Sunday will be sung by our new soloist, Megan O’Toole. See you in church.

- Dr. Leland, Vail, Minister of Music

 

In Sunday School

Theme: What Must I Do?
Scripture Focus: Mark 10:17-31

 

In Adult Education
Sundays at 8:30 am in the Klar Rooms, upstairs in Pilgrim Hall

We will continue our discussion of “First Light,” a DVD-based series featuring scholars Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan which examines the beginnings of the Jesus movement. Filmed in and around Jerusalem and the Galilee, the course discusses life in first-century Palestine and the social and cultural world into which Jesus was born and on which his teachings made such a deep and lasting impact. Reading materials prepared by John Dominic Crossan, including study questions, are available for $1. You can pick up your copy on any Sunday morning in class.

 

 

Forum on Autism This Sunday
By Jerry Stinson

Ben Duffy's 30-minute documentary film Vision of Wholeness will be shown, and then Cantor Steve Puzarne, our guest preacher, will answer questions about his work. This film, which was an official selection at this year's Boston Film Festival and will be screened on October 8 at the Los Angeles Backlot Film Festival, looks at Steve’s work with special needs children.

Believing that special needs children both need and deserve equal access to spirituality and tradition, Cantor Puzarne has spent many rewarding years preparing such children for Bar and Bat Mitzvah, the venerable Jewish rite of passage. Vision of Wholeness is the inspiring story of two of his students and their families. Combining interviews and live footage, the film depicts how lives were transformed as the threads of age-old principles and practices were woven into a modern methodology, providing real-life benefits well beyond a particular day, tradition or age group.

 

WHAT IF ... You Needed Half a Million Dollars???

Where would you get it? And how would you spend it?

We will try to answer these intriguing questions during the month of October. Find out how YOU may be a part of our STIMULUS package and CASH FOR CLUNKERS (contributors) programs! You won’t want to miss being a part of the answers to these questions! SEE YOU IN CHURCH!

The Board of Stewardship and Finance

 

Long Beach Marathon This Sunday

If your drive to church might be affected by the marathon taking place this Sunday, please be sure and leave early! You can check the course map on the marathon website here (.pdf file).

 

Be Not Afraid
By Cathy Chambers

No coursework in painting or art history is a prerequisite in order to participate in the Splatter Painting Spin Art workshop David Cavanaugh is leading this Saturday, October 10. The workshop will be held in the church basement Dining Room from 10 a.m. until 1 p.m., and paintings you create will be sold at the Craft Fair Fundraiser. Please bring a 12" x 12" square canvas if you’re able to (available at some Big Lots for $5); extras will be available at the workshop if you’re not able to find one. Sign up with Cathy Chambers Sunday at church or at cathcham@otis.edu.

 

More Free Parking Sunday Mornings

The city parking structure on Broadway at Cedar Ave. is open and available, free of charge, for church members on Sundays. It generally is open by about 9:30 a.m.

 

Be Green and Buy Local … REAL Local!
By Cathy Chambers

Bring your cloth shopping bags to church October 11, 18, and 25 and fill them with handmade scarves, cards, candle holders, baked goods and more! Our First Church Craft Fair Fundraiser will be held after services all three Sundays and at the afternoon Avocation and Friends concert October 25. Funds raised will be used to help First Church members and friends who are facing difficulties in this economic downturn. Spend a little or spend a lot, we don’t care, just spend the time with us.

 

Getting the Love You Want: An introduction to Imago Relationship Therapy
By Waverly Farrell

The idea of conscious relationship is revolutionary. Most of us enter relationship as idealists with many expectations about how our partnerships should be. The primary relationship, in particular, is really graduate study in growing ourselves up. The key to achieving emotional maturity is to risk being vulnerable by dropping our defenses. Thanks to Dr. Harville Hendrix, creator of Imago Relationship Therapy, there is a path to follow which will lead to relationship maturity and a connection based on true love. This path is highlighted by a clear and deep understanding of relationship, a willingness to commit to consciousness, and a tool kit to assist those of us who need guidance.

Imago Relationship Therapy teaches us that incompatibility is not the grounds for divorce but the opportunity to grow and heal. It helps us to understand that our primary relationships are designed to trigger all our early childhood unmet needs. When this happens, our stretch is to learn to shift from reactivity to intentionality and to deal with frustration by asking appropriately for what we need.

Conflict between partners is the vehicle for growth and healing in relationship. We can remain a victim to conflict, lingering in unconsciousness and relating to our unmet needs as if they were our autobiography instead of merely reference points along the way. Or, we can accept that relationship is work and it is our responsibility to take charge of our partnerships by working through conflict. The lover sees the gift in conflict; the victim asks the price.

Each of us is responsible for our own destiny. Each of us is capable of creating nightmares in our relationship experience. We are also capable of discovering our potential as human beings through the instrument of our relationships. The key is to learn to take responsibility in a loving way for the defenses we have developed to keep intimacy at bay and to choose relationship rather than desperately clinging or leaving.

Imago Relationship Therapy challenges us to become masters of our relationship journey. By doing so, we will transform our connections with our primary partners and others in our lives. Imago dares us to approach relationship asking “What is the meaning?” rather than “What is the matter?”

If you are interested in knowing more about…

1. Why the qualities that attracted you to your partner can drive you crazy!
2. How to begin to get to the root of issues that trigger you!
3. How to effectively communicate your needs and desires!
4. Why frustration is a cover for unmet needs!
5. How to keep the energy alive by expressing your love!

Join Waverly Farrell for Getting the Love You Want, a two-hour introductory workshop on October 14 from 7 to 9 p.m.to learn more about Imago Relationship Therapy. Waverly is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, a Certified Imago Relationship Therapist, Workshop Presenter and Imago Consultant. You can learn more by visiting www.relationshipsolutions.org.

 

Join Us for Some Family Fun at the SEALab in Redondo Beach!
By Terry McKiernan

The members of the Spirited Parenting Group warmly invite families with school age children, as well as any others who are interested, to join them on a group visit to the SEAlab on Saturday, October 17. SEALab is a coastal education center with some small tanks, an artificial tide pool, and several touch tanks. For more information on SEALab, you can go to www.lacorps.org and click on the SEALab link at the bottom of the page.

From 11:30 to approximately 12:30, we'll be given a private tour that includes touch tanks of small marine sea life and a fish feeding where each child will have his/her own container of food to feed the fish (the donation for each fish food container will be $2 to $4 depending on how many of us are there). We'll conclude the event by eating lunch together by the tide pool area, followed by some free time to further explore the SEALab or go to the beach nearby.

Please bring a bag lunch/picnic for yourselves, which we'll be able to store in a room while we're having our tour. Or for those of you who'd rather buy food, there is a deli nearby within short walking distance (about a block away) where you can get pizza, sandwiches, salads, etc. to bring back to SEALab.

Please plan on getting there a little early so we can start our tour on time at 11:30 a.m. There is a metered parking lot right next to the SEALab on Yacht Club Way, so make sure to bring your quarters and loose change. Hope you can make it!

 

New Church Partnership
By Jerry Stinson

Last week twenty members of First Church had dinner in Patterson Hall with twenty members of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, which is located at Seventh and Atlantic. The purpose of the evening was to explore ways the two liberal, activist congregations might work together.

The Rev. Gary Commins, the Rector of St. Luke’s, and I have been talking for the last eight years about our desire for more cooperative efforts. So the two of us, along with the Rev. Libby Tigner, the First Church Associate Minister, and the Rev. Anna Olsen, the Associate Rector of St. Luke’s, planned this meeting which was attended by church leaders active in the areas where we thought cooperation might be helpful.

The evening went very well! People from our Drop-In Center for the homeless talked with people from St. Luke’s Shower Program for the homeless. People working for gay justice at First Church met with their counterparts from St. Luke’s to talk about way we might work together during Pride Weekend. Those responsible for children and youth in both churches talked with each other. People shared ideas about what worked and didn’t work in terms of stewardship campaigns.
Hopefully over the next several months, we will all see more cooperative ventures coming out of this conversation between two of Long Beach’s most active downtown churches.

 

Disaster Response
By Jerry Stinson

Each spring members of First Church respond generously to the call to give to One Great Hour of Sharing, the UCC offering which supports efforts by our denomination to assist refugees, to support significant development projects in places of great need, and to respond to disasters whenever they occur. Much of the money collected in UCC churches is passed on to Church World Service, the ecumenical Protestant outreach agency that helps people in need all over the world.

The recent disasters in the Philippines, Indonesia and Samoa caused great tragedy. But we were there, helping immediately because of our past support for One Great Hour of Sharing.

On the Indonesian island of Sumatra, struck by two earthquakes within a 24-hour period, more than a thousand are now believed to be dead or buried in the rubble. CWS Indonesia staff and local partners were on the ground immediately distributing initial non-food aid to those affected by the quakes, including family tents, blankets, tarpaulins, plastic mats, relief kits and baby kits.
"With pre-positioned supplies, we've been able to expedite getting initial relief to survivors," said Church World Service Indonesia Director Michael Koeniger speaking from Jakarta. CWS has worked in Indonesia for nearly 60 years.

On the islands of American and Western Samoa, where people were swept to sea in a tsunami following last Wednesday's magnitude 8.0 earthquake in the Pacific, the death toll has risen to 150. On the American Samoa side, CWS's domestic response unit is interacting with FEMA and assessing how best the agency and its U.S. member denominations can assist in that emergency.

Concurrently, CWS is monitoring conditions and needs in the Philippines, Cambodia and Vietnam, following Typhoon Ketsana. The region is now preparing for even stronger storms. In Cambodia and Vietnam, where CWS has offices, the agency's assessment teams are now participating in joint assessment missions with United Nations organizations and will determine after those assessments what CWS support may be needed. In the Philippines, CWS partners Christian Aid and the National Council of Churches in the Philippines are planning an initial response. CWS works with the agencies as a member of the global alliance Action by Churches Together-International.

How can we provide additional help:

1. The UCC is committed to raising $250,000 to help Church World Service respond to this disaster. If you would like to contribute, write a check to the First Congregational Church of Long Beach and put “Pacific Disaster Relief” in the memo portion. We will forward those contributions to our national offices and they will send them on to Church World Service.
2. You can also make material contributions for the people of Samoa. Several Samoan UCC churches are collecting cases of bottled water, clothing and non-perishable food. They hope to ship several containers to Samoa. The UCC Samoan Church in Carson and the Second Samoan Congregational Church of Long Beach (located just four blocks from us on Cedar) will be receiving those donations. You will need to contact the churches directly to find details about when and how the items will be received.
3. On Sunday afternoon, October 18 you can walk in the annual CROP Walk. You can get people to sponsor you or you can choose to sponsor a walker. Much of the profit from this event goes to Church World Service.

 

Central Association Fall Meeting

Saturday, October 24
Arcadia Congregational UCC
2607 S. Santa Anita Ave.
Arcadia, CA 91106
626-447-8053
A Multicultural Experience

Registration begins at 8:30 a.m. The worship program begins at 9:00 am and will incorporate business and worship, singing and dancing groups, skits, sacred conversations on race, environment, worship vitality, and sexuality and spirituality. Lunch will be served. Registration is $5 and lunch is $5. Checks and registration information can be sent to Arcadia Congregational UCC (address above).

Y’all come now for this fabulous show of sister churches in solidarity!

 

World March for Peace Begins!
By Bob Kalayjian

The World March for Peace and Nonviolence began an around-the-world three-month, 100-country tour on October 2, and it will come to Los Angeles and Long Beach on December 2. Stay tuned for more information, and you might connect to the following websites: www.worldmarchusa.net and YouTube video.

World Peace March event in New York, August 17.

The World Peace March in New Zealand, October 2.

 

 

Thank You, First Church

I want all of my family at First Church to know how so very important you have been to me during my recent illness. Your prayers, phone calls and cards have been instrumental in keeping my spirits up. All the testing has been done, blood drawn and illness identified for which I am so very thankful. I look forward to being back with my church family.

Jim Deaton

 

The Church Mouse has heard ...

... Luke Archer Johnson was born on August 1 to Christina and Erik Johnson (big sister is Piper). Congratulations!

... Jennifer Kellogg-Mota recently learned she is pregnant. Congrats to Jennifer and Brian, and to grandma-to-be Linda Kellogg and great-grampa Harold Curtis.

 

Parish Concerns

Your thoughts and prayers are requested for Lowell Johnson.

In the armed forces: Daniele Ware (Karen Miller’s granddaughter, stationed in Iraq).

Names on the Parish Concerns list appear in two consecutive editions of the newsletter. Those in the armed forces serving in combat zones are listed until they come home. To put someone on either list, put a note on the Parish Concerns board on the Third Street landing or contact Ruth Warkentin.

 

Becoming a Member of First Church

Whether you have been attending for a few weeks, a few months or several years, we would like you to consider becoming a member of First Church. When you are ready to take that step, please call or email Rev. Jerry Stinson at 562-436-2256, ext 230 or revjstinson@verizon.net.

 

Online Calendar

Don’t miss out! Check the online church calendar at www.firstchurchlb.org/calendar.html for details about all church events. You can use the online calendar to email invitations to friends to church events and to set up emailed reminders to yourself. Just click on any event to see information about it.

 

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First Congregational Church - 241 Cedar Avenue - Long Beach, California 90802
562-436-2256 - Fax: 562-436-3018 - E-mail: office@firstchurchlb.org