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

 

The Pilgrim - October 25, 2009

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

It is our tradition that on the Sunday before Halloween children are encouraged to wear their Halloween costumes to church. There will be a children’s costume parade at the beginning of the service. Marc Dickey will be away and we will have a guest organist who has only played at First Church on one occasion. I guess we will be teaching him an important new church ritual.

We will have our third Stewardship Moment offered by Dr. Randy King. All Seasons Choir and tenor Carlos Carlos will provide special music.

My sermon will be the second of a two-part series looking at the role of five courageous women in the stories of the birth of Moses.

SERMON: Women of Defiance: Miriam and Pharaoh’s Daughter
The Rev. Jerry Stinson, preaching
LITURGISTS: The Rev. Libby Tigner and Ms. Vicki Doolittle

 

Music on Sunday

For this Sunday, the choir will sing a short anthem by Kenneth Jennings, retired composer and university professor, who directed choral music at St. Olaff University from the mid-1950s until the early 1980s. His setting of “With a Voice of Singing” is included in the Augsburg Choirbook, a collection of 67 anthems representing the best of the Augsburg Fortress choral tradition. The text is taken from Isaiah 48:20b and Psalm 66:1-2. Jennings uses a quick tempo and syncopation in the initial statement by the sopranos. Dissonance and open intervals of octaves and fifths mark the text “make a joyful noise unto God, all ye lands.” In the middle of the work, the tenors and basses sing the doxology text in unison chant. The sopranos return with the opening motive, followed by the same harmonic and text treatment of the beginning. The anthem concludes in a triumphant A-major chord. See you in church!

- Dr. Leland, Vail, Minister of Music

 

In Sunday School

Theme: Take Heart
Scripture Focus: Mark 10:46-52

 

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, and are available for $1. You can pick up your copy on any Sunday morning in class.

 

 

Don't Forget Your Checkbook!
By Cathy Chambers

This Sunday, October 25, will be the last chance to buy neato stuff made by your friends and pewmates! The Craft Fair will be open both after church and at the Avocation and Friends Concert Sunday afternoon. NEW items will be available! The SILENT AUCTION closes following the concert! Remember, all money raised goes to the Member Benevolence Fund. Silent auction items include a portrait of your pet painted by Teri Brewster; a Christmas tree decorated with Lane Shepherd’s tatted ornaments; an “I Spy” quilt stitched by Deanna Melzian; and a necklace and erring set created by Carol Welsh’s friend Deborah Wyscarver.

 

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

Where would you get it? And how would you spend it?
Join First Church 100 CLUB to help us answer these questions!

We are looking for 100 GUARDIAN ANGELS to pledge $1 a week to support our music programs. 100 SOJOURNERS pledging $10 a week will support our Christian education and mission endeavors. 100 TRUTH SEEKERS pledging $25 a week will support our office and other expenses. 100 PROPHETS pledging $50 a week will insure our spiritual and peace and social justice programs will continue in 2010. 10 ARCHANGELS pledging $100 or more a week will guarantee First Church will celebrate another successful year of growth and spiritual inspiration!

Are you a …
GUARDIAN ANGEL, SOJOURNER, TRUTH SEEKER, PROPHET or ARCHANGEL?

One of the ways we live thankfully is to return a portion of the material gifts God has entrusted to our care. Returning your pledge card no later than November 8 will ensure the yearly ministry and work of First Church will succeed in 2010. Your pledge card will be sent to you. We express our gratitude for your thoughtful participation in our 2010 First Church pledge campaign.

The Board of Stewardship and Finance

 

Gift to First Church
By Jerry Stinson

Harriette Ellis, a 50-year member of Temple Israel, has donated a beautiful small sculpture to First Church in appreciation for all the years our building has been available to the Temple for their special services. Ms. Ellis remembers celebrating the High Holy Days at First Church back in the 1960s.

The sculpture is entitled “Jesus Healing” and is by Israeli artist Yaacov Heller. Heller’s famous statue of David and Goliath was presented as a gift to President Ford by the former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin during Mr. Rabin’s visit to the White House in 1974. Mr. Heller’s sculpture illustrating “the wolf will dwell with the lamb” was presented to the late President Sadat of Egypt by Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, symbolizing the peace between the two nations.

The Interior Design Committee of the Board of Stewardship and Finance will be asked to determine where and how to display the sculpture.

Jerry Stinson accepting the gift of the Yaacov Heller "Jesus Healing"
sculpture from Harriette Ellis of Temple Israel

 

Briefs Reminder
By Jim Snelling

Undie Sunday will be November 1. Please bring new men's and women's white underwear and leave it in the Narthex.

From extra large to very small,
For women and for men,
Please congregation, we need them all.

This year the underwear will be distributed by the Drop-In Center.

 

First Church Table at CAIR Banquet - Saturday, November 7
By Jerry Stinson

Our congregation has a reserved table for ten at the annual banquet of the Council of American Islamic Relations. THERE ARE FOUR PLACES STILL OPEN. This event will be held on Saturday, No-vember 7 from 6:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. at the Anaheim Hilton Hotel. This year’s theme is “A New Era of Hope: Our Role, Our Future.” Banquet speakers include Dr. Sherman Jackson, professor of Arabic and Islamic Studies at the University of Michigan; CAIR National Board Chairperson and North Carolina State Senator Larry Shaw; Shaikh Alauddin El-Bakri, Imam of Saratoga mosque. For the past three years, approximately 2,000 guests have attended the annual banquet, including about 300 guests from interfaith, political, civil rights, news and entertainment circles. Kay and I regularly attend this event. We will be doing so again this year. The cost is $45 per person. If you are interested in attending please notify me as soon as possible at revjstinson@verizon.net or 562-436-2256, ext. 230.

 

Theological Study Group - Tuesday, November 10, 7 P.M.

The Theological Study Group will meet on Tuesday, November 10 at 7 p.m. in the Pownall Room to discuss Amy Frykholm's Rapture Culture, a book on the remarkable phenomenon of the Left Behind series.

In the "twinkling of an eye" Jesus secretly returns to earth and gathers to him all believers. As they are taken to heaven, the world they leave behind is plunged into chaso. Cars and airplanes crash and people search in vain for loved ones. Plagues, famine and suffering follow. The antichrist emerges to rule the world and destroy those who oppose him. Finally, Christ comes again in glory, defeats the antichrist and reigns over the earth. This apocalyptic scenario is anticipated by millions of Americans, who have made the Left Behind series perennial bestsellers, with over 40 million copies now in print. In Rapture Culture, Frykholm seeks to understand why American evangelicals find the idea of the rapture so compelling. One reason, she argues, is that the books provide a sense of identification and communal belonging that counters the social atomization that characterizes modern life. This also helps explain why they appeal to female readers, despite the deeply patriarchal worldview they promote. Tracing the evolution of the genre of rapture fiction, Frykholm notes that at one time such narratives expressed a sense of alienation from modern life and protest against the loss of tradition and the marginalization of conservative religious views. Now, however, evangelicalism's renewed popular appeal has rendered such themes obsolete. Left Behind evinces a new embrace of technology and consumer goods a tools for God's work, while retaining a protest against modernity's transformation of traditional family life. Drawing on extensive interviews with readers of the novels, Rapture Culture sheds light on a mindset that is little understood and far more common than many of us suppose.

 

Emailed Reflections – An Oasis of Peace and Quiet in a Busy Day
By Libby Tigner

Like many of you, I spend hours each day looking at a computer screen, sifting through email messages that bring information, requests, jokes – an odd mix of work and leisure and connection. Sometimes my brain feels like a yo-yo as I click from one message to the next, having to mentally shift gears with each message. I go from a financial report to a goofy joke to an organizational newsletter to news of a serious illness to a family update – all in less than a minute. I feel compelled to respond to some emails immediately, others I delete, and some sit in my inbox for a while, as a reminder of something I need to do. It’s no wonder that I have a love-hate relationship with my computer!

But there are two emails that I receive regularly that elicit an entirely different response from me, and that’s because these emails carry with them an invitation to stop what I’m doing and enter into a few minutes of quiet and reflection. I don’t always do it, but when I do, I find that there is a little shift inside of me, breathe a little more deeply, I’m a bit more centered and more able to enter into heart space instead of being all caught up in my head.

The two emails are the UCC’s Daily Devotion and the weekly reflection from exlorefaith.org. The UCC devotional has a scripture passage, a brief devotion and a prayer, all written by a variety of UCC pastors. Explorefaith includes several links to prayers, meditations, a daily devotion and a whole myriad of other resources, and has Marcus Borg and Barbara Brown Taylor on its editorial board. I find it to be a really helpful site.

If you would like to get these delivered to your email inbox, it’s easy to subscribe. For the UCC devotional, visit i.ucc.org; for explorefaith, go to explorefaith.org. You’ll be glad that you did.

 

Parolee Orientation Program
By Jerry Stinson

For the last several years, we have allowed the Parole and Community Services Division of the California Department of Corrections to use Patterson Hall without cost one Wednesday each month for an orientation program for new parolees. Many probation officers require the parolees assigned to them to attend this orientation during the first month after their release from prison. 200 or more new parolees (both men and women) are acquainted at the orientation with employment opportunities, social service programs, tattoo removal services, substance recovery programs and mentoring services to help them make the transition back into society. A recent letter from the Parole and Community Services Division thanked us for the use of our facilities and said, “You continue to be a positive influence in the lives of our clients, and are making a difference in the community especially in this economic crisis.” This is one of many important outreach efforts at First Church.

 

Why the Homeless Are No Longer Sleeping Outside the Church
By Jerry Stinson

On September 5 we posted signs prohibiting people from sleeping outside the church, and I explained why that was happening during the announcements in the September 6 service. Two weeks later, I went into even more detail in my sermon. However, some of our members weren’t present on either of those Sundays, and so I will share that information again and provide more background.

About five years ago, the temporary structures in an encampment of homeless folks near the 710 freeway were destroyed by the authorities. Those folks, as a group, began to sleep on the sidewalks outside our buildings. They were primarily homeless people who had been on the streets for years, most struggling with alcoholism or mental illness.

The church owns the portion of the sidewalk directly adjacent to our buildings, enough room for one person to sleep. The rest of the sidewalk is on city land. So we said people could sleep on our property. The people sleeping there at first were part of a real community; they knew each other and took care of each other. There was enough room for all of them and we had very few problems.

But then other homeless people were attracted to the church. It was a well-lighted safe place to sleep. We developed a reputation as a church that really cared for the homeless. We soon had people sleeping outside on Cedar Avenue, Third Street and in the alley on the south side of Pilgrim Hall. Because of substance abuse or mental illness, a few of the homeless would occasionally shout inappropriately or become angry without reason. Neighbors began to complain. The owner of La Traviata made daily calls to city officials objecting to the presence of the homeless. Most of the objections from neighbors were not about specific instances of inappropriate behavior but were objections to the very presence of homeless people.

In November 2005, we were ordered by the Long Beach City Prosecutor to “abate the nuisance” of the homeless. After talking to our City Council Member and the Prosecutor, I reluctantly put up some signs saying no one could sleep outside. We took the signs down after a few months and people immediately began to sleep there again. I got to know many of those people; so did some of our members. But again the neighbors complained and we were once again ordered, in December 2006, to “abate this nuisance” or we would be fined $1,000 a day.

This time, I had more information. I knew about a legal case involving Broadway Presbyterian Church in New York City in which a federal district court ruled that homeless people could sleep on that church’s steps. So I wrote the Prosecutor’s office indicating that we would not obey the order. A feature article about this issue appeared in the Los Angeles Times and we had every Los Angeles television station’s news team here. The publicity made the city look bad and the Prosecutor backed down.

But then the complaints continued, especially from residents of the Wilmore condominiums on Third Street and Plymouth West on Chestnut and Third. So the Commander of the South Division of the Long Beach Police Department arranged a meeting between me, two Wilmore residents, and staff from the two City Council offices covering the downtown area. We actually had several meetings, and I agreed that we would prohibit sleeping on Third Street, where our building faces residential complexes, but that the homeless could continue sleeping on Cedar Avenue where our building faces a parking lot and a mostly-empty office complex.

Jay Johnson, Commander of the South Division, was very helpful in this process, and I think he was as frustrated as I was by the city’s refusal to accept any responsibility for the hundreds of homeless people downtown. He even assigned two officers to work with the homeless population downtown, helping them to try to find housing. We proposed a variety of temporary solutions, but the City Council offices rejected all of them.

In the meantime, we now had half as much space for the homeless to sleep since no one was allowed on the Third Street side of the building. The numbers of homeless people simply grew beyond what we could handle. We tried to put limits on the hours people could be outside our buildings – limiting sleeping to 10 p.m. (when Lincoln Park closes) to 6 a.m. But the homeless were afraid that if they didn’t get to the church early, there wouldn’t be any space for them at 10. So people began to arrive as early as 4 or 5 to put down their bedding in order to save themselves places to sleep. Then they would hang out on the sidewalk or in the parking lot across the street.
The complaints from neighbors began again. Private meetings were being held at the Wilmore, and our City Council Member was asking the police department for arrest statistics for people sleeping outside the church. Some of our own members also expressed concerns about the appearance of the church and possible damage to our building.

I met again with Commander Johnson and he said the crime figures did not look good. There had been several fights outside the church at night and a number of arrests. I realized that no one from the church was present from 10 to 6 – it was the police department that was being forced to manage the situation out there.

So I gave up! At least for now.

There were too many people for too little space. There were too many fights. There are no restrooms open downtown at night, so we constantly had the smell of urine on the sidewalk. Pressure from neighbors, from city officials, from our Council Member, from the police and from some of our own members was just too much.

I wish we could open our courtyard or Dining Room so people could sleep there at night. I wish we could make our restrooms available to those who have nowhere to sleep at night. But we can’t afford to hire staff to oversee that, nor can we afford the additional cleaning costs. And I am not sure a majority of our members would agree to that anyway.

The City of Long Beach hopes that by ignoring the homeless, they will go away. That isn’t going to happen. There is no shelter for the chronically homeless in Long Beach. We will continue to allow people to sleep in our Dining Room on occasional rainy evenings as part of the Rainy Day Shelter Program. These people are children of God who struggle with all sorts of problems and I wish we could do something more about providing them shelter. But for now, I don’t think we can.

 

Practicing Peace - November 17

Calling all peace makers in Long Beach! The Cal State Long Beach Center for Peace and Social Justice along with the College of Liberal Arts will hold their Second Annual Practicing Peace Festival on November 17. All are invited for a day of peace, music, dance and poetry at the CSULB campus. Performances will begin at 12 noon and end at 4 pm. If you have questions, contact Peace Festival Coordinator Alisha Herrick at aherrick@csulb.edu.

 

Spirited Parenting Outing to SEALab

The Spirited Parenting trip to the SEAlab in Redondo Beach was great fun!  Our kids were able to feed and feel many different types of sea critters, as well as learn about the ocean.  

Photo courtesy of Terry McKiernan

 

Blankets for the Homeless - $10 each
By Brad Lara-Gagne

For the past three years the Drop-In Center has provided blankets to the homeless in our community. They are twin-sized, 70% wool, 30% synthetic blankets of high quality. The Friendship Blankets heat stamp makes the blankets identifiable so that when they are lost or confiscated they may be retrieved, cleaned and recycled. Our goal this year is to purchase 300 blankets.

To contribute, you can find us in the courtyard after church, put checks in the Drop-In Center box upstairs near the offices or mail them to the church. Checks should be made out to UCO Drop-In Center with "blankets" on the memo line. Or check out our website and pay with Paypal – make sure to note it’s for blankets: www.urbancommunityoutreach.org.

Make sure to provide us with your name and address so we may thank you. You can also give these in someone else’s name if you like! Please contact Brad Lara-Gagne at bradg63@aol.com with any questions.

 

 

The Church Mouse has heard ...

... Jennifer Mota is conducting an online survey on views about gender as part of the research for her doctoral dissertation, and she is looking for participants. If you are 18 or older, a California resident, and self-identify as heterosexual, gay/lesbian, or transgender or are a parent of someone who identifies in one of those groups, you may take the survey at www.genderstudy.info. The survey is anonymous and should take about 30 minutes to complete.

 

Parish Concerns

Your thoughts and prayers are requested for Shalla Callahan, Stan Cook (Georgette deBruyn's cousin), Cathy Flynn, Janet Rhodes, Julian Shelton (Gary Shelton and Janet Rhodes' father), and Kenia Casarreal.

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