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

The Pilgrim - November 1, 2009

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

This Sunday will mark the end of Daylight Savings Time. Be sure to change your clocks before you go to bed on Saturday night.

This Sunday we will celebrate the Sacrament of Communion. There will be a very creative Stewardship Moment and special music from the Sanctuary Choir and Una Voce. This will be our annual Undie Sunday, so don’t forget to bring some new white underwear which will be distributed at our Drop-In Center for the Homeless.

In my sermon, I will try to see what possible connections can be found among our Puritan fore-bears, All Saints Sunday, a training manual for new Christians created perhaps as early as 50 CE, a radical theologian’s notion of Solar Ethics, our Stewardship Campaign, and Shel Silverstein’s children’s book, The Giving Tree.

SERMON: Saints, Solar Ethics and The Giving Tree
The Rev. Jerry Stinson, preaching
READING: The Didache 1:5; 4:5-8
LITURGISTS: The Rev. Robert Stapp and the Rev. Harold Sutherland

Next week during the sermon time Jerry Stinson and Libby Tigner will have a conversation with our UCC Conference Minister about the future of our denomination.

 

Music on Sunday

This Sunday is All Saints Day, so the Sanctuary Choir will sing the Agnus Dei from Requiem by Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924). Fauré composed his Requiem in 1887 purely, in his own words, “for the pleasure of it.” His original work included only five movements, with the Agnus Dei being the fourth. The setting (completed in January 1888, the same year First Church was founded) is a simple and beautiful melody sung by the tenors with accompaniment provided by the organ. The full chorus joins in with a repetition of the text “Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, grant them rest.” The piece concludes with the text “Light eternal shine upon them, God, we pray: With all thy saints in endless glory, for thy tender mercy’s sake.” This is followed by a restatement of the opening text of the Requiem Mass: “Rest eternal grant them, our God we pray to thee: and light perpetual forever shine upon them.” See you in church!

- Dr. Leland, Vail, Minister of Music

 

In Sunday School

Theme: Wherever You Go
Scripture Focus: Ruth 1:1-18

 

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.

 

 

The "UnCommittee" for Sanctuary Care
By Bob Kalayjian

Join us this Saturday (Halloween) from 9 a.m. to noon or so for some repair and landscaping management. Work up a sweat and break bread with friends. See you Saturday morning for a spirited time.

 

First Church Café This Sunday

The First Church Café will once again be open this Sunday after church and prior to the board meetings. Lunch will be prepared by Brad Lara-Gagne of Bootstrap Catering. The cost is $8 for adults and $4 for children ten and under. If you need financial assistance with the lunch, please see Jerry or Libby – vouchers are available. Here is the menu:

Comfort Food for Fall
Mulligatawny soup: a lightly spiced Indian-style stew made with chicken and apples
Traditional chicken stew
Fall vegetable ratatouille (vegetarian)
Mixed green salad with a balsamic vinaigrette
Biscuits
Pumpkin spice and cranberry orange cakes
Children’s table: chicken sandwiches, PB & J, apple slices and mini muffins

 

Fall Back! Daylight Savings Time Ends This Sunday

Turn your clocks back one hour before you go to bed this Saturday night and be well rested for church on Sunday morning.

 

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

Where would you get it?

Join First Church 100 CLUB to help us answer this question!

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 insure the annual ministry and work of First Church will succeed in 2010. Your pledge card will be mailed to you. We express our gratitude for your thoughtful participation in our 2010 First Church pledge campaign.

As your pledge is received, a leaf will be placed on our Giving Tree in the sanctuary with your name on it signifying your participation in our 2010 Pledge Campaign. At the end of our campaign on November 15, several names will be drawn from the tree to win exciting prices! Make sure your name appears on our Giving Tree to ensure your chance to win one of these prizes.

The Board of Stewardship and Finance

 

Stewardship Moment from the Service on Sunday, October 18 – What if…?
By Lisa Orr

In thinking back to when I first started attending First Church nearly 15 years ago, I am reminded of the difficult time I was going through at the time. I had recently returned to Long Beach from New York and a failed relationship that I had cared deeply about, and was now living with my parents in suburbia. Not what I had planned for myself despite the fact that I loved my parents and was grateful for their emotional and financial support as I worked on my doctoral dissertation for the next several years.

For many of those difficult years in that period, First Church was a lifeline in my life, a place where I was able to find spiritual comfort and a place to make friends. Many of the people I knew from that time are gone now, but I have made new friends and of course, have gotten married in this church and had two children, and my husband Michael and I are now raising them as part of this church community.

In thinking about this year’s stewardship campaign - “What if…?” - the other day, I began thinking about both “What if the church didn’t exist?” as well as “What if the church was able to grow and expand?” The first thought, “What if first church didn’t exist?” nearly brings me to tears. This church is where I found my first spiritual home in Long Beach as an adult. More recently it is where Michael and I have worked to nurture Spirited Parenting a group of families with young children who have similar values and hopes both for our families and the world. Years ago we looked and looked at alternatives to First Church that were closer to where we lived or had more families and, as most of you know, there aren’t alternatives to First Church if you are looking for a progressive, Christian, open and affirming place to worship each week. If this place did not exist, we simply would NOT have a church home.

For me this church has become about hope for the future. Not only does it give me strength to go forward in this world of pain and joy, but it also nurtures my children who are the focus of so much of my energy these days. I have witnessed so many times in the past 15 years the incredible children who come from the families in this church. I truly believe that the legacy left to us by our Congregationalist forebears of liberal activism which stems from our faith whether it be in the areas of abolition or civil rights, anti-war protests or work with the homeless, is still alive and well here! I believe that most of you are here because you believe passionately, with me, that this place is one of the jewels in this community, state, and I would argue to anyone, in this nation today. I urge you not to let the torch of truth, social justice and progressive values fall. If you have not made a pledge before, please know that pledges are the only way that the church can plan each year. If you already pledge, please make every effort to give what you gave last year and, if you are able, to increase it to make up for the lost pledges of those in our church family who have lost their jobs or are in reduced economic circumstances.

I ask you to stand with me against the tide of fear and malaise that would allow a gem like First Church to fail or fade away. I ask to you to look deeply into the question of “what if,” to discover your own answer to the question what if First Church didn’t exist or slowly faded away.
Stand with me today in this stewardship campaign to make your pledge so that we will all be standing together in this church in years to come, fighting for social justice and traveling along our journeys in faith as a family.

 

Stewardship Moment from the Service on Sunday, October 25
By Randy King

I want to spend a moment or two speaking about stewardship and what it means. I have two stories:

At a recent wedding every banquet table had a floral arrangement. One of the mothers is a florist and, themed to a Hawaiian honeymoon, the flowers were wired into beautiful pineapple shapes. The DJ announced that they were going to play a game to see who would take each arrangement home. One person at each table should volunteer a dollar bill. As he played the music, they passed the dollar bill around the table clockwise. When the music stopped, the person holding it was thrilled.

“No,” said the DJ. “That’s not the winner. Now pass it counterclockwise.” He played another tune. The music stopped and the new bill-holder was excited.

“Now,” said the DJ, “everyone who is holding money, come and bring it to the couple, and the person who originally gave the dollar bill can take home the flowers.”

Wonderful and surprising rewards come to us when we give without expecting a return, when we simply volunteer our time, energy, skills, care and financial resources. This is true in our work, family and personal lives, and it is certainly true in the life of our churches.

The second story is the Biblical one about the servants given the coins. It has a similar and yet very different point. A master gave three servants each the same amount of money. Two invested the money and made money to give their master. The third buried the money and simply gave back the coins.

If you are a good steward, then you will not only maintain property that is entrusted to you, but when you return it, it will be in even better condition than when you first received it. Simply to bury it and pass it on as it was is not sufficient. You are to improve it.

That sense of stewardship can be applied to many different areas and aspects of life, even to areas that one might not initially think of. If I have worked hard and amassed some measure of wealth, I might choose to see that wealth as mine, as my property. Should I do so, then it is within my discretion to save it, use it or squander it, and I owe explanations to no one.

If, however, I view that wealth as something over which I am merely a steward, and if I view the real owner of that wealth as my children, my country or my God, and see myself as the fortunate caretaker of that wealth, then I have responsibilities to tend to it in a different manner. I now have an obligation to use it properly; I must use it to further the interests of those for whom I hold it. And I ought at least to maintain it in the condition in which I received it, but I really ought to improve it. The concept of stewardship changes the focus from “What do I want?” to “What is best?”

The same applies to this congregation. We are in charge; it is in our keeping. But it is not here just to serve us, and it is not here just for us to use for whatever our needs are. We have responsibilities to those who preceded us and passed this congregation down to us through the generations; and we have responsibilities to those who will enter our doors in future generations. Five, ten, twenty years from now, this congregation should be better because we were here and tended it properly.

I ask each of you to close your hand around an imaginary coin or dollar bill. When the plate comes around I hope you will close your hand around one of your real dollar bills or coins. I will start this by putting one of these shiny dollar coins in each plate.

I am holding out a coin to you (or maybe a bill). What do you see? The face on the coin is not harmful but hopeful. It may be inexpensive or a big investment. It’s best for you, those you love, those around you, and some you don’t even know.

Holding the coin, think what spending this money means. What other things will it touch? What other people? The face on the coin will be different another day. Close your imaginary hand and ask God to bless it. When you open your hand, drop the coin or dollar bill into the offering plate ... the coin will be gone, but the memory will be there.

 

Sparkling Reception Hors d’Oeuvres!

Show off your cooking skills and contribute to the youth music programs! Volunteer to make hors d'oeuvres for the Sparkling Reception to be held on Sunday, December 6. Sign-ups and recipes after church this Sunday, November 1 in the Kilsby Courtyard.

 

Friday Night at First Church
By Yvonne SaMarion

Friday Night at First Church is game night! The adult gamesters of First Church will gather in the Pownall room on November 6 at 6:30 p.m.. The cost is only $5 per person for dinner, drinks and an evening of fun with fun people. This month is wide open as to what game will be played – we’ll have a variety available. If you have a favorite game – bring it with you. Your favorite game may win the night! Come one, come all and join in the fun. We’ll have the welcome mat out for you!

 

Visit from the Conference Minister
By Jerry Stinson

Jane Fisler Hoffman, the Interim Conference Minister for the Southern California/Nevada Conference of the United Church of Christ will be with us on Sunday, November 8. Save that date on your calendar!

Rev. Hoffman will bring greetings from the conference and will also lead a forum after the service looking at the state of the Southern California/ Nevada Conference. She will join Jerry Stinson and Libby Tigner for a Conversation Sermon about the future of the United Church of Christ. It should be an interesting sermon – some of their reflections may come as a surprise.

 

American Guild of Organists Concert - Tuesday, November 10, 7:30 p.m.

The Long Beach chapter of the American Guild of Organists will sponsor a free concert on Tuesday, November 10 at 7:30 p.m. The organist is Randall Harlow, a doctoral candidate at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York who last played First Church’s Moeller organ at a Just After Noon Music concert in 2004. The program will feature works by Leo Sowerby, Sigfrid Karg-Elert, Julius Reubke, and Adrian Vernon Fish.

A native of Long Beach California, Randall Harlow holds a Bachelor of Music degree and Performer Diploma in organ performance from Indiana University and the Master of Music degree from Emory University in Atlanta. As a performer, Randall maintains an intense focus on contemporary music and is currently coordinating several major international commissioning consortiums. His numerous world and North American premieres include compositions by Stephen Ingham, John Anthony Lennon, Ron Nagorcka, Sven-David Sandström, Kaikhosru Sorabji and Karlheinz Stockhausen, among others. Also an avid performer with orchestra, Randall has performed the North American premieres of organ concertos by Petr Eben, Tilo Medek and Giles Swayne. In a concert last month with Ossia, Eastman's contemporary music ensemble, Randall performed concertos by Lou Harrison and Chen Yi. Also a leading pioneer in promoting electroacoustic composition for the organ, he recently premiered two groundbreaking works for organ with live-electronic processing by Steve Everett and René Uijlenhoet.

The concert is free, and all are welcome to attend.

 

Drop-In Center Awarded Ahmanson Foundation Grant
By Brad Lara-Gagne

As many of you have noticed, we have made changes and shown positive growth at the Drop-In Center (DIC) over the past year. Our menus have diversified, our volunteer ranks have swelled, and with the generous support of First Congregational Church and its members we have been able to help more of the homeless and those in need in downtown Long Beach.

Through the diligent work of Teri Brewster we have been applying for grants and sending out letters of intention for the past several months. We have had great positive feedback and received funds from a couple ofprivate trusts as well as the Boeing Employees Fund. Urban Community Outreach (UCO) is getting its name out there and being recognized for the work that is done through the Drop-In Center and DAYS programs. It has been a very good 12 months and it just got better. The Drop-In Center has been awarded a $10,000 grant from the Ahmanson Foundation. Their representative was so impressed with the DIC she will be spreading the word to other large and influential foundations. This puts UCO and the DIC on the road to sustainability and financial security. The Drop-In Center appreciates your support and looks forward to a terrific 2010!

 

CROPWalk for Hunger Results
By Dale Whitney, Long Beach Walk Chair

The 2009 "CROPWalk for Hunger" is now history. It took place on Sunday afternoon, October 18 in the Los Altos area and included a lovely stroll through the campus of CSULB and around its famous sports landmark, the Pyramid.

There were over 200 people of all ages participating in the event, 199 of them officially registered, and they raised a total of $14,467 in pledges designated for Church World Service and six local charities including Christian Outreach in Action and Centro Shalom.

The leading denominational fundraisers were the Methodists, with 49 walkers good for $5,770 in pledges. The two United Church of Christ churches participating, First Church and Bay Shore, fielded 19 walkers and raised $2,404 in pledges.

One of the highlights of the day was at the pep rally right before the walk, when "Birthday Boy" Bob Halter was introduced. He was 82 that day, and this was his thirty-fourth consecutive year as a walker. We all sang " Happy Birthday" and sent him on his way rejoicing! Other walkers from First Church included Matt Balin, Cathy Chambers, Paul Boyd-Batstone, Kay Gault and Senior Minister Jerry Stinson.

Although Walk Day is over and done, it is still not too late to contribute to the Long Beach Walk. Just log on to www.cropwalkonline.org, find the Fall 2009 Long Beach Walk, and follow the instructions. With your help, the total for the Walk will top $16,000, a little more than the pledged amount mentioned above.

 

In the Spirit of Thanksgiving, Give to Those in Need and Receive Fabulous Fashions in Return - November 21, 12 Noon to 4 p.m.
By Brad Lara-Gagne

Let your old clothes becomes another's new fashion!

Bring your lightly used men’s, women's and kids' clothing, shoes, hats, accessories, unopened toiletries, makeup, luggage, books and magazines. You will have an opportunity to swap clothing in your size, in the spirit of going green and recycling. The remainder of the items left over will be donated to the Drop-In Center.

And bring your wallets and checkbooks! We will have local vendors and business owners selling items and a percentage of proceeds will be donated to the Drop-In Center. Minimum donation: $10 plus one shopping bag of clothing, or $30. Food and drink donated by The Westin of Long Beach and local Long Beach restaurants. Tax deductible receipt made available upon request.

 

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.

 

Thanks, First Church!

Thanks to crafters, shoppers and helpers of every kind for making the Craft Fair such a success!

Cathy Chambers

 

Some Hopeful News
By Jerry Stinson

It is easy to be depressed after the passage of Proposition 8. How long will it be before people throughout the world overcome the prevailing heterosexism and homophobia? How long will it be before discrimination based on sexual orientation comes to an end?

The October 8 issue of Newsweek had an article that I found encouraging. In that article, evangelical Christian Brent Childers explained his journey from believing that homosexuality was an abomina-tion to marching in a pro-gay march on Washington. I received permission from Mr. Childers to print that article in The Pilgrim. I hope you find the following words as hopeful as I did.

Jerry

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

A Step in Faith
By Brent Childers

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) Americans are a diverse, extraordinary, resilient, and passionate group of forgiving men and women. I wouldn't be standing beside them demanding full and equal treatment under the law and speaking out against the harm caused by religion-based bigotry at the National Equality March in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 11 if I thought they were not created in God's image the same as myself, same as my family, as we all are—we are all God's children.

And I know better than anyone, since six years ago I was one of those bigots. At that time it would have seemed abominable to even consider attending a "gay-rights" event. To me, these would have been the people tearing apart the very seams of our culture and our country.
Today, it is a natural expression of who I am. Some might call that a miracle.

So what it is that would bring someone from a place where he once declared himself a "Jesse Helms Republican," a man who condemned homosexuality as a threat to children and society, told his own son that being gay is a ticket to hell, to travel from Hickory, N.C., to the West Lawn of the Capitol building on Oct. 11, 2009? How can one travel from the seemingly impossible road of bigotry to one of acceptance and love for our LGBT brothers and sisters? The answer is one that I hope religious leaders such as Pat Robertson and James Dobson (and most importantly, their followers) will hear.

It's because something deep inside told me that I needed to step out in faith onto a bridge of knowledge and understanding. I didn't know where this bridge would take me but something was telling me it was a path I needed to walk. My own mother challenged me in 2003 to look at my beliefs and the true intent behind the teachings I held in blind faith. "Do you think your views are Christ-like?" she asked me. Her question was dead on: once I walked away from the Church's teachings of rejection and condemnation, my relationship with God transcended to a higher spiritual plateau. I realized an unparalleled sense of spiritual clarity when I opened my heart and mind to a genuine expression of love, compassion, and acceptance of all sexual orientations and gender identities.

This new voice—Christ's voice—became the core principles of my faith: love, compassion, and re-spect. That voice I now realize was desperately wanting to be heard, a voice no longer comfortable with the place in which I had chose to confine it for so long—a place of bigotry, prejudice, fear, and misunderstanding.

The walk across that bridge wasn't very strenuous but it was at times painful. The pain came as I began to realize for the first time that I had been using my faith to bring harm to others. That's not a pleasant realization for anyone who marches under a Christian banner of love, respect, and compassion.

During the past four years I have looked into the faces of those I once caused harm to with religion-based bigotry and prejudice. And while I may have never inflicted a physical blow, I know today that my words indeed caused deep wounds—perhaps at some point deeper than I care to dwell upon.

They are the faces of individuals like young Sean Kennedy, who died in Greenville, S.C., in 2007 after being struck by a person who considered Sean a "faggot"; Pat and Lynn Mulder of Auburndale, Fla., whose gay son also died as a result of a hate crime; Jared Horsford of Texas who carved derogatory words into his flesh because he thought it would help control the demon he was told lived there; Nicholas White who was relentlessly berated by fellow 4-H peers at camp this summer as other 4-H campers stood behind the tormentors in silence; or the mother I met recently in North Carolina who grieved over her dead son—a child that had been rejected because he was gay and thought peace could only come through suicide.

There are many, many others I have met in my work with Faith in America, as we try to bring awareness and understanding to the pain and trauma caused to LGBT people, especially youth, when church teaching is misused to justify and promote a societal climate of rejection, condemnation, and discrimination. This environment fosters suicide, hate crimes, an epidemic of antigay bullying in our schools against all kinds of children gay and straight, legal workplace discrimination against LGBT citizens in 20 states, military service members forced to serve in silence or discharged for being honest about who they are, lesbian and gay parents unable to protect their children without the legal structure of federally recognized civil marriage, and lesbian and gay couples unable to provide security for their partners in the absence of federally recognized civil marriage.

This is what we march for on Oct. 11 and every day. Every person coming to Washington—whether they are religious or not—does share one faith, and that is faith in America. We can and must do bet-ter. As the progress of history has shown, Americans will prove themselves able to see beyond relig-ion-based bigotry to the promises of equal treatment for all. Those who use religion-based bigotry to persecute and discriminate against LGBT people are on the wrong side of history, just as they were with slavery, interracial marriage, the treatment of women, and so many other issues.

I remember the first time I met Sean Kennedy's mother, Elke, sitting in her family's living room just months after she had lost her precious son as the result of a senseless and hate-filled act of violence. And I will never forget that momentary look on her face when I explained to her that I once was someone whose attitude had helped perpetuate the societal climate in which her son lived and died. It was a moment in which I realized the depths of the wounds I may have inflicted upon a gay teen contemplating suicide or a perpetrator looking to justify hate violence. It is a moment that commands me to continue to march, to speak out, and help others experience the spiritual blessing that comes from unshackling the chains of religion-based bigotry and prejudice.

Brent Childers is the executive director of Faith in America. After changing his views on homosexuality, he left the Southern Baptist Church and now attends both a local Pentecostal and a nondenominational church in Hickory, N.C.

 

 

The Church Mouse has heard ...

... Lowell Johnson is currently residing at Bixby Knolls Towers (3747 Atlantic Ave #223, Long Beach 90803; phone: 562-424-5452). He would love to receive cards and phone calls.

... Congratulations to Caitlin Fisher for being chosen at school for Ensemble, a performing group made up of select students from various local schools. They will be at Knott's Berry Farm this Christmas and other public performances. She is very excited as this is a privilege and part of the GATE gifted students program.

... Congratulations to Kathryn Boyd-Batstone and Jim Woods, who took second and third place respectively in a recent photo contest sponsored by Partners of Parks. Partners of Parks is a nonprofit organization that supports community recreation programs throughout Long Beach for kids, adults, and seniors. They recently held a photo contest called "The Nature of Long Beach." Kathryn Boyd-Batstone took second place in the Wildlife division with her image of an egret at the Colorado Lagoon titled "Angelic Egret." Jim Woods took third place in the same Wildlife division with his image of a Canada Goose in flight taken at the El Dorado Duck Pond. These images and the other winners will be displayed over the coming year at various places around the city.

"Angelic Egret," by Kathryn Boyd-Batstone

 

"Canada Goose in Flight," by Jim Woods

 

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); Uma Ballinger (Lisa Bode Heard's friend); David (Jon Rodgers' boyfriend); the family and friends of Jason Downey, who died Monday (Carol Welsh's friends); Joe Ernst; Jeff Ford; Veronica Martin (Carol Welsh's friend); Garnett Phibbs (Bob Phibbs' father); Randy Snelling (Jim Snelling's son); and Mark Thompson (Amy Peer's brother).

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.

 

Please reply to this email to be removed from our mailing list.

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