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

The Pilgrim - November 29, 2009

Sunday Celebration Notes from Libby Tigner
Celebrating God’s Love Every Sunday at 10 am.

We begin a new liturgical year this Sunday as we enter into the season of Advent. Advent is the four weeks of preparation leading into the Christmas celebration. A sort of “little Lent,” Advent is a time of watching and waiting, a time of expectant hope. Much of the music shifts into a minor key, the cool and contemplative color of deep blue adorns the sanctuary, and we light the Advent candles of Hope, Peace, Joy and Love. Advent and Lent are my favorite seasons of the liturgical year.

This is also the Sunday nearest World AIDS Day, and we will have a Service of Remembrance built into our Sunday service. Many of you have submitted the names of persons whom you have known and loved and who died of HIV/AIDS. We will read their names during the service.
I hope that you will join us as we celebrate God’s love together on this First Sunday of Advent.

Sermon: Pandora’s Box and a Season of Hope
The Rev. Libby Tigner, preaching
Clergy Liturgist: The Rev. Jerry Stinson

 

Music on Sunday

Advent has begun, and Sanctuary choir member Tina Datsko has written a beautiful poem which has been set to music by Stan DeWitt, former tenor soloist and Assistant Director of Music at First Church. “Waiting for the Light” will set the mood of anticipation that Advent requires. In addition to this new work, the Sanctuary Choir will sing “O Magnum Mysterium” by Morten Lauridsen (b. 1943). This composition was premiered on December 18, 1994 by the Los Angeles Master Chorale, with Paul Salamunovich conducting. The text is inspired by the Hebrew Scriptures and by the Gospel according to Luke. About this motet, which has become one of most popular choral works of the last 10 years, Lauridsen says this:

“For centuries, composers have been inspired by the beautiful text, with its juxtaposition of the birth of the newborn King amongst the lowly animals and shepherds. This affirmation of God’s grace to the meek and the adoration of the Blessed Virgin are celebrated in my setting through a quiet song of profound inner joy.”

I hope to see you in church for the beginning of this Advent season.

- Dr. Leland, Vail, Minister of Music

 

In Sunday School

Theme: Sign of Things to Come
Scripture Focus: Luke 21:25-36

 

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.

 

 

Pilgrim Deadline

The deadline for submitting items for inclusion in the newsletter is Friday at 12 noon for the email going out the following week. Due to the new email format, it is no longer necessary that items be submitted as attachments; they may simply be included in the text of your email.

 

Thoughts on Advent
By Libby Tigner

Can it be that time of year already? Unbelievably, it is. Walk into any store if you need proof. The Christmas decorations have been up for weeks, and holiday tunes are playing on just about every retailer’s music system.

This Sunday is the First Sunday of Advent, the beginning of the liturgical year. It’s a wonderful, warm-and-fuzzy kind of time. It’s very busy, to be sure, with shopping (all the more stressful in the current economy) and tree-trimming, parties and events, and lots of extra activities at church. In the coming weeks, we will play and work, celebrate and sing, as we contemplate this magical, mysterious time.

When I was a child, these weeks before Christmas were the best time of the year. Managing my allowance to buy gifts for my parents (did they really want that ceramic dog from the drugstore?), playing in the snow in the cold Illinois winters, singing my favorite songs, practicing my part for the Christmas pageant, and, of course, dreaming about what Santa would bring as I poured over the pages of the Sears and Roebuck Christmas “Wish Book.”

I find that things haven’t changed so much over the years. There’s not much snow here (one reason I live here), but beside that ... My gift list has changed, and I no longer give my mother handmade pot-holders. I find myself humming “Veni Emmanuel” and “Of the Parent’s Love Begotten,” as my spirit finds some solace in their nearly mournful yet eternally hopeful tunes. I still practice my part for the Christmas Eve service, although it’s expanded from my simple recitation of Luke’s story of shepherds and angels. And I still harbor secret thoughts about what I hope to find under the tree on Christmas morning, both literally and figuratively.

But what lingers most is the mystery, the awe, and the magic of expectation.

In theological terms, Advent is about preparing our hearts and our lives for the coming mystery of the Incarnation – the Advent of God’s love in our midst, in human form. In us. In more ordinary terms, you could say that Advent is about learning to expect the sacred in the midst of the everyday events of life. Hearing angels singing in the laugher of our children. Experience that rush of gracious goodwill that comes with the act of giving. Seeing bright starts that indeed light our way as spend time with family and friends. Recognizing the face of the Divine as we look into each other’s eyes. That’s all part of the promise of Emmanuel, God with us.

The mystery is all around us. Welcome to Advent.

 

Drop-In Center: Thanksgiving Day and Leftover Sunday

Those interested in making food donations for Thanksgiving Day may drop food off at the church on Wednesday, November 25 between 6:30 and 9 pm. If you have a large delivery, contact Brad Lara-Gagne (562-607-4006 or bradg63@aol.com).

Tired of turkey? Stuffing? Cranberry sauce? Got too much pie? Bring all your leftovers in early on Sunday, November 29, as we re-create a whole new meal for our guests in the Drop-In Center on Sunday afternoon.

 

Reiki Healing Circle - Saturday, November 28
By Tina Datsko

The hectic holiday season is almost upon us. Before it hits full-force, consider spending a peaceful afternoon sharing loving intentions. On Saturday, November 28 there will be a Reiki healing circle in Sacred Space from 1 to 4 p.m. Reiki, which means “spiritually directed universal life force energy,” is a spiritual practice of asking for and receiving energy to heal ourselves and others. During the Reiki circle, there will be time for introducing ourselves, sending Reiki to loved ones, and giving and receiving Reiki. If you are planning to come or have questions, please contact Tina Datsko at 562-421-2826 or tmdatsko@verizon.net.

 

Fair Trade Holiday Sale Starts This Sunday
By Steve Schatz

I'm certainly no economist, but I think most people would agree that this current global economy we find ourselves in has some very serious problems, mostly due to the insatiable greed of large multinational corporations. Very often in this global economy, workers (including children) in factories or fields are paid far less than what is fair or even humane. These exploited workers typically work up to 16-hour days under deplorable conditions, often exposed to toxic and carcinogenic elements. They are regularly treated harshly, even brutally, often given no breaks or days off, and usually receive only a few dollars a day. Labor laws are absent or simply not enforced to help such workers in these sweatshops. Small-scale farmers and artisans throughout the world are not paid enough to even cover the cost of production, let alone to provide adequate food, health care and education for their families.

Unfortunately the products and produce from these places are found in great quantities in the stores and markets where we shop. What's even more distressing is that when we purchase these things (so often unaware of how or where they were produced), we are supporting the continuation of such unjust trade and labor practices.

I'd like to offer an alternative market for us to do some holiday shopping: a fair trade market. Starting Sunday, November 29 and continuing for four consecutive Sundays, our annual Fair Trade Holiday Sale will take place in Patterson Hall. There will be some truly wonderful crafts and food items from around the globe. The market items are sent to us from the non-profit, fair trade organization SERRV. Every item sold guarantees the workers and farmers who produced them a fair, living wage. This type of fair trade economic system is significantly helping to eradicate poverty among workers, farmers and communities in many places around the world. We can play a meaningful part in this. I encourage you to come and enjoy some holiday shopping with a purpose.

 

 

Gifts to the Manger Starts Collecting Items This Sunday, November 29

Over the next several weeks, the Downtown Associated Youth Services Committee in conjunction with the Board of Outreach will collect food for Gifts to the Manger, a project designed to provide holiday gift baskets to families in downtown Long Beach.

The Outreach Board and DAYS needs your help. Please bring any of the following items:

• Canned fruit and vegetables, tomato sauce and soup
• Non-perishable grain items (pasta, rice, flour, breakfast cereal, oatmeal, Bisquick, etc.)
• Non-perishable protein (canned or dried beans, canned tuna or chicken, peanut butter, nuts, etc.)
• Suggested items for children and youth: puzzles, games, art and school supplies; gift cards to local stores and the movies make great gifts for the older children.

Gifts to the Manger will take place on Sunday, December 13, during the morning service. Please bring your unwrapped toys and checks on December 13 and join us in celebrating the holiday season. Items collected on November 29 and December 6 may be left in baskets in the Narthex. Items brought on December 13 for Gifts to the Manger will be dedicated during worship, but please feel free to bring items on any Sunday when it is convenient for you.

If you are interested in helping to assemble and/or delivering the baskets, contact Nancy Valencia at 562-234-2851. Please give only what you can and together we can make a difference in a child’s life.

Happy holidays and thank you.

The Board of Outreach and the Downtown Associated Youth Services Committee

 

Installation of Officers - Sunday, December 6

All officers and board members will be installed during the Sunday service on December 6. Please plan to be present for that service.

 

Getting to Know You Groups a Delightful Success -
Sign-Ups for New Groups Start December 6
By Libby Tigner

The first set of our renewed Getting to Know You groups have finished up or are about to do so. The reports that I’m hearing are really blowing me away! Participants are saying things like, “When can I sign up for another?” and “We have to have a reunion!” and “Everyone should do this!”

The Getting to Know You groups are groups of eight to ten people, with an equal mix of long-time members (over five years of membership) and newer members (less than five years). They meet for three sessions, following a set format which enables folks to really get to know each other in new and deeper ways. The format keeps things moving and encourages real sharing and at the same time ensures equal participation from all members. It’s completely open and friendly and non-intimidating, and each group is facilitated by a pair of trained leaders. Many people who have participated thus far are looking forward to joining another group so they can get to know even more people.

New groups will be starting up early in 2010, with sign-ups beginning on December 6. In the coming weeks, you’ll be hearing and reading more about Getting to Know You in The Pilgrim and on Sunday mornings. I sure hope that you’ll consider joining one of the groups – I guarantee you that you’ll be glad you did!

 

Theological Study Group - Tuesday, December 8, 7 PM

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 Behindseries.

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.

 

Christmas Dinner - Saturday, December 12
By Cheryl Fisher

Parish Life invites everyone and their friends to join us downstairs for the annual Christmas dinner. The date is December 12 with the reception in the Koinonia Room at 5:30 p.m. followed by dinner at 6:30 in the Dining Room. We have kept the cost to $8 for adults and $4 for kids. Planned events include Avocation and Friends caroling, a visit from Santa, pictures at the fireplace and of course lots of time to socialize with your church friends. We would love for you to come.

 

Will YOU Help Us Complete This Puzzle?
From the Board of Stewardship and Finance

If you haven't sent in your 2010 pledge card, please do so promptly. YOU may be the missing piece to our successful 2010 Pledge Campaign! Contact Ruth in the church office if you need a new pledge card, or print out and send in the pledge card below. Thank you.

 

Sign Language Interpretation
By Jerry Stinson

For the last two years, Melanie Riecke Hiller has provided sign language interpretation during our Sunday services. Originally we had two men who needed that service. One of them has moved and the other now helps prepare food for the Drop-In Center during the service. However, we have a couple with a child who come frequently who both need the interpretation, and a second couple where one of the women needs interpretation. So this remains an important service for us to provide.

In 2008, a church member generously volunteered to pay the cost of this service. In 2009, because this was not a line item in our budget, several members volunteered to donate to a fund to continue the service. Those generous donations will not only pay for 2009 but will probably last through the summer of 2010. Sign language translation is not in the 2010 budget, and so if people want to see it continue beyond next summer we need more special donations to the Sign Language Fund.

If you would like to contribute to this fund, write your check to the church and in the memo section indicate "Sign Language Fund."

 

ZONE Strikes Again! Many Thanks!
By Bob Kalayjian

Thanks to the energy and cleverness of the youth in Zone on Thursday last the 4000 lights of Christmas went up in Patterson Hall. We will all enjoy them, so thank any of the youth you see for a job well done. And if any groups wish to plan evening events under the lights, they will be up until the end of February.

 

First Church Member's Letter Appears in Los Angeles Times
From Jerry Stinson

In a letter published in the Los Angeles Times, Lloyd Wright challenged a statement by the Crystal Cathedral’s pastor. He used good First Church liberal theology to do so. Here’s his letter:

What did Jesus do?

During Patt Morrison's interview with Crystal Cathedral pastor Sheila Schuller Coleman, Coleman states that "Jesus Christ was pressured to take a political stance against the Roman Empire, and he went to the cross remaining apolitical."

What an astonishingly ignorant statement! Jesus' preaching of the empire of God here on earth – an empire of peace, justice, unconditional love, radical equality and inclusiveness, sharing, hospitality, forgiveness, mercy and nonviolence – put him on an inevitable collision course with the empire of Rome, an empire of war, violence, hatred, revenge, gross inequity and greed.

On his entering the city of Jerusalem, he engaged in political street theater and went to the cross without compromising his ideals and vision.

Jesus was executed by the Romans for defying their authority. He was not pressured to take a political stance. He was not apolitical.

Lloyd Wright

 

Recipe for Cuñapes (Bolivian Yuca Bread)
By Jose Sanchez-H.

Several people have asked for the recipe for the Bolivian yuca bread that was used on World Communion Sunday. Yuca, known as cassava in English, is a root vegetable that grows in the valley and tropical regions of Bolivia. It is gluten-free.

Ingredients
3 cups of yuca flour (available at Northgate Market 6991 Lincoln Avenue, Buena Park, CA 90620, Tel.714/252-8022)
6 cups of queso fresco (available at Costco)
3 tablespoons of butter
4 eggs
2 teaspoons of baking powder
3 tablespoons of sugar
1 tablespoon of milk, as needed

Preparation: Preheat oven to 420 degrees Fahrenheit and grease 2 baking sheets. Grate the cheese. Mix with your hands the yuca flour, cheese and butter. Add the eggs, baking powder, sugar and a spoon of milk until the dough is soft but formable. Make balls and form into patties about three inches in diameter. Place on greased baking sheets and bake for 20 to 25 minutes. Yields about 16 to 20 cuñapes.

 

Shop at Amazon and Support First Church

If you plan to do some of your Christmas shopping at Amazon, do it via the First Church website — the church will get a percentage of all of your purchases made from Amazon that you do through our site. Everything on Amazon is available; just click here and shop!

 

From the Board of Christian Education
By Nancy Valencia

Last week during worship the Christian Education Board presented the Dorothy Baker Award to Melissa Murchison for outstanding service to children in need. Melissa is Chairperson of Operation School Bell, a program of Rick Rackers, an auxiliary of Assistance League. Operation School Bell provides free school uniforms to children and youth in the Long Beach School District. If you would like to contribute to this wonderful organization, please send your check to Assistance League Long Beach 6220 E. Spring St. Long Beach CA 90815. Please note "Rick Rackers" in the memo section.

 

An Exciting Lecture/Book signing at CSULB on Tuesday, December 1

The CSULB, in conjunction with the CSULB, College Chapter and the Long Beach Branch NAACP, is proud to announce an exciting lecture that will be taking place on Tuesday, December 1. The guest speaker will be Dr Keith Black, MD, the author of Brain Surgeon: A Doctor’s Inspiring Encounters with Mortality and Miracles. Dr Black is the Chair of the Department of Neurosurgery at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. This book reflects on Dr Keith Black’s extraordinary life and career. The doors will open at 6 p.m. and light refreshments will be served. After the lecture, Dr Keith Black will be available for a book signing. Dr Black’s inspiring book will be available for purchase at the signing.

Please mark your calendar and plan to attend this event as guests of the Long Beach Branch NAACP.

Date: Tuesday, December 1
Time: 6 – 8 p.m.
Location: The Walter Pyramid Cal State Long Beach University
Room: The Point Conference Center

Hope to see you there!

Mary Flynn

 

 

The Church Mouse has heard ...

... Our former baritone soloist, Kenny Stavert, won the north central regional competition of the Metropolitan Opera Auditions.

... Cynde Soto is the new president of the Beach-Wood chapter of Californians for Disability Rights, and Ben Rockwell is the new vice president. Congratulations Cynde and Ben!

 

Parish Concerns

Your thoughts and prayers are requested for Christopher Aiden Bedolla (son of Mark Cortes' friends); the Negri-Doran family (Cynthia Holt's friends); Lisa Orr upon the death of her mother, Corinne Orr; Bob Phibbs upon the death of his father, Garnett Phibbs; Ed Reeves; and Ann Randolph (Lisa Bode Heard's friend).

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 in the church office.

 

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