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

The Pilgrim - April 4, 2010

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

This year’s joyous Easter service will include two anthems by the sanctuary choir, one of which will also include our adult bell choir, Bellissimo. Our youth bell choir, Beloved Bells will also be part of the service. The cross, covered on Maundy Thursday, will be undraped. With flowers, our children will transform an iron butterfly at the base of the chancel. Libby and I will share the sermon time, each of us reflecting on the meaning of the Easter stories.

Music on Sunday

For this Easter Sunday the Sanctuary Choir will collaborate with the adult hand bell choir Bellissimo in presenting Douglas Benton’s arrangement of the Easter hymn “Christ the Lord Is Risen Today”. The congregation will sing along on the opening and closing verses (printed in the order of service). Marc Dickey will add the brilliant sounds of the Möller organ to complete this rousing hymn. Tracy Halter-Balin will conduct it all. The choir will offer as an anthem Randall Thompson’s “Alleluia.” Thompson’s music enjoyed great popularity in the middle of the 20th century, but fell out of favor in the final two decades. I am happy to report that he is back in vogue, with many performances of his great choral works being rediscovered by choral programs throughout the world. Randall Thompson (1899-1984) received his Ph.D. from the Eastman School of music and taught at Harvard and the Curtis School of Music, among other universities. “Alleluia” was written at the request of Dr. Serge Koussevitzky for the opening exercises of the Berkshire Music Center, at which it was performed by the student body under the direction of Professor G. Wallace Woodsworth, July 8, 1940.

- Dr. Leland, Vail, Minister of Music

 

In Sunday School

Theme: Resurrection Joy
Scripture Focus: John 20:1-18

Please note that there is no Adult Education class this week.

 

 

Practice Parking Hospitality on Easter
By Libby Tigner

Our parking challenges recently multiplied when the City of Long Beach installed a 24-hour automated parking meter to the structure that many of us use at Cedar and Broadway. Some folks have reported that the gate was up and parking was free this past Sunday, but free parking in that structure is no longer something that we can depend on. We have found one alternative: we have validation stickers for the parking lot at the corner of Fifth and Pacific.

So – here’s your challenge! Practice parking hospitality this Easter. Let’s all work together to save the best parking places for visitors and for folks who have mobility challenges. Park as far away from the church as you can comfortably walk, or go ahead and park in the City’s structure, even if you have to pay.

Another idea is to use the bus. Did you know that the Passport B goes right past the church, will drop you off at Third and Cedar, and it only costs $1.25? You can pick it up almost anywhere along 4th Street from the Colorado Lagoon, west. Go to www.lbtransit.com and look up a route that will work for you! It’s cheap, it’s easy, and it’s green!

A third option is to carpool. Who in your zip code area can you invite to pick up and bring to church? Don’t drive alone if at all possible; make sure that at least one other person is riding with you. There might be someone who doesn’t live that close to you, but you know that they are on your way. Call and ask if they’d like a ride this Sunday.

If you are arriving early because you have to drop off food and supplies for the Easter brunch or the Drop-In Center, be sure to get back outside and move your car out of that prime parking spot so that someone else who needs it can park there.

Let’s all be a part of the solution to our parking problem by filling our cars with passengers, parking a little further away, considering public transportation, or paying the fee at the city structure. It’ll make First Church a welcoming place for our visitors!

 

Board of Parish Life Presents Easter Breakfast and Brunch
By Martha Duncan

Step away from that chocolate bunny! OK, you can eat one ear. But you won't want to skip Easter Sunday breakfast and/or brunch. Breakfast will include oatmeal, cold cereal, fruit, yogurt and pastries. A fabulous Easter brunch will be catered by Bootstrap Catering. $8 suggested donation for brunch.

 

Easter Calla Lily Cross
By Tracy Halter-Balin

Calling all calla lilies! We will once again decorate our courtyard for Easter with our beautiful calla lily cross. Since it takes about 500 to fill in the cross, we’re looking for volunteers who can commit to bring in 30–40 lilies to church by 8:45 Easter morning. I can also arrange to pick them up from you the day before. Just let me know. Do you have these beautiful flowers in your garden? Or maybe your neighbors have some they’d be willing to share. If you can help out, please contact me at bellgirl99@hotmail.com, call 562-754-3324 or just find me at church! Let’s keep this beautiful tradition going. Thanks so much!

 

Easter Eggs for the Drop-In Center
By Brad Lara-Gagne

Once again, we ask all church members who can to decorate a dozen hard-boiled eggs to be given out to the Drop-In Center guests on Easter. It's been such a great tradition; we look forward to doing it once again this year.

 

Easter Bubble Celebration
By Wally Hoeger

One of the joys of being a part of a congregation is being able to come together as a faith family and share in celebration. Easter is one of those times. We come together on Easter morning to celebration God’s renewing spirit, to celebrate the wonder of spring. So it is with that spirit that we invite all members of the congregation from the very young to the very wise to join in our Easter bubble celebration in the courtyard after the service. With their simplistic beauty, bubbles remind us of our renewed hope and uplifted spirit during this Easter time. All participants will be given a bottle of bubbles and an Easter prayer card to blow bubbles in the courtyard and then take home with them. Come join in the celebration with us.

 

Easter Lilies

To contribute toward the lilies that will adorn the sanctuary on Easter Day, please email Ruth Warkentin in the office with the information below, then turn in your check made out to First Congregational Church with "lilies" in the memo by putting it in the offering plate on Sunday or mailing it to the office (241 Cedar Ave., Long Beach, CA 90802).

DEADLINE: Noon on Thursday, April 1

Name:
Phone number:

Number of lilies ______ x $10 per plant = $ ________

In honor/memory/celebration of:

__ I will take ______ plant(s) home.
__ Please take ______ plant(s) to shut-ins

 

Help Wanted for the Drop-In Center: Cook Welder and Grant Writer
By Brad Lara-Gagne

The Drop-In Center is looking for someone to help supervise the kitchen one or two Sunday mornings a month from 8 to 12, for a welder to fix our metal cart, and for anyone interested in helping us write grants. They can be anyone you might know in or outside the First Church community. Please contact Brad Lara-Gagne (bradg63@aol.com or 562-607-4006).

 

Global Mission Church Starts Its Engines
By Bob Stiles

Some interest has been brewing in the church in becoming a Global Mission Church (GMC). Bob Stiles has been working with several members for that to happen at First Church. One fact about a GMC, whether we understand what it means to be one or not, is that our church has been involved in specific global mission deeds and projects in the recent past, if not over the many years of our existence. The Nuclear Peace Crane project, participating in the Peace March and the Pride Parade, the lighting of the peace candle in the sanctuary and Rev. Jerry’s educational lectures on the Israeli/Palestinian conflicts are all Global Mission Church events. Would you list some and give them to Bob? What a great surprise that we have so many!

Those were deeds of love, mercy and justice. Almost every UCC church is already at some point in doing GMC work. Once we see that we have a grand history in global mission, we are almost to the point of naming ourselves as being a Global Mission Church. It may be easier than we think.

But whoa! We have a way to travel in learning about the needs of today’s global world, and also, and this is important, we need to have other things happen initially in the church’s tradition of accepting a new designation and new works. A new ministry team may need to be formed. That is where the GMC project is approaching slowly now.

Being a GMC means that we need to be intentional about learning, growing and doing a project that is close to our hearts. We do not need to be experts in the field but persons interested in global ministry with projects to do and a commitment to do them, or just one project at the present time. All of those mentioned above could easily be placed under the large umbrella of global ministry. We are almost there! Tradition and new learning are the things to consider now.

If you are interested in working with Bob’s group or have ideas of excitement for the global world, please call him at his office: 562-923-3722. Bob has a project of sending a gay young man to complete his training that he is exceptionally excited about. Do you have a project?

 

First Church Is the Kind of Church Glenn Beck Is Talking About
By Jerry Stinson

Each day Glenn Beck, the Fox News commentator, spews out paranoia and racism over the airwaves. He has recently attacked churches that preach "social justice," saying on his radio show: "I beg you, look for the words 'social justice' or 'economic justice' on your church website. If you find it, run as fast as you can. Social justice and economic justice, they are code words. Now, am I advising people to leave their church? Yes!"

So I checked our website to see what Mr. Beck would find there.

I am proud of the fact that on the homepage, in big letters at the very top is the identifying statement we use in all our literature and public communications: “A Liberal Church, Welcoming of All, Pas-sionately Committed to Social Justice.”

I clicked on the church’s mission statement and found the sentence: “To faithfully work for the inclusion of, and justice for, all people…”

My biography in the staff section of the website says that one of my priorities for First Church is: “Putting community outreach and social justice advocacy at the center of our congregation's life. In particular this has meant advocating outreach to the homeless in Long Beach, advocacy of equal mar-riage rights for all in our nation, and calling for an end to American imperialism and militarism throughout the world.”

Then of course we have a whole section on the website about “The Board of Outreach and Social Justice.” There are those words, social justice, in the actual name of the board.

And if that is not enough, there is a another separate section called “Social Justice Action.”Clicking on that website tab, a person will find these words at the beginning: “Social Justice Action is an important part of our church's history and of our current spiritual journey as individuals and as a congregation.”

So I am proud to say we are the very kind of church Glenn Beck loves to attack. At the same time, I think he would also attack some of the great prophets of social justice like Amos, Micah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Jesus and Muhammad.

 

GreenFest Is Coming! Mark Your Calendars!
By Wally Hoeger

Date: April 18
When: After church
Where: In the courtyard
Sneak peak: Eco-conscience activities, crafts, and learning opportunities for adults and children

 

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.

 

 

April Birthdays

1 April Bradley
2 Jonathan Chambers, Steve Chambers, Larry Forester
4 Estelle Cordova, Bob Klar, Jose Lopez
5 Louise Fiori, Linda Ramsay
6 Thomas Nicolai
9 Savi Nguli, Barbara Smith
10 Nicole Cook
11 David Fitzgerald, Larelle Hendon
14 Jacob Esqueda-Macias, Howard Williams
16 Ellen Kameya
17 Roger Reid, Aldra Robinson
18 Philip B. Wilson
20 Deb Buller, Jeff Ford, Patti Nakamura
21 April Porteneuve,
22 Dorianne Campbell-Graham, Tim Harris, Doug Jones, Wendy Kuran
23 Melody O'Keefe, Lane Shepherd
24 Jeff McFarland
25 Janet Waggoner
27 Jim Long
28 Beau Chandler
29 Margaret Brown
30 Donny Lara-Gagne

 

April Anniversaries

2       Ray and Nicol Hedgpeth, 16 years
6       Bob Stiles and Clement Cheung, 10 years
7       Bill and Joan Mueller, 54 years
20     Susan Dampf and Alida Montanez-Salas, 9 years
21     Jennifer and Brian Mota, 3 years
22     Ed and Veronica L. Bloomfield, 43 years
23     Brad and Kathryn Stevens, 34 years
24     Michael and James Llewellyn-Woodruff, 10 years

 

Parish Concerns

Your thoughts and prayers are requested for Art Brewster (Teri Brewster's husband); Trish Ploehm (Vicki Doolittle's friend); Sheila Pope (Vicki Doolittle's friend); and Bob Kalayjian's family upon the death of his cousin's son.

In the armed forces: Laura Anderson (Kathy Young's niece, stationed in Bahrain).

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 the 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.

 

The following information is paid advertising. To place an ad in this newsletter, please contact Ruth Warkentin in the church office.

 

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