Small Group Ministry
A small group ministry implementation team
(Norma Chinchilla, Eduarda Diaz-Schwarzbach, Kevin Ford, Nancy Krusbe, Laura Scully)
Have put together a small group ministry program for this summer
I hope you\u2019ll sign up
It\u2019s a great way to stay connected with your church community
And create more intimate connections
Maybe with some people you don\u2019t already know
Six different groups
Facilitated by the people I named above, plus Lynelle Wise
Meeting on six different days (every day but Monday)
There are evening meetings and day time meetings
Each group meets every other week
From end of June or beginning of July \u2013 through mid-August.
The idea is that this is kind of a test-drive,
And seeing how it goes the program might continue into the church year
Perhaps with Rev. Lissa\u2019s involvement
For more information
See the announcements that came out yesterday
Or the June Advance which comes out next week
The Implementation Team is asking that folks sign up
By June 15<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This Sunday
Coming of Age Worship, May 31
Congregational Meeting, May 31
Approve Budget
Elect Trustees
Annual Reports
Vote on Bylaw
Materials will be emailed to you at the end of today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The June Advance will be out next week
Board \u201cretreat\u201d June 6
Music Sunday, June 7
RE Sunday, June 14
My last preaching Sunday June 21
Followed by farewell party
Request for photo of you and sentence or two about the interim
Due by Sunday
My last contract day is June 30<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I want to share a reading with you this morning from our hymnal<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yesterday I shared reading #461, from American theologian Reinhold Neibuhr<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The next reading, #462, is from the African American, singer, actor, and activist, Paul Robeson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He writes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
462, Paul Robeson<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I shall take my voice wherever there are those who want to hear the melody of freedom or the words that might inspire hope and courage in the face of despair and fear. My weapons are peaceful, for it is only by peace that peace can be attained. The song of freedom must prevail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I have to tell you, I\u2019m feeling shaken today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I live in downtown Los Angeles, and Jim and I were up all night with the sounds of helicopters and sirens, shouting, banging and booming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What began earlier in the day with a protest of the killing of George Floyd at the hands of a white policeman in Minneapolis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Became, after sundown, a riot, having at that point nothing to do with legitimate political action. No strategy. No solution. No hope and courage. A path to nihilism, not a better world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The guy throwing a scooter through the window of the little computer repair shop in my neighborhood was motivated by adolescent energy and boredom at the coronavirus lockdown not by a vision of better policing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A legitimate protest devolved into a scene of random violence and gleeful destruction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s important to separate the two:
The legitimate protest that happened earlier in the day
And the riot that happened later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We don\u2019t have to condone the riot, in order to support the protest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We don\u2019t have to forgive the destruction of property and the hardship placed on small business owners and innocent residents of the neighborhood. (my neighborhood) in order to feel properly horrified by the killing of George Floyd and properly eager to be part of a serious movement to reforming our methods of policing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And this is what so dispirits me about what happened in the streets around my apartment last night. What I want is to be forced to sit with the stark horror of George Floyd\u2019s killing. And the blatant racism of Amy Cooper calling the cops on Christian Cooper in Central Park.
We need to be made to feel that horror
Until it becomes intolerable.
And then be inspired to relieve our collective pain at that horror by taking effective action
Urged by a wise leader with a clear vision
And a strategy for social change that we can participate in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Instead,
Our horror has been relieved, without being used
Our horror has been allowed to be distracted by feelings of disgust at what happened in the streets last night
Our sympathy for the victims of police violence has been diluted into sympathy for the folks who were hurt last night.
That isn\u2019t fair to George Floyd
And all the other victims of police violence
That their tragedy has now been replaced by a different tragedy
That brings us no closer to a solution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We had a protest. Undone by a riot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Violence is not a tactic in the pursuit of peace<\/p>\n\n\n\n
462, Paul Robeson<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I shall take my voice wherever there are those who want to hear the melody of freedom or the words that might inspire hope and courage in the face of despair and fear. My weapons are peaceful, for it is only by peace that peace can be attained. The song of freedom must prevail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
See you tomorrow, 1pm.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"