{"id":761,"date":"2020-06-10T11:25:55","date_gmt":"2020-06-10T18:25:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rhmcd.com\/?p=761"},"modified":"2020-06-11T14:14:53","modified_gmt":"2020-06-11T21:14:53","slug":"friendship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rhmcd.com\/?p=761","title":{"rendered":"Friendship"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This Sunday is our RE Sunday<br>Our Religious Education Director, Naomi Yoshida<br>And the RE Committee<br>Are putting that together.<br>Celebration of our Children\u2019s Religious Education program<br>For the last year<br>Including a bridging ceremony for two of our youth<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">After worship this Sunday, June 14th 11:30 am &#8211; 1:30 pm<br>What will we do as a faith community about the systemic racism in U.S. society?<br>Let&#8217;s gather to talk about our commitment to racial justice and how we will manifest this in our lives, our congregation, and our community.<br>There\u2019s also a google group you can join<br>If you want to discuss<br>Send an Email to\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"mailto:UUCLBracialjustice@gmail.com\" target=\"_blank\">UUCLBracialjustice@gmail.com<\/a>\u00a0to be added to the group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Small Group Ministry (SGM)<br>a program which deepens members\u2019 and friends\u2019 experiences of \u201cchurch\u201d through their participation in lay led small groups.\u00a0<br>UUCLB\u2019s SGM Summer Zoom Edition includes six groups\u00a0<br>that will meet every other week\u00a0<br>with meetings lasting approximately 1-1\/4 hours so as to avoid \u201cZoom fatigue.\u201d\u00a0<br>There\u2019s a meeting for every day of the week except Monday<br>Morning, afternoon, and evening times are available<br>More information is available in your weekly email announcements<br>Which will be in your email inbox this Thursday<br>You must sign up by June 15<br>Some of the groups are filling up<br>So please include a request for a 1<sup>st<\/sup>\u00a0choice<br>And a second choice<br>And if you want to enroll right now<br>Send an email to\u00a0<br><a href=\"mailto:sgm@uuclb.org\">smallgroupministry@uuclb.org<\/a>\u00a0with your 1st and 2nd choice and telephone number\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This will be the last week that I do these messages<br>I will give my last message on Saturday, 1pm<br>I need to turn my attention to some other closing business<br>And I need to start my leave-taking<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The week of the 15<sup>th<\/sup><br>I\u2019ll attend the Board meeting<br>I\u2019ll attend the Pastoral Care meeting<br>I\u2019ll lead the weekly staff meeting<br>I have a sermon to write for June 21<br>And I\u2019ll finish the communication I\u2019m preparing for Lissa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">June 21, is my last day preaching to you<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Then for the last week of the month<br>I will participate in some of the GA and Ministry Days activities<br>I will finish cleaning out my office<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I did something fun last weekend<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On Sunday, Jim and I went over to a friend\u2019s house<br>And we had a bit of physically distant<br>Social engagement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">These two guys are a couple<br>That Jim and I have been friends with for several years<br>They have a home in the valley<br>They invited us to come over and sit in their backyard<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If anything, this two guys are even more conscientious about proper health procedure<br>Than Jim and I<br>One of the guys is 68<br>The other is a bit younger but is diagnosed with COPD<br>So they are appropriately vigilant about protecting their health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And this is also the first time that Jim and I had met in person<br>For a social function<br>With anyone<br>Since the middle of March<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We drove over to their house<br>We walked around the side of their house into their backyard<br>Without going inside<br>We had our own designated chairs and a table<br>They came out of their house and had their own chairs and a table<br>More than six feet apart.<br>We brought our own bottle of wine and glasses and snacks<br>And they had their drinks and snacks at their table.<br>We didn\u2019t touch<br>Or get closer than six feet<br>And we never went inside<br>Even to use the bathroom<br>We just chatted<br>And after about an hour and half we said goodbye<br>We waved<br>And we walked back around the side of the house and drove home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It sound kind of miserable<br>But actually it was lovely<br>It was great just to see friends and catch up<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But it was also great because the experience<br>Stripped down the social experience to the essential<br>It wasn\u2019t a party<br>It wasn\u2019t a crowd<br>They didn\u2019t make us dinner<br>Or offer us a drink<br>Or let us in their house<br>All they offered was their friendship<br>And that was such a gift<br>And because we didn\u2019t have all of those other things to distract us<br>We were able to really just enjoy their friendship<br>They never got called away to the kitchen<br>Or to answer the door<br>Or to say hello to someone else<br>It was just them<br>And us<br>And each of us giving our complete attention<br>And it was the best conversation I had with either of them<br>In years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It was lovely<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As the COVID-19 pandemic continues<br>Now into a third month<br>And with infections not plateauing<br>But continuing to rise<br>We need to understand that the health precautions we have adopted<br>Are going to be with us for many months to come<br>And so we need to find ways to adapt to the needs of the time<br>But still find satisfaction and fulfillment in our living.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We cannot live without social interaction<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I had been focused on the miserable part of not being able to<br>Be together physically<br>As were used to do<br>And that had been keeping me from experimenting with<br>How we might be together<br>In a new way<br>Which turned out <br>when I tried it<br>to be extremely satisfying<br>And fulfilling<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I encourage you to experiment<br>Stay safe<br>Follow the necessary health precautions<br>But within those protocols<br>See what you can do<br>And you might be surprised.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">See you Tuesday, 1pm.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This Sunday is our RE SundayOur Religious Education Director, Naomi YoshidaAnd the RE CommitteeAre putting that together.Celebration of our Children\u2019s&hellip; <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/rhmcd.com\/?p=761\">Read more <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Friendship<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[13,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-761","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dailymessage","category-writing"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rhmcd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/761","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rhmcd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rhmcd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhmcd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhmcd.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=761"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/rhmcd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/761\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":774,"href":"https:\/\/rhmcd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/761\/revisions\/774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rhmcd.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhmcd.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhmcd.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}