Summer 2013 Group Registration Open!
Our Summer semester of Small Groups has began! Attached below is the PDF of the Small Groups flyer. Take a look, fill out the last page and email it to Rev. Jeremy to register!
Group Ministry Summer Term PDF
Congregational Life
Sabbath – Taking a Time Out for Rest, Renewal, and Reflection
Sabbath – taking a time out for rest, renewal, and reflection – is an essential part of the spiritual life. I was reminded of that again recently while on retreat at the coast, when I ran across this quote from Judith Schulevitz:
The Sabbath is to the week what the line break is to poetic language. It is the silence that forces you to return to what came before to find its meaning. We have to remember to stop because we have to stop to remember.
It is indeed difficult to stay connected with our own spirits and to remember ourselves as spiritual beings if we never take the time to stop. If we never find, or create, those “line breaks” in time it is easy for one experience to flow into the next, one day to merge with the next, and one life to become hopelessly muddled in the routine of every day.
This is so important to the life of faith that Rev. Jeremy and I have planned a whole month of sermons to focus on Sabbath. During the month of July (when it’s “summertime and the livin’ is easy”…) our sermon series, “Give Me A Break!” will look at what it means to take the gift of Sabbath time seriously. Because we all need those breaks – from work, from the world’s demands, from our technology systems, from endless activity.
But don’t wait for July! You can begin right now to inspire and to claim your own Sabbath time – even a few minutes at a time. Trust me – it will be time and energy very well spent!
Grace and Peace,
Rev Donna
Parenting for a New Age
Parenting for a New Age – new fellowship group forms this Friday!
Come join us for a potluck supper on Friday, May 17th in the Fireside Room beginning at 6:30 pm if you are blessed with children in their 20-somethings.
We will share our joys and our challenges of learning what it means to have young adult offspring, and how we are “growing up” as parents for this new age.
Call Rev. Donna at 503-228-3195 if you have questions.
iGroup on Wednesday, May 15
The iGroup is meeting on Wednesday, May 15, from 1 to 3pm in Room 134.
Everyone is invited to come share ideas and to help one another with our iPads and iPhones.
Paul Adams guides the group through these very informal Q&A sessions every month.
Who should attend? Everyone who uses an iPad or iPhone, anyone who is thinking about getting one, and folks who just want to join us and hang out.
If you do have one already, bring it along! Much of the discussion will be “hands on”. Email Paul at adams@cliffdweller.com to ask questions or for more information about topics to be covered.
Grace and Gratitude
Theologian Karl Barth once wrote:
Grace always evokes the answer of gratitude. Grace and gratitude belong together like heaven and earth. Grace evokes gratitude like the voice of an echo. Gratitude follows grace like thunder follows lightning.
That has certainly been my experience this week as I have been on retreat at the Oregon coast. I happened to choose exactly the right week to come away for a few days of prayer and reflection undergirding my work of worship planning and sermon preparation for the next six months! The weather has been truly amazing. The sun has shined every single day, and today there is not even a breath of wind!
Because there has been much work to do, I have remained fairly disciplined in this time. However, about every three hours the view of blue waters and white waves just outside my window has colluded with the eager expectancy of my dog to bring me outside onto the beach for another walk.
As always I have been surprised and delighted by the gifts of grace I have encountered along the shore. The immensity of the water brings to my mind the abundance of God’s powerful love. And the rocks and little bits of shell seem to adorn the sand as if placed intentionally by a master artist. It is all beauty wherever Maggie and I turn.
So I walk and I pray and I am overcome by an awareness of grace – that freely given, unmerited and unlimited love of God. And I discover again that Barth was right, as gratitude wells up to echo the grace and to lead me back inside to plan some more, to create more opportunities for us all together to see the grace and to share the gratitude.
Rev. Donna
Change the World Weekend
Join your church community in a day of service! Sign up for one of three service projects offered the morning of Saturday, May 18:
- 9:00 – 11:30 AM The Oregon Food Bank, Portland Location (Ages 16+)
7900 NE 33rd Drive, Portland, OR 97211 - 9:30 – 11:30 AM The Children’s Book Bank (Ages 6+)
728 NE Glisan St, Portland, OR 97232 - 9:30 – 11:30 AM All-Family Goosehollow Family Shelter project, FUMC (All ages)
1838 SW Jefferson, Portland, OR 97201
Change the World Weekend is a global Rethink Church event. United Methodists in over 1,500 locations will venture out and get involved in their local communities.
Our First Church projects will conclude with a deli style lunch in Collins Hall, beginning at 12:00 PM. All Change the World participants are invited to come, eat, and share their stories from the morning.
Register here for one of the projects in the Change the World Weekend, and plan to meet us at the worksite to do the work!
May 19 Library Book Sale
First Church Library will hold another used book sale on Sunday, May 19, before and after worship in Collins Hall.
This is our final book sale of the year, and everything must go.
Books will be for “sale” by donation. Take what you want, and we ask that you give what you can (cash or checks only). All proceeds will benefit First Church Library.
We will be setting up for the sale on Saturday, May 18, beginning at 9:30 AM and could use a few additional volunteers.
If you can help, please leave your name with one of the Sunday volunteers in the Library or at the Library table in the Commons.
Or, you can just show up on Saturday morning at 9:30 AM.
We can also use some extra hands to help box up any leftover books immediately following the sale on May 19.
Our Bread for the World Results are In
From Letter Writing Chair Liz Jacob:
The following is a recap of our 2013 Offering of Letters. 69 letters were recieved. Of that number, three were submitted by our Sunday visitors, 15 were from Gladys Shaw’s Calaroga living complex, and form letters were submitted from residents of Terwilliger Plaza. Letters to our two senators and two representatives who have local offices were hand delivered there. Others were mailed to Washington, D.C. Signed petitions to the president were mailed to the Bread for the World headquarters in D.C.
Our thanks to Liz for serving our church community and the world in this important annual effort.
Intern Deadline Near
May 26th Deadline for Internship Applications!
High school and college youth take note: Application deadline for a summer Greathouse Intern position is May 26th! If selected you will spend up to 210 hours this summer working in the organization of your choice. And you’ll receive $2,100.00 in compensation while you intern.
For full information, see Mark at the Outreach Table after worship or fill out an application online at the Church website: fumcpdx.org.
The broad definition of mothering
Mother’s Day is around this time of year and it can be either:
- an acknowledgement of a great mothering spirit or
- a difficult time for those who do not fit the definition of “mothering” that they see in society and perhaps from the pulpit.
A blogger Amy Young (www.messymiddle.com) wrote the following liturgy to recognize the full spectrum of mothering.
See if you can see yourself in this list (here’s a PDF of it):
To those who gave birth this year to their first child—we celebrate with you
To those who lost a child this year – we mourn with you
To those who are in the trenches with little ones every day and wear the badge of food stains – we appreciate you
To those who experienced loss through miscarriage, failed adoptions, or running away—we mourn with you
To those who walk the hard path of infertility, fraught with pokes, prods, tears, and disappointment – we walk with you. Forgive us when we say foolish things. We don’t mean to make this harder than it is.
To those who are foster moms, mentor moms, and spiritual moms – we need you
To those who have warm and close relationships with your children – we celebrate with you
To those who have disappointment, heart ache, and distance with your children – we sit with you
To those who lost their mothers this year – we grieve with you
To those who experienced abuse at the hands of your own mother – we acknowledge your experience
To those who lived through driving tests, medical tests, and the overall testing of motherhood – we are better for having you in our midst
To those who have aborted children – we remember them and you on this day
To those who are single and long to be married and mothering your own children – we mourn that life has not turned out the way you longed for it to be
To those who step-parent – we walk with you on these complex paths
To those who envisioned lavishing love on grandchildren -yet that dream is not to be, we grieve with you
To those who will have emptier nests in the upcoming year – we grieve and rejoice with you
And to those who are pregnant with new life, both expected and surprising –we anticipate with you
This Mother’s Day, we walk with you. Mothering is not for the faint of heart and we have real warriors in our midst. We remember you.
This Mother’s Day, I hope you feel celebrated in all the ways you mother those around you.
Shovel and Rake Gang Joins Planet Church to Highlight Church Grounds on Earth Sunday
On Earth Sunday, April 21st, Shovel and Rake and Planet Church teamed up to show off the First Church campus to five Sunday School classes.
On display were the Rose Garden, where the kids learned about water, its uses and conservation; the Brockman Courtyard, where they learned about habitat and wildlife; and the grounds just east of the Sanctuary where they assisted the Shovel and Rake crew in planting a Korean Dogwood.
In addition, the classes learned about our church’s efforts at energy efficiency in the Fireside Room, and in Collins Hall, they had a chance to pair plant smells—like mint—with snacks made from the plant—like mint cookies.
Everyone had a good time, and we all got a chance—again—to experience appreciation for our wonderful church grounds, and gratitude for Shovel and Rake’s phenomenal care taking.
First Church Returns to the Food Bank!
Once each quarter, Church and Society plans a volunteer trip to the Oregon Food Bank where we serve in the “Repacking Room” by preparing household size portions of bulk foods. These food items are then distributed to the thousands of hungry Oregon families living among us.
Our next volunteer trip is scheduled for:
Saturday, May 18th
Oregon Food Bank, Portland Location
7900 NE 33rd Drive
Portland, OR 97211
Time: 9:00 AM – 11:30 AM
This particular day’s effort is our contribution to the United Methodist “Change the World” Weekend program. Please see the sign up sheet at the Outreach Table in Collins Hall to join our group. Or email for more information: mohlson@fumcpdx.org. See you at the Food Banki!!!
“Everything Drive” Succeeds in Helping Needy Families
This thank you note from Rena Satre Meloy, Communications Director at Community Warehouse sums up their appreciation for our support during our recent “Everything Drive” for household goods:
“I want to extend a HUGE, huge thank you on behalf of all of us here (and the 50+ families who came in last week, as well those coming in this week) for all of the wonderful contributions your congregation collected for the Warehouse. You’ve knocked our socks off (now several years in a row) and we are so grateful to all of you for your ongoing support.”
Once again, the congregation at First Church shows that in our hearts, we really care about those less fortunate than ourselves. Another successful Outreach effort under our belts. Thank you to all for participating!
Planet Church and Friends Pull Ivy to Celebrate Earth Day
On Saturday April 20th, eighteen First Church members joined almost fifty other volunteers at Tryon Creek State Natural Area for an Earth Weekend service project.
The crew was assigned to pulling English Ivy from a site upslope from the creek.
Pulling ivy is slow work, but thanks to many, many efforts like ours, Tryon Creek has been able to remove this destructive invasive plant from almost 1/3 of the park’s 645 acres.
Thanks to all who were able to help!
A Church Unafraid of Hot Topics
Rev. Jeremy Smith
I usually cringe whenever I turn on the cable news and see someone offering political commentary from a “Christian perspective.” While I do occasionally share the same beliefs as the talking head, it troubles me that someone can offer a “Christian perspective” as Christianity is as diverse as the snowflakes on a windowpane.
I do not, however, cringe whenever I see that our church is holding conversations about hot topics (politically and otherwise). Conversations through forums or panel discussions are the best way to talk about hot topics as it invites a variety of perspectives into conversation with one another. Even a forum that has only one perspective usually involves a first-hand account of the topic.
So to that end, buckle your seatbelts because May and June have somehow become “Hot Topics” month at First United Methodist Church.
- Sunday, May 5th, there will be a Water Fluoridation Forum after church in the Fireside Room. We have invited Dr. Kurt Ferre, DDS from Healthy Kids Healthy Portland (who is advocating for the May 21st ballot measure), and Rick North from Clean Water (who is advocating against the ballot measure) to give presentations and have Q&A time with our congregation. While we know there are advocates who are passionate about this topic outside our congregation, this will be a congregation-centered conversation for us to discern how to vote in a few short weeks.
- Sunday, June 2nd, there will be a Palestine Forum after church in the Fireside Room by our own Dee Poujade who has recently spent three months with the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel. She has eye-opening experiences and will share of her thoughts on the troubled Holy Land. This is sponsored by the Global Missions committee.
- Sunday, June 9th, there will be a Death Penalty Forum after church in the Fireside Room with a guest speaker Frank Thompson, who was a penitentiary Superintendent from 1994-1998. He will be here to speak as well as show a 13 minute film documentary about the death penalty. This is sponsored by the Church and Society committee.
- Sunday, June 23rd, there will be a Marriage Equality Forum after church in the Fireside Room with panelists from Basic Rights Oregon, who are advocating for a 2014 ballot measure to change Oregon’s constitution. This is sponsored by the Reconciling committee.
For some, these will be hot topics. For others, these are settled issues. But the great thing about our church is our willingness to discuss these topics openly and in ways that lead to life for all who participate. We hope you can attend.
