News
Author: Mark Ohlson Published: February 22nd, 2012
Introducing FUMC Compassion Coins!
Remember the last time someone did something unexpectedly kind for you? Maybe they let you ahead of them in the grocery store line? Or out of the blue, gave you a sincere compliment? Or offered to help with directions when you appeared a bit lost?
Well, now’s your chance to give back. And here’s how it works.
Take your Compassion Coin and put it in your wallet/purse. Next time you see someone who could use a little kindness, help them out. Then hand them the coin and ask them to do the same for someone else someday.
It’s just that easy.
And it’s your chance to reach out and do some simple good for the world…and your fellow inhabitants thereof. As you can see, each coin has an email address (coin@fumcpdx.org) where people can send their stories to track their own encounters with “your” coin.
Just to keep you updated, you’ll hear about some of these stories from time to time. But it won’t work if you don’t get it started. Go ahead! Start spreading some kindness today.
And put your heart into it!
Compassion Coins:
From the Church and Society folks at
Category News |
Author: web manager Published: February 21st, 2012
The Circuit Rider newsletter is published every two weeks. Submit articles to the church office by March 1 to be included in the next issue.
In this issue:
Pathways to Life in the Spirit
Prayer Concerns
Adult Sunday School Classes
United Methodist Women
…and more!
Category Circuit Rider Newsletter |
Published: February 20th, 2012
Please join us in room 110 on Monday, February 27, from 6 to 7:30 pm, for a Website Open House.
We’ll be exploring tips and tricks about how to use the church website. Plus we’ll be comparing notes and doing some training with the volunteers who help to manage it.
This is an open invitation to drop in during the evening and get questions answered and share ideas with others.
It is very informal, and all church members who are interested in learning more about the church website are encouraged to stop by.
If your group or committee is not currently listed on our website and you’d like to see it there, please join us.
This is the place to be on Monday night!
Contact the Web Manager for more details
Category Congregational Life, Headlines, Website Info |
Published: February 19th, 2012
Join us this week for worship at 10:30.
Scripture: Genesis 9:8-17; Mark 1:9-15
Sermon: Pathway Into the Wilderness, Rev. Donna Pritchard preaching
Focus: God does not leave us alone in wilderness
Category Featured, Sunday Morning |
Published: February 17th, 2012
A Sunday Forum February 26, 12-2 PM
(Light lunch provided)
Fireside Room
Joan Schweizer Huff, MA of Portland’s Dougy Center and Leslie Storm of the Oregon Partnership a nationally certified suicide prevention organization will lead our forum.
We will seek to gain better understanding of Prevention, Intervention and Postvention before, during and after this crisis or traumatic event has occurred.
It is designed to help us better understand our experience as a congregation and help us be better prepared when crisis may occur.
We will attempt to have a learning experience helpful for all including youth, young adults’ family members and friendship networks.
The events design will include discussion, question and answers and potential follow-up gatherings. Friends and interested persons are encouraged to attend.
Category Forums, Headlines |
Author: web manager Published: February 16th, 2012
Our Lenten pathways begin on Ash Wednesday, February 22nd. Join us from 5:30 to 6:30 in Collins Hall for a simple supper, and in the Chapel from 7:00 to 7:30 pm for songs, prayers and the imposition of ashes as a way to mark the beginning of this reflective, preparatory path toward Easter.
Category Headlines, News |
Author: Megan Humphreys-Loving Published: February 15th, 2012
Whats Up Wednesdays: February 15, 2012
Sunday, February 19
9:30 Kids Choirs
10:30 Worship for All
10:45 Sunday School
11:45 Pancake Lunch Fundraiser after worship: Hosted by the Youth Group. $5 suggested donation. Gluten free/vegetarian options available.
Upcoming:
Ash Wednesday Children’s Worship
Children ages 5 and up are invited to join in an interactive worship on Ash Wednesday at 7 p.m. We will meet in the Fireside room during the Ash Wednesday worship service for adults, which will be in the chapel. For the kids, there will be music, drama, and a project that will help to teach an understanding about Lent.
Dinner will be provided at 5:30 p.m. in Collins Hall.
Super Sunday
March 11 @ 5 p.m.
Parents dine out while kids hang back at the church. Nursery available for kids ages 4 and under. Kids age 5 and up are engaged in games, crafts, art, music, and movement.
Please RSVP with names of parents and names and ages of kids planning to attend.
Lenten Suppers
Lenten Suppers are taking a new approach this year, with a community dinner and short lessons geared toward all ages. The lessons will be experiential in nature, so children will be able to connect to the topic and with the community. Nursery care will be available starting at 6:30.
We will gather in Collins Hall at 5:30 for dinner and then lessons from 6:30-7:15, starting February 22 and lasting through March 28.
Opportunities for Adults to Volunteer:
Super Sunday: 1 adult for activities and art project
Help lead energetic activities for kids ages 5 and up! Parachute, relay races, arts/craft projects, or other talents are more than welcome.
Please email me if you are feeling called to support Children’s Ministry in this way!
2012-2013 Sunday School Teachers
It’s getting close to that time of year to start thinking about teaching Sunday school next year. We will especially need support in Pre-Kindergarten and 2/3rd grade classes. Please consider the call to teach young ones.
Category Children and Families, News |
Author: Megan Humphreys-Loving Published: February 13th, 2012
Come and support the Youth Group’s annual Pancake Lunch fundraiser next Sunday, February 19.
Pancakes, fruit, sausage and coffee are available for a suggested donation of $5.
There will be Gluten Free and Vegetarian options available.
Food will be served buffet style in Collins Hall following worship.
All are invited to come and support the Youth at FUMC!
Category Headlines, Youth |
Author: Phyllis Leonard Published: February 12th, 2012
The third Sunday of every month we take a special “Thank Offering” to support organizations beyond the church who are engaged in positive or ministries of compassion and service.
You are invited to share a brief word of gratitude for something or someone in your life as you bring your gift to support these ministries. February 19th our gifts will go to Sisters of the Road Cafe in downtown Portland.
Here is a little information about this organization, taken from their website, www.sistersoftheroad.org:
Since 1979, Sisters Of The Road has been an essential part of the Old Town/Chinatown neighborhood. Sisters offers a space to build community, empower ourselves, learn from one another, dine with dignity and organize for justice and human rights for all.
Sisters Of The Road exists to build authentic relationships and alleviate the hunger of isolation in an atmosphere of nonviolence and gentle personalism that nurtures the whole individual, while seeking systemic solutions that reach the roots of homelessness and poverty to end them forever.
Category Global Mission committee, Headlines, News |
Author: Megan Humphreys-Loving Published: February 8th, 2012
Wednesday, February 7
Preacher’s Pub will meet at Cafe Nizza (820 SW 18th Ave Portland, OR 97205 – right across from the ball park) at 7 p.m. Tonight
Come and join in the conversation!
Category Congregational Life, News |
Author: web manager Published: February 7th, 2012
The Circuit Rider newsletter is published every two weeks. Submit articles to the church office by February 16 to be included in the next issue.
In this issue:
Mardi Gras Party
Lenten Events
Pathways to Suicide Understanding
Staff Spotlight on Kelly Qualls
A Forum on Hunger
Prayer Concerns
Adult Sunday School Classes
United Methodist Women
…and more!
Category Circuit Rider Newsletter |
Author: Mark Ohlson Published: January 24th, 2012
First United Methodist Church Portland Announces
Ecumenical Bible Discussion Fellowship
A downtown Portland Ecumenical Bible Discussion program has now begun at First United Methodist Church. All interested participants are welcome to attend. Invite your non-Methodist friends to join you for a spirited ecumenical discussion and then head out to lunch afterward!
The format is a discussion group of lay participants and at least one clergy person. The Rev. Joanne Rannells (United Methodist, Ret.) will be present as the group gains momentum and clergy from other denominations join in as they are welcome and invited to do.
Discussions are following the common lectionary for the church year (currently Year B), and the only requirement participants are encouraged to do in preparation is pre-read that week’s scripture and come with a Bible, comments, and questions. A chart of weekly readings will be distributed at the meetings to allow participants a clear understanding of weekly scripture for the next meeting.
This discussion series is designed to enable participants from different traditions to reflect together on scripture through each other’s eyes and share common and divergent points of view. The emphasis is on discussing scripture in the context of the times in which we live.
Plan to join this new ecumenical fellowship group each and every Thursday morning!
Meeting Dates: Each Thursday Morning, 10:30AM to Noon
Place: First United Methodist Church
1838 SW Jefferson St., Portland
Public Transportation: (Located at Goose Hollow MAX station, 18th and Jefferson)
Portland, OR 97201
For more information contact:
Mark Ohlson, First Church Outreach Coordinator
503-228-3195 (ext. 220)
mohlson@fumcpdx.org
Category Fellowship Opportunities, Headlines |
Published: January 24th, 2012
The Circuit Rider newsletter is published every two weeks. Submit articles to the church office by February 2 to be included in the next issue.
In this issue:
Ecumenical Bible Discussion & Fellowship
Preacher’s Pub
UMVIM Team to UMCOR West
Library Book Sale
Responding to Domestic Violence
Prayer Concerns
Adult Sunday School Classes
United Methodist Women
…and more!
Category Circuit Rider Newsletter |
Published: January 23rd, 2012
Did you miss church last Sunday? We know there are many reasons you may not have been in the pews during the service.
Maybe you were in Sunday School teaching the Fourth Graders. Perhaps you had to set up for the coffee hour after the service. It’s possible that you were working in the nursery or some other part of the church. You might even have been skiing on Mount Hood…
No matter! Have we got a deal for you!
The whole worship service from Sunday morning is online! That’s the whole service from every Sunday morning!
Starting in January of this year, we have begun offering all of our Sunday morning services for playback online. Each service begins with the our lay leader’s announcements and plays right through to the end of the postlude.
You can listen to any of the services listed in the Sunday Morning section under the Worship heading right here on our website. Services that are available show up as a row links at the bottom of that Sunday’s entry (you’ll see them right under “Download the Bulletin” when they are available). Just click on the “Play Now”, “Play in Popup” to listen right away, or click on “Download” to get the service and play it later.
If you listen to podcasts using the iTunes Podcast directory, you can subscribe and have each week’s service delivered to your favorite listening device automatically. Go to the iTunes Podcast directory and search on fumcpdx to subscribe (or click on this link: Portland’s First United Methodist Church at iTunes).
Category Headlines, News, Website Info |
Published: January 23rd, 2012
First United Methodist of Portland is sending a Volunteer In Mission team to UMCOR West (Salt Lake City) June 3-9, and there’s still room to sign up if you’d like to go!
Team members will work in the Supply Depot, packaging layette, health and sewing kits, and will also have the opportunity to visit some of Salt Lake City’s cultural attractions, including the possibility of attending a rehearsal of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.
There will be an option for folks to car pool to Salt Lake City (with an overnight stay in Idaho) or they can fly.
The cost of the trip is approximately $600, which includes transportation, lodging at the Episcopal Retreat Center, most meals (prepared cooperatively at the retreat center and local restaurants), insurance and fees to the Supply Depot.
Application forms are available at the church office.
Category Featured, Global Mission committee, Volunteers in Mission |
