Thursday, December 19, 2013
Christmas Eve Candlelight Service
The Keystone traditional Christmas Eve Candlelight Service will be held this year on Tuesday December 24th at 7pm. Come sing your favorite carols, hear the Christmas story and ponder the meaning of it all.
Sunday, November 17, 2013
Keystone - national news again! Two of our UCC justice intern alums!! From Pacific Northwest Conference UCC
Check out the November 8 article in "UCC news":
http://www.ucc.org/news/young-adult-service-programs.html
http://www.ucc.org/news/young-adult-service-programs.html
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Keystone goes national!
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Sunday, November 3, 2013
November 3 All Saints and Upcoming Events
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Tuesday, October 29, 2013
seeking Children's Christian Education Coordinator
Part Time Position: Children’s Christian Education Coordinator
Keystone is a small progressive community of faith located in the Wallingford neighborhood of Seattle, next to the University District. We are an open & affirming justice centered church, affiliated with the United Church of Christ (UCC). Our building is a bit of a community center, hosting justice and faith programs, chorus, dance, and meditation groups, meaningful movies, peace and community forums, providing support to the homeless through the activism of our congregation, and site of the Co-op PreSchool. “Come, see how we love!” All ages, races, gender identities & sexual orientations, cultures, and classes are especially welcome.
Our families with school age children are growing! We seek a part-time Children’s Christian Education Coordinator to engage our school-age children (ages 6-10) along their faith journeys. This position is to teach on Sundays during our 10:30am worship service. The Children’s Christian Education Coordinator will design and provide faith-based activities and lessons for this small group of children.
Job Description:
Sunday mornings: 10am - Noon; plus one weekly hour paid planning time;
$15- $20/ hour DOE.
- Set up classroom at 10:00am.
- Greet families as they drop off before the worship which runs 10:30am - 11:30am.
- Provide engaging learning for school age children
- across the seasons of the church year
- using engaging progressive teaching activities & materials
- plan curriculum in consultation with associate minister
- help children rejoin congregation near end of service for communion
- Reconnect with families at coffee hour until 12pm. Converse with parents about the day’s lesson/activity. Encourage faith practices for home.
- Foster faith education for our children and families, as they grow in community.
Below are the personal leadership qualities and expectations we are seeking.
Part Time Children’s Christian Education Coordinator:
- Keen interest in developing a vibrant Sunday School program for a neighborhood church, with supportive pastors and lay leaders.
- Experience teaching Christian Education with children, particularly those ages 6-10.
- Demonstrated skills in leading children’s activities, particularly teaching biblical stories of progressive Christianity and Christian ethics.
- Independent, self-starter who is also able to be a collaborative leader to nurture unpaid volunteer members of the church to assist as needed.
- Heart for outreach to new visiting families who seek a church with a loving and accessible children’s ministry.
- Familiarity and comfort with children of various cultures.
- Experience teaching children to engage the liturgical seasons of the Christian church year.
- Familiarity with commitments of the United Church of Christ.
- CPR, and First Aid certification not required, but given special consideration.
- Experience working with volunteers to maintain “Safe Church” standards and updates.
- Nurture connection between the church and families with children in the wider community.
If interested, please send your resume and cover letter by November 8 to Associate Pastor Lauren Cannon laurenccannon@gmail.com. All people of various race, ethnicity, gender, and sexual identity are encouraged to apply.
Keystone Church proclaims the good news
that God's realm is in our midst.
Come see how we love. Sundays, 10:30 a.m.
5019 Keystone Place N., Seattle, WA 98103
Whether you’re a seeker, doubter, believer, wherever you are on life’s journey, you’ll find hospitality here.
Keystone is an open and affirming community. All are welcome.
206-632-6021 www.keystoneseattle.org
Friday, July 12, 2013
Change Agents Sought
Young Adults – 21-35 years old – The UCC Young Adult Service Communities are for you. Intentional Community – Service/Justice Advocacy – Congregational Service. Apply today to begin service in September 2013.
Tuesday, June 18, 2013
Cynthia Moe-Lobeda June 19
Tomorrow night June 19th Cynthia Moe-Lobeda will be talking about the themes in her book Resisting Structural Evil. Potluck 6:30 class 7PM.
http://archive.org/details/scm-58594-cynthiamoe-lobeda-aspiritualit
http://archive.org/details/scm-58594-cynthiamoe-lobeda-aspiritualit
Tuesday, May 28, 2013
Folklife discussion
On Memorial Day, Rich was asked to be a part of a panel which discussed to work of clergy.
Folklife Panel Discussion 5/27/13 Opening Statement
When we talked about this
panel we discovered that the three of us were pulled in different directions.
The direction that I wanted to go was not so much about the WHAT of my work,
the what is quite broad… Since entering into seminary my calling has led me to
the bedside of the dying and to lead celebrations of a birth, from joining some
in marriage to sheltering one from an abusive spouse, from creating poetry,
painting and pottery, to balancing budgets. I’ve unclogged toilets for Jesus,
cleaned up puke and feces and dug latrines. I’ve broken laws and been arrested.
I’ve shoveled lots of snow sometimes off the roof of the church. I’ve helped a
farmer in crisis clean out a barn full of dead chickens. I’ve cooked for scores
of folks, slept on sidewalks and in the basement of my church alongside those
who were homeless. I’ve led teenagers in games and senior citizens in protests.
I’ve listened to the stories of homeless people, and shared those stories with
Senators. I’ve organized little old ladies to stand against the militarization
of space and others to stand against the sale of the land under their homes.
I’ve had my life threatened, been cussed out, and been fired from my job as a
minister because of my faith.
The what of ministry can be
pretty interesting and I have lots of stories but I’m here to talk about the
why. As a pastor it is my job to support and guide my community of faith, but why?
In this I am not speaking for my colleagues here much less clergy in general. I
am only speaking for myself; and for me, all of the things that I do are so
that those around me might experience a real alternative to the world view that
has formed and dominated our civilization.
Through ritual and story,
through poetry and song, through art and public action my job is to help the
people of my congregation live into their role as those who preserve and promote
a radically alternative view of what human life and civilization can be.
It started with that
foundational experience of the Exodus. Deep in our ancient past a group of
slaves had the world changing, audacious idea that God was on their side.
Despite the evidence, the fact that their masters lived in luxury, had the
support of scores of priests, worshipped in magnificent temples, and had a far
superior ability to utilize violence; these slaves believed that the formative
and sustaining power of the universe was not apathetic to the plight of humans,
or on the side of those with the power to dominate but was passionately,
actively on their side, seeking their liberation.
Civilization as we have come
to know it was formed by systems of domination. So we tend to think of
domination as being the natural order, and even the divinely mandated order of
the universe. Many tend to see God as the Dominator in Chief. Those who had
obtained the power to dominate were thought to be blessed by God, and the
blessings of God were and are measured in terms of such power, the power to
control others through the use of wealth or violence.
But what if God was really
on the side of the victims of domination? What sort of God would that be? What
sort of thing would be understood to be power? What form would the human
community take? What sort of economic system would we have if our primary
concern was for the most vulnerable and not the most powerful? What sort of
political system?
For me, the Exodus broke
open human history, later thinkers in the Bible and elsewhere have sought to
answer some of the many questions that arose when trying to understand the
nature of the God who stands with slaves, and the nature of the human community
built on the foundation of faith in that God. Ultimately it led to a Christian
thinker proclaiming that God is agape or self-giving love.
If that is true, if the
formative and sustaining force in the universe is self-giving love, then violence
has no place in a community, greed should not be the foundational motivation
for economics, war and poverty and hate need not be the norms of the human
community.
The Bible and history shows
us that communities built on the foundation of this radical notion can, over
time, be twisted back into conformity with the values and practices of
domination. But history also shows that even in these twisted forms their lies
the seeds of this radical alternative awaiting fertile ground. That’s how I
think about my Baptist upbringing. That even in that domination based form of
Christianity these stories were preserved.
Everyday in the world the
themes of domination are blasted at us, in newspapers and television, in adds
and cartoons, books and games and movies. We are told that our identity is
found in what we own and consume. We are told of the necessary and redemptive
virtues of violence. We are taught to fear strangers, to envy the wealthy and beautiful,
ignore the sick and disabled, and condemn the poor for their poverty. And
unless we continually challenge these messages they will pass into our heads and
become “common sense.”
You don’t need to be a
Christian to promote this alternative perspective. You don’t need to believe in
a passionately partisan Spirit of the divine. But metaphors help us get at
these concepts, rituals help us make them sacred for a community, and a
community can more effectively preserve and transmit these ideas than isolated
individuals.
So I help maintain a
community of faith, and that community seeks to use its resources to promote
forms of self-giving love like social justice, social service, non-violence,
compassion, empathy, and forgiveness.
My congregation is small but
because they are committed to this vision they keep open a space for the seeds
of this vision to grow. This past week at my church, a Taiwanese Christian
Community worshipped, the Peace Chorus and the Labor Chorus rehearsed, the
Dances of Universal Peace danced, the Seattle Insight Meditation Society
Meditated, community members came together to organize against climate change,
and others came together to see a film and talk about preserving wilderness
areas. Buddhists, Sufis, Atheists, Agnostics, all find a home in Keystone
because we know that this vision is bigger than religion, and more important
than the things that divide us.
Friday, May 24, 2013
Pentecost
Different Colors, different shapes, one fire.
Pentecost is the season in which we celebrate the Spirit of God, symbolized in wind and flame.
Pentecost is the season in which we are reminded that our faith isn't just about events and people in the past but about what the Spirit of God is calling us to do and be right now.
Welcome to Pentecost
Wednesday, April 3, 2013
LIFE AND DEATH IN HONDURAS
LIFE AND DEATH IN HONDURAS
Political Violence, the U.S. Drug War and the Roots of Migration
An evening with Fr. Ismael Moreno Coto.
Wednesday April 10, 2013
7:00 p.m. Keystone Church
Honduran Jesuit priest Ismael Moreno Coto is director of Radio Progreso a radio network that covers northern Honduras, and of a research and social action center (ERIC). Since the 2009 SOA graduate-led coup, "Padre Melo" has spoken out and has been on the receiving end of death threats and intimidation for his work for justice.
Political Violence, the U.S. Drug War and the Roots of Migration
An evening with Fr. Ismael Moreno Coto.
Wednesday April 10, 2013
7:00 p.m. Keystone Church
Honduran Jesuit priest Ismael Moreno Coto is director of Radio Progreso a radio network that covers northern Honduras, and of a research and social action center (ERIC). Since the 2009 SOA graduate-led coup, "Padre Melo" has spoken out and has been on the receiving end of death threats and intimidation for his work for justice.
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
Sermon: The Poor
Reading 2: The Gospel reading is from
John, chapter 12
Six days before the
Passover Jesus came to Bethany
But Judas Iscariot,
one of his disciples (the one who was about to betray him), said, "Why was
this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the
poor?" (He said this not because he
cared about the poor, but because he was a thief; he kept the common purse and
used to steal what was put into it.)
Jesus said,
"Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of
my burial. You will always have the poor with you, but you do not always have
me."
Holy Wisdom, Holy Word.
Thanks be to God
Lent 5 Year C
John
12:1-8
The Poor
By Rich Gamble
In the story today in John, Mary has wasted perfectly good
perfume to anoint Jesus. Judas complains that the perfume could have been sold
for a great deal of money and that could have been given to the poor. Three
hundred denarii is about a years salary for a common worker. In today’s terms
here in Seattle
Granted Jesus didn’t ask for this but neither did he try to
stop Mary. And when Judas complains Jesus defends Mary. Now John discounts
Judas’ motive for saying this. Where this story appears in the other Gospels it
is the disciples as a whole who ask the question. The point is the question not
the motivation behind why it was asked. Why waste the resource? Why not turn it
into aid for the poor?
Jesus quotes the first part of Deuteronomy 15:11 “You always
have the poor with you,” he then says “but you do not always have me."
I bet you have heard that quote about the poor always being
around. It is generally used by people who know enough of the bible to insulate
themselves from the implications of being Christian. People use this quote to
justify ignoring the plight of the poor.
The point supposedly is that it is silly to worry about the suffering of
impoverished people because they are a natural part of the social and economic
landscape. Worrying about the suffering of the poor is like worrying about rain
in Seattle
It is important when people write off the suffering of
billions of people with this throw away quote that we respond that it is a
really bad understanding of what Jesus means. First of all Jesus was quoting
from Deuteronomy 15:11.
Indeed if you read the rest of Deuteronomy 15:11 you will
see that it says:
“Since
there will never cease to be some in need on the earth, I therefore command
you, ‘Open your hand to the poor and needy neighbor in your land.’”
This quote comes from a part of Deuteronomy which talks
about the Sabbatical Year which calls on believers to honor God every seven
years by forgiving debts, and releasing those enslaved by debts.
Assuming that Jesus understands what he is quoting then not
only is he not saying to ignore the poor but he also pointing out a passage
that talks about the forgiveness of debts and setting free indentured servants
every seven years. It is a vision of charity as part of a broader systemic
approach to economics. Yes you help those in need by giving freely but also you
forgive debts and set slaves free. It is a much bigger picture than just giving
money to those in need.
So what’s going on in this passage? Jesus in supporting
Mary’s action is saying to the Judases of the world, there will always be
opportunities to care for the poor. But what Jesus is about is something
greater than charity, something bigger than justice. Jesus is the embodiment of
the will of God and that will leans not to a perpetuation of unjust
relationships between rich and poor.
Jesus represents God’s ancient call to upset the applecart
of human relations and celebrate our faith by ridding ourselves of injustice
and all other forms of violence and living fully in the light of the love of
God.
In other words Judas, our celebration of Jesus is not about
painting the smiley face of charity across the abysmal evil that is injustice.
Jesus represents God’s indomitable will to Love and love is bigger that
charity, even bigger than justice.
Jesus then is the symbol of the transformation of the values
of the human community.
Charity is important but it is not the answer. Charity
perpetuates the separation between the rich as givers and the poor as
receivers. Justice eliminates the separation by redistribution of resources so
no one has to be a perpetual receiver. Charity by itself justifies unjust
systems by making those who profit from the system feel righteous and superior
to those who are the recipients of their generosity.
Yesterday 3 of our interns joined with people of faith from
across Seattle to talk about starting a campaign
to make the minimum wage in Seattle
Out of that conversation came the insight that by providing
food banks and free medical care we are often subsidizing the profits of those
businesses that fail tor provide their employees with a living wage and
adequate benefits.
Could Mary have honored Jesus by selling the perfume and
giving it to the poor. Of course she could. But this story is meant to provoke
our thoughts and questions. This story highlights the fact that Jesus stands
for more than just charity. In fact charity is one of the least parts of what
Jesus has to offer. Jesus embodies for us a struggle for a world ruled by love
where the need for charity would be rare because we have constructed a just and
loving society .
Why should places like this church exist, when the space
could be used to provide low cost housing, and the budget could be used to buy
food for the hungry? Well we shouldn’t continue to exist if we are not
promoting a bigger more just vision of what the world could be. But as long as
we do proclaim such a vision then we like Jesus serve a vital role. We question
the current order of things and instead illuminate the radical alternative that
is God’s Realm. We are called neither to abandon our works of charity nor our
work for justice. It is important to remember that charity often makes us feel
better about ourselves than working for justice does. That is why most
congregations do some form of charity but few do the work of justice. But is it
in that more challenging less rewarding work of promoting Jesus’ alternative
world view where the real hope for humanity is to be found.
This congregation has given hundreds of thousands of dollars
away to support the cause of charity and justice since the beginning of the
Festival of Hope. In the time that I have been at Keystone we have over 500
forums for justice, plus countless planning meetings. We host Eliza’s work with
Heifer which helps provide food and empowerment to people all over the planet.
We host my work with FAITH which works towards the end of homelessness. That
work may not have happened if there had not been a congregation keeping this
space open. That work may not have happened if there had not been a
congregation here tending the flame of God’s vision.
But as important as all that work is the vision God gives us
is so much bigger. The implications of understanding the very core nature of
God and therefore ourselves as self-giving love, has the power to transform
lives, families communities and nations.
As long as that vision sits at the heart of this
congregation and as long as we act in accordance with that vision then we are
justified in giving our time and money to keeping Keystone alive and growing. As
long as embers of a vision of God’s love smolders in places like this, then
there is the very real possibility that it will catch and transform the world.
We are the keepers of a vision of transforming hope. That vision is very good
news.
Amen.
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