Friday, February 20, 2015

Newsletter February 20, 2015

Join us for services
Worship Every Sunday – 10:30am
All Are Welcome!

Sunday, February 22, 2015:  

Rev. Rich Gamble, preaching
Theme: Wilderness, Journey, Learning
Scriptures: Mark 1:9-15

Reader: Dan
Usher: Betty
Coffee Hour: Sandie

** JOIN US THIS SUNDAY as we celebrate all our February Keystone Birthdays!Who's birthdays are we celebrating?? Check out the list below, updated each month (and sometimes more often).

Pick up Children's Activity pages & crayons on the welcome table every week as you come in to worship (based on the scripture of the day.)  There are two types: younger children & older children.
 Professional Nursery Care (0-2 yr. olds) with Anita, open 10:00am- 12pm
• Sunday School (multi-age) downstairs, during sermon & prayers time: approximately 10:45-11:15am.  (Help younger children to class after the scripture is read; and then pick them up to return for start of communion)

NOTE: Children with parent/caregiver are always welcome to move between the Sanctuary & Narthex (welcome area) during any part of worship, or to rove to classrooms downstairs/upstairs, or enjoy the playground out back!  

 

Upcoming Keystone Events :


Sunday, Feb. 22             – Teach In: No New Youth Jail
                                           led by Youth Undoing Institutional Racism
                                          @ Madrona Grace Presby. Church, 823 32nd Ave.
                                          1:30-3:00pm

Tuesday, Feb. 24            – JLP Faith & Justic Making:
                                          
Resisting Structural Evil
                                          (1st of 3-class series - drop in welcome)
                                          Location TBD; 6:30pm optional potluck,
                                           7:00-8:30pm workshop

Saturday, March 7           – Seattle Labor Chorus Singalong
                                         @ Phinney Ridge Luth. Church, 7500 Greenwood Ave.
                                           7-9:30pm

Saturday, March 21         – Morning of Engaged Faith Study
                                               "What Does It Mean to be Table-Flipping Disciples?"
                                          @ Plymouth UCC, 1217 6th Ave.; 10am-Noon

Tuesday, March 24          – JLP Faith & Justice Making:
                                           
A Parable's Lens of Oppression
                                           led by University Cong. UCC pastor, Amy Roon
                                          @ Keystone UCC; 6:30pm optional potluck,
                                           7:00-8:30pm workshop

Monday, March 30           – Turning Tables Monday - Faith in Action
                                             Location & Time TBD

Tuesday, April 7               – JLP Faith & Justic Making:
                                          
The Practice of Nonviolence
                                         (1st of 4-class series - drop in welcome)
                                          Location TBD; 6:30pm optional potluck,
                                           7:00-8:30pm workshop
 
** HOLY WEEK **
 
Thursday, April 2            – Maundy Thursday - Agape Supper
                                         @ Keystone UCC (Battson Hall); 7pm

Friday, April 3                 – Good Friday - Service of Tenebrae
                                         @ Keystone UCC (Learning Center); 7pm

Sunday, April 5               – Easter Sunday Worship

** See below for details on these, and other events related to life in our community **


Event Spotlight:

 
Upcoming Opportunities to Learn & Act
 

Teach In - No New Youth Jail

led by Youth Undoing Institutional Racism
Date: Sunday February 22
Time: 1:30-3pm
Location: Madrona Grace Presbyterian Church, 832 32nd Ave. Seattle

YUIR is a multiracial, inter-generational community organizing group. YUIR is youth-focused and committed to promoting meaningful and sustained youth engagement in civic society. Come learn about the No New Youth Jail Seattle Campaign from YUIR Seattle. The youth of color who are leading this campaign will provide the history of the work, future ways to get engaged and how it is a critical component of the growing anti-racist movement here in King County. More information athttps://www.facebook.com/events/753926801351663/



Morning of Engaged Faith Study
"What Does It Mean to be Table-Flipping Disciples?"
Date: Saturday March 21
Time: 10am- 12 pm
Location: Plymouth United Church of Christ, 1217 6th Ave Seattle

Turning Tables Monday is the Monday before Easter when Jesus went into the Temple and turned over the tables of the money changers. This year, on March 30, members of predominantly white churches will come together to call attention to the economic exploitation of youth of color through mass incarceration, even as we acknowledge the way we benefit from these systems as white people. We will have several events leading up to Turning Tables Monday to educate congregations about the New Youth Jail being built in Seattle and what it means to be table flipping disciples. Turning Tables Monday will be an action at the offices of the contractor who will receive a more than $154 million contract to build the new youth jail.

This action comes out of a request from Ending the Prison Industrial Complex (EPIC), a youth-of-color led, inter-generational, multiracial, and anti-racist organization. The goal of the action, as well as the process leading up to the action, is to raise the consciousness of local Christians, deepen our faith, and help us find our place in the long-term anti-racist movement.
 

Turning Tables Monday- Faith in Action
Dae: Monday March 30
Time & Location: TBD

Invitation from Lauren ...

This year I've been active in helping Keystone build support for faith communities to act in support of examining the new youth jail plan in the central district.  It has been good to work with some of our Justice Leadership Program alumni in this effort.

An amazing $210 million has been approved to create a bigger youth jail. The facilities that are currently a mess require $40 million to secure.  What if $170 million were invested in alternative, restorative justice, healing, counseling, services?  What if the 'No New Youth Jail' Campaign offers a tangible way for us to learn more from youth of color in our community?  As our hearts have been broken many times over the last six months with the murders of Michael Brown, Eric Garner, and many others, we have searched for ways to come together to respond, that go beyond the moment.

Stepping more in to anti-racist movement building is ongoing work.  We have an  upcoming opportunity to help us learn from youth directly impacted.  They will lead aTeach In on February 22.  

Then, we can gather with other faithful folks for a Morning of Study on March 21 at Plymouth UCC.  We will consider how each Gospel tells the story of Jesus overturning tables in the temple:

"My house shall be called a house of prayer- but you are making its den of robbers."  ~ Matthew 21:13

Predominantly-white congregations will be invited to consider how we are not Jesus in this story, but the complicit ones being thrown out.

A supportive faithful action will develop from this gathering for Table Turning Monday on March 30.  These events are designed to build relationships and energy for continued engagement in further anti-racist movement work down the road.

I also invite us to explore a resource that has been developed for the season ahead.  One of the authors is active in European Dissent.  Take a look at this daily Lenten Devotional here: Shout Like a Trumpet:

https://lent2015.wordpress.com
(European Dissent is a group of white anti-racist organizers who work in close accountable relationship with the People's Institute Northwest, Ending the Prison Industrial Complex, and Youth Undoing Institutional Racism. All of these groups are currently working to stop the building of a new youth jail in Seattle. Phone: 253-355-0262)

It may be a tool you or we wish to use for the weeks ahead, with a focus for Lenten study.

Look forward to talking with you,

Grace and peace,

Lauren
 

A message from the Keystone GreenTeam ...

 


Are you looking to make your Lent a green one? Rich and Jim invite you to join them in the annual Ecumenical Lenten Carbon Fast, an initiative of N.E.R.E.M. – New England Regional Environmental Ministries:

The season of Lent is a time within the church year to acknowledge that we are mortal, limited.  Lent awakens us to hope in God whose "steadfast love endures forever" and to struggle against everything that leads us away from the love of God and neighbor. During Lent we confess our mortality, our limits and our vulnerability so that we might be transformed and become the new life God calls us to be.

We invite you to join us as we commit to fasting from carbon during Lent. BeginningAsh Wednesday and throughout Lent, participants will receive a daily email with the day's suggested carbon-reducing activity. Many will also suggest ways to engage others. Each daily email will also provide material that can be the basis for a weekly congregational conversation.

 
The activities range from the very simple: eliminate “vampire” electrical use; to the moderately challenging: take “military showers;” reduce your driving speed; to more long term: buy local produce and consider getting involved in a community garden.

We don’t expect everyone to be able to do everything suggested; but serious consideration of each day’s activity can raise people’s awareness, inviting them to think more carefully about how their day to day living impacts the environment and make the changes they can.

Congregations that participate are encouraged to gather weekly to share their experiences, support one another, compare notes, share resources and pray.  ** CONTACT LAUREN IF YOU'D LIKE TO BE PART OF KEYSTONE'S GATHERINGS **

This invitation is open to all, Christian and non-Christians, believers and non-believers. God is calling us to be the change we long to see. Let us engage this spiritual discipline, grateful for all God has entrusted to us, and trusting that with God all things are possible.


For more information, visit http://www.macucc.org/carbonfast

Interfaith Advocacy Day 2015


 

Olympia or bust!
Another Interfaith Advocacy Day is in the books, and big thanks to all the Keystone members who attended, while none deserves more praise than our own Amber Dickson. Working with Faith Action Network through the Justice Leadership Program, Amber gave her all in the often long and arduous hours spent planning the day, scheduling meetings and getting people educated on the issues.
 

Amber (center) and fellow FAN staffers.

Speakers were heard, workshops attended and meetings had! By all accounts, the day was a success! Hundreds of persons of faith convened in Olympia to advocate for the event's overall theme: Act on the Dream: Invest in the Common Good. Thanks to everyone from Faith Action Network who made the day possible!

More pictures from our day can be found on the Keystone Shutterfly page.
 
Winter class in the season of Lent

 
 
Faith & Justice-Making:
Resisting Structural Evil: Love as Economic-Ecologic Vocation

Author Dr. Cynthia Moe-Lobeda and her research assistant Freddie Helmiere lead an interactive discussion of their new book, Resisting Structural Evil: Love as Economic-Ecologic Vocation.  Moe-Lobeda, Associate Professor at Seattle University, connects economic equity, earth care, and social values to develop an "earth-honoring, justice-seeking Christian ethical stance."  Cornel West says, "This is a grand prophetic book..."
 
Dates: Tuesdays, Feb. 24, March 3, & March 17
Time: 7:00-8:30pm workshop
Location: TBD

We are so pleased to be joined during Lent by this author and another colleague, as two friends of JLP, who bring perspectives as Lutheran and Methodist faith leaders, activists, and academics.  Discussions will be led by the author and by Freddie Helmiere, who teaches at Seattle U and U of Washington, and was research associate to Moe-Lobeda on the book for two years

Please get the book on your own and start reading.

Tuesday, Feb. 24: read approximately the first 1/3 of chapters: led by Freddie. Bring a robust question that emerges from your reading of the text.
No

Tuesday, March 3: read the 2/3 of chapters: led by Dr. Moe Lobeda.  Bring a question from your engagement with the text.

Tuesday, March 17: read the last third of the chapters in book: led by Freddie.  Bring a question from your reading of the text.

Helpful to RSVP: jlp.elizabeth@gmail.com


_______________________________________________________________

Spring class
After Easter - four Tuesday evenings - mark the dates - come to any



Faith & Justice-Making: Practice of Nonviolence

At age 28, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. led the first successful large-scale application of nonviolent resistance in America- the Montgomery bus boycott that gave hope to millions for an end to segregation.  This class unit takes us through King’s own account of this struggle as we read “Stride Toward Freedom.”  
 
Dates: Tuesdays, April 7, 21, 28, & May 5
Time: 7:00-8:30pm workshop
Location: TBD

Inspired in part by Gandhi, King interpreted nonviolent resistance as a call from courageous Christian faith.  These classes invite discovering more understanding of agape love.  Come to steep in the characteristics of living deeply rooted love in action.  King said agape “recognizes the fact that all life is interrelated.”  Portions of “A Force More Powerful” films will show nonviolent social movements.  Explore with Rev. Lauren Cannon the theology, theory, and practical components of nonviolence as King describes them in the Montgomery story.  Take inspiration for challenges in our daily lives, and social change work.  

TO READ: Stride Toward Freedom, Martin Luther King, Jr.
 

 

 

 


Film: "PROJECT UNSPEAKABLE"

A Dramatic Reading of Selected Sections of the Play, with Video Vignettes

Friday, Feb. 20; Doors open at 6:30pm; Movie starts at 7:00pm
@ Keystone UCC (downstairs in Battson Hall)


(A Play by Court Dorsey, with Associate writers Stephen Wangh & Debbie Lynangale), based on a book by Jim Douglass)
 
AND OUR 12th ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION!
 
Portions of the play will be a read by Friends of Meaningful Movies, a collection of 12 readers from our own social justice community. And we'll augment the performance with interspersed historical videos.

ABOUT THE PLAY:
Coinciding with the 50th commemoration of the death of Malcolm X (Feb 21, 1965), PROJECT UNSPEAKABLE is a theatrical work about the role of Thomas Merton’s “Unspeakable” in the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Robert Kennedy.
From the authors of the play: A generation of baby-boomers who have lived most of their adult lives in the rubble of shattered dreams, who have seen the great leaders of their generation slaughtered in officially whitewashed circumstances, are invited to come forward to insist that the truth finally be uncovered regarding this destruction of lives and visionary leadership. In addition,
Project Unspeakable offers [everyone] a unique opportunity, not only to learn more about these four inspirational leaders of the 1960’s, but also to reenergize their recent efforts to confront current manifestations of the “Unspeakable,” as many have already been doing in the “Occupy” and climate action movements.

Join us following the film for a great discussion.

** Event Is Open to the Public. Admission is by Donation **

We help communities organize, educate, advocate & build community around social justice documentary film and conversation. See other upcoming films and More: www.meaningfulmovies.org


February is a busy month for birthday's at Keystone, with 10 current (or former*) Keystone members celebrating ...

Alan Winston - 2/8
Margaret Birdsall - 2/9
Erv Faulmann* - 2/10
Charles Rudash - 2/12
Hannah Lott-Havey -2/19
Sara Kirk* - 2/20
Caleb Smith - 2/22
Marilyn Wall - 2/22
Rakesh Choudhary* - 2/23
Paisley Smith - 2/24

Here's wishing all of them the happiest of birthdays, from all of us at Keystone UCC!

Keep an eye out here for upcoming Keystone Birthdays!

Pastoral Care & Keystone UCC Hours:


Rich and Lauren can be reached at the Keystone office: (206) 632-6021.  This phone is also checked remotely since both Rich and Lauren serve half-time.

Mondays:  the church office is closed.  Mondays are the day that Rich and Lauren take Sabbath. So while there are several groups that meet throughout the day and evening at Keystone, it may take a day for someone to get back to you, if you call on a Monday.

Pastor Rich is available Tuesday to Thursday mornings and Friday evenings, and holds additional office times on Saturdays and Sundays.  Not all of these times will Rich be in the church office. If you want to see him, it is best to make an appointment. Email him at rich.gamble@keystoneseattle.org

Pastor Lauren works on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays, and holds office hours each Thursday at Keystone.  Email her at lauren.cannon@keystoneseattle.org
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