Greetings Keystone Members,

It has been quite a week. The pastoral staff at Keystone UCC are monitoring events in King County and striving to work out the most faithful response to the Covid-19 virus. In light of recommendations from King County Public Health, and our UCC Conference Minister, we along with your moderator John Preston, have decided to cancel worship for this Sunday.

Initially we were going to send out a letter and recommend that anyone over the age of 60 consider not coming in for worship as a precautionary measure but the issue is larger than the health of our members. County public health officials are now asking for help in controlling the spread of the disease. They have asked that we not meet in groups of 10 or more. Even the younger and healthier members of our community can catch and spread the disease and even though it may not cause them any serious health effects, the more the disease spreads, the greater the opportunity for it to find those who will be harmed. It is our belief that by not coming together for worship we are helping health workers gain the time and resources they need to manage the spread of the virus. We are choosing not to worship, not out of fear but out of concern for the wider community.

Lauren, Yuki and I are working on ways to keep us connected to the life and work of our faith. Yuki has our Lenten book study posted on the keystoneseattle.org website (go to the three lines in the upper right hand corner of the home page, click on “faith formation” and then click on “Keystone UCC Lenten study 2020”). Lauren is loading more recent sermons on the website and I am working on getting this week’s sermon loaded there as well.

I would encourage you to call, text or email other members of the congregation to check in on them. Just because we are not in the same room doesn’t mean we can’t stay connected.

It may well be that we will cancel worship for more Sundays to come. Please check your email for notifications. In the meantime please know that though we won’t be passing the offering plate on Sunday, our costs continue. Please consider mailing in your donations to Keystone UCC, 5019 Keystone Place N. Seattle 98103.

If you have questions or concerns feel free to call or email me at the church.

Peace,

Rich Gamble

On Line!
On Fire - Prophetic Faith & the Green New Deal:

Go to: Keystone web site: keystoneseattle.org here
At right: click the menu bar:
Open Faith Formation page: here

Week 1 (via March 4): A Hole in the World
Download Study Guide, Read Article, Access Reflection Questions, Take the Action, and more.

Beloveds,
You might be aware that along with stopping the spread of this virus, we also are charged with stopping the spread of the racism and stigma against people of Asian ethnicities, especially folks with Chinese ancestry, who have been negatively associated with the virus just because of its link to China, and have been bullied or harmed because of this stereotype. As an Asian American, I’m so grateful to be part of a worshipping community where these kind of micro- and macro aggressions don’t occur and where anti-racism is part of what we mean when we say “justice-centered.” Thankfully, I also have not experienced any of these micro/macro-aggressions but have been hearing from my communities that they are occurring too frequently. It’s a good chance now to practice our bystander training and anti-racist ways of being together, in addition to our healthy hygiene.”
Yuki (with Lauren & Rich)

Sharing News of Other Cancellations in our Community:

Wed. Mar. 4- Lenten Study was Postponed

Thur. Mar. 5- Communities Rising was postponed

Fri. Mar. 6- Meaningful Movies @ Keystone is being postponed.

Sat. Mar. 7- Nell has updated us that Mary's memorial is being postponed to a later date.

Thurs. Mar. 19- Rita has shared the memorial service at St. Martin de Porres Shelter is cancelled, until a later date.

And we will continue to be in touch with STCC and our many building users, as we share practices (such as wiping door knobs after small meetings, and more.) Feel free to share this email, and let us know your questions!

Families & Children
& for All tending to our Younger Ones,
Lauren shares:

Here is a webcomic from NPR explaining COVID-19 to kids.

And a bit that Seattle Public Schools Shared:
Take care of yourselves and each other. We understand that many of you may have fears and worries about your own health, and the health of your children and family. You may also have fears and worries about the unknown. SAMHSA published a tip sheet for caregivers, parents, and teachers to help manage through infectious disease outbreaks that can be found here that you may find helpful when talking to your child.

https://store.samhsa.gov/system/files/sma14-4886.pdf

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And lastly, when you need something lighter (down right goofy) to add to your hand washing songs (if Happy Birthday x 2... or... Happy Birthday + ABC gets old...) for the youngest: here you go!

WEDNESDAY March 4 Lenten Study was POSTPONED... BUT here!

(From Wed. March 4): Dear Keystone Lenten Learners,

If you're like me, you've been keeping an eye on the reports of the Coronavirus/Covid-19 virus outbreak and its spread in Seattle, King County, and other parts of Washington state. Pastor Rich, Pastor Lauren, and I have been meeting and emailing regularly to talk about how this public health event might affect the life and gathering times of our Keystone community, and if you were at worship on Sunday, you heard Pastor Rich and Pastor Lauren share some of the precautions we're taking to keep everyone in our many communities of solidarity safe and healthy.

It's out of this planning that we've decided to postpone tonight's Lenten Study class for On Fire: Prophetic Faith and the Green New Deal, which was to begin at 6 p.m. this evening. We are NOT meeting for the class tonight.

This doesn't necessarily mean that the entire study is canceled for good. I was already planning on including an online portion for this study, which you can find at http://www.keystoneseattle.org/keystoneucclentenstudy2020, and I'll have the study guide for what we would have talked about together posted there by no later than 3 p.m. this afternoon. If you were wanting to do some reflection about climate justice and how our Progressive, Prophetic Christian values tell us to live and act, we can still do that together in this online space. You can leave comments to share your reflections, or email me with your thoughts.

As for future classes, we're watching the news and following the lead and advice of our public health leaders, and will reassess this week whether we will meet together in Battson Hall in the coming weeks, or shift to an online focus that includes other ways to gather, such as Facebook Live, or other online gathering platforms. If you're interested in this kind of interactive online class starting next week, please email, text, or call me and let me know, so we can start working up possible platforms to gather in cyberspace.

Thank you to everyone who was planning to come tonight, and especially to everyone who was planning to bring food for us to share together -- especially Margaret, Jim, and Mary, who had signed up to bring the core dishes of our meal tonight!

I look forward to learning with and from you in whatever ways we can during this Lenten season. We'll keep in touch about any updates or announcements! In the meantime, stay healthy, stay courageous, and stay bold in your work to bring justice and love to all your communities.

Blessings of passion and patience in our journey,

Pastor Yuki
yuki.schwartz@keystoneseattle.org
yuki.schwartz@gmail.com
text/call: 360-689-3832

Lauren got a recent request... maybe a Throw Back Thursday photo or two... here you go! -- Can you estimate approximate circa?! Cheers!

Today the Faith Action Network posted some word here from our Pacific Northwest Conference United Church of Christ. On how we can do justice- love kindness during COVID -19, almost as a civic duty.

May we know each other by our love and connection.