| | Join us for services Worship Every Sunday – 10:30 a.m.
All Are Welcome! Interactive, Online
 This Sunday, June 28, 2020
Keystone Congregational Meeting after worship
Preaching: Rev. Rich Gamble
Worship leaders: Rev. Lauren & Rev. Yuki
Text: Genesis 22: 1-14
Theme: A Better God
Reader: Dan S.
Music: with Elliot, Yigit, and more
Children's Story Time: with Anita before worship (10-10:20a.m.)
June Birthdays!
We currently meet online for interactive worship through the Zoom Meetings platform. The link to the worship service is mailed through the newsletter every Sunday morning. Want to invite someone to worship with us? Send them the Sunday newsletter cheat sheet, or invite them to subscribe to our newsletter through our web site by clicking here: http://www.keystoneseattle.org/contact.
SUNDAY SCHEDULE: Our Sundays together begin with Sunday School and Storytime with Teacher Anita at 10 a.m. Children and their families spend 20 minutes in a Zoom breakout room with Anita, then return to the main Zoom space, where worship starts with music at 10:30 a.m. Also at 10 a.m., folks can hang out for a "Bring Your Own Coffee ☕ (half) hour" where we have some time to see each other and talk before worship. After worship, we'll also have about 15 minutes for connection and sharing together in breakout rooms (but... not this week... because...)
June 28 Congregational Meeting: stay after, so we can do our budget & business, & re-elect our slate of officers for this year ahead! |
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Happy Listening Anytime: Miss a Sermon? Down at Classroom? Audio Available Online: Click on a file for a listen HERE, and share! Or watch sermons and worship services on our YouTube page & subscribe!
Miss worship last Sunday? Every week we post video: the sermon from Pastor Rich, Pastor Lauren's guiding prayers in our Prayers of the People (but nothing shared by our people's voices- the recording is always paused for privacy), and Pastor Yuki's benediction. Use these videos as part of your practices of prayer and reflection this week. |
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| June 21 videos are not available at this time, so incase you would like to use these in your devotional or study time, here is a re-run of June 14- sermon, prayer invitation, and benediction: |
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 | | Prayers of the People for June 14, 2020 (including our song to Nell) |
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 | | Benediction for June 14, 2020 |
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Our prayers continue to surround:
Our times of challenge, unrest, uncertainty, times of staying home, & times of filling the streets.
For precious time to worship online together, to steep deeply in our ancient tradition, to see we are never alone, to discern together, how to act in these times for justice, how to safely sing out our hope to create a more equitable word for all, and for Earth.
Nell and her family, in their devoted loving ongoing care for our sister Nell, day in and day out, at Nathan's. God, continue to bring Nell the sense of your Spirit. Continue to be with all of Nell's extended family, and community of beloved friends. And with us Keystone, as we move through gratitude, and keep extending companionship & care with her.
Sandie, for continued rest and recovery.
Dave, for continued recovery from blood clots.
Puspita, at June 20 Anniversary time (husband)
Fathers who have lost, & all our men who weather complexities, or are separated, estranged by no choice, by systems, or circumstance, or choice, on father's day. Surviving another day of recognition!
Our prayers with rejoicing go out to:
Happy Fathers Day! to our amazing Keystone fathers who are reinventing what present, caring, just, engaged fathers can be. Helping to bring forth new days ahead! & all in our midst who father & lead & teach well beyond & wider!
Green Team, at work on UCC Creation Justice application
Paisley, for offering her poem at Roosevelt H.S. Graduation June 18!
All our scholars, for wrapping up a whopper of a school year!
& families, You.did.it!
Hillary C., former JLP intern, and SKCCH intern, now staff: on her engagement!
Holy God ... hear our prayers! These prayers are crafted to carry those shared in worship to our whole community, in the general spirit in which they were given (one pastor or leader makes note as one prays.) We also especially welcome you to send Rev. Lauren your note during the week with any prayer request, and we can incorporate it into our online worship (if you may not be up for voicing it). We are also always glad for you to add your prayers to the Zoom chat box during live worship, and we can fold them in to the spoken prayers. Contact Keystone's pastors for any pastoral concerns (contact info is below and at the bottom of this newsletter)
Prayers to include in the newsletter? Email them to Pastor Yuki (yuki.schwartz@keystoneseattle.org), Pastor Rich (keystone5019@gmail.com), &/or Pastor Lauren: lauren.cannon@keystoneseattle.org, or text/ call Lauren cell: 773.501.7382 |
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THIS SUNDAY: Keystone Congregational Meeting is June 28 BRIEF MEETING ON LINE AFTER WORSHIP: Keystone Congregational United Church of Christ will hold our annual congregational meeting on June 28, 2020, on Zoom after our worship service. Officers, budget, our business, distributing Festival of Hope distributions, roof & solar update, Green Team application: UCC Creation Justice, more! But its not a long gathering- bring your coffee, your questions, & your voice & vote (& wave your hand on line, or by phone *9)! |
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Thursday June 25: join Pastor Lauren tomorrow eve: ready to update your nonviolence training, and step more to support black lives movement in Seattle? We will take small group time at training, and as a church these next months, to continually frame how we best support, how to embody the peaceful nonviolent approach that Keystone lives; we are not leading, we are mindful. With other faithful folks. Militant Nonviolent Direct Action Training w/ Rev. Sekou Thursday 6-8 PM · by Valley & Mountain Fellowship (Methodist south Seattle) & WA Poor People’s Campaign Jimi Hendrix Park Details: meet at Park: Join Reverend Osagyefo Sekou (whom Lauren has met his previous trips to Seattle) in a training in Militant Nonviolent Direct Action. Livestreaming has been available for the 3 others this week. Can't make it Wednesday June 24 (Keystone Story Telling eve), join Pastor Lauren in masks, distanced: each of these Trainings the content will shift and develop each time. (Come to any— each will be slightly different; no pre-reqs)! But all feature 4 practical tips from the National Lawyers Guild speaker, and from a medic, alongside Rev. Sekou. Rev. Osagyefo Sekou will be offering a training in Militant Nonviolent Civil Disobedience. All are welcome, though clergy and religious/spiritual folk are especially invited. The training includes very technical skills on nonviolent confrontational actions and offers a moral framing for this set of tactics (as one set among many). The goals are: to equip more people who can be quickly deployed when called upon to support the movement for Black Lives, and provide opportunity for deepening relationships in the service of base building. Modules to include legal, medical, and tactical info for protest/demonstration situations, plus some meditative/somatic grounding skills. TRAINER: Rev. Sekou trained and co-lead hundreds in militant nonviolent actions in Ferguson, and was deeply involved in the counter-protests in Charlottesville. Before arriving in Seattle this week, he was in Minneapolis supporting base-building efforts there. Read more: www.revsekou.com/bio-1 COLLABORATORS: Street medics, volunteers with the National Lawyers Guild, and Somatic practitioners will help facilitate. *Sponsors: Washington Poor Peoples Campaign, and Valley & Mountain (a South Seattle church grounded in liberation theology, which Rev Sekou regularly visits to teach and speak). ACCESSIBILITY: -Livestreaming available from Valley & Mountain Facebook page to watch remotely -Presenters will be amplified with microphone and speaker -ASL interpretation NOT available at this time (work in progress) -Seating is on the ground (feel free to bring a chair, pad, etc.). A few chairs will be provided; first come first serve. -This is a fairly active training with an invitation to actively participate to build muscle memory for protest situations. Actions will include moving from standing to sitting to lying down at a fairly rapid pace, with repetition (think: light activist-themed calisthenics). All movement is opt in/opt out and you are welcome to adapt practices in a way that suits your needs. -Lite snacks provided COVID Info: -Masks required (we may have extras to offer) -Hand sanitizer will be provided -Outdoor training with moderate distance -All role plays and contact are opt-in/out and consent based. No presh :) |
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Other ways this week: to Take 5!
Take 5 actions can be found at King County Equity Now, a Coalition of accountable, Black-led, community-based organizations fighting to achieve equity in King County. As you will see in your study, their purpose is to provide resources and opportunities to build community by creating a future that emphasizes humanity, empathy, and compassion, while effectively organizing to get there. (They are not behind all moves at the CHOP or DeFund. But super focused on 3 demands.) #PaytheFee #KingCountyEquityNow Check out the video of the massive Juneteenth Celebration for the continued struggle towards Black liberation. (Video by Remington Wilcox.)
BIG announcement central to our City's recent protests Decriminalize Seattle and King County Equity Now: a partnership to develop a participatory budget process for the City's 2021 budget cycle. This announcement comes on the heels of Mayor Durkan offering a mere 5% cut in the SPD budget during a time of severe budget shortfalls. Participatory budgeting is a ground-up, democratic process where community members decide how to spend part of a public budget. The participatory budgeting process that KCENC partnered to create will inform and guide Seattle’s spending on the City’s “public safety” agencies, with a focus on SPD, the City's law department (City Prosecutors), Municipal Court, and reinvestments into the community that could generate real safety. In this time of nationwide uprising, Seattle King Co Equity Now Coalition has been calling for reinvestments into real community safety and well-being. With recent support of hundreds and hundreds of local, accountable community-based organizations and tens of thousands of community members... the overwhelming support for our demands makes clear that people are tired of seeing essential needs like housing, health care, and child care unmet in their communities while hundreds of millions are spent on policing. The community-led participatory budgeting process announced today will help transform community demands #PayTheFee CALLS TO ACTION To honor the call, here are concrete actions to take right now: TAKE 5 Say NO to gentrification in the Central Area and help Seattle's Black community achieve equity. Sign petition AND send a personalized email. OR Visit King County Equity Now and complete both calls to action. AND/OR: Donate what you can! ——-
Meanwhile.... Keystone folks were in last week's Moral Response locally, and raised our voices with the movement ringing out loud and clear last weekend at the Mass Poor People’s Assembly and Moral March on Washington. Rev. Barber wrote: More than two and a half million of you from all across the country and around the world viewed the program on Facebook alone, more than 42,000 of you uploaded selfies and stories on our website, and you sent nearly 300,000 letters to our elected officials insisting they implement the policy agenda of the Poor People’s Campaign. We were covered in the New York Times, CNN, NPR, the Washington Post the Religious News Service and many more! Momentum is growing. We released the summary of the Poor People's Moral Justice Jubilee Policy Platform, which offers an agenda that can heal the nation and restore our democracy. --- |
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 | Keystone is deeply familiar with Rev. Dr. William Barber II, between our studies on his books The Third Reconstruction and Forward Together, and our participation in actions and events with the Poor People's Campaign and Repairers of the Breach. Check out his sermon, "America, Accepting Death is Not an Option Anymore!," that he gave Sunday, June 14, at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. |
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Time to Read, Absorb, and Carry on Our Lament and Prayer:From Pastor Lauren:  I write to share a powerful article from my seminary colleague, Rev. Dr. Waltrina Middleton, whom so many of you also came to know as she traveled to Seattle to join us and preach at my ordination at Keystone on October 26, 2014. At that time she was working for the national UCC in Cleveland and helping lead faithful organizing in Ferguson, Missouri following the August 2014 shooting of Michael Brown. None of us could have guessed what these next years would entail for her family. And yet our prayers have continued to hold her throughout. So I want to offer an invitation to take some more time now with her current piece in the Christian Century. May it help inform the many ways we each will be called to respond to this moment in history.
From the article I Don’t Forgive the Man Who Murdered My Cousin DePayne at Mother Emanuel:"When black people were enslaved in America, they found places called brush arbors—safe havens hidden in the woods where they would steal away to pray, encourage one another, enact rites of passage, and plot their freedom. In the sanctuary of the forest, the disinherited and oppressed offered all they had to give in the collective work of loving themselves, their black bodies and the very essence of their humanity. "Where are the sanctuaries for black people in contemporary America? Where can we go to be free, to breathe, to laugh, to love and be loved and be human without the fears and threats of being harmed? For many, the answer has largely been the black church.
"But on Wednesday evening, June 17, 2015, in the low country of Charleston, South Carolina, not far from the rich Gullah Sea Islands where I grew up, tragedy struck the black church once again. The very thing I fight and organize against as a minister—our society’s deeply masked and far-reaching culture of violence—descended upon my family in the sanctuary of the church. ..." |
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Will Keystone Storytelling Continue, past tonight?
From Pastor Rich:
It has been a wonderful experience to share stories with one another. It gives us a chance to practice sharing our stories and it gives us an opportunity to hear each other’s stories and get to know each other better. When we run out of storytellers, the workshop will end.
Tonight June 24, Sheri is next to tell her story on the theme “a small thing that made a big difference in my life”. We have no one scheduled after that. So tonight may be our last gathering for a while unless someone volunteers for July 8. If you would like to volunteer contact me (rich.gamble@keystoneseattle.org or 206-632-6021). |
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Supporting Nell and Her Family
 Nell welcomes your prayers and messages at her CaringBridge site that her children Nathan and Teresa kindly set up for her. She is living at Nathan and Ruth's with their & Teresa's 24/7 care. Gratefully the medication from the hospital that caused much confusion, is finally out of her system. All are welcome to add love day by day to this Caring Bridge site, or contact Nathan to see about a time to visit, that might also fit with home health or hospice workers times.
Send Nell messages at her CaringBridge site, and Teresa, Nathan, & Ruth lovingly read them to her. |
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 | Watch Paisley read her poem toward the beginning of graduation online on Roosevelt High's YouTube page, and also on Seattle Public Schools TV beginning on Comcast 26 (standard-def) 319 (hi-def), Wave 26 (standard-def) 695 (hi-def) and Century Link 8008 (standard-def) 8508 (hi-def). |
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The Pacific Northwest Conference's home for sharing timely news, analysis, & info on how we can be the conference is on GoogleGroups. If you'd like to become a member of the Google Group, send an email to Arlene pncucc@gmail.com. The Conference also shares news and information on its new Vimeo page: https://vimeo.com/pacificnorthwestucc.
Also check out: our UCC President, & friend of Keystone UCC: here is a 5 or 6 minute helpful teaching Into the Mystic podcast this one entitled "Expurgation"... Rev. Dr. John Dorhauer did his doctoral work on white privilege.
Places to do your self study: BLM, UCC, JuneteenthMinistries of the United Church of Christ are inviting members and friends of the denomination to take part in virtual commemorations of the official end of slavery in the United States and to use the occasion to join a long-term antiracist movement. “And Still We Rise” is the title of a live “UCC Churchwide Event: Juneteenth 2020” that will be (available afterwards here now) led by African American members of the denomination’s staff. It has been four years of focused antiracist programming in UCC Racial Justice Ministries.The 90-minute “And Still We Rise” webinar offers a mix of live and recorded segments on such topics as “The Sacredness of Black Lives,” “Sacred Memory: People of African Descent,” “Our Oral Traditions,” “Our Sacred Rituals,” “Connections to the Cradle of Civilization,” “Resistance is in our DNA,” “Honor the Elders,” “How are the Children?” and “Public Faith and Political Action.” Among its featured speakers are the Rev. Karen Georgia Thompson, UCC associate general minister; Nevada state Sen. Patricia Spearman; UCC storyteller Valerie Tutson; and several staff members from the UCC national and Conference settings. Video clips will include reflections by the poet Maya Angelou on the topic “I Am Human,” and excerpts from a sermon, “When is Someday,” by the Rev. Otis Moss III of Trinity UCC, Chicago. |
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 Glance- down- the- Calendar
Tonight Wednesday, June 24: Keystone's (quite possibly final eve for this go around!) Storytelling! 6:30 p.m. at Keystone's Zoom space, hosted by Lauren starting at 6:15 (link is in separate cheat sheet email), facilitated by Rich. Continuing the theme: A Small Thing That Had a Big Influence on My Life. Email Pastor Rich to sign up to tell a story (206.632.6021. or keystone5019@gmail.com). Learn more about storytelling here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Bo3dpVb5jw
and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgeh4xhSA2Q.
Tonight our Storyteller is Sheri Amundson!
Thursday, June 25: Join Pastor Lauren, update your training, be ready to support movement for Black Lives, in Seattle: 6-8 p.m. Militant Nonviolent Direct Action Training w/ Rev. Sekou · by Valley & Mountain Fellowship (Methodist south Seattle) & WA Poor People’s Campaign: Jimi Hendrix Park Seattle (distanced & masks.)Friday, June 26 - Sunday, June 28: Celebrate Seattle Pride, Trans Pride, Black Trans Pride... with some key events this weekend! In Beacon Hill @ Jefferson Park Saturday 4 pm, or at Othello Park Saturday 2-5:30 pm: #SayHerName: Protect Black Women March and on line workshops and more with Trans Pride Seattle! Whether from home or out in masks- happy Pride, & witness & call to action!
Sunday, June 28: Keystone Congregational United Church of Christ annual congregational meeting, after worship on Zoom!
Wednesday, July 1: Justice Bible Study, 6:30 p.m. on Keystone Zoom. We'll read the Bible and start making links between our justice solidarities and our sacred stories, one Bible chapter at at time. You don't have to read in advance to join this study. Email Pastor Yuki for more info, yuki.schwartz@keystoneseattle.org. Reading for July 1: Mark, Chapter 2. |
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Pat Becker - 6/3
Stan Jeppesen - 6/3
Rich Voget - 6/5
John Preson - 6/14
Amara Poindexter (Dan and Monica) - 6/18
Guppy Smith - 6/19
Teddy - 6/24
Rev. Jerry Chang - 6/25
Clara Havey (Hannah and Nick) - 6/27 (first year birthday!)
Here's wishing them each the happiest of birthdays, from all of us at Keystone UCC! On the last Sunday of the month- we shall have cake at coffee hour (even on line cheer these days!)
Please let Barbara know additions/ omissions! Keep an eye out here for upcoming Keystone Birthdays! |
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Reaching Keystone UCC Pastoral Staff:
Reach us at your Keystone church office: (206) 632-6021. This phone is also checked remotely since all staff serve part-time.
Pastor Rich is available Tuesday to Thursday mornings and Friday evenings, and holds additional office times on Saturdays and Sundays. (Sabbath = Mondays.) 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 keystone5019@gmail.com
Pastor Lauren is on Sunday thru Friday half days (Sabbath = Saturdays). Email is a great way to line up a meeting: lauren.cannon@keystoneseattle.org
Pastor Yuki (they/them) is at church two Sundays a month and is available to meet by appointment (Sabbath = Fridays). Email them at yuki.schwartz@keystoneseattle.org. |
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Give your gift to support Keystone and its many ministries, including the Sacred Heart Shelter, and the Solar Panel Fundraiser. Click the PayPal button below or send your check directly to Keystone. You can also donate through the Pacific Northwest Conference of the UCC at pncucc.org/donate.
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***** To submit content for inclusion, email Lauren & Yuki @keystoneseattle.org addresses above. Content must be received by Wednesdays at Noon.*****
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My apologies, Keystone Justice Bible Studiers, I've caught a bug of some kind (pretty sure it's not Covid, just your standard summer cold so far!) and I'm pretty sure I'd be a pretty miserable teacher tonight, so I'm canceling tonight's Bible Study. This gives you a few extra weeks to read Mark's 
Justice & Local Church Ministries of the United Church of Christ has partnered with Values Partnerships to offer an opening weekend on demand screening of John Lewis: Good Trouble on "Good Trouble Sunday," which is this Sunday, July 5! If you purchase your ticket through the UCC's link, $5 of each $12 ticket will return to us to support the work of Justice & Local Church Ministries. You can purchase your ticket at 