Here is an update below from Chris Weedy, spouse of Jimmy Creech with Presbyterian new breaking barriers and videos . I just rec'd my copy of ADAM's GIFT : the memoir .. today! I hope you can find a copy this summer, order it online - or find another good read on GLBT justice or stories to share with us in Nov! Write stories of Spiritual awakenings this summer and fall! (one page front and back).
SUMMER EMAIL OFFERINGS for RMN and our NE Statewide Network yearly commitment has begun May 11!
We have $65 to start the offerings from the fundraiser in Lincoln May 11 - We need to raise $250 minimum commitment to RMN! Our statewide network is an "official" reconciling community! www.RMNetwork.org
Write LOVE GIFTS and checks to: RMN and mail to Maureen Vetter, 4422 Drake lane, grand island, NE 68801. Maureen will send them in and keep track of donors this summer! www.nebraskarum.blogspot.com
Support RMN or Reconciling Ministries Network -- with General Conf 2012 coming next spring!
Become a Friend of: Nebraska Statewide Reconciling Network on FBgroups! search it by that title!
Dates: PFLAG May 16, Hastings, NE at the UCC on marion road, 7 PM, sharing meeting
May 23, Mon noon, Thank you LUNCH 4 Rev Scott Taylor, 313 Cafe and cream, 3rd St, GI (blue moon)
Bring a donation for the TUMC Emergency HIV AIDS fund to honor Scott 4 organizing concerts
Make checks : TUMC -- inMemo put Emergency HIV AIDS fund .. honor Scott this way!
assist clients with medical emergencies at NAP kearney. . $2700 in aid was given last year!
May 31, 6 PM, Trinity UMC LINCOLN, MFSA dinner with Don messer speaker, Becca : scholarship!
For info on the dinner, tickets and more: www.umcneb.org and see the last UM connect article
Let's support Don Messer coming to speak on HIV AIDS ; Becca Preisendorf, JC Scholarship!
June 4, Saturday Noon, Lunch with Becca and Breanne as a fundraiser to the new GSA at GISH!
Bring cash or we are trying to find out who we make checsk to at GISH for the new GSA!
313 Cafe and Cream (old Blue moon) 3rd street, G Island across from Grand Theater downtown
June 1 - 4, St Mark's UMC, Lincoln; NE Annual Conference; RMN table and UM Global AIDS fund table
If you can help at tables or go to Worship, 8:30 am June 3, offerings will be taken for HIV AIDS
RMN table and Rainbows : contact Betty Dorr bobcdorr@cox.net
UM Global AIDS table : contact Bill: biobb@bellsouth.net or Maureen Mvetter@charter.net
Pride Events this summer in Lincoln and Omaha : Sing a NEW SONG in August www.RMNetwork.org
Sign statements supporting GLBT ordination in the UMC : www.Nebraskarum.blogspot.com
Sept 18 AIDS walks across NE -- get a team of friends to go! www.nap.org
Sept 19 1 pm, Um Global AIDS Task force, Central Health Center, S locust, G island, NE
Sept 19 PFLAG / Open Hearts POTLUCK, Hastings to welcome students to Hastings college GSA
Oct 11 Coming out day and week : events around NE
Nov 13 Thanksgiving Open Hearts in the Gathering place
Dec 4 World AIDS day and offerings, Baskets of love silent Auction for UM Global AIDS fund
----- Original Message -----
From: Maureen Vetter
To: maureen vetter
Sent: Friday, May 13, 2011 11:32 AM
Subject: FYI: May Update from Chris Weedy : Jimmy Creech book -- Adam's Gift ---- Presbyterian USA news, videos!
Hi, I hope you all are well. I just wanted to give you an update on Jimmy and Adam's Gift as things are moving along these days.... If you are on Facebook and are keeping current, then you already know most of this stuff, but if not, here is a synopsis...
Jimmy and I just came back from Austin Texas where we spent 3 days. Sid Hall, Britt Cox, Jessica Hager and Trinity United Methodist Church were fantastic hosts. This was my first trip with Jimmy out of state since Adam's Gift was released. It was special that we could be together in Austin. We got to attend the Old Pecan Street Festival in between events. Sunday night Jimmy did a book reading at Travis Park United Methodist Church's Sunday Night Live program. Thanks to Betty Gibbs Curry for her help with that. Check out the photos at http://on.fb.me/JimmyCreech. Post your own!
This Friday we are headed to Cincinnati Ohio where we will be hosted by another reconciling congregation - Clifton United Methodist Church. Clifton UMC has been a reconciling congregation since 1998. We will be there Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Jimmy will be doing a book signing on Saturday and preaching on Sunday.
Monday we are flying from Cincinnati to Paris (France) where Jimmy will be participating in a panel discussion for IDAHO (International Day Against Homophobia & Transphobia.) The panel discussion is focused on religion and how it is used world-wide to promote homophobia.
Tuesday May 24th Jimmy will be doing a Talk Out with Mitchell Gold @ the John Golden Theatre on Broadway following Larry Kramer's play The Normal Heart.
Memorial Day weekend Jimmy will be doing a book signing on Ocracoke Island. Ocracoke is dear to our hearts as Jimmy was pastor there for 8 years.
Here are 2 recent videos and one link regarding progress in the Presbyterian Church. With the news about the Presbyterian Church this leaves The United Methodist Church and the Southern Baptist Convention as the only major mainline denominations who don't include lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender clergy.
Believe Out Loud Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0buh-1quVs&feature=player_embedded
How many more gay people does God need to create?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXpOA3jPC04&feature=youtu.be
Presbyterian Progress!
http://www.mlp.org/article.php/Amendment10AMediaRelease
I hope this info is helpful and interesting to you. If you do not want these periodic updates, just let me know. If you can, please pass this email on to others and encourage them to "like" Jimmy's Facebook page. If you know of a venue where Jimmy can speak or preach please pass on my email address. His schedule for July and August is open. You have heard of "Where in The World is Waldo?" My goal as Jimmy's agent is "Where in the World is Jimmy Creech?"
BTW, this isn't about Jimmy. It is about getting the word out about religion-based bigotry. Adam's Gift is a vehicle for that. Thanks for your support, advice, and prayers for safe travel.
Chris Weedy
http://www.dukeupress.edu/Catalog/ViewProduct.php?productid=16388
Showing posts with label Open Hearts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Open Hearts. Show all posts
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Open Hearts Feb/March news
March / April news -- OPEN HEARTS Reconciling
Community / Faith Support group and friends, Grand Island, NE:
ANOTHER GREAT YEAR OF SPIRITUAL AWAKENINGS! www.RMNetwork.org
Believe Out Loud --- Reconciling on the Road --- Rainbows of HOPE!
Horizons of Faith weekend March 25 - 27, Omaha First umc: www.horizonsoffaith.com and brochures at TUMC or online!
Bring Rainbow things for our Rainbow Suitcase April 10 to take to events this spring, summer and fall: if you have Rainbow things to donate: RAINBOW buttons, pins, bags, leis, socks, stoles, scarves, jewelry, prayers beads, book marks, pens, pencils, Rainbow Ribbon with safety pins -- Rainbow crosses from Ribbon etc to contribute... We would like to fill a Rainbow suitcase with things people could wear to identify themselves at events, worship, pride events, UMC events, Reconciling events!!
RMN (Reconciling Ministries Network) has the RMN Rainbow Logo on lapel pins for $2 each if you want to contribute to an order for those this spring through RMN! April 10 : Bring yourself, an Awakening story, your offerings for RMN and friends to share together in a faith support group setting!
Think about having a Reconciling Birthday Lunch or Meetup with friends this spring and summer: instead of giving cards and gifts, write down birthdays and give to RMN for our Summer Email offerings to RMN with General Conference coming in 2012 in the UMC.
Remember Jimmy Creech's boook ADAMS'S GIFT is out April 1 through Duke U press.
Horizons of Faith Weekend is march 25 - 27 at Omaha First with Bishop Spong! Brochures are available at the Trinity UMC or get info and register at: www.horizonsoffaith.com A special cantata is Sunday at 9:35 AM by their church organist and composer, Mark Kurtz! He wrote it after reading Bishop Spong's book on Resurrection!
Think of a way to do RAINBOWS OF HOPE at your church or faith group in May and June! Have an art show, children's art, make banners, stoles for the pastor, stoles for others, make Rainbow ribbons, have a Rainbow sunday or party, bake sale, talent show, or gay teens sunday!
Nominate someone for the MFSA Jimmy Creech Profile of Justice Scholarship by April 1, 2011 to encourage social justice!
Open Hearts Reconciling Community / Support group meets Sunday April 10
Open Hearts Reconciling Community, a
faith support group for allies and persons of all
sexual orienations and gender identies will
meet Sunday April 10 in the Gathering Place
at 2:45 pm for fellowship -- bring a snack to
share with others and offerings!
The meeting @ 3 PM is: Spiritual Awakenings
in our lives, stories and Upcoming Happenings!
If you are new to the group, come early to read
and sign support group guidelines. Info: Maureen
Vetter or Cathy Denman -- TUMC Missions PS new movies from an anonymous donor.. check out the Rainbow crate!
If you have videos, DVD's or books you want to contribute, bring them to the April 10 meeting!
APRIL 8, 3rd Annual Grand Island HIV AIDS Benefit Concert, Gollaher Chapel, Trinity UMC, 511 N Elm, G Island, NE 68801 at 7 pm with four musicians from the area: Paul Siebert, Scott Taylor, Emily Dunbar and Peggy Lang! They are donating their talents and we are going to be raising the Freewill offerings for the TUMC Emergency HIV AIDS Fund to replenish the fund for 2011! This fund assists medical emergencies with clients Battling HIV AIDS through NAP kearney!
If you cannot come that night: checks and gifts to TUMC and in the memo put Emergency HIV AIDS fund. SEnd gift to:
TUMC, 511 N Elm, Grand island, NE 68801
The doors will open at 6:15 to get info on HIV AIDS, NAP or Ne AIDS project and UM global aids fund of the UMC. Andrew Brackett and Erin Cantrell Caseworkers at NAP kearney will have a table with info. Bring cookies, cupcakes, brownies or bars for the Intermission as we will do a Free will offering for that too! Help with the intermission, bring red baskets for the offerings and bring AIDS ribbons if you can make some . or bracelets! See you there! For info call Rev Scott Taylor at First christian Church, GIsland or Andrew Brackett at NAP kearney www.nap.org
************************************************************************************************
TUMC Reel Movies of the Hearts in March and April at Dentons, RSVP to come! Earth Day BOOKS -- BOOK SHARE
April 17, Miller Hall, Trinity UMC, 10:45 - 11:30 . books on foods, sustainability, environment, global warming, your choice!
Bring a book you have been reading and share a few things about it with others!
*************************************************************************************************************************************
LGBT Immigrant Youth Face Increased Risk of Homelessness
Hello, I saw this on Care2 and thought you'd like it as well. Care2 is the largest and most trusted information and action site for people who care to make a difference in their lives and the world.
Care2.com
*********************************************************************
Note: THANKS TO MARDE VOIGT for this story below she sent recently! I could not get the photo to print and see it with photos online hopefully too!
Open doors await them
Feb. 19, 2011
Homosexuality and religion have a complicated past, but some area churches hope to bridge that gap this Sunday
By JEANNIE KEVER
HOUSTON CHRONICLE
Feb. 19, 2011
Melissa Phillip Chronicle
Jaxn Hussey, 15, who attends Plymouth United Church in Spring, has been helping to promote Sunday as Bring Your Gay Teen to Church Day in the Houston area.
Ebie Hussey's first reaction when her son announced that he is gay was to offer unconditional love.
Finding a new church was a close second.
"His first question was, 'Am I going to hell?' " Hussey said of that conversation with her son, Jaxn. "Mainstream Christianity and fundamental Christianity really pushes that homosexuality is a sin, and he had caught on to that."
Jaxn, now 15, knew his parents didn't think that. "But I had always heard people saying that kind of thing," he said.
In an effort to counter the message, almost two dozen Houston-area churches have designated Sunday as Bring Your Gay Teen to Church Day.
"We think it's important for families to know there's a safe place to go to worship," said Jim Bankston, senior minister at St. Paul's United Methodist Church. "Families who have gay members want to make sure they feel welcome in church and aren't bashed in any way."
Joanna Crawford, a seminary student at the Houston Graduate School of Theology, said the idea came up after the suicide last fall of Asher Brown, a Cypress-area eighth-grader who killed himself after what his parents said were years of bullying and taunts that he was gay.
It is a project of the Houston Clergy Council, formed last year to allow churches to work together on shared concerns.
"None of us knew Asher, but we felt if we could get families into our churches, where they have support, where they feel loved for who they are, not in spite of it, something good could come of that," Crawford said.
Organized religion has had a complicated relationship with homosexuality.
A 'negative' message
Joel Osteen, pastor of Lakewood Church, waded into the fray last month when he told CNN that homosexuality is a sin, although he doesn't preach on the topic and a number of people who attend his church, the largest in the United States, are gay.
A survey last fall by the Public Religion Research Institute found that fewer than 20 percent of Americans believe places of worship do a good job on the issue. Almost half said religion's message on the topic is "negative," and 40 percent said the messages contribute "a lot" to negative perceptions of gays and lesbians.
Almost two-thirds said the messages contribute to higher rates of suicide among gay and lesbian youth.
Religious Americans historically have had negative attitudes about gays and lesbians, said Robert P. Jones, the institute's CEO.
Mainline Protestant churches — including the Episcopal, Lutheran and Methodist churches — began wrestling with how to interpret biblical writings on the issue several decades ago, he said.
Other churches, including the Unitarian Universalist and the Metropolitan Community churches, have always described themselves as "welcoming" churches, distancing themselves from conventional religious views.
"We don't need a special day," said the Rev. Adam Robinson, assistant minister at First Unitarian Universalist Church in Houston. "The GLBT folks are welcome every day."
Proclaiming a special day is mainly a way to spread the word, he said.
"It's for the parent who doesn't know what to do with their teen that is experiencing a different sexuality, who is wondering whether they'll be accepted in a faith-based environment," Robinson said.
Jones said the institute's survey was too small to register statistically significant findings for non-Christian religious groups.
'A huge blessing'
But it did show a generation gap that affects all religious groups, he said.
"Younger people are much more supportive on rights for same-sex couples than the older generation," he said. "They also were much more likely to see these connections between negative views in the churches and negative views in society and with the higher rates of suicide."
Hussey did a computer search for "gay-friendly churches" and discovered Plymouth United Church of Christ in Spring.
"It's been a huge blessing," Hussey said. "It has brought me so much closer to God and to my spirituality, having a gay child, because it puts me in the position of Jesus' message, which is unconditional love."
Each participating church will handle Sunday's services differently. Jaxn Hussey, now a sophomore at Klein High School, made beaded bracelets and handed them out at school, along with information about Plymouth United.
"I really want gay teens like myself to have a place where they feel truly accepted, where they can be who they are," he said. "And that place is Plymouth."
The Rev. Ginny Brown Daniel and members of the congregation "showed me God doesn't hate you because you're gay," he said.
That was important to his parents.
"When a child tells you they're gay, you don't want to change your plan for him," Ebie Hussey said. "I still want him to be a doctor. I still want him to marry a doctor. I still want him to be Christian."
jeannie.kever@chron.com
Community / Faith Support group and friends, Grand Island, NE:
ANOTHER GREAT YEAR OF SPIRITUAL AWAKENINGS! www.RMNetwork.org
Believe Out Loud --- Reconciling on the Road --- Rainbows of HOPE!
Horizons of Faith weekend March 25 - 27, Omaha First umc: www.horizonsoffaith.com and brochures at TUMC or online!
Bring Rainbow things for our Rainbow Suitcase April 10 to take to events this spring, summer and fall: if you have Rainbow things to donate: RAINBOW buttons, pins, bags, leis, socks, stoles, scarves, jewelry, prayers beads, book marks, pens, pencils, Rainbow Ribbon with safety pins -- Rainbow crosses from Ribbon etc to contribute... We would like to fill a Rainbow suitcase with things people could wear to identify themselves at events, worship, pride events, UMC events, Reconciling events!!
RMN (Reconciling Ministries Network) has the RMN Rainbow Logo on lapel pins for $2 each if you want to contribute to an order for those this spring through RMN! April 10 : Bring yourself, an Awakening story, your offerings for RMN and friends to share together in a faith support group setting!
Think about having a Reconciling Birthday Lunch or Meetup with friends this spring and summer: instead of giving cards and gifts, write down birthdays and give to RMN for our Summer Email offerings to RMN with General Conference coming in 2012 in the UMC.
Remember Jimmy Creech's boook ADAMS'S GIFT is out April 1 through Duke U press.
Horizons of Faith Weekend is march 25 - 27 at Omaha First with Bishop Spong! Brochures are available at the Trinity UMC or get info and register at: www.horizonsoffaith.com A special cantata is Sunday at 9:35 AM by their church organist and composer, Mark Kurtz! He wrote it after reading Bishop Spong's book on Resurrection!
Think of a way to do RAINBOWS OF HOPE at your church or faith group in May and June! Have an art show, children's art, make banners, stoles for the pastor, stoles for others, make Rainbow ribbons, have a Rainbow sunday or party, bake sale, talent show, or gay teens sunday!
Nominate someone for the MFSA Jimmy Creech Profile of Justice Scholarship by April 1, 2011 to encourage social justice!
Open Hearts Reconciling Community / Support group meets Sunday April 10
Open Hearts Reconciling Community, a
faith support group for allies and persons of all
sexual orienations and gender identies will
meet Sunday April 10 in the Gathering Place
at 2:45 pm for fellowship -- bring a snack to
share with others and offerings!
The meeting @ 3 PM is: Spiritual Awakenings
in our lives, stories and Upcoming Happenings!
If you are new to the group, come early to read
and sign support group guidelines. Info: Maureen
Vetter or Cathy Denman -- TUMC Missions PS new movies from an anonymous donor.. check out the Rainbow crate!
If you have videos, DVD's or books you want to contribute, bring them to the April 10 meeting!
APRIL 8, 3rd Annual Grand Island HIV AIDS Benefit Concert, Gollaher Chapel, Trinity UMC, 511 N Elm, G Island, NE 68801 at 7 pm with four musicians from the area: Paul Siebert, Scott Taylor, Emily Dunbar and Peggy Lang! They are donating their talents and we are going to be raising the Freewill offerings for the TUMC Emergency HIV AIDS Fund to replenish the fund for 2011! This fund assists medical emergencies with clients Battling HIV AIDS through NAP kearney!
If you cannot come that night: checks and gifts to TUMC and in the memo put Emergency HIV AIDS fund. SEnd gift to:
TUMC, 511 N Elm, Grand island, NE 68801
The doors will open at 6:15 to get info on HIV AIDS, NAP or Ne AIDS project and UM global aids fund of the UMC. Andrew Brackett and Erin Cantrell Caseworkers at NAP kearney will have a table with info. Bring cookies, cupcakes, brownies or bars for the Intermission as we will do a Free will offering for that too! Help with the intermission, bring red baskets for the offerings and bring AIDS ribbons if you can make some . or bracelets! See you there! For info call Rev Scott Taylor at First christian Church, GIsland or Andrew Brackett at NAP kearney www.nap.org
************************************************************************************************
TUMC Reel Movies of the Hearts in March and April at Dentons, RSVP to come! Earth Day BOOKS -- BOOK SHARE
April 17, Miller Hall, Trinity UMC, 10:45 - 11:30 . books on foods, sustainability, environment, global warming, your choice!
Bring a book you have been reading and share a few things about it with others!
*************************************************************************************************************************************
LGBT Immigrant Youth Face Increased Risk of Homelessness
Hello, I saw this on Care2 and thought you'd like it as well. Care2 is the largest and most trusted information and action site for people who care to make a difference in their lives and the world.
Care2.com
*********************************************************************
Note: THANKS TO MARDE VOIGT for this story below she sent recently! I could not get the photo to print and see it with photos online hopefully too!
Open doors await them
Feb. 19, 2011
Homosexuality and religion have a complicated past, but some area churches hope to bridge that gap this Sunday
By JEANNIE KEVER
HOUSTON CHRONICLE
Feb. 19, 2011
Melissa Phillip Chronicle
Jaxn Hussey, 15, who attends Plymouth United Church in Spring, has been helping to promote Sunday as Bring Your Gay Teen to Church Day in the Houston area.
Ebie Hussey's first reaction when her son announced that he is gay was to offer unconditional love.
Finding a new church was a close second.
"His first question was, 'Am I going to hell?' " Hussey said of that conversation with her son, Jaxn. "Mainstream Christianity and fundamental Christianity really pushes that homosexuality is a sin, and he had caught on to that."
Jaxn, now 15, knew his parents didn't think that. "But I had always heard people saying that kind of thing," he said.
In an effort to counter the message, almost two dozen Houston-area churches have designated Sunday as Bring Your Gay Teen to Church Day.
"We think it's important for families to know there's a safe place to go to worship," said Jim Bankston, senior minister at St. Paul's United Methodist Church. "Families who have gay members want to make sure they feel welcome in church and aren't bashed in any way."
Joanna Crawford, a seminary student at the Houston Graduate School of Theology, said the idea came up after the suicide last fall of Asher Brown, a Cypress-area eighth-grader who killed himself after what his parents said were years of bullying and taunts that he was gay.
It is a project of the Houston Clergy Council, formed last year to allow churches to work together on shared concerns.
"None of us knew Asher, but we felt if we could get families into our churches, where they have support, where they feel loved for who they are, not in spite of it, something good could come of that," Crawford said.
Organized religion has had a complicated relationship with homosexuality.
A 'negative' message
Joel Osteen, pastor of Lakewood Church, waded into the fray last month when he told CNN that homosexuality is a sin, although he doesn't preach on the topic and a number of people who attend his church, the largest in the United States, are gay.
A survey last fall by the Public Religion Research Institute found that fewer than 20 percent of Americans believe places of worship do a good job on the issue. Almost half said religion's message on the topic is "negative," and 40 percent said the messages contribute "a lot" to negative perceptions of gays and lesbians.
Almost two-thirds said the messages contribute to higher rates of suicide among gay and lesbian youth.
Religious Americans historically have had negative attitudes about gays and lesbians, said Robert P. Jones, the institute's CEO.
Mainline Protestant churches — including the Episcopal, Lutheran and Methodist churches — began wrestling with how to interpret biblical writings on the issue several decades ago, he said.
Other churches, including the Unitarian Universalist and the Metropolitan Community churches, have always described themselves as "welcoming" churches, distancing themselves from conventional religious views.
"We don't need a special day," said the Rev. Adam Robinson, assistant minister at First Unitarian Universalist Church in Houston. "The GLBT folks are welcome every day."
Proclaiming a special day is mainly a way to spread the word, he said.
"It's for the parent who doesn't know what to do with their teen that is experiencing a different sexuality, who is wondering whether they'll be accepted in a faith-based environment," Robinson said.
Jones said the institute's survey was too small to register statistically significant findings for non-Christian religious groups.
'A huge blessing'
But it did show a generation gap that affects all religious groups, he said.
"Younger people are much more supportive on rights for same-sex couples than the older generation," he said. "They also were much more likely to see these connections between negative views in the churches and negative views in society and with the higher rates of suicide."
Hussey did a computer search for "gay-friendly churches" and discovered Plymouth United Church of Christ in Spring.
"It's been a huge blessing," Hussey said. "It has brought me so much closer to God and to my spirituality, having a gay child, because it puts me in the position of Jesus' message, which is unconditional love."
Each participating church will handle Sunday's services differently. Jaxn Hussey, now a sophomore at Klein High School, made beaded bracelets and handed them out at school, along with information about Plymouth United.
"I really want gay teens like myself to have a place where they feel truly accepted, where they can be who they are," he said. "And that place is Plymouth."
The Rev. Ginny Brown Daniel and members of the congregation "showed me God doesn't hate you because you're gay," he said.
That was important to his parents.
"When a child tells you they're gay, you don't want to change your plan for him," Ebie Hussey said. "I still want him to be a doctor. I still want him to marry a doctor. I still want him to be Christian."
jeannie.kever@chron.com
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Open Hearts news
OPEN HEARTS folks and friends: We wish you a merry christmas! We will be taking a break from now till january sometime -- with the holidays coming! We thank all of the volunteers and Main Email contacts in NE.. we have no budget per se in our groups and statewide network of RUM friends and all of our gifts go to RMN..
$250 is going to RMN by years end for our yearly commitment to RMN from Open Hearts Reconciling community from offerings and fundraiser -- we do all of our work in house and as volunteers! If you want to help or be a local contact, let us know!
Blue Christmas Service at First Christian church, GI Friday at 6 PM, call the church to confirm times and info! Rev Scott Taylor is the pastor leading this service.
Time for renewing our spirits and Another Great year of Spiritual Awakening is Coming and is happening!
THOUGHTS: In viewing a movie last week with friends on the Underground RR and remembering the great danger and risk for many as they helped others get to freedom, I also think of the "underground" struggle for many in the GLBT community, their families, friends and those affected by HIV AIDS.
Harriet Tubman and many others, white and black, were part of the route to hide folks and help them find the way to get to freedom. Many slaves were abused and horribly mistreated - and yet many were called to help others - like Harriet who could have chosen to live in freedom after she found it -- and just stay there!
Let's remember those on the "spiritual Underground RR" at Christmas as we think of the great spiritual awakening that this started as folks sought their FREEDOM to be equal citizens! Many did not see their families except at Christmas as slaves and the spiritual awakening of the Underground RR led to reuniting families & restored self and dignity!
A Baby is born soon to bring us hope, Fear not the angels sang!
CELEBRATE a surprise donation from an anonymous donor of new RESOURCES for our CRATE: a Beverly's Cole's book CLEANING CLOSETS (autographed) and some new DVDS and a CD! Feb 20 we will tell you more when we meet again!
Thanks to all who shared offerings for UM Global AIDS fund, Blankets of love, Baskets of Love, TUMC Emergency HIV AIDS fund and more. The total on baskets is $360 when all collected! With offerings and Gifts of Love (alternative giving) we will total about $516 for the two HIV AIDS funds this advent to be given to the two funds at year's end for 2011 ministry! Thanks to EVERYONE for helping on the Baskets of Love project for our HIV AIDS funds at Trinity UMC! Baskets are being claimed this week and monies are coming in to be used to help others battling HIV AIDS! The spring HIV AIDS benefit concert is coming in GI.. more details after the date is set!
We challenge everyone to read a Bishop John S Spong book this Dec, Jan and Feb! He has written TWENTY books -- so find one to read and share on Feb 20, 10:45, Miller Hall, TUMC for the Friends for the Journey Book share! He will be the guest Theologian for the Horizons of Faith Conference March 25 - 27 at Omaha First umc on the TENTH Anniversary! go to www.horizonsoffaith.com
Giving Gifts at Christmas gives us spiritual renewal and peace! To give to Open Hearts, write your check to TUMC and in the memo put Open Hearts.. then send it to TUMC, 511 N Elm, G Island, NE 68801. You can contribute books, DVD's to our Resource Crate Feb 20 when Becca comes to speak about the GSA at GISH!
To give to HIV AIDS funds: write out a check to TUMC and put HIV AIDS funds in the memo, TUMC Emergency HIV AIDS fund, or UM Global AIDS fund, see address above. Give and Help groups that promote justice and dignity all persons!
Remember the Literacy Council in Grand Island and those who are wanting to learn to read! Get a 2011 membership for $25 or give one to a friend for Christmas! LC in G island is needing volunteers as they have a waiting list of people who want to learn how to read! You can volunteer for ONE hour a week or more! Contact Kelly OUTSON at GI LC today or in january!
Feb 20 is our next gathering and Spong books will be discussed that morning at 10:45 in Miller hall! Lots of other events at TUMC coming with the Cantata this sunday at late service and at 2 PM - Christmas Eve and day services!
Renew your spirit! Watch the church newsletter for other events in January: Trek to MONA Kearney for A GREATER SPECTRUM Art show Jan 15 (sign up needed at TUMC church offices), Wool Celbration: Jan 30 Miller Hall, Missions meeting Jan 22, VIM Mission trips Used Book sale Jan 29, worships at new times and more! We can always use new helpers and subs, folks to donate snacks -- at the Sudanese Children's ed time from 1 - 2 PM sundays!
Taking Reconciling on the Road is a goal for NE Statewide Reconciling Network now -- and supporting each other in events by hitting the road as many of us do! We want to encourage everyone to carpool to events! Thanks to those who drove to Hastings for Inspiring Communities weekend, to Lincoln for the movie "Incompatible with Christian teaching", World AIDS day Services, meetups this fall and coffee times, conversations! Believe Out Loud: tell our stories, sign up new RUM's, have house parties, movie parties, cupcake parties, bowling parties, book groups, coffee times, vsiting worship in another church --
Collaborate with other groups, denominations and give generously to RMN and other groups that promote Equality for all persons! A Reconciling Support group can be a CHOIR, a SS class, two or three people who get together in a Coffee shop --Rainbow Suitcase coming in January! www.RMNetwork.org
Maureen and Mena, Email contacts for Open Hearts Reconciling Community
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