Beavercreek United Church of Christ

Transcription

1 Beavercreek United Church of Christ 11/4 11/4 11/11 11/18 11/22 12/1 November Standard Time begins, 2am Communion Church Council Heritage Sunday, Potluck Thanksgiving Day Christmas Dinner/Sing-a-long We will be meet at Marge Thompson s home for the November 5th meeting at 5:30pm. The address is: Melva Ct. Beavercreek, right off of Leland. It s a potluck and everyone is welcome! Standard Time Returns. Remember to set your clocks back one hour on Sunday, November 4th, 2:00 AM. Or...just do what many folks do, set them back before you go to bed on Saturday night. Heritage Sunday Thanksgiving Potluck Don't miss the Thanksgiving potluck on Sunday, Nov. 18h after church. The Deacons will supply the turkey, gravy and stuffing. All we ask is that the church family bring a side dish or dessert. It's a great fellowship time and wonderful food. Reiki: SCRIP CARDS OF WAY OF GIVING Our Scrip program is giving two ways, to its recipients and to our Church stained glass windows. We receive a percentage off each card and it all adds up!!! The more we sell the more we make! If you don t see a card you would like, ask us and maybe we can order it for you. Our order dates for the month are: November 5th and November 19th STEWARDSHIP What Can We Bring In fundraising, our church seeks to further it s mission on the shoulders of very important people their donors and volunteers. In other words YOU! We have precious resources time, talent and treasure for the care of our church to achieve its goals. When you receive your stewardship letter please fill it out and return it, in the offering plate, to Starr or Mary. We need your pledge to keep the Church ALIVE & THRIVING! THANK YOU!!! We are meeting to share Reiki on Wednesday 6:00 PM (and every 3rd Wednesday) in the Beavercreek UCC Fellowship Hall. Join us to rest in the love and light of Reiki. Everyone is welcome so bring a friend. If you are unfamiliar with Reiki, here is a link that will help explain it to you: RSVP Carol if you plan to attend. Blessings, Carol Koshkarian Season Opener for Adult Study on Tuesday, November 13th, 6:00 pm in the Fellowship Hall. We can have food and talk about what we want to do for our fall sessions, and maybe watch a short video or something. Cyndi Andrews will bring soup. Volunteers are needed for bread, salad and dessert.

2 Pastor Jennifer s Thoughts: ENGAGING SACRED STORIES AND TRADITIONS Exhibiting knowledge, understanding, and continuing study of the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament. Maturing in effective proclamation and preaching. Understanding the history of the Christian Church, from biblical times forward. Bringing life to sacred stories and traditions in worship, proclamation, and witness. Leading faith formation effectively across generations. Holding the Holy with integrity especially as represented in the Sacraments. An essential part of being pastor is learning about and reflecting on our sacred stories. Being called to be a pastor means being called to a life of study. The Bible itself is a book, the book. It is a collection of stories about the faith journey of a people. These stories were written over more than a thousand years in different social and political contexts, in different genres: poetry, mythology, history, law, lamentation, and more. Proverbs 18:15 says, The mind of the prudent acquires knowledge, and the ear of the wise seeks knowledge. In 1 Cor., Paul writes of having the mind of Christ (2:16). What a remarkable, beautiful idea. The mind of Christ, immersed in our sacred stories: scripture, history, poetry, and prayer. This means reading and learning, but also reflection and contemplation, allowing these sacred stories to sink into our very being. Being pastor means knowing the stories, but also loving and living the stories. Paul told Timothy to give attention to reading. John Wesley, founder of the Methodists, recommended ministers read for five hours each day. This is not reading purely to learn, but formative reading: reading prayerfully, open to God, thinking and reflecting, meeting with other pastors for prayer and scripture discussions. This is essential work of being pastor. So pastors must read. Pastors are people of the book. They are people of many books. Pastors must read the Bible of course, and commentaries, and histories, of Jesus time of the history and development of the church, theology and ideas about God and Jesus, what salvation and atonement are. Pastors must know about current events. Pastors must read on justice issues, from racism and privilege to climate change and treatment of animals, food sourcing, sexuality, economics, and more. Pastors even need to read literature, for novels can show us more about writing well than books of theology. And literature can expand our creativity, provide new sermon illustrations and connections to modern life, and give insight into our Christians in particular have a holy obligation to be exposed to all sorts of ideas, even heretical ideas, so they can learn what they really believe not just what the pastor or politician tell them. Even Harry Potter (or especially Harry Potter!) can be read through relationship with God, wanting to find truth, beauty, wisdom, and goodness. Eugene Peterson, author of the Message translation, wrote I want to be a pastor who preaches. I want to speak the word of God that is Scripture in the language and rhythms of the people I live with. I want to know the Scriptures thoroughly, personally, intimately; and then be able to say them again to the people around me. I need a drenching in Scripture; I require an immersion in biblical studies. I need reflective hours over the pages of Scripture as well as personal struggles with the meaning of Scripture. That takes time, far more time than it takes to prepare a sermon. These UCC Marks of Ministry are more about the person of the pastor than the tasks of the pastor because being pastor is more about being a person close to God, a preacher and teacher and person of integrity, than it is about a to-do list of pastoral work. Pastor as person of God means pastor as person who learns about God from all the available sources and thinks about God and God s work in the world. Knowing and engaging with our sacred stories is important for every Christian, especially in the UCC with our priesthood of all believers. The pastor has an important leadership role and preacher and teacher, and we are the church, doing ministry together. Pastor Jennifer

3 Charlie and the Cherry Blossoms A Proposal for our Animal Friends by Shari Lane A few of the animals I have loved First successful chick on the farm Daughter-in-law Cassie Justin showing our nephew the honey bees (originally named Peep turned out to be a rooster, no longer says Peep peep ) I had a whole family of guinea pigs, as a child - even wrote a book in which they were the stars, when I was ten. and her beloved duck k (Stock photo I don t have an actual photo of my guinea pig friends) Laughing Rhett I have loved animals for as long as I can remember. I have also loved hamburgers. Dogs are eaten in some parts of the world, as are guinea pigs. Ducks and chicken are standard food items pretty much everywhere. Guinea pigs and even dogs are used for medical and product safety testing. As Michael Pollan shared in his book, Omnivore s Dilemma, most of us routinely find ourselves in the uncomfortable position of snuggling up to one furry animal while simultaneously chowing down on the remains of another furry animal (my words, not his). We are, after all, genetically designed to eat both plants and animals. However, our carnivorous habits may literally be starving our neighbors. It takes 2,500 gallons of water, 12 pounds of grain, 35 pounds of topsoil and the energy equivalent of one gallon of gasoline to produce one pound of feedlot beef. According to the same website: 5 million children in the US go hungry every month; if Americans reduced their intake of meat by 10%, 100,000,000 people could be fed using the land, water and energy that would be freed up from growing livestock feed; 10 billion people could be sustained from present croplands if everyone ate a vegetarian diet. Pollution and climate change are intimately tied to our love affair with meat, and in particular with factory-farmed (and therefore inexpensive) meat: four-fifths of the deforestation across the Amazon rainforest can be linked to cattle ranching; the water pollution from factory farms produces as much sewage waste as a small city; growing livestock feed in the US alone requires 167 million pounds of pesticides and 17 billion pounds of nitrogen fertilizer each year, which generates copious amounts of nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas 300 times more potent than carbon dioxide, and the cattle are estimated to generate about 20% of overall US methane emissions. And then there s the welfare of the animals themselves: the contented cows and sheep and chickens we see in Beavercreek lead very different lives from their cousins on factory farms, which are the source of the majority of grocery-store meat; factory-farm animals generally have a miserable, painful existence. Even those of us who eat meat can agree that the right to eat meat does not include the right to inflict a life of abject suffering for our dining pleasure. Here is a hyperbole-free article about the realities of factory-farm life: animal-cruelty/farm-animal-welfare. To make matters worse, every time we wash our hands or powder our noses or scrub our toilets, we are likely using a product that was responsible for unspeakable suffering by laboratory animals. These practices are all the more unconscionable because they are wholly unnecessary. As this article points out, there are many effective forms of testing that do not involve animals. The article notes the FDA does not actually require animal testing, and suggests it is time for the US to follow the European Union and other countries in banning animal testing for cosmetics and other nonmedical purposes.

4 The UCC affirms the value of animals in God s eyes...and the right of animals to humane and respectful treatment, and urges congregations to question whether we are doing all we can and should to protect and preserve animals both in their wild and tame states, and in the laboratory and commercially. (More of the UCC Official Statement on Animals will be provided in next month s Chimes, and can be found here united_church_of_christ_pdf.pdf ). Okay, so it s pretty clear a change in purchasing habits would be better for the non-human animals, better for our fellow humans who are experiencing food insecurity, better for the battle against pollution and climate change, and consistent with UCC faith practices. It s also clear our BUCC family loves animals, as is oh-so-evident at our annual Animal Blessing service, and in the delight with which we greet Barney the Church Cat and Pastor Jennifer s adorable and irascible Finn and Owen. So my guess is that we d be willing to make some changes, but the question is: What would that look like in action? I m so glad you asked! Options for changes both large and small are as plentiful and varied as pie at a BUCC Bazaar! A few ideas: Buy some or all Cruelty Free products (dish soap, dishwasher soap, floor and rug cleaners, counter-top cleaners, toilet cleaners, hand soap, etc.) For hospitality, BUCC meals, when we invite others to join us for a meal (Strawberry Festival, Craft Bazaar, etc.), and when purchasing food to donate to the Food Pantry: Buy some or all eggs from pasture-raised or certifiably humanely-raised hens Buy some or all grass-fed, pasture-raised, or certifiably humanely-raised meats Buy some or all grass-fed or pasture-raised dairy (milk, half-and-half, cheese, butter) Serve some vegan or vegetarian meals, make some meals half vegetarian and half meat (rather than just offering a few servings of a vegetarian option), or offer a smaller portion of meat (that is, have a meal where meat is not the centerpiece of the meal) All of these options are more expensive and may take more shopping time (although Freddie s, Safeway, and even Albertson s carry some options, and Freddie s has some grass-fed meats the next paragraph has additional notes and suggestions about buying cruelty-free products). For our public events, the expense of buying humanely-raised food could be offset in a couple of ways: one would be to slightly increase the suggested donation or ticket price, and the other would be to offer smaller portions of meat at those events, and instead offer more and larger portions of side dishes. For either or both options, it would be good outreach to have lots of colorful signage announcing what we are doing and why. This can get complicated, so I ll offer a few notes from personal experience (though I know many in our BUCC church family may already know and follow these practices). Cage free and organic do not actually mean anything as far as humane treatment of meat or egg-laying chickens look for pasture-raised or certifiably humanely-raised (or from a local family farm). Here are some local brands that focus on small farms and humane practices (many of which are carried at Freddie s): Draper Valley, Oregon Country Beef, Painted Hills Natural Beef, Double R Ranch, Carlton Farms. (Unfortunately, Tillamook is not a completely safe bet it s local and many of the farm are family farms, but at least one is the enormous CAFO in Boardman that has been repeatedly fined for horrific conditions). For prepared meats, here are some options: Hempler s, Zenner s, Otto s Sausage Kitchen (in the Woodstock neighborhood), and of course for fast food, Burgerville focuses on local, sustainable, and humanely raised. New Seasons is a good choice if you don t mind traveling (and their fresh and frozen meat prices are actually better in most cases than the other grocery chains). Keep in mind that all natural on the label means absolutely nothing. For non-food items, the cruelty-free logo or designation is key. A great resource for evaluating meat and dairy labels can be found here: Last and definitely least, none of the information above is related to healthy eating. There are those who argue a vegetarian or vegan diet is better for you, others argue some version of the old Adkins diet (heavy on the meat) is best. Low sugar, low salt, gluten-free, keto, Mediterranean diet the options, and arguments, are many. And then there are the food allergies and sensitivities (we have lots of those in my family). This article has already meandered on for far too long, so I will leave those topics for another day (and another writer more qualified than I)! I ll leave you with a few quotes: Our task must be to free ourselves... by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty. Albert Einstein. The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated. Mahatma Gandhi. (And my personal favorite) I care not for a man's religion whose dog and cat are not the better for it. Abraham Lincoln

5 November 2018 Beavercreek United Church of Christ, The Ten O Clock Church Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat FIRST SUNDAYS: INTERGENERATIONAL WORSHIP OTHER SUNDAYS: SUNDAY SCHOOL AND NURSERY CARE DURING TEN O CLOCK WORSHIP HAPPY HOUR COFFEE FELLOWSHIP FOLLOWING WORSHIP Communion Daylight Savings Time ends, at 2:00 AM Turn back your clocks 5 Marge Thompson s 5: Veteran s Day Church Council at 11:45 AM Mission, 6pm Adult supper & class 6:00 18 Heritage Sunday, potluck Reiki, 6:00 22 Thanksgiving Adult soup & class 6:

6 11/1 Justin Jones 11/7 Joyce Hopper 11/10 Tim Dahl 11/24 Ann Reid 11/24 Meredith Hopper 11/29 Jose Alanso Gonzalez Anniversaries 11/12 Norman & Carol Koshkarian The Board of Deacons need a volunteer to join our team. We meet once a month, help with communion, work with Pastor Jennifer on our outreach program and discuss ways that we may be of service to our church. PLEASE consider joining us. Your deacons are: Jane, Greg, Bonnie, Kara and Star. Any of us would be glad to answer any questions you might have. Ten O Clock Chimes Beavercreek United Church of Christ South Beavercreek Road Beavercreek OR (503) B U C C, T, O A C, G. W C.