Tidings from Tibbetts

Transcription

1 Tidings from Tibbetts Rev. Dr. Joanne Carlson Brown J a n u a r y Founded 1909 I n f o r m a t i o n a n d I ns p i r a t i o n f r o m T i b be t t s U ni t e d M e t h o dis t C h u r c h Joanne s Jottings by Rev. Dr. Joanne Brown I have many pillows in our living room and imaginarium. Some are just pretty and decorative, some have pirates, others remind me of things: one has our names and the date of our wedding, one says Together is the best place and one that I have been staring at especially this early morning is I m too blessed to be stressed. I got it at the rummage sale a few years back. It is a message I very much need as I launch into this heavy Christmas two weeks, take care of Christie after her shoulder surgery, walk Thistle and meet her other needs - like being petted, pay attention to family and friends, and find just a bit of space for myself. That s why I like getting up at 4 or 5 every morning. It is me time, time to reflect. No one calls that early but I do have a few sister early-birders who text me at that time. And there is that pillow sitting on the Hutterite bench asking me to pay attention. Youth News by Kathryn Ushimaru Youth Director Happy New Year from the Tibbetts Youth! 2016 is gearing up to be a busy year for our SALTy Tibs. During the last few weeks of 2015, you may have noticed that the Interim disappeared from my title: Joanne, Staff Parish Relations, and I would like to announce that I will continue to serve permanently as the Youth Director at Tibbetts. As you know, I had been filling in for Ted Brosius over the summer while he took a planned vacation. Now that I have graduated from SPU, I am excited to spend my gap year continuing to build up the youth group and Continued to page 7 bringing back past traditions at Tibbetts. Ted is still highly involved in Youth Ministries through the PNW Conference, and the youth will have the opportunity to catch up with him at future retreats. Our Parents Night Out last month was a huge success! Twenty children from all over West Seattle came to Tibbetts to eat mac & cheese and run around while the youth gave their parents a break. It was especially delightful to have DeLancey, David, Emma, and Continued to page 2 We Are Dancing with the Spirit Inside this issue: Joanne s Jottings 1 & 7 Youth News 1-2 de-decking 3 Thank You 5 Lenten Study 6 Church Retreat 8 And So Much More!

2 Page 2 T id i ngs from Tibbetts Youth News Continued from page 1 Katy join us on their first night home from college! All proceeds will go towards our July 2016 Mission Trip to the UMCOR Warehouse in Salt Lake City, UT. This month, the schedule for Youth Group is much more consistent, which will allow our SALTy Tibs to plan a dinner party for their friends on Jan. 8 th and the next Youth Sunday on Jan. 31 st. You won t want to miss it! Kathryn Ushimaru Youth Director youthdirector@tibbettsumchurch.org Parent s Night Out JANUARY YOUTH EVENTS Jr. Youth (6th-8th grades) 1/3 (10:15-11am) Sr. Youth (9th-12th grades) 1/3 (12:15-1:15pm) Bring a Friend Dinner Party! 1/8 (6-8:30pm) Jr. Youth (6th-8th grades) 1/10 (10:15-11am) Sr. Youth (9th-12th grades) 1/10 (12:15-1:15pm) Jr. Youth (6th-8th grades) 1/17 (10:15-11am) Sr. Youth (9th-12th grades) 1/17 (12:15-1:15pm) Compline at St Mark s Cathedral 1/17 (9-10:30pm) Tibbetts Retreat at Rainbow Lodge 1/23-1/24 Youth Worship Service 1/31 (9:45-11:15am) Confirmation We are having Confirmation this year. All eligible youth and their parents should have received their invitation to be part of the class and to pick a mentor. Youth Sunday Our fabulous Salty-tibs will be leading us in worship January 31. You won t want to miss what they will bring to us for worshipping God and being together. You never know what to expect. Stay tuned to bulletins and all-church s for more details. Here s what you, as a congregation, can do. Pray for these young people as they take this important step in their faith journey, and when Joanne asks you to be a mentor, please prayerfully say yes. It means a youth has requested you. It is an honor and a privilege and a responsibility.

3 Page 3 Needed: Elves to de-deck the Halls January 3 after service, w e w ill be dedecking the sanctuary. We have all loved the beautiful decorations in the sanctuary and other places in the church, but now that the wise ones have come it is time to put Christmas away for another year. Now this does not magically happen. The Christmas elves are back in the North Pole. We need to be Elfy -tibs (to take a way of talking from Kathryn and the youth group) and pitch in to do it ourselves. The more help we have the faster and more efficiently we will put things away so that next December we can find things easily. See you there! 2016 Budget The finance committee will be meeting January 9 at 9am to construct the budget for Any and all input is welcome. Also anyone is welcome to join us as we struggle to be faithful stewards of the gifts and resources we have been given. Area Meetings All 4 areas will be meeting Sunday, January 10 at 11:30am. This is your chance to fully participate in guiding Tibbetts in our ministry. Feel like you really don t know what is going on at church - here s where to find out. doesn t work if we don t all share in the decision-making, dreaming, visioning, and putting faith into action. Please seriously consider joining an area meeting. Childcare will be provided for younger ones. Pick an area that speaks to your interest and passion at the moment and join the area meeting. Read the bulletin boards in the hallway outside the offices to get an idea of what each area is about. Ask the area coordinators about their area. They will be more than happy to tell you about them (Charlie Shelfer - Stewardship, Aradhna Forrest - Welcome and Outreach, Sara Carter - Discipleship and Relationship, and Mary Wiener - Worship). Our church Liturgical Arts Do you appreciate the lovely and meaningful decorations that grace our communion table and worship space each week? Ever want to make suggestions on what can be done? Ever want to help out with creating those? Then come to the Liturgical Arts Committee yearly meeting Saturday, January 16 at 9am. That s right, a committee that only meets once a year - to organize all the work they will be doing during the year, plan on special decorations for special days and have fun visioning what could be - I did get my feet for Ascension Sunday that way! All are welcome to join us.

4 Page 4 T id i ngs from Tibbetts General United Methodist Woman s Meeting - Will meet only four times annually in 2016; March, June, September and December. Circle Meetings Norma Ruth Hugg Circle-will meet on Jan 13 at 10am in the Parlor with Stephanie Roundhill hosting. Pledge Service will take place during the circle. Bee North Circle-will meet on Jan 13 at 10am with Doris Barker hosting at her home. Pledge Service will take place during the circle. Kolze Circle-TBA Sewing Circle-will meet on January 27 from 10am to 2pm. Bring a sack lunch, tea and coffee will be provided. We welcome friends and family to join the fun. Congratulations and many blessings to all who are Celebrating Anniversaries in January!!! Thank you for all your prayers, your presence and your cards as I am healing. I feel very blessed by the caring people of this congregation. Christie Brown Cate Shumaka Michael Smith Vi Denison Rev. Crispina Estaris John Alston Marcia Ingerslev Bob North Sean Gill Ting Ting Chang Paul Kinch Amy Hallmon Mary Leidy Peter McKay Grace Reindel Happy Birthday in January

5 Page 5 The Gratitude Corner As you know, if you have been reading your newsletter (and I know you all do - cover to cover) or if you have been paying attention in church these past few years, you know that Tibbetts is cultivating an attitude of gratitude here in our church family. And each month the Leadership Council expresses particular gratitude to people who work to further the ministry of the church. George and Roberta Tuau are amazing. They work diligently behind the scenes most of the times, though it was great to see them both in Jesus Christ Superstar on Palm Sunday rocking their 60s gear - Roberta singing and George on guitar. They are original members of Spirit Movers - the group of people who rotate driving our van to pick folks up on Sunday mornings and special occasions. Roberta is part of the lay leadership development committee (Nominations) and makes those sometimes hard calls and s offering you an opportunity to be more active in the ministry of the church. She was active on Christians in Action and now participates in the Welcome and Outreach Ministry area. George is a trustee and can be seen often at church fixing and building and just generously lending his contractor skills. And where would the youth group be without him? He drove and participated in the youth mission trip this summer and he and Roberta often volunteer their time to be with the youth. They are usually always in church on Sundays, with a smile and a good word for the pastor which buoys her day. George has shared his witness with us in stewardship moments. The Christmas tree would not have gotten up if not for him (and Myron and Skylar, but still). Any time you ask them to do something they always respond positively. They are both gifts and blessings to our church family. Thank you so much, Roberta and George, for all you do! Thanks to Everyone who Helped with our Christmas Pageant this year! You did a fabulous job!

6 Page 6 T id i ngs from Tibbetts Musical Notes by John Van Lierop, Jr. Are Hymns Still Being Written Today? The answer to this question is a resounding yes. There is even a Hymn Society of US and Canada with over 2,300 members. This organization holds an annual hymn writing contest to encourage people to come up with hymns addressing today s social issues and world concerns. Some recently composed hymns worth looking at are the following. The hymn When Sudden Terror Tears Apart written by Carl Daw in response to 9/11. Mr. Daw is a professor in the School of Religion at Boston University. The opening line is When Sudden Terror Tears Apart the World We Thought was Ours, We Find how Fragile Strength can be, how limited Our Powers. This hymn is sung to the tune of O God Help in Ages Past (UMH #117). The hymn was published in 2005 by the Hope Publishing Company. Carl Daw has hymns that already appear in our current 1989 Methodist Hymnal (#544, #648, #653, #729). Another contemporary hymn is When Eyes That We Once Knew as Keen written by John Core, a music librarian at West Virginia University. This hymn addresses the heartbreak of watching the elderly lose their memory. It is sung to the tune of Come, O Thou Traveler Unknown (UMH #386). Hopefully hymns like these will make it into our future hymnals and will complement the traditional hymns of faith. Lenten Study I know, I know, we just got through Christmas. Why are we talking Lent already. Well, Lent starts on February 10 with Ash Wednesday. This year our Lenten study will be Hollywood Jesus - a look at Christ themes in movies, not primarily religious ones either. There will be video clips to tantalize you to watch the whole movie and led by Joanne. We are still deciding what evening and day time to offer it so please let Joanne know your preference by January 15 so it can make it into the February newsletter. It will be fun and we will learn how to see movies differently. Please plan on joining us! Supper for Seven We got off to a great start with eight for supper at the Carters house. We enjoyed ourselves so much we are continuing to meet monthly. But wouldn't it be great if more folks could get in on the fun? A new group will be forming and having their first meetup at Nancy Sundberg's house at 6pm on Friday, February 5th. A sign up sheet w ill be in the narthex.

7 Page 7 Joanne s Jottings continued Continued from page 1 In the midst of what can seem like stressful times do we realize how blessed we are and that those blessings should relieve our stress feelings? It is a good thing to contemplate as we start a new year. We all make New Year s resolutions - which are broken in usually a few weeks. I always marvel at the increase in numbers in January in people swimming laps in the pool. By end of February it is usually down to the regulars. But this year I am going to focus on only one thing - that pillow. I m too blessed to be stressed. I sit here this morning in a warm house, with a cup of Scottish breakfast tea, the fire going, Thistle sleeping by it, Christie softly sleeping in the recliner beside me, a job that I absolutely love with incredible people with whom to work and do ministry, and I realize all the things that are stressing me are far out weighed by the blessings inherent in each of the things that are stressing me out - yes there are special Christmas season services to do, but I love writing things and creating a worship experience that touches people at a deeper level; yes taking care of Christie is work, but it is for the person I love the most in the world who has brought so much into my life, what s a little extra doing for her? Walking Thistle in the rain is not so enjoyable and becomes one more thing to do in my day that I don t really have time for, but then I look in that sweet face radiating unconditional love and I realize what a lucky person I am to have such a wonderful fur person like her in my life; Yes getting ready to teach on top of fulltime ministry is exhausting and stressful, but I love teaching and seeing the light go on in someone when they get the concept I am trying to convey and put things together to make sense of the past and how it relates to the present in which we are living; it is hard to tear myself away from my morning solitude and drag my proverbial to the Y to go swimming and I feel more obligated than voluntary, and then I get in the water and start my laps and I relax into the rhythm of the breathing and strokes and the way the water enfolds me and buoys me up and I realize what a privilege it is to be able to do this. How do you find blessings in your stressing? Take time as we enter 2016 to make this a priority in your lives. Are you too blessed to be stressed or is that just a catchy little phrase on some pillow? I don t know all the things that are going on in each of your lives, but I know that if we focus on being too blessed to be stressed we will live a happier, calmer, less grinchy life day to day. As God told Abraham: You are blessed to be a blessing to the nations. We don t have to tackle the whole world alone in our blessedness but we can begin with our selves - realizing the blessing inherent in all we do and are and then radiate that out to all whom we meet whether at home, at work, in school, on the street, in shops, on the bus. We can break out of our stress cycle by realizing and grasping hold of and living out our blessings and in so doing bring that attitude to others. It is the best gift we can give ourselves for the living out of 2016 and to give to others struggling along life s road with us. So this New Year, how about just one resolution: Every morning and every evening repeat the mantra: I am too blessed to be stressed. Maybe find your own pillow. And if we repeat it enough, maybe, just maybe, we ll believe it and 2016 will be awesome. In Case of an Emergency on F r i/ Sat/ Sun c a ll Joanne Messages le ft a t t h e c hurch aft er 2pm on T h ursday s a r e n ot checke d u n t il Monday mo rn ings. T h an k you ve r y m uc h!

8 Tibbetts United Methodist Church st Ave. SW Seattle, WA We Are Dancing with the Spirit Phone: Church Members receive a lengthier printed version via US Mail. The Communications Committee has ensured addresses and phone numbers of church members who host events in their home are not published on the internet, and also protects the privacy of its Youth. Facebook.com/TibbettsUMChurch We welcome all people to celebrate and share God's love. Come RETREAT with Us! Sign up by January 10th (Retreat! Or rather it should be called Advance!) It s almost time! We ve gotten a great response for the all-church retreat on January 23 (5pm) & 24 (5pm) but there is alw ays room for more. We ll gather at the Rainbow Lodge and Retreat Center just outside North Bend. nice and close for our 24 hours together at a beautiful setting with wonderful accommodations. Please consider joining us for what will be a meaningful and relaxing time as we look at how our gifts can best be utilized. There will be large group and small group times as well as free time to explore the trails around Rainbow Lodge or just sit in front of the fire and read or visit. The cost is $85 per person and there are family rates and scholarships so no one should stay away because of cost. Just talk with Joanne. Please see Kylene Ushimaru, George or Roberta Tuau, or any member of the Leadership team to sign up or if you have questions. We re planning to carpool so you can even get a ride if you d like! Join your other Tibbetts family for this time apart together!