The United Methodist Church needs you and me to pray like we have never prayed before.

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1 Fellowship Lantern Volume 59, Issue 9 June 2016 The United Methodist Church needs you and me to pray like we have never prayed before. Please reread that and let it sink in for a minute before you continue. I write this on the last day of The United Methodist General Conference, the quadrennial (every 4 years) meeting at which changes to the Book of Discipline are debated and some directions for our global denomination are set. In this gathering as well as other settings, debates about lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people have been roiling our denomination for forty-four years. On May 18 th, 2016, the Council of Bishops recommended that the General Conference stop all debate on resolutions related to human sexuality so that the Bishops may establish a commission to consider The United Methodist Church s teachings on human sexuality as a whole and make recommendations to General Conference sometime within the next 4 years. In the meantime, the Bishops will seek to avoid trials for LGBT clergy and clergy who perform same-sex marriages, while also upholding the Book of Discipline. The Bishops of our denomination have taken on a tremendous and essential task. Their actions will be roundly criticized from multiple directions. Their fidelity and integrity will be questioned by powerful clergy and laity, both conservative and liberal. But without their service in this work, I believe that many ministries of The United Methodist Church will cease to exist as our denomination splits. To avoid clergy trials, they will need to personally involve themselves in discussions with parties who may be in sharp and bitter conflict. To establish an effective commission to review the church s teachings on human sexuality, they will need to find men and women with broken and contrite hearts hearts pulverized (meaning of the Hebrew) down to a powder, so that the Breath of God can blow us in divine directions, to quote Rev. Steven Harper. But the responsibility for the future of our church rests with us as well. We need to practice our fellowship in such a way that we can speak of issues of human sexuality with compassion and integrity while we understand our different perspectives on faith with mutual respect and genuine love. This is not an easy thing in an age of sound bites and quick fixes. We will face other tasks that need our attention at the same time, very real challenges in our own congregation, but we must grow our capacity for Christian care larger than it has ever been. We need to hold our angry tongues more strongly. We need to calm our anxious minds more steadfastly. We need to offer the Peace of Christ to one another with greater sincerity and humility than we have offered it before. To promote Christian discipleship and fellowship in the congregation and community Published by.the FIRST UNITED METHODIST CHURCH OF Wayne-Westland Pastor Carter Cortelyou 3 Town Square Wayne, MI Telephone We need to have our Bishops backs in this task. We must pray for them as we have never prayed. If you read The Upper Room daily, consider starting a prayer journal. If you keep a prayer journal, consider adding fixed hour prayers. Consider joining our midday prayers at church on a regular basis. Consider the discipline of fasting. We need to pray like we have never prayed before. The future of our United Methodist Church may very well depend on it.. Yours, Pastor Carter

2 GOD S PARTNER IN PRAYER You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it. John 14:14 Breath on me, Breath of God, fill me with life anew, That I may love what thou dost love and do what thou wouldst do. UMH 420 Jesus tells us that we can have anything we want, however, we must remember that our asking must be in his name. In His name means it must be done according to God s character and will, and we cannot use his name to fulfill our selfish desires. If we are sincerely following God and seeking to do his will, then our requests will be in line with what he wants, and he will grant our requests. Also, it is important to be aware that an important part of praying is a willingness to be a part of the answer. God not only expects us to pray in the attitude of Jesus but he has given us means to be partners with him in answering our prayers. A man prayed fervently every morning at family worship for the poor in the community, but he was never known to give anything to the poor. One morning at the conclusion of family worship, after the usual prayer had been offered for the poor and destitute, his little son said, Father, I wish I had your corncrib. Why, my son? asked the father. Why, because then I would answer your prayer myself. Like the father we don t always complete our part of the prayer, we sometimes pray for someone who is sick but do not pay a visit or send a card to bring hope or encouragement to them, or we pray for a person who is poor and needy but do not help them by sharing some of the good fortune God has given us. God not only expects us to pray in the attitude of Jesus but he has given us means to be partners with him in answering our prayers. Sometimes God performs healing miracles because of the faith of the one praying and sometimes because of the faith of the person being prayed for. That is true for answered prayers of any kind. And sometimes God uses a very unexpected source for answering our prayers. Finally, as partners in prayer with God we must listen for his answers. If I am to talk to my friend on the telephone, after I have dialed his number, I must wait for an answer. It is rude to ring up someone and then put the phone down. I must wait until I hear the Hello! or Are you there? from the other end. And it is like that with prayer, we must give God time to reply. It is neither polite nor useful to offer up a prayer and then hang up. That is a mistake we often make in prayer. We need to take time to listen to God and to be patient because God s timetable may be different than ours and he does know best how and when to answer our prayers. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy! Philip. 1:4 Red Miller

3 Coffee Hour June 5 Sandy Ofiara in celebration of John Jr. 50 th birthday June 12 UMW June 19 Doug & Irene Schoonover in celebration of their 54 th Anniversary June 26 Vacant June 5 th June 12th June 19th June 26 th Altar Flowers Phil & Chris Shelly in memory of Dad Harold Reiter Fay Tolk in memory of husband Hank Tolk Doug & Irene Schoonover in honor of 54 th Anniversary Dottie LeSuer in memory of husband Izzy LeSuer

4 June Birthdays: June 13 th June 17 th June 18 th June 27 th June 29 th June 30 th Sheyi Olojo Keleigh Somes David Orwin, Jr. Greg Rowe Fay Tolk John Ofiara Jr. June 1 st June 9 th June 16 th June 26 th June 27 th June 28 th HAPPY ANNIVERSARY Greg & Nancy Lewis Nathan & Norma Weiser Doug & Irene Schoonover Michael & Pam Wood Ed & Marlene Pedlow Dave & Sharon Orwin Pat & Barb Johnson Greg & Karen Rowe ***************************************************************** THANK YOU TO ALL THAT WORKED AND HELPED WITH THE RUMMAGE SALE. A TOTAL OF $2, WAS DEPOSITED TO OUR GENERAL FUND.

5 UNITED METHODIST WOMEN JUNE, 2016 EXECUTIVE MEETING June 1 st, 6:30 p.m. - Parlor CHARIS CIRCLE ESTHER/MARTHA CIRCLE LYDIA CIRCLE Monday, June 6, 6:30 p.m. Parlor Salad dinner Shirleen will bring lettuce You bring fixings & salad dressing of your choice and beverage. Join us for a group discussion of an Upper Room Devotion. It will apply to our lives. Tuesday, June 14, :00 p.m. George Kirlanoff & Gale Wilbur s home. Gale is furnishing the chicken; everyone else Bring a dish to pass and your own table service. Maps will come later. Thursday, June 9 th, p.m. Circle is hosting the Women at Risk Open house. Items may be purchased or Ordered that day. BOOK CLUB Come to the Garden by Jennifer Wilder Morgan How to order: Give $5.00 to Linda Maylone by June 30 th. She will place an order. ******************************************************************* UNITED METHODIST WOMEN Ingathering Project. We will be collecting Items for the MICHIGAN VETERANS FOUNDATION. Look in the Lantern or Elsewhere for more information. COMING UP: June 12 UNITED METHODIST SUNDAY Mr. Tyrone Chatman will speak about The foundation and their needs. Donations are due September 18 th, ********************CROP WALK 2016 ******************** THANK YOU TO THOSE THAT WALKED AND ALSO THOSE WHO CONTRIBUTED. 1 ST UNITED METHODIST CHURCH $ TOTAL CROP WALK AMOUNT $8,081.41

6 UMCOR and the Flint Water Crisis Unless you don t own a television or a radio, you have probably read or heard about the water problems in Flint. I am sure many of you want to help, but the logistics of transporting cases and cases of water can be a little overwhelming. The United Methodist Committee on Relief (known as UMCOR) is working with the Crossroads District in Flint to provide relief. In addition to providing bottled water, they are also working on a longer term solution. Namely, they need funds to purchase filtration pitchers and replacement filters. The Witness and Outreach Committee was looking for a way to help our Flint neighbors. Once we found this UMCOR Advance, we chose to support this effort. For the months of June, June and July, you can drop your spare change into the collection pail during the first hymn. At the end of the three months, we will send our donation to UMCOR. We are also going to include Vacation Bible School participants in the spare change initiative. I have tried to imagine what it would be like to have orangish, blackish water coming out of my faucet. Yuck! Yet our bodies must have water to survive. Let s rally together and help our Flint neighbors get back to health with clean water. Linda Maylone Witness and Outreach Committee Spare Your Change to Make a Change for Flint!

7 DETROIT RENAISSANCE DISTRICT UNITED METHODIST WOMEN 2016 INGATHERING PROJECT The United Methodist Women will be collecting items for Michigan Veterans Foundation. The foundations mission is help homeless veterans to regain their stability and return to self-sufficiency. The Foundation provides transitional housing, food pantry, employment, training, job opportunities, health care services, meals, clothing and support groups among other services. Mr. Tyrone Chatman, Executive Director, of the Foundation will be at our church on June 12 th to explain how they serve these veterans who want to help themselves. Wish List for men Socks and under ware (new) All the following clothing items can be new or gently used. Shirts, Tee shirts, Sweat shirts, Pants, Sweaters, Coats, Jackets, Baseball caps. Hygiene items: Soap, Toothbrushes, Toothpaste, Shaving items, shampoo, Deodorant etc. Non-perishable Food items. The deadline for collecting these donations will be September 18 th. There will be a box in Fellowship Hall to place your donations in. Any questions see Jan Podgers. All members of the church are invited to participate. HEBREW 13:16 And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased **************************************************************************************************

8 The Free Library is a way to connect to the community through providing reading opportunities to all age groups. The library is stocked with books for anybody to borrow - or they can even donate a book for others to read. The Library is located on the south-west corner by the old building.

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12 FELLOWSHIP LANTERN REV. CARTER CORTELYOU PASTOR is published monthly except August GALE WILBUR EDITOR DEADLINE FOR ARTICLES Is the 15 th of the month address for the lantern is Visit us on the web at Mission Statement We are the Congregation of First United Methodist Church of Wayne-Westland and are a committed, loving, Christian community of Jesus Christ, in ministry, witnessing to the love of God as experienced in our lives, and expressed by: worship together, Christian nurture, education evangelism, Christian fellowship and support of one another, invitation to others to share our faith, social awareness, involvement and support of worldwide Methodism. Our witness embraces all people. First United Methodist Church 3 Town Square Wayne, MI SUNDAY WORSHIP SERVICE 10:00 A.M. ADULT SUNDAY SCHOOL AT 9:00 A.M. CHILDREN S SUNDAY SCHOOL 10:00 A.M.