Tidings from Tibbetts

Transcription

1 Tidings from Tibbetts Rev. Dr. Joanne Carlson Brown F e b r u a r y Founded 1909 I n f o r m a t i o n a n d I n s p i r a t i o n f r o m T i b b e t t s U n i t e d M e t h o d i s t C h u r c h Joanne s Jottings by Rev. Dr. Joanne Brown Welcome home. That is our theme this year that we launched during our season of financial and volunteer campaign. (If you haven t gotten your calendar let us know and we will get it to you.) We feel that Tibbetts is home - a warm, caring, safe place to be, but also a place where we will be given something to think about, to be challenged in a positive way, supported in our searching and questioning, a place where we can totally be ourselves - no pretenses, no facade, just be us. That is what home should be. And there are many people out in our very own West Seattle community that are longing for such a home. I realize that this may be an idealized vision of home. Many people did not grow up in the kind of home that I did - with unconditionally loving parents and lots of cousins with whom I am still very close. Sometimes unspeakable things happened in people s homes and a welcome home is not comforting. Continued to page 7 Home is where... Inside this issue: Joanne s Jottings 1 & 7 Youth News by Kathryn Ushimaru, Youth Director Youth News 1-2 Thank you for supporting our Youth Sunday service last month on January 29 th. The youth enjoyed planning the music, scripture, and message around Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and the Seven Deadly Sins. This month, we will continue engaging in other faith traditions as we attend Shabbat at Kol HaNeshama Synagogue on February 3 rd and Compline at St. Mark s Cathedral on February 19 th. Once again, we invite Tibbetts families and friends to drop their children off at the church for Parent s Night Out on Continued to page 2 Rainbow Lodge 3 Practice Gratitude 5 Spiritual & Social Justice Souper Bowl 8 And So Much More! 6

2 Page 2 Youth News Continued from page 1 February 10 th from 5:30pm-9:30pm. Avoid the Valentine s Day rush AND support our upcoming mission trip with Sierra Service Project from July 16 th -22 nd. Bonus: your kids will come home exhausted and ready for bed! Our last Parent s Night Out in December raised over $400 and brought in 25 children from the community (22 of which were from co op preschool). What a fun way to reach out to West Seattle families! Kathryn Ushimaru, Youth Director youthdirector@tibbettsumchurch.org February Youth Events Kol HaNeshama 2/3 (7pm-8:30pm) Youth Group (6 th -12 th grades) 2/5 (10:15am-11am) Parents Night Out: Valentine s Day! 2/10 (5pm-10pm) Tibbetts Rainbow Lodge 2/11-2/12 West Seattle Food Bank Packing Party 2/13 (7-8pm) **MIDWINTER BREAK** (NO YOUTH GROUP 2/19) St. Mark s 2/19 (9pm-10:30pm) Youth Group (6 th -12 th grades) 2/26 (10:15am-11am) Mary s Place Rotating Shelter Update For two weeks a year Tibbett's is host to Mary's Place Rotating Shelter, and is looking forward to hosting up to 14 guests the weeks of July and August Many volunteer opportunities will be available later this spring. Although the group changes frequently, as the average duration of time in this shelter before placed in housing is only 3-4 months, currently there are 4 families, with 4 toddlers, and 6 elementary aged children. There is also one practicing Coptic Christian who follows strict fasting rules. Please keep these families in your prayers as they transition to new homes and get the services they need through Mary's Place.

3 Tibbetts Retreat February 11 & 12 at Rainbow Lodge! Page 3 It s here! The event of the year! Our All Church Retreat at Rainbow Lodge, a beautiful place in North Bend, is February 11 & 12 starting at 5pm on the 11th and going until 5pm on the 12th. The cost is $90 a person and $200 for a family of 3 or more. There are scholarships available so don t let the cost of the retreat keep you away. Just talk with Joanne. Our theme this year will be What Does It Mean to be United Methodists in the PNW in the 21st Century - very timely considering the religious and political climate in our nation and within our communities and even the general UMC. There is a sign up sheet in the entryway but don t delay. We need to give the Lodge a firm number count the week before. As the folks who went last year can attest this was a great, fun, learning time. There will be large group time, small group time, and free time to enjoy the woods and mountains around the Lodge or just curl up by the fire and read or find someone you don t know well and simply talk over a cup of tea. Don t miss it this year! Sign up now!

4 Page 4 General United Methodist Woman s Meeting: Will meet only four times annually in 2017; March, June September and December. Circle Meetings Eileen Leader Circle- Will meet on Wed, Feb 8, at 10am in the Parlor. Wynn Yoki will be the host and will present the program. Happy Birthday in February Susanna Wesley Circle- Will meet on Wed, Feb 8, at 11am at Jeanne Galletly s apartment. The meeting and program will be held before lunch, which will be at Wesley home. Kolze Circle-Will meet on Fri, Feb 17, at 7pm at Lisa Danforth-Lewis home. Sewing Circle- Will meet on Wed, Feb 22 from 10am-2pm. Bring a sack lunch, tea and coffee will be provided. We welcome friends and family to join the fun. UMW Sewing Circle announcement: we are in need of spools of yarn for a project to be made for West Side Babies. Please give it to Virginia Kinch, thank you. Happy Anniversary in February Congratulations and many blessings! Nancy & Pat Carney 38 years Shirley & Myron Lindberg 27 years Russ Kari Katy Carter Delancey Lane Norm Leader Skylar Bihl Sophia Wiener Doug Branch Eliane Garrett Wynn Yoki Jim Bevier Rachel Cole Lola Davidson Micheala Hoppe Chad Richman Jim Roberts Holly Branch Neil Schwartz

5 Page 5 Practice Gratitude A practice at the opening of the day: When we greet the new day as a gift, a sense of gratefulness can carry us through the hours that follow. The day is presented to us as something to give away to others hour by hour. -David Steindl-Rast, Music of Silence 1. Prepare If possible rise before the sun and watch it emerge as the earth turns back towards it. Otherwise be somewhere you can see the morning light outside if weather and location permit. Have a journal, sketchbook, or paper, and writing/ drawing/painting implements at hand. 2. Awaken Begin w ith a prayer that awakens you to a new day. 3. Receive the gift of a new day No matter what the circumstances of your life, today you are here, awake and alive, to see another day. As you inhale, consciously breathe in the life force. As you exhale, breathe out any residual sleepiness. Breathe out anything standing in your way of living fully in this moment of a brand new day. Stay with your breath awhile. Immerse yourself in the miracle of a new day. Let it soak into your bones. 4. Express your gratitude to the Author of Life You might do this through prayer, contemplation, writing, chanting/ singing, dancing, or drawing/painting. Offer something back in appreciation of the life you ve been given. A silent thank you can be enough. 5. Integrate As you prepare to end this time of intentional gratitude, ask for some guidance on how you might remember to be grateful throughout the day. You may have a touchstone word or image, or perhaps a sensation in your body. There is actually no end to this practice. We already do it in a multitude of ways (sometimes more intentionally than others). When we take time to really see someone, or listen to someone, or appreciate beauty, it s a form of gratitude. This practice is a reminder to build appreciation for what is into our days. A practice for evening: If the only prayer we ever said was Thank you it would be enough. -Meister Eckhardt 1. Sit comfortably, take a few mindful breaths, and center your self. 2. Reflect on any challenging times, people, situations, or news from the day. Recall anything you regret doing or not doing, and notice the thoughts, feelings, and physical sensations that arise as you recount this experience (or experiences). 3. Breathe in and know it is life itself that enters you. Let this life-breath bring healing, forgiveness, and love to the raw or tender places in you. Exhale and release any residual negativity from the day. 4. Reflect on the joys of the day: good news, meaningful conversations and encounters, work well done, blessings received. Notice the thoughts, feelings, and physical sensations that arise as you recount these moments. 5. Breathe in, knowing it is life itself that enters you. Allow this life-breath to inspire your gratitude for everything - challenge and blessing. Breathe out gratitude for the gift of the day, and allow the love, forgiveness, healing, blessing, and grace that you have received pour through you and out into the world and all those around you. 6. Express your gratitude to the Author of Life. You might do this through prayer, contemplation, writing, chanting/singing, dancing, or drawing/painting. Offer something back in appreciation for the life you ve been given. A silent thank you can be enough. Use your touchstone as a reminder throughout the day.

6 Page 6 Stock Donation If you have long-term appreciated securities you wish to donate instead of cash to the church, we now have that option. The Northwest Methodist Foundation has an IRSapproved method of transferring stock from the donor's brokerage firm to a brokerage firm used by the Foundation, where the stock is sold and the proceeds sent to the donor's church. The donor is then able to take the entire sale as a charitable contribution without having to pay capital gains taxes. Forms with all the information for this process are available in the office or you can go to the Northwest Methodist Foundation web site. Go to nwumf.org, select 'Our Services' on the top banner then 'Forms' in the Get Started box on the right of the page. The form is near the bottom of the page. The brokerage firm and the NWF foundation take a small management fee for each transaction. Spiritual and Social Justice As a continuation of the conversations we will have at the retreat we have a chance to hear from our District Superintendent, Rich Lang, on February 26 when he will be preaching that Sunday at the 10am service. After the service there will be a gathering of people - all are welcome - to discuss the sermon and the issues raised or ones we might like to raise. It will be a stimulating morning and we hope you can be present at both the worship service and the discussion afterwards. Ash Wednesday Ash Wednesday is March 1. There will be two services at Tibbetts that day, in the sanctuary - one at 11:30am and one at 7pm. People are welcome to either service. It will be a time of reflection and preparation as we enter the season of Lent. Start your Lenten season with this time to be home with God and your church family.

7 Page 7 Joanne s Jottings continued Continued from page 1 Some may have experienced spiritual abuse in another church and for them coming into a church again is a risk and scary. All the more reason that we not only need to create the kind of home all people need but to bring the message of this reality to as many people as we can - people who are yearning for this kind of home and may not even know what they are yearning for - but it is something that is not complete in their lives. But there is another yearning for home. Like the Prodigal Son in Jesus parable, we all want to go home to God. But the truth is we are already home. We never really left. Home lives inside each of us. We may have forgotten it temporarily but once we accept it, we receive the freedom, the joy, and the love that we have longed for in our lives. Thus do we become a unique expression of the love God has ordained us to be, and thus do we become one with God. For in the end, God is all there is and God is love. You see, it can not be just all about the home we create at Tibbetts. We each need to find our way home within ourselves. And Tibbetts is here to help in that searching and yearning. Through God acting through the community - the family that is Tibbetts - we can experience the love of God. Through being together in worship each Sunday, whether at the 8:30 am Morning Meditation or the regular service at 10 am, we come together to experience God through word and music and prayer and fellowship. These are special moments where we find God searching for us in love. There are places in the world where the veil between this world and the next is thin and we can feel something special just being there. This is in many different places for different people. For some it is on Mt. Rainier (the original name Tahoma means the place where God dwells ), for some it is at a waterfall deep in the woods, to some sitting on the rocks watching the waves crash on the shore. For me it is being in Scotland, in the Highlands - where I experience a sense of deep belonging that touches my soul and helps me experience that connection with the God of home and love that is always in me but I may forget or not be able to feel or access in the busyness of the day, the week, the month, the year. It is good to take time regularly to go somewhere - doesn t have to be somewhere special - but somewhere we can just be to restore our soul and connection with the home within us. Some go to a retreat house, some just to their recliner and read a book that has nothing to do with their job or school, anywhere that the busyness of life will not intrude - even if it is just for a few hours. In this month where the attention is on love it is important to focus on the love that calls us home - to the church - to ourselves - to God. God is love and those who know love know God and will come to know themselves. Love God, Love God s people. The rest is commentary. Go and learn, advocates Rabbi Hillel and Jesus. Love will bring us home and when we get there, the welcome mat will be out, our loving community will be running out to greet us, and God will smile, arms open wide to welcome us home. So this month, come home. In Case of an Emergency on F r i / S a t / S u n c a l l J o a n n e 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. For the rest of the world February 5 may be Super Bowl Sunday, but at Tibbetts it is Souper Bowl Sunday. We start at worship with people encouraged to wear their favorite team s jersey or shirt and the traditional singing of Drop Kick Me Jesus through the Goal Posts of Life. Following the service our annual Souper Bowl lunch, with great soup and bread, great times of fellowship, and a chance to contribute to a Souper Bowl cause that is dear to our hearts, the Jamaa Letu orphanages. We have chosen to do scholarship grants for those turning 18 who age out of the orphanage to help get them set up in college. 2 have already graduated in public health and law. There are 10 more in college and another 6 getting ready to launch out. These scholarships are crucial for their ability to do so and only covers a portion of their costs. So, please plan on joining us February 5 for worship and for the lunch and please be generous. Volunteers are needed! Please let the church office know if you d like to help with preparing the soup or setting up on Saturday, February 4th, or serving or cleanup on Sunday.