Belfry. Echoes HUMMELSTOWN UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST MAY 2017

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1 Belfry Echoes HUMMELSTOWN UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST MAY 2017 SPRING!! I do believe it has actually arrived. I am deeply grateful for the longer hours of daylight, warmer weather, and glorious colors that surround us these days. Reminds me of the lovely words of St. Catherine of Sienna who said, All the way to Heaven is Heaven Perhaps she meant something holier than being in love with spring, but her words fit my feelings too. Reminder The church will go on Summertime Schedule in June. Ashley will (as Linda did for years) cut back her hours in the office for the summer months. The office will be open on Wednesdays and Thursdays. I will be shifting my office scheduling to correspond with hers. Office Hours at the Wick will shift to a Wednesday or Thursday. The monthly Bible Study will likely move to Wednesday night as well. One of the best parts of the Visioning process is the uptick in feedback. As persons have reflected on their vision of what HUCC should be, they have shared other observations as well. One comment (coming from more than one person) was that there seem to be cliques or a group who is special. It saddens me to think that anyone would not feel fully welcome to join a conversation group after church or any church activity. The vision that was then shared was that everyone would be welcomed to everything. Obviously everyone will not choose to be a part of everything, and yet, everyone would feel wanted and welcomed. Perhaps we should all be more conscious of inviting individuals to whatever we are a part of. (Including the grammar police who are having heart failure over my ending a sentence with a preposition. LOL! And writing in incomplete sentences. LOL LOL!) I do want to add a note of special joy that both the weekly and the monthly Bible Study are flourishing. Not only are we all traveling deeper in our spiritual journeys by really attending to holy writ, we are equally enjoying getting to know each other better. Who knew this spiritual discipline would be so much fun? AND as per the paragraph above everyone is invited to come! Blessings Always,

2 Bible Study Happenings Weekly Bible Study Join your HUCC friends and family for weekly Bible Study on Thursdays at 2 pm. Currently, we are reading through Matthew. Beyond Literalism: Reading Matthew Monthly Bible Study (May) HUCC holds an evening Bible Study every fourth Tuesday of each month at 7 pm. In these classes, we are overviewing of our sacred scripture, the Jewish and the Christian canons. Mother/Daughter Banquet Tuesday May 9th at 6:pm The men of the church will serve the meal and there will be entertainment following dinner. Meal will be: Roast Beef, mash potatoes, carrots, salad with dressing, applesauce, rolls, cake and finger deserts. The cost is $6.00 per person and children under 4 are free. Please see Fern Heckman or June Trocik to make reservations. Dead line for reservations will be Sunday, April 30 th. HUCC Pool Parties All parties are scheduled 1:00 pm to close. Pool members and non-pool members welcome! Burgers, hotdogs and drinks will be provided. Covered-dish/ items will be appreciated. Outings with Pastor Denham Join Pastor Denham for good conversation and plenty of laughs. Breakfast at Bill s at 9:30 am May 10 th June 14 th Office Hours at The Wick at 1:30 pm May 23 rd (Tuesday) June 28 th (Wednesday) June 18 * July 16 * August 20

3 Outreach Relay for Life Relay For Life is the signature fundraiser for the American Cancer Society. Relay is staffed and coordinated by volunteers in more than 5,200 communities and 27 countries. Volunteers give of their time and effort because they believe it's time to take action against cancer. Relay is a team fundraising event where team members take turns walking around a track or designated path. Each event is 6-24 hours in length and each team is asked to have a member on the track at all times to signify that cancer never sleeps. Cancer patients don't stop because they're tired, and for one night, neither do we. Each team sets up a themed campsite at the event and continues their fundraising efforts by collecting donations for food, goods, games, and activities. This money will count towards their overall team fundraising goal. Join the HUCC Relay Team this year June 9-10 at the Lower Dauphin High School. There are many ways to get involved with Relay for Life. You can walk with the team (for a few laps or a few hours), donate a basket for the raffle, purchase a luminaria in remembrance or honor of a loved one, provide moral support through a visit to your site or a prayer. Contact team captains Kris Landvater or Wendy Cole for more details.

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5 Open & Affirming HUCC Family Thank you for filling out the ONA surveys and participating in small discussion groups, coffee hour, breakfast, and lunch meetings. Pastor Denham and the Gift Team board will continue to work with all you to move us forward through the ONA certification. You might be interested in the following below: History of ONA (Open & Affirming); In 1985 the United Church of Christ's General Synod adopted a resolution encouraging UCC congregations to welcome (or consider welcoming) gay, lesbian, and bisexual members. Following later General Synod resolutions affirming transgender members of the church, the welcome was extended so that, today, an ONA covenant typically welcomes members of any sexual orientation or gender identity and expression. The 1985 resolution had no legislative authority over individual congregations, which are autonomous, but set in motion a movement that spread rapidly throughout the church. The resolution allocated no funds to support an ONA program in the UCC's national office. As a result, the UCC Coalition for LGBT Concerns launched an ONA program in 1987, led by the Rev. Ann B. Day and Donna Enberg, which raised funds from individual contributors, sympathetic congregations and private foundations. To this day, the official registry of ONA congregations is managed by the Coalition (since renamed the Open and Affirming Coalition), a voluntary non-profit organization independent from the church's national office. The Coalition publishes a wide range of resources to support congregations considering an ONA commitment and to help existing ONA churches build relationships. New York City's Riverside Church, under the pastoral leadership of the late Rev. William Sloane Coffin, was the first in the UCC to be listed as Open and Affirming. According to the Coalition, more than 1,400 UCC congregations with 375,000 members (about 27 percent of all UCC churches) are listed as officially Open and Affirming as of April Twenty of the UCC's 38 regional conferences, most new church starts, all seven seminaries affiliated with the UCC and several UCC-related campus ministries have adopted ONA statements, or "covenants." Other ministries in the UCC, like the Council for Health and Human Service Ministries and the Order of Corpus Christi have also adopted ONA covenants.

6 May 2017 Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Relay Sub pickup 5 Bells 7 Choir 7: Mother/Daughter Breakfast at Bill s Harrisburg Banquet 6 9:30 Assoc. Meeting Elizabethville Potluck 11:30 9: Bible Study CANCELLED Office Hours at The Wick 1:30 Gift Team Monthly Bible Board Study 7 Meeting Office Closed Memorial Day May 7 May 14 May 21 May 28 Greeter Thelma Shumway Jamie Hansell Thelma Shumway Rich Hebel Ushers Rich Hebel Mary Horst Jamie Hansell Wendy Cole Mark Fisher Thelma Shumway Nancy Robinson John Horn Jim Landvater Ken Robinson Linda Sellers Charles Rhoads Tom Whitehaus Liturgist Thelma Shumway Mary Horst Carole Hoover John Horn Sparks! Shannon Williard Rich Hebel Intergenerational

7 June 2017 Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat 4 Potluck 11: Breakfast at Bill s 9:30 Central PA Blood Bank Pool Party Office Hours at The Wick 1: June 4 June 11 June 18 June 25 Greeter June Trocik Thelma Shumway Jamie Hansell Thelma Shumway Ushers Rich Hebel Mary Horst Jamie Hansell Wendy Cole Mark Fisher Thelma Shumway Nancy Robinson John Horn Jim Landvater Ken Robinson Linda Sellers Charles Rhoads Tom Whitehaus Liturgist Keith Schrum Wendy Cole Lori Jo Whitehaus Thelma Shumway

8 CARING FRIENDS ON-CALL SCHEDULE April 30- May 6 Carol Hebel May 7- May 13 Carole Hoover May 14- May 20 Joyce Wolf May 21- May 27 June Trocik May 28- June 3 Ruth Bernitsky June 4- June 10 Carol Hebel June 11- June 17 Carole Hoover June 18- June 24 Joyce Wolf June 25- July 1 June Trocik July 2- July 8 Ruth Bernitsky July 9- July 15 Carol Hebel July 16- July 22 Carole Hoover July 23- July 29 Joyce Wolf 5 Halley Cole 5 Jeff Kolakowski 6 Carol Huber 13 Michael Wiesling 15 Camdyn Reitzel 17 Kelli Flickinger 20 Mark Harpel 21 Erica Cuevas 27 Stephen Doll 29 Barb Cimino 29 Gideon Fisher BIRTHDAYS May June 1 Dottie Harpel 1 June Trocik 5 Priscilla Denham 5 Lauren Horn 7 Darina Lynch 11 Alex Moore 14 Becca Landvater 19 Fay Rhoads 20 Bryan Florence 20 Rebecca Quail 26 Jim Landvater 27 Adam Horn 29 Briana Matthews 29 Olivia Owens July 30- Aug. 5 Aug. 6- Aug. 12 June Trocik Ruth Bernitsky Shout-out Thank you Stu Lutz for planting the beautiful flowers out front! HUCC appreciates you. Summer Hours June, July & August summer office hours will be as follows: Wednesdays 8-4:30 Thursdays 8-2:30