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News!!! Harry Knox, former member of Lakewood:
Washington, DC – The Board of Directors of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice (RCRC) is pleased to announce the appointment of Reverend Harry Knox as President and Chief Executive Officer of RCRC, the nation’s coalition of organizations from 15 denominations and faith traditions committed to reproductive rights and justice.
http://www.rcrc.org/news/Knox.cfm
Thanks to all who were part of the beautiful Maundy Thursday service last evening. With foot washing, communion, and Tennebrae, it was very moving. The choir sang an expressive anthem entitled, “I Thirst.” The service closed with Randy Allen singing an a capella rendition of “I Wonder As I Wander.” It was stunning. There were 32 people present. Dinner before the service was delicious with food provided by Mary Weber, Karen Denehy, Ardis Stein, and Janet Blair, and served by Denise Williams. Again, thanks to all who were part of this remembering of the end of Jesus’ life.
Church was amazing today! Actually, it is amazing every Sunday. But this morning, not only were there 54 people there, but Hilton treated us to a wonderful honky tonk version of “Your Cheatin’ Heart.” Isn’t is great to be part of the Broken Hearts Club?
I saw Chloe Gates today at the Vineyard. She asked to be remembered to everyone at church. She said, “Tell everybody that I love them and I miss them.” Chloe is doing much better. Her speaking has improved greatly. She is much easier to understand. She wanted to hear about everyone at church and she told me about her family and the goings on at the assisted living. Please keep Chloe in your prayers and visit her or drop her a note as you are able.
Great summer opportunity for economically disadvantaged teen:
Student applicants sought for STEM-focused summer program
Applications are being accepted for the 2012 STEMTEC Summer Career Institute for economically disadvantaged teenagers ages 14 to 17.
The four-week summer program, which is held June 14 to July 13, provides career exploration and job training in science, technology, engineering and math fields for students who have a 2.5 or higher grade point average and whose families meet certain income requirements.
Students who complete the program will receive $500. The career institute includes hands-on activities and site visits. The program is held at St. Petersburg College’s Allstate Center and the Gibbs, Seminole, Clearwater and Tarpon Springs campuses and is a collaboration between WorkNet Pinellas, Junior Achievement, Pinellas County Schools, St. Petersburg College and various other partners.
The deadline to apply is March 31. Fill out an application at http://www.worknetpinellas.org/stemtec.
Blog post regarding a march for women’s health and reproductive feedom, by Harry Knox, former Lakewood congregant.
ooops – http://walkingwithintegrity.blogspot.com/
There were two postings from Harry, one on families for all kids advocating LGBT people be allowed to adopt throughout the country, and one about women’s reproductive rights. Have you noticed that none of the health issues discussed in Congress and in our state legislature are about men’s bodies? Men would never submit to the government dictating their health or reproductive choices. The government should not interfere with women’s choices, either. Health decisions, including abortion and birth control, are personal moral, ethical, religious decisions that should be made by the individual, not by the government.
As many of you know, Kim, Claudia, and Claire’s partner, Ruth, have all been working on crocheting pieces for a huge coral reef display at the Florida Craftsmen Gallery in June. Well – this Saturday – St. Patrick’s Day – they are having a family activity at the Museum of Fine Arts crocheting GREEN coral pieces Want to go? Let’s show them what a green family looks like in LUCC style!
Saturday, March 17th 12-2pm
Museum of Fine Arts – Family activity day, Let’s crochet in green yarn for St. Patrick’s Day!!
http://floridacraftsmen.net/2011/crochet-coral-reef/
In the sermon this morning, we referred to the Civil Rights demonstrations in Memphis in which protestors wore signs that said, “I am a man.” The signs were in response to the subhuman treatment of African Americans. We had representatives of the Fair Food Coalition at church today talking about better conditions for farmworkers. After the service, Elena told me that at a strategy meeting for the protest at Publix Headquarters in Lakeland on March 10, the workers will wear signs that say, “You are human. I am, too.” The same sentiment as the Civil Rights message. We still have work to do! By the way, Dwight is driving to Lakeland on the 10th and is offering transportation to those from the church who would like to go.
Who is going to the FAST rally?
I intended to go, but my foot will not permit me to.
I hope others will go with you, Melanie.
I spent my evening at the FAST rally, with overflow capacity at Mt. Zion AME church. It was definitely an interesting evening. FAST is Faith and Action for Strength Together, and includes congregations from many churches, Temple Beth El, and St. Petersburg Islamic Center. They take 2-3 issues annually (here in Pinellas) and bring them to the elected officials with proposals/demands. I heard about their demand to put Direct Instruction as a core curriculum in 20 low performing elementary schools (including where Randy teaches and where I teach). They are getting the police to address several hot spots in the community, demanding a drug treatment program in the county jail, and demanding a local hire ordinance for city contracts. While I was the only one from Lakewood there tonight, there were rather large groups from Church of the Isles UCC and Faith UCC there (Ellory from Faith was the one who came to talk to us about FAST a couple of months ago).
As far as my reaction to what I took part in this evening, I am still working that out. It was inspiring to see a racially diverse community working together for justice. Of course, the clergy were all male. I suppose that’s part of my reflection – it felt very patriarchal. But I don’t like to go on first impressions, so I am not going to say they are patriarchal – just that it felt that way. I need to go listen to some of Dr. King’s speeches and see what the difference is.
And as an educator in one of the schools they want to impact, I’m not sure I agree with their solution. So, I will get in touch and find out who was on the team that made the decision. They showed a Prime Time news report on DI from the 1990s, but students today are very different from the students of the 1990s. I’ll keep researching that.
Melanie, thanks so much for going to FAST and for doing more research on Direct Instruction. It is exciting to see faith communities coming together and working together with the goal of bettering the community for ALL people. Keep us posted!
Thank you for your prayers and good wishes. I survived foot surgery yesterday and though I am slowed down in body I have not dimmed in spirit! See you Sunday!
All of us are happy that it went well!
I went to the doctor yesterday [Tuesday], and he basically said, cast off your crutch! I’m not going far and I’m not going fast, but I am hobbling around crutch free.
Thanks to all who came to the beautiful Ash Wednesday service at Jean Johnson’s house. And many thanks to Jean for offering her lovely location. Fireside, waterside, the Lenten season began. We shared the passions God is igniting in us and what we are fired up about. It was very moving. There were 29 of us, all ages, and after the service, thanks to Mark and Colleen, we enjoyed roasting marshmallows and making s’mores. Looking forward to Sunday! We’ll have guests from the Fair Food Campaign to update us on that important mission. See you then!
Yes, thank you, Jean, for providing a beautiful location for a beautiful service.
I’m planning to go to Line Dancing lessons at Flamingo tomorrow evening if anyone wants to join me – 7-9 Some of us went a couple of weeks ago and had a great time.
well…I worked too hard in my classroom today and didn’t have the energy for line dancing. Hopefully next Friday.
Prayers for healing for Pastor Kim who had foot surgery today. She said it HURTS!!! And you know she never complains about stuff like that, so it must be pretty bad.
The new advisor team and Pastor Kim met this evening: Karen, Earl, David, Melanie, and Kim. Warning – great activities and opportunities are being planned this year! Movie nights, dinner groups, new support groups, Vacation Bible School, Kim blogging from abroad! All kinds of ideas were discussed and will be in the works soon and this summer.
Melanie:
How about the thermostat? That’s an exciting subject!!!
oh yes -the thermostat – the most exciting topic of all. I don’t think it’s a thermostat problem. I think there is a plan to address the chill in the air – but I think there was a plan before – it just wasn’t completely adhered to. From what I have heard most everyone agrees with you that it was too cold in there Sunday. I spent most of the service in teaching church school in the other building with no air on and the doors open -so I was in a rather warm, humid environment. But I will do my best to ensure that the temperature in the sanctuary is more comfortable this coming Sunday.
We need to have our air conditioning technician come out and look at our thermostat because it is not operating properly (maybe it needs to be replaced) When I arrived at the church on Sun. morning, the thermometer showed it was 68 degrees and the thermostat was set for 72. Nonetheless, the a/c was running and putting out cold air. As the service went on, the a/c continued to put out cold air. I went over and set the thermostat to 75 degrees, yet still the cold air poured out and the thermometer showed it was 68 degrees. After the service was over the thermometer showed it was 68 degrees and yet cold air still poured out. The thermostat seems to be off 5 or more degrees! At the same time the fans were also whirring around blowing around the cold air.
It is the middle of Feb.; I don’t have my a/c on; do you? I don’t want to pay Progress Energy any more than I have to. Does Lakewood consider Progress Energy to be its favorite charity? I don’t think we need the A/c on or the fans whirring around on high. Last Sun., Feb. 12th, it was like a barn in the sanctuary and heat was needed. I had my heat on! Someone said that heat costs money. We would have plenty of money for heat on the 2 or 3 Sundays when it is needed if we didn’t waste it on the hundreds of Sundays when the a/c is turned way to far down, with the (unnecessary) fans whirring around on high.
Our organ is broken!!! Hilton has been trying to get one of three available repair people to come out and look at the organ and advise us as to its repairability and cost. However, nothing is happening! Are we going to fix the organ? If not, are we going to move it out of the sanctuary? Are we going to look for some kind of a replacement? What’s going on here?
As you may have noted from recent emails, posts, and bulletins, after much persistence and pestering, an organ technician finally came to look at the organ. It cannot be fixed. We are offering it for parts and have two parties that are interested. As for a replacement, would you like to head this initiative, raising funds and working with Hilton on finding something suitable? All it takes is for someone in the congregation to take the ball and run. Is the spirit moving in your heart?
I am so glad that I didn’t miss church this past Sunday! The music was amazing. Katie, a friend of Hilton’s, played the euphonium, and it was so beautiful. On case you don’t know, the euphonium is like a smaller tuba. Low brass, and very expressive. Listening to the two pieces that were played was a real gift. The music ministry at LUCC is truly inspirational. Thank you, Katie. But most of all, thank you HILTON!
Thank you to Mark Gibson, Olivia Gibson, Janet Blair, Zoe Blair-Andrews, Denise and Joey Williams, Adrien Helm, Melanie Moore for volunteering at Operation Attack tonight. I hope I did not miss anyone! Our efforts enabled OA to be open in the evening to better serve the clients. Again, thank you for bringing joy to others, including the regular volunteer staff of OA and your LUCC compatriots!
Dwight Lawton was there too! I think he came after you left. I really found the experience meaningful and want to keep volunteering there. Thanks to Janet and Zoe for organizing us.
I had a good time packing groceries and would like to go again. I loved their organization! And I always love working with my Lakewood family.
Joey and I had a wonderful time at operation attack. we will happily volunteer again in the near future
. our lakewood family rocks!
I have noticed very few of Kim’s sermons are making it to our sermon listings. I’m not sure why we haven’t made it a practice to include all of her sermons on this site. Today, many churches reproduce each Sunday’s sermon on their website. Individuals looking for a church find access to these sermons to be most helpful in choosing a new home. Considering the useless nonsense that appears on many a chuch site repeatedly, we ought to be highly motivated to readily display Kim’s enlightening sermons.
I agree with Howard, but I also know I have gotten lots of emails with notifications when they are posted. On further exploration I found the sermons under podcasts. Can a link show in sermons as well, please, or somehow make it clear where they are? I listen to sermons before I visit a church these days. Thanks for seeing the site through the eyes of our visitors.
Thanks for pointing this out. I’ve now re-labeled “Sermons,” “Sermon Texts” and “Podcasts,” “Sermon Podcasts.” Hopefully that will clarify things.
Hilton
Good idea! However, my point really was directed to printed versions of the sermons. Podcasts are clever, but they can’t be printed out and saved and they can’t be given to friends and interested people in the community who may be church shopping. And, as I’ve learned from experience, it takes as long to listen to a sermon on podcast as it does to sit in the church on Sun. morning and hear it. Individuals shopping around want to be able to scan through a sermon quickly and get the gist of the message and measure the views of the preacher. Can’t we get printed versions of all sermons or is that too “old fashioned”?
“Mayor Bloomberg of New York is planning to end the Occupy Wall Street occupation of Zucotti Park Friday morning. If you would like to express your opposition, you can use this link (MoveOn.org Civic Action)” to sign the MoveOn.org petition, asking him to respect the protesters’ First Amendment rights.”