These weeks when we cannot gather in person for Sunday worship, Lakewood United Church of Christ is providing brief weekly sabbath programs for you to listen to on your own or with those you live with. They will be posted on Friday so that you can schedule your sabbath time to suit your schedule and your spiritual inclinations. We hope these programs are of spiritual support to you in these difficult times.
Find a quiet place, inside or outside. Light a candle. Breathe. Be present.
You may begin by offering these words:
What we are confronted with, then, is a foreign land, a passage through a desert; testing and discernment. But in this same land, from which God is not in fact absent, the seeds of a new spirituality can germinate. This spirituality gives rise to new songs to the Lord.
–Gustavo Gutierrez
When you are ready, start the video below.
There is a scripture lesson and a brief meditation by Pastor Kim Wells followed by music offered by Music Director Hilton Kean Jones.
As you listen to the music from Hilton which follows, you are invited to pay attention to the thoughts and feelings and reflections that arise for you.
After viewing the video and listening to the music, you are invited to offer the following closing:
Fill me, joy of Jesus; anxiety shall cease,
and heaven’s serenity be mine, for Jesus brings me peace!
–from the hymn “Heal Me, Hands of Jesus” by Michael Perry
Breathe. Extinguish your candle and engage whatever may come with a sense of peace and a desire to serve.
Each Friday, the church will post a devotional with readings, video from Kim, and music from Hilton. You are invited to access these at the website and observe the sabbath according to your schedule over the weekend. There will be a new one posted each week. This week’s post will highlight the Easter Story.
The Easter post has a compilation of words and images from the congregation expressing creativity during this corona time. It also includes special Easter music from Hilton.
In addition to the weekly Corona Sabbath devotions on the website every Friday, Hilton is also posting music, mainly hymns, on the website daily. These are also posted on the church’s Twitter and Facebook accounts. You may find links to all the music posts on the website at https://lakewooducc.org/category/posts/music/ — note the “Older Posts” button down the page.
The church will be having another Sunday morning Zoom gathering in honor of Earth Sunday on Sunday April 26 at 10:30 a.m. There will be more information coming about this next week. Please plan on joining the church community to celebrate nature and Mother Earth.
Connecting
In an effort to stay connected as a congregation, a text version of the Corona Sabbath posts is being sent in the mail to those in the church family that are not regular users of the Internet. The church is also sending a paper version of the Weekly Update to those who may appreciate keeping in touch that way.
Easter cards were sent from the Care Team of the church to all those who live at a distance, as well as those who are routinely homebound, and to staff. These cards included a letter from the pastor with Easter greetings from the church family.
Easter messages were mailed to all of the children and youth of the congregation.
There were 11 people on the Maundy Thursday Communion Zoom gathering. People were grateful to see one another, to share prayers, and to share in communion, feeling a sense of community, even though physically separated. There was a connection to one another as well as to the stories of our faith tradition, particularly the last supper.
For the Easter Sunday Zoom, there were 34 participants. We shared our concerns during this corona time and shared in affirming the Easter themes of hope and joy in these uncertain times.
For both of the Zoom events, there were those who were using Zoom for the first time.
Lots of support was offered. We are all learning together! Please consider joining the next church Zoom event. Many thanks to Barbara Donohue for helping to host the Zoom events.
Labyrinth Walks
Labyrinth Walks are being held as scheduled on Wednesday mornings at 9:00. The walk on Wednesday April 22 will be themed around Earth Day. We feel given current information and restrictions that it is safe to hold this activity. It involves less than 10 people, it is outside, and the people can be at least 6 feet apart. Bring your own chair and wear a mask if you wish.
Church Finances Unexpected Funds Arriving and Thinking of LUCC: Claire Stiles
As many of us will be receiving unexpected funds from the federal government soon, perhaps we can consider giving some of the money to help our church and other service organizations survive and provide for others during this challenging time. Some of us have been blessed with sufficient income in retirement or are still employed so could more easily share some of the $1200 or $2400 that our households will receive. If that is true for you, please join me in deciding to use a portion of this income to support our beloved LUCC and any other organizations and services in our community that need our help!
Support for Medical Supplies
LUCC has signed on to a letter from countless organizations demanding that the federal government provide all needed medical supplies to effectively combat COVID-19.
Subscribe to Website This would be a good time to subscribe to the church website. As a subscriber, everything that is posted on the website will be sent to your email.
There’s now a new way to subscribe to posts from the church website by email. On any page of the website, look down the page for “Follow Blog via Email.” If you subscribed before, you’ll need to subscribe again with this new button. Notice, it’s right above the Paypal “Donate” button!
If you would like assistance with this, please contact the Church Office.
Sundays. . .
On Sundays, Rev. Wells will be at church from 10:30-11:30. The peace candle will be lit and prayers will be offered. You are welcome to stop by to pray or meditate. The labyrinth is also available. This is a symbolic witness that the church is still here, is still serving, is still active, is still shining light – even in these drastically changed circumstances.
Earth Day Celebration at LUCC during the week of April 20 – 26
Look for additional information to arrive by email to you soon. Ideas of how to celebrate Earth Day from home and the days leading up to it next week will be coming your way! Let’s all do our part to celebrate Mother Earth and safeguard her future and our own!
Help Offered
Several people from the congregation have offered to help others as needed. If you need something from the grocery store or help with an errand or some other kind of assistance, please contact the Church Office. There are those who are ready and willing.
New Cleaning Routines
The church custodian, Tony Rogers, is being sure to thoroughly sanitize the building including door handles, faucets, etc. We are grateful for this increased effort.
Church Office Changes
Given the increased restrictions on social contact, the church office is closed until further notice. The church administrator, Gabi Paxton will be working from home. The ministry of the church is continuing to the fullest measure possible under the current conditions. Please continue to be in contact and reach out to the church and staff.
New Street Light In The Back Of The Church
Duke Energy has installed an enhanced street light on the north side of the church building in the parking area. This increased lighting will help to facilitate the use of the new electric vehicle charging station on the north side of the church.
WHAT IS NOT GOING ON AT CHURCH – AA Sunday Afternoon rental church Regular Sunday Services Choir Rehearsal Church School Westminster Suncoast monthly luncheon
Weekly Chat and Check-In LUCC Member Wally LeBlanc to Host Weekly Chat
This is being postponed until further notice.
April Birthdays: Zachary Blair-Andrews 4/16, Mary Beth Lewis 4/29, Someone missing? Contact the church office with birthday information.
Circle of Concern: William Owen, Wilbur Reid, Martha Lamar, Jen Degroot, Carolyn Moore, Ann Quinn, Maggie Brizendine, and Ann Rogers. All healthcare workers and essential workers. All those suffering from COVID-19.
Please keep LUCC member, Olivia Gibson, in your prayers. She is a nurse on a COVID-19 unit in a local hospital. We are grateful for her ministry!
Weekly Update: If you are involved with an activity or event that you would like to share with the LUCC family, please send the information to the Church Office by Tuesday since the Update usually is sent out on Wednesday.
I hope this finds you safe and well amidst a mindful and reverent Maundy Thursday. We are praying that the hope, praise, and joyful resistance of Easter Sunday finds you and your church families!
Attached is a link for an Easter Call to Worship featuring 37 voices throughout the Florida Conference. We invite you to use and share this video however you would like.
We are asking that you share this link on Easter Sunday (and not before!) in any and every way you would be so inclined (Social Media, etc.).
We ask you to wait until Easter before sharing so that we can collectively give the upcoming days of Holy Week their due reverence, so that we can allow (me) any necessary editing between now and Easter, and so that we can optimize and maximize the spread of our message by sharing our voices (and our video!) at once!
For those of you who are compiling a video to be uploaded for your congregation’s service, I have attached a link to download the file. Please, however, refrain from sharing this hard copy, and instead, when you share, utilize our YouTube Link.
These weeks when we cannot gather in person for Sunday worship, Lakewood United Church of Christ is providing brief weekly sabbath programs for you to listen to on your own or with those you live with. They will be posted on Friday so that you can schedule your sabbath time to suit your schedule and your spiritual inclinations. This is our fourth offering of a Corona Sabbath post. We will continue to post these weekly until we are able to meet again for worship in person. We hope these programs are of spiritual support to you in these difficult times. We look forward to your feedback and suggestions.
This devotion commemorates Easter. Under normal circumstances we would be gathering on Sunday morning and entering a bare sanctuary. Then during the processional, the children and youth of the church would bring in flowers that are placed on the altar along with the bread and cup for communion and the offering plates. After the service, there would be refreshments outside on the lawn and an Easter Egg hunt. How glorious those traditional observances will seem next Easter when we take them up once more!
For now, find a quiet place, inside or outside. Light a candle. Breathe. Be present.
Contemporary theologian N. T. Wright tells us:
“Jesus’s resurrection is the beginning of God’s new project not to snatch people away from earth to heaven but to colonize earth with the life of heaven. That, after all, is what the Lord’s Prayer is about.”
You are invited to say the Savior’s Prayer in whatever version is most familiar to you.
Please enjoy this musical celebration of Easter! At Lakewood United Church of Christ, we use the New Century Hymnal which was designed to use inclusive language for humanity and expansive language for God. Today, for copyright reasons, we share the traditional words to the Easter standard, Christ the Lord Is Risen Today. You are welcome to sing now, as an opening hymn, the six verses at https://hymnary.org/text/christ_the_lord_is_risen_today_wesley to the organ accompaniment you can play by clicking below.
When you are ready, start the video below.
There is a scripture lesson and a brief meditation by Pastor Kim Wells followed by music offered by Music Director Hilton Kean Jones and then for this Easter post, there is a presentation of the ways that the LUCC congregation has experienced new life and creativity during these days of shelter-in-place.
As you listen to the music from Hilton which follows, you are invited to pay attention to the thoughts and feelings and reflections that arise for you.
After viewing the videos, you are invited to offer the following closing prayer:
O Lord Jesus Christ, thou didst not come to the world to be served, but also surely not to be admired or in that sense to be worshiped. Thou wast the way and the truth – and it was followers only thou didst demand. Arouse us therefore if we have dozed away into this delusion, save us from the error of wishing to admire thee instead of being willing to follow thee and to resemble thee.
— Søren Kierkegaard 1813-1855
Breathe. Extinguish your candle and engage whatever may come with a sense of peace and a desire to serve.
Please enjoy the presentation which follows. The congregation was asked to submit expressions of the way people are experiencing and expressing creativity and new life in these corona days. Here are the offerings that were received.
Most of the smaller pictures in multiples will open to full size if you click on them.
Emily Bell
Green Heron Parent on Nest
Lucille Ruga
A freezer full of homemade soups, breads, baked squash and chili. Books completed or in progress shown with my mask, photos taken.
Patricia Cooksey
Patti Cooksey
March 25, 2020
Reflection: Spring
In the last several weeks of social distancing, I have found myself experiencing more of the beauty and mystery in nature through the poems of Mary Oliver, my many walks and bike rides along Clam Bayou, and tending to my little flower garden. The beautiful sunsets and the morning songs of the birds have calmed my thoughts and fears as news of the virus continues to lead conversation and media reports. I have encountered many scenes of brilliant colors, sounds, and images each day. I have selected one photo to share, pink roses.
On the morning I learned St Petersburg had moved into a safer-at-home order, I felt devastated knowing this was just the beginning of a long period in which I would be isolated, separated from the presence of my family, especially grandchildren. Instead of hitting the trail for my morning walk, I decided to just sit on my porch and breathe while listening to Hilton playing, “Pescador de hombres.” I felt a sense of calmness come over me.
As I walked around the corner to go back into the Florida room, I saw three pink roses on what had been my mother’s Queen Elizabeth rose bush, the one we planted over 15 years ago when she was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. I found myself smiling, remembering my mother as I walked over and gently touched a petal. I knew those roses were a gift to my two brothers and myself. I cut them and brought them into my home where they brought beauty, comfort, and love for many days. They were symbol of family connection, reminding me I was not alone. Reminding me that there is beauty and in these dark, uncertain days.
Joyce Lee
On my daily walk, I captured this sunrise.
–Joyce
Rev. Angela Wells-Bean
We took a walk!
Claire Stiles
A Tribute to Nurses – From one Generation to Another
Claire Stiles – April 8, 2020
As I accepted the reality of the Covid-19 pandemic and the sacrifices it would require of all of us, my thoughts went quickly to my late mother, Pearl Lovely Schmidt, R.N., whose career in nursing spanned over 50 years. She suffered through many health crises as a front line worker in hospitals and on the streets of NYC as a Public Health Nurse in the day when treatments and medications were fairly primitive by today’s standards. My respect and regard for her as a person and a professional nurse has only deepened over the years and finding a way to honor her legacy during this health care crisis led me to a creative idea.
I decided to create a “Care Package” in my mother’s honor for our very own Olivia Gibson, R.N. who is facing this infectious disease directly at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Tampa. In her first year of work as a professional nurse, Olivia represents the courage, strength, compassion, and commitment of all nurses and other health care professionals who face risks and tragedy in their daily work.
In this package I included a retirement photo of my mother (See below), her obituary listing all of her nursing career jobs and accomplishments, my mother’s nursing charm bracelet that I bought her many years ago, a video and article about Florence Nightingale, the founder of professional nursing, snack bars and gift food cards, and a letter expressing my love and support of Olivia.
So for Olivia, and for all those who serve to transport, diagnose, treat, and heal the sick and who put themselves at great risk in doing so, I give my highest gratitude and blessings. I know my mother would be among them if she could!
Claire Stiles mother, scanned by Ruth Pettis
Denise Williams
I’m sure some of us, including me, have not been too creative or even productive during this quarantine. We’ve just been trying to get through one day at a time without falling into the abyss. I’m trying to somehow stay positive so I don’t totally step into a dimension that would be extremely difficult from which to return. I begin and end the day with a prayer of gratitude for my many blessings…
I admit I was struggling even before the Corona crisis. This current situation reminds me of when my father used to say, “I’ll give you something to cry about.”
I feel extremely grateful that I was already working from home six months before Corona meant anything more than a cold beer with a lime or a luminous envelope of plasma surrounding the sun. The transition was much less stressful for yours truly, thank God. Working from home has been wonderful, especially during these strange, stressful times. I pray daily for those out on the “front lines!”
I was isolating long before it became “popular,” but now, though I still isolate, I am tentatively reaching out to others, listening more and being grateful for even the smallest of things. For me, staying calm and somewhat peaceful has been quite the achievement – Oh, and lest I forget, I did reorganize the linen closet and clean off shelves by my bed cluttered with self help books and obsolete paperwork. Tackling clutter eases my fearful mind and can yield quite creative transformations. My guitar has even been picked up more than once – baby steps I know, but I celebrate anything I can these days.
Thinking of you all and wishing my Lakewood family the very best, now and forever – looking forward to seeing your smiles in the near future. ♥️♥️♥️
Marg Radens
I just took out the cello to pick out the tune, “Carrickfergus”.
So good to hear with piano.
Wishing you a good Easter. Love, Marg
This orchid just bloomed yesterday.
Janet Blair
1. Working from home
2. Boyd Hill Trail Walk
3. Jim leads a meditation for a group of us on Zoom
4. Zoe does therapy on Zoom with kids in St Louis
5. Zach’s sophomore year of college
Over the past few weeks in our backyard we got to watch two Mourning Doves build a nest, hatch their eggs and then, today, take their two baby birds flying for the first time. It has been so wonderful to witness this tiny act of hope & new life–and is one of the many ways we are waking up & taking notice during these close to home days.
Jeff Wells
Two photos of projects I’ve been working on during this quarantine period.
The first is a rack for kayaks in the side yard. Pretty self explanatory.
The second is of a balsa/tissue paper model of a Cessna 170. Interesting story: A friend (who has since moved to N Carolina) took me flying twice in the Cessna 170 which his father bought new in 1952! I purchased the model in 2005 thinking I’d build it and give it to him. Alas, it languished on a garage shelf for 15 years until “this” happened. It’s taking way longer than I expected.
Kay Rencken
I have long been interested in Matisse….and during this time I have been wandering through books and google to discover all sorts of new paths to follow and all sorts oof new delights. One is this beauteous and calm painting ….THE MARABOUT painted in Morocco in 1912-1913. I revel in all that blue! Gra agus slan……Kay Rencken
Bill Parsons
Kay and I were planning to go to Poland in May, but this trip was cancelled because of the virus. We had begun to prepare for the trip, but we learned that Poland is having just as much trouble with the virus as we are. My friend in Cracow whom I met 60 years ago as a student wrote me a two page letter in Polish saying he hopes we can reschedule soon. There are many things that will need to be rescheduled.
Happy Easter!
Bill Parsons
Drodzy Kay i Billu!
Czasy rzeczywiście fatalne, u nas, w Polsce również
szaleje zaraza koronowirusa… Kiedy piszę te słowa,
wydaje się, że najgorsze przed nami, chociaż wydaje
się, że nowojorskiego Armagedonu zdołamy uniknąć.
Najbardziej doskwiera nam izolacja, brak możliwości
wyjścia z domu. Na szczęście młodsza córka-Agata
mieszka po drugiej stronie ulicy, więc wyręcza nas z
obowiązku zakupów podstawowych produktów
żywnościowych. A tak nawiasem mówiąc, nasze polskie
trudności z niedostatkiem podstawowych materiałów
medycznych(maseczki, respiratory itd.), deficyt lekarzy
masowo wyjeżdżających za granicę w poszukiwaniu
lepszego chleba, przestają szokować, w sytuacji, kiedy
światowe mocarstwo nr 1- USA, przeżywa podobne, a
nawet poważniejsze perturbacje. Jak widać, pandemia
udziela naszej cywilizacji surowej lekcji i uczy pokory!
Tym bardziej żałuję, że nie dane nam będzie w tym roku
pogadać o tych i bardziej osobistych sprawach,
zwłaszcza tych, które są wspomnieniem dawnych,
wspaniałych lat.
Colleen Coughenour and Mark Gibson
These are photos that we sent out to our students.
Rev. Kim Wells
A Sacrificial Offering, Corona-style:
“Each one who is registered, from twenty years old and upward, shall give the Lord’s offering.” Exodus 30:14
Fifty-eight rolls of toilet paper. One for every member of the church.
Jena Blair
The Blair-Catala’s are keeping going with trips to parks, watering Owen’s school garden, St Pete mural driving tour, homemade meals, board games and zoom with family.
Wonderful idea!
Jena
Susan Sherwood
Rooted in nature…
Prayers for all
Rest
Easter Joy
Earl Waters
Easter is a celebration of new life. Springbis also a time of new life. We have been using some hours trimming oak suckers, trimming palms, gardening around our villa including our orchids. We also make weekly yours of the campus picking up garbage that has appeared.
Reading and watching television are great but getting out assisting new life to bloom is even more fun.
Earl
Dina Gamma
Christy Martin
We have started the alphabet conversation. For example, your first word needs to start with letter I. . .
I am hungry.
The next person’s first word needs to start with J.
Just eat a snack.
Keep it simple.
Let’s eat popcorn.
You can start with any letter of the alphabet!
Try it, it’s fun and hard!
–Christy, Amaiya, and Kai’Lyn
Emily Gibson
Here are some Coughenour-Gibson quarantine photos!
Hilton Jones
Some days are better than others. Cooking 3 meals a day and baking keeps me going. This saying helps, too:
Let go of what has passed.
Let go of what may come.
Let go of what is happening now.
Don’t try to figure anything out.
Don’t try to make anything happen.
Relax, right now, and rest.
