Category: Posts

Race & the Death Penalty


Join us online for a seminar on Race and the Death Penalty, presented by Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty on Friday, September 10th, at 7 pm EDT. 
 


Throughout our nation’s history of racial injustice – from slavery to lynchings to systemic racism – white lives have been valued over black and brown lives.
 
The death penalty, with its brutal record of racial injustice, is inextricably linked to this history. The same criminal justice system that perpetuates mass incarceration determines who lives and who dies by execution.
 
Join us for a discussion about the role of race in the capital punishment system, from our earliest days as a nation through today.
 
Registration for this seminar is free.
hosted by Southeastern Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers)

Register Here

Our Panelists

Ngozi Ndulue is Director of Research and Special Projects for the Death Penalty Information Center. She is the lead author of DPIC’s September 2020 report, Enduring Injustice: The Persistence of Racial Discrimination in the U.S. Death Penalty.  Ngozi is a former Senior Director of Criminal Justice Programs at the national NAACP. She has represented clients facing the death penalty; her career also includes policy research, coalition building, and advocacy on criminal justice issues.

Frank Baumgartner holds the Richard J. Richardson Distinguished Professorship in Political Science at UNC-Chapel Hill. His research includes significant work in the area of capital punishment, including such issues as trends over time, public opinion, geographic patterns, innocence, and other matters. He is the co-author of The Decline of the Death Penalty and the Discovery of Innocence(2008) and of Deadly Justice: A Statistical Portrait of the Death Penalty (2018).

Herman Lindsey was wrongfully convicted and sent to Florida’s Death Row in 2006. In 2009 he was exonerated by a unanimous verdict of the Florida Supreme Court, and became the 135th person to be exonerated from death row in the U.S.  He is the Board Secretary of Witness to Innocence, serves on the Board of Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, and is an Ambassador for Represent Justice. He hosts the online show “Cruel Justice” and speaks across the U.S. and internationally.

Our Moderator Mark Elliott is Executive Director of Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (FADP), a Florida-based, state-wide organization of individuals and groups working together to end the death penalty in Florida. FADP’s network includes dozens of state and local groups and thousands of individual Floridians, including murder victims’ family members and other survivors of violent crime, law enforcement professionals, families of the incarcerated, and death row exonerees. Florida currently has more than 300 people on death row. FADP campaigns to halt executions and reduce new death sentences by highlighting the death penalty’s problems, including racial bias, wrongful convictions, executions of the seriously mentally ill, and failure to serve the critical needs of victims’ families.

 Register Here

Jesu, Jesu

The move to a new home is behind us and I finally have my home studio set up enough to make a little music video. Here’s “Jesu, Jesu, Fill Us with Your Love,” a Ghanaian love song and a hymn which I’ll play as one of the instrumental selections in this coming Sunday morning service. It is such a joy to be able to be making these again.

Bulletin 8/29/21

GATHERING MUSIC            

WELCOME and ANNOUNCEMENTS

LIGHTING THE PEACE CANDLE                    Colleen Coughenour, liturgist

Thank you, dear Oceans. Thank you, dear Mountains.

Thank you, dear Earth. Thank you, dear Animals.

Thank you, dear Plants. Thank you, dear Minerals.

Thank you, dear Water. Thank you, dear Air.

Thank you, dear Sun. Thank you, dear Planet Earth.

May Peace Prevail on Earth.

The Fuji Sanctuary, Japan

PRELUDE                 I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say               Tallis

CALL TO WORSHIP                                       Based on Job 12

Turn to the animals,

and let them teach you.

The birds of the air

will tell you the truth.

Listen to the plants of the earth,

and learn from them.

Let the fish of the sea

become your teachers.

In God’s hand is the soul of every living thing.

In God’s hand is the breath of all humankind.

In God are wisdom and strength,

In God are counsel and understanding.

MUSICAL REFLECTION    That Lucky Old Sun           Smith

SCRIPTURE READING

Let us prepare ourselves for the word of God as it comes to us in the reading of Holy Scripture.

Our hearts and minds are open.

Matthew 6:24-34

For the word of God in scripture, for the word of God among us, for the word of God within us.

Thanks be to God.

CONTEMPORARY READING- 1991 VIII                  Wendell Berry

SERMON                         Back to Nature              Rev. Kim P. Wells

RESPONSIVE READING                                           Ute Prayer

Earth teach me stillness

As the grasses are stilled with light.

Earth teach me suffering

As old stones suffer with memory.

Earth teach me humility

As blossoms are humble with beginning.

Earth teach me caring

As the mother who secures her young.

Earth teach me courage

As the tree which stands alone.

Earth teach me limitation

As the ant which crawls on the ground.

Earth teach me freedom

As the eagle which soars in the sky.

Earth teach me resignation

As the leaves which die in the autumn.

Earth teach me regeneration

As the seed which rises in the spring.

Earth teach me to forget myself

As melted snow forgets its life.

Earth teach me to remember kindness

As dry fields weep in the rain.

MUSICAL INTERLUDE       Le cygne (The Swan)      Camille Saint-Saëns

MISSION STATEMENT

The mission of Lakewood United Church of Christ, as part of the Church Universal is to:

  • Celebrate the presence and power of God in our lives & in our world.
  • Offer the hospitality and inclusive love of Christ to all people.
  • Work for God’s peace and justice throughout creation.

MORNING OFFERING

Morning offerings may be brought forward and placed in the plates on the altar.

Offertory                      Baby Elephant Walk                       Mancini

Prayer of Dedication                        Mary Oliver, The Summer Day

Who made the world?

Who made the swan, and the black bear?

Who made the grasshopper?

This grasshopper, I mean–

the one who has flung herself out of the grass,

the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,

who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down–

who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.

Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.

Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.

I don’t know exactly what a prayer is.

I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down

into the grass, how to kneel in the grass,

how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,

which is what I have been doing all day.

Tell me, what else should I have done?

Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon?

Tell me, what is it you plan to do

With your one wild and precious life?                    

Amen.

PREPARATION FOR PRAYER     

You are invited to write your prayer requests on the sheets provided in the bulletin and bring them forward and place them in the basket on the altar.  Please observe physical distancing.

MORNING PRAYER-SAVIOR’S PRAYER

Fathering and Mothering God, lover of us all, most holy one.

Help us to respond to you

To create what you want for us here on earth.

Give us today enough for our needs.

Forgive our weak and deliberate offenses,

Just as we must forgive others when they hurt us.

Help us to resist evil and to do what is good.

For we are yours, endowed with your power to make the world whole. Amen.

* BENEDICTION                                                        Native American proverb

May your life be like a

        wildflower,

growing freely in the

        beauty

and joy of each day.

*POSTLUDE                       The Lion Sleeps Tonight                 Weiss, Creatore, & Peretti

Announcements

Facebook Live The 9:30 a.m. service is being streamed on Facebook Live.

Service time change ahead The first Sunday of September, the service will be at a NEW TIME. Services will begin at 10:30 a.m. Masks and distancing will remain in place. The church will continue to offer the Facebook Live option on Sunday mornings with the bulletin posted on the website so that virtual participants can follow along.

Please do what feels safest and most comfortable for you. If the church can be of assistance, please contact the church office.

Weekly Update 8/25

Service time change ahead

The first Sunday of September, the service will be at a NEW TIME. Services will begin at 10:30 a.m. Masks and distancing will remain in place.

The church will continue to offer the Facebook Live option on Sunday mornings with the bulletin posted on the website so that virtual participants can follow along.

Please do what feels safest and most comfortable for you. If the church can be of assistance, please contact the church office.

This Sunday

 The service is at 9:30 in person, covid safe.

Childcare provided.

This is the last of Summer Sundays.  With school starting, students attending college, teachers back in the classroom, and Covid worsening, these are trying times!  The gospels offer a teaching associated with Jesus about worrying.  The advice given is to consider the lilies and the birds.  It’s a time to reflect on what nature teaches about abundant life.   Take a look at Matthew 6:24-34.

The bulletin is available at the church website: https://lakewooducc.org/category/bulletins/

Watch the service on Facebook Live Sundays at 9:30. https://www.facebook.com/LakewoodUCC

Or on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/LakewoodUCC/videos

Look for the bulletin posted on the church website on Friday.

Instructions for how to access Facebook Live will also be posted at the church website.  For additional assistance, please contact the church office.  

Tree Mapping – Tree Planting on the Church Grounds

THIS SUNDAY:  August 29, 2021 at 10:30 a.m.

The Urban Forestry Committee of the City of St. Petersburg is sponsoring a tree mapping event on the church grounds on Sunday Aug. 29 at 10:30 following worship.  This event will involve a process for mapping the trees currently on the church property and developing a plan to add more trees to the church grounds.

 The all volunteer Urban Forestry Committee includes a landscape architect, a certified arborist, and state and county master naturalists.  

Members and friends of the church are needed to help with the tree mapping.  So, plan to stay after worship on Sunday Aug. 29 to be part of this exciting initiative to ‘green’ the church grounds.  All are welcome!

Link: www.pg-cloud.com/stpetef

Guided Labyrinth Walks

The guided walk is held weekly on Wednesdays at 9:00 a.m. This provides an opportunity to be aware and deepen your spiritual journey. If it is raining, the walk is held on Thursday at 9:00 a.m.

Also, the readings and prayers used on Wednesdays at the guided walk are put in the mailbox by the labyrinth each week for use during the week.

The labyrinth is on the church grounds near the southwest corner of the church property. It is available for use at all times.

Being Covid Safe and In Person Worship

Please stay home if you are not feeling well.

Please wear a mask while in the church building.  While most people have been vaccinated, this helps visitors to feel safe.  

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is recommending double masking.  Please consider wearing two masks to church.  Additional masks will be available at church to use as needed.

Two hand sanitizing stations are available for use by worshippers.

There is well-ventilated, physically distanced indoor seating in the sanctuary.

Please know that your safety is of primary consideration! 

Safe childcare is provided.

Immigration Action Item: THOUSANDS of Dreamers at risk of deportation! 

Severe processing delays are keeping THOUSANDS of DACA immigrants at risk of deportation and unemployment! As of March 31, USCIS had a backlog of more than 55,000 pending first-time DACA applications, in addition to over 44,000 renewal requests. United We Dream – an organization led by Dreamers – is calling on President Biden to clear the backlog NOW. 

Please sign the United We Dream’s petition calling on Biden and USCIS to clear the DACA backlog and process applications and renewals in a timely manner.
Click here:  https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/end-the-daca-backlog/

Operation Attack Update

Many thanks to Ian Blair-Catala who has been connecting the church with Operation Attack for the last 4 years.  Ian is now moving on to attend USF in Tampa.  Ian’s brother, Owen, will be taking over as the church’s Operation Attack coordinator.  Owen will be sharing what food items are needed as well as opportunities to volunteer.  Operation Attack is an ecumenical food pantry that has been serving the area since the 1960’s.  It is located at Lakeview Presbyterian Church in St. Petersburg.  With gratitude to Ian, the church welcome’s Owen to this important role serving those in need in the community.  

OA also still needs donations of cereal, peanut butter, canned meat, fruit, vegetables and soup, dried beans, and mac/cheese. Donations may be placed on the shelf in the hallway at church.

Spiritual Direction Offered by LUCC Clergy Member.

In these troubled times, it is important to find ways to tend to our spiritual lives. In the Christian tradition, Spiritual Direction is one of the ways of paying attention to the spirit in our lives. A Spiritual Director is someone to talk with about what is going on in our spiritual life and in our relationship with God however we may conceive of God.

Rev. Sally Purvis, Ph.D., a member of LUCC, is a retired clergy person with training and experience in Spiritual Direction. She is offering her services as a Spiritual Director to the community. The sessions would be held on Zoom and there is no fee to be paid. Church leaders are pleased to have the ministry of the church expand in this way.

Spiritual Direction with Sally is open to anyone, not just the congregation. And it is offered to everyone whatever their spiritual or religious background or affiliation or lack thereof. Sessions are generally held once every three weeks. Spiritual Direction is not a mode of therapy. It is a process for understanding and deepening your relationship with God/Spirit in ways that are authentic and life-giving.

Sally was trained by Henri Nouwen, a noted spiritual guide of the 20th century, and did Spiritual Direction as part of her professional ministry before retiring in 2015.

If you would like to explore Spiritual Direction with Sally, please contact her at
sallybpurvis@icloud.com or contact the church (867-7961 or lakewooducc@gmail.com ).

The church is very grateful to Sally for offering this avenue of support to the congregation and the community.

USEFUL LAKEWOOD LINKS:

For the above church website links, please note the “Older Posts” button near the bottom of each page.

August Birthdays: Barbara Donohue 8/4, Mardie Chapman 8/7, Claire Stiles 8/11, Kay Rencken 8/13, Vita Uth 8/14, Dana Cosper 8/22, James Waterman 8/23, and Joanne Reid 8/28. Someone missing? Contact the church office with birthday information.

Circle of Concern: 

The family and loved ones of Christy Martin’s uncle, Kenneth Silas

Kyle Martin

Malcolm Wells

Dana Cosper and family

Dave Radens

William Owen-Cowan

Jen Degroot

Carolyn Moore

Ann Quinn

Maggie Brizendine

Janet Hall

All those suffering from COVID-19.

Students, families, teachers, and staff as school begins

Church Office Hours:  Tuesday 9:30-noon Thursday-Friday 9:30-noon. 

Recent Posts:

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.





Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lakewooduccstpete/?hl=en

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LakewoodUCC

Twitter: https://twitter.com/lakewooducc?lang=en

Bulletin 8/22/2021

GATHERING MUSIC       Amazing Grace             trad./arr. HKJ

WELCOME and ANNOUNCEMENTS

LIGHTING THE PEACE CANDLE                  Barbara Donohue, liturgist

It is the enemy who can truly teach us to practice the virtues of compassion and tolerance.

The Dalai Lama

PRELUDE               Feuilles Volantes 1             Duparc

CALL TO WORSHIP                  Maren Tirabassi, adapted

Like a bleeding woman

God’s people have suffered long.

Between invocation and benediction

our fingers reach out

for the shawl-fringes

of healing and hope. 

MUSICAL REFLECTION  There’ll Be Peace in the Valley    Dorsey

SCRIPTURE READING

Let us prepare ourselves for the word of God as it comes to us in the reading of Holy Scripture. Our hearts and minds are open.

Mark 5:24b-34

For the word of God in scripture, for the word of God among us, for the word of God within us. Thanks be to God.

CONTEMPORARY READING                       Ann Fontaine

SERMON              A Healing Touch               Rev. Kim P.

UNISON READING                           Consultation of Methodist women ministers

Oxford 1984, adapted

We all bleed,

we bleed for ourselves —

we bleed for others;

we bleed for a wounded world.

If we did not bleed for others

in some measure,

would we not be spiritually barren?

But if the pain takes over

and the bleeding becomes constant

do we not then find that we have lost touch with Jesus?

He is obscured by the crowd of

our concerns,

the crowd of our activities,

the crowd of our own words.

Jesus, help us to touch you now,

to lay before you

our own and the world’s pain.

Help us as we wait

to feel your healing power

in our lives.

MUSICAL INTERLUDE                   The Darkened Valley                        Ireland            

MISSION STATEMENT

The mission of Lakewood United Church of Christ, as part of the Church Universal is to:

  • Celebrate the presence and power of God in our lives & in our world.
  • Offer the hospitality and inclusive love of Christ to all people.
  • Work for God’s peace and justice throughout creation.

MORNING OFFERING

Morning offerings may be brought forward and placed in the plates on the altar.

Offertory                                Sicilienne                               Fauré

Prayer of Dedication                        Mother Teresa 1910-1997

Let us touch the dying, the poor, the lonely and the unwanted according to the graces we have received and let us not be ashamed or slow to do the humble work.  Amen. 

PREPARATION FOR PRAYER      Prayer of St. Francis            Temple

You are invited to write your prayer requests on the sheets provided in the bulletin and bring them forward and place them in the basket on the altar.  Please observe physical distancing.

MORNING PRAYER-SAVIOR’S PRAYER

Eternal Spirit, Earth Maker, Pain-bearer, Life-giver,

Source of all that is and that ever shall be,

Father and Mother of all people, Loving God in whom is heaven:

The hallowing of your name echo through the universe!

The way of your justice be followed by all peoples of the world!

Your heavenly will be done by all created beings!

Your commonwealth of peace and freedom sustain our hope and

come on earth!

With the bread that we need for today, feed us.

In the hurts we absorb from one another, forgive us.        

In times of temptation and testing, strengthen us.

From trials too great to endure, spare us.

From the grip of all that is evil, free us.

For you reign in the glory of the power that is love, now and forever.         Amen.

* BENEDICTION                    The Hippocratic Oath

Whatever house we enter,

We shall come to heal.       

*POSTLUDE        Basse et Dessus de Trompette       Clérambault

Circle of Concern:  The family and loved ones of Christy Martin’s uncle, Kenneth Silas, Dave Radens, William Owen-Cowan, Jen Degroot, Carolyn Moore, Ann Quinn, Maggie Brizendine, Janet Hall

Announcements

Facebook Live The 9:30 a.m. service is being streamed on Facebook Live.

Tree Mapping – Tree Planting on the Church Grounds SAVE THE DATE:  August 29, 2021 at 10:30 a.m.

The Urban Forestry Committee of the City of St. Petersburg is sponsoring a tree mapping event on the church grounds on Sunday Aug. 29 at 10:30 following worship.  This event will involve a process for mapping the trees currently on the church property and developing a plan to add more trees to the church grounds. 

The all volunteer Urban Forestry Committee includes a landscape architect, a certified arborist, and state and county master naturalists.

Members and friends of the church are needed to help with the tree mapping.  So, plan to stay after worship on Sunday Aug. 29 to be part of this exciting initiative to ‘green’ the church grounds.  All are welcome!  

Election Day Ahead Make sure to vote on Tuesday August 24.  There are important city positions to be filled and a wide range of candidates.  Your voice is needed!

If you need transportation to the polls, please contact the Church Office.  

Operation Attack Update Many thanks to Ian Blair-Catala who has been connecting the church with Operation Attack for the last 4 years.  Ian is now moving on to attend USF in Tampa.  Ian’s brother, Owen, will be taking over as the church’s Operation Attack coordinator.  Owen will be sharing what food items are needed as well as opportunities to volunteer. It is located at Lakeview Presbyterian Church in St. Petersburg.  With gratitude to Ian, the church welcome’s Owen to this important role serving those in need in the community.   OA also still needs Donations of cereal, peanut butter, canned meat, fruit, vegetables and soup, dried beans, and mac/cheese.

Lakewood United Church of Christ 2601 54th Ave. S. St. Petersburg, FL 33712727-867-7961 lakewooducc@gmail.comLakewooducc.org