The Immigration Team had their first Zoom meeting together May 20th.
Please email Crystal Silva-McCormack ([email protected]) or Arlene Turner ([email protected]) for more information about ways to participate with this new and vitally important group.
Submitted by Rev. Jeremy Albers
For those doing spring cleaning and finding old belts, consider sending them to Back Bay Mission or getting them to Sue Earl at First Congregational Church in Houston.
These belts are given out to individuals without homes in Biloxi, MS. All belts are good, but the best are the mesh belts that are fully adjustable.
Belts can be sent directly to them at: 1012 Division St., Biloxi, MS 39530. Thank you for helping lift the world up, one pant at a time!
* Glimpses of Faith Newsletter Deadline for Articles (for July Newsletter)
June 28th, 2021
*Community-Wide Blessing of the Hands for Healthcare and First Responders
June 7, 2021
*SCC Virtual Annual Meeting
June 12, 2021
*New Braunfels Pride Festival
June 26, 2021
*UCC 2021 General Synod
July 11-18, 2021
As our community’s children prepare to return to school and catch up academically in the coming months, it is more important than ever to help them be ready to read. One way to do so is to volunteer for the very worthy RSVP America Reads Program (https://www.nbisd.org/page/article/841).
Our own Sheila Angerer has been doing so for 5 years and encourages others in our Faith Family to get involved!
Community-Wide Blessing of the Hands
For All Healthcare and First Responder Staff
June 7th 6:30am to 7:30pm (rain or shine)
Faith Church, UCC970 Loop 337, New Braunfels
ENTER from Loop 337 and EXIT onto Common Street
To acknowledge the care provided and added stressors faced this past year and offer support to the work still ahead, Faith Church is offering a contact-less, interfaith, Blessing of the Hands for all healthcare workers and first responders (fire, police, EMS, etc.). All are welcome!
Please enter from Loop 337, drive forward to the next available station, put on your mask (required for the safety of everyone), roll down your window, and place your hands outside your vehicle with palms up and together.
A cotton ball with lavender water will be dropped into your hands for you to make whatever symbol appropriate for your beliefs or simply to rub on your hands as an anointing.
A volunteer will say a blessing over your hands as you do this, then hand you a copy of the blessing to keep. Then please exit on the Common Street side of the church property.
All are welcome to this event designed to be a source of support and care to you, and all who have worked so hard to serve, protect, and care for our community during such challenging times.
Call 830-625-6761 or email [email protected] for more information.
Faithful Friends,
As usual there is much going on at Faith Church and many ways to serve and be served. We are also reminded as we are active in our outward faith of service and the pursuit of justice, to take quiet time apart to tend to our inward faith and rejuice our minds and bodies.
As we do, we are then able to give from the abundance of what we have and our connection with God rather than draining ourselves, which serves no one well. We are no good to others when we are not good to ourselves and when we do love ourselves enough to tend to our own needs, we have so much more to give!
Our Pastoral Care Team continues to reach out to our family when in need and to visitors who join our services. Please let us know as needs arise.
We will be accepting new members in our congregation at the May 16th Worship Service and hope you will attend and join in sharing vows of covenant promise with them as the newest members of our family.
Our members are active with KIVA Microloans, Texas Impact, the Refugee Network, SOS Food Bank, Theology on Tap gatherings, Social Gatherings, and so very much more.
This month we will celebrate Mother’s Day, Pentecost, graduations, college admissions, championship playoffs, work promotions, successful healthcare outcomes, and Scout accomplishments. We will also sit with those waiting for answers that cannot come quickly enough for the struggles of their hearts, minds, and bodies or concerns for those they love. God, in your mercy, hear our prayers!
A few other events and updates of note:
New Braunfels Pride is coming June 26th from 11a-5p at Landa Park. Mark your calendars and plan to participate in whatever way feels safe to you and your family. If you would like to become a sponsor of this event, please contact the organizers through FB @RiversidePrideTX or their website at https://www.riversidepridetx.org Faith has been a long-time supporter of LGBTQ+ rights, dignity, and inclusion and we will continue to support the growing New Braunfels Pride community in whatever ways we can!
Slumber Falls Summer Camp Registration is now open!! Our denomination’s camp is just down River Road and is for children, youth and adults. Most of our Faith Church family have been to camp or served as counselors at Slumber Falls and have generations of fond memories of connection with God and each other while there. Please share this information with those you know and consider camp for the young ones in your life. https://slumberfalls.org/
We will be gathering persons to help with our Music Minister Search and also resume meetings of our Settled Pastor Search Committee in the next few weeks. Please pray that God helps us discern exactly what Faith Church needs in both positions and lead us to just the right fit for where God wants to take Faith Church in the next chapter of our lives together.
You will be hearing more about the non-profit, Serve Spot, in the weeks to come as Faith Church combines efforts with this local group that partners area churches with community needs. I’ve met with Kim Francis, their executive director, and she is assisting in connecting us with others to help market and provide blessers for the Blessing of the Hands June 7th. More to come in the weekly worship guide announcements and next months Glimpses of Faith. For now, you can learn more at https://servespot.org/ where you can see their amazing promo video!
The Faith Church COVID Committee continues to meet to plan what resuming in-person in-doors worship will look like in terms of timing and process. We want to be good stewards of our people’s spiritual and emotional needs and also their safety, especially with so many elders and children in our midst. As the number of those vaccinated continues to grow, as more of our children are able to get the protection of the vaccine, and as numbers of cases continue to decline, we are itching to resume our in-person connection.
We ask for your prayers for God’s guidance as we undertake this delicate task. We know some are ready to begin now. Others are much more hesitant. We know there are strong feelings and much fear and impatience that can arise. But we will do as we have always done as Faith Church and face this as an opportunity for us to pull together and find a common path that serves all our needs AND get us back together as quickly as possible in the weeks to come.
We want to make as certain as possible that once we return to worship together we will be able to continue gathering and not need to go back to virtual worship only. We will, however, continue to broadcast our services via Zoom and/or social media in what is being called hybrid worship, and covet your prayers and even financial support for our preparation to have a strong tech team of more than 2 or 3 to take on this challenging task.
WHEW!! There is a lot going on. Please pray for me, Pastor Janet, and for your elected leaders on the Faith Church Council that we be given strength and endurance, wisdom and clarity, and know clearly exactly what God most wants us to do and when and how to do it to make Faith Church a strong, healthy, vibrant witness of God’s inclusive love and justice in our community and our world. As you do, please know that daily I pray for each of you.
Peace,
Pastor Carla
Faith Church is planning a community-wide socially-distanced Blessing of the Hands for all healthcare staff and first responders *most likely* to be held 6a-8p Monday June 7th.
It is designed to acknowledge the work they have done, are doing, and have ahead of them to care for others the personal and professional trauma they’ve faced while doing so the journey to come, as they can finally begin to slow down and grieve what they’ve been living through for more than a year.
Research shows healthcare workers after the first SARS pandemic in 2003 faced astronomical burnout and PTSD rates 18-36 months AFTER the pandemic was over.
The road ahead may not be easy for many of them as we return to our lives and they remember the ones they tried to help but who will not be returning to theirs and as we remember the colleagues we’ve buried and wonder, and even feel guilt, about why we survived when they did not.
We want to do all we can to respond to them as they have responded to us
help them on their own path toward healing do all we can to decrease their risks for burnout and PTSD by offering ample support for them, in whatever ways we can.
Please mark your calendars and look for ways to participate in this event! We will have rotating shifts of greeters and blessers from 6a to 8p to give as much chance for all shifts of workers to attend as possible.
There will be many opportunities to volunteer and there are plenty of logistics to confirm, as we don’t want a good idea to turn into a disaster! We’re working on it all—getting clear about routes into and out of the church, lining up volunteers to serve as blessers and direct traffic, getting things out into the press, printing up cards with the spiritual but not dogmatic blessing so all will feel comfortable attending, preparing the bowls of cotton balls dipped in lavender that will be dropped into their palms to bless their hands with as volunteers say a blessing over them, etc.
Any event planners or organizers out there who can help, please holler as we need your gifts!! Til then, please spread the word that this event is coming and keep us in prayer as we plan the event.
And thank a healthcare worker or first responder, today, letting them know you’re with them.
Peace,
Pastor Carla
Weekly Witness is an opportunity for Texans of faith to learn about important public policy issues through a faith lens, and find out timely opportunities to participate in the public policy process. Weekly Witness is broadcast live on Zoom and Facebook with a studio audience. The Weekly Witness podcast features content from the live event and is usually available the day after it is recorded.
It features a brief reflection, a moment of hope to start, then a guest expert on some policy issue of importance in the legislative session. The guest will answer questions. Finally, there will be a report on what is current in the legislature, what bills are in which stage of development, what is encouraging, what is discouraging, and, most important, what response is called for NOW by people of faith wanting a better future for Texas.
You can download the current Action Alert at the Texas Impact website: https://texasimpact.org
There you will find toll-free numbers for legislators, email addresses (at this point phone calls are better, and they will be brief), and more information about Texas Impact. Weekly Witness can also be found on YouTube.
Rapid Response Teams:
Our goal is to have people in each legislative district willing to make time-sensitive contacts to their legislator or key legislators during the Texas Legislative Session. You will be given the choice to receive rapid response notifications by text or email.
Currently a lot is happening and bills can change minute by minute. Some bills are still in committee, some are on their way to the floor for vote, and some have been approved by one or both chambers. This requires close monitoring and quick response to the right people. You can be part of that response by joining a rapid response team.
Shared by Sheila Angerer, TX Impact Board Member
Do You Know Texas Impact?
Texas Impact exists to put faith into action. We equip faith leaders and their congregations with the information, opportunities, and outreach tools to educate their communities and engage with lawmakers on pressing public policy issues. We are an interfaith group that works together on issues that impact the most vulnerable people in our communities. We help people live out their faith in the public square, moving the faith community from charity to justice.
I have served on the TX Impact board for the past four years. This is not an elected position; it is completely volunteer. During this legislative term, I have sent emails to many of you to call your local representative and senator. TX Impact gives you all the tools in an email to complete a call and have your voice heard.
TX Impact is comprised of a diversity of faiths. That is what makes this non-profit organization unique. I was present at the Capitol during the legislative session before the session now in progress. We are using Zoom and other electronic messaging to be in contact with our representatives and senators. The Capitol is open with restrictions. Texas Impact has committed to stop voter suppression, support Medicaid expansion, revise gun laws and other bills that we as a body either reject or support.
I was encouraged when I received an email from the Reverend Dr. Whit Bodman asking me to share information about TX Impact with the South Central Conference, UCC. With the support and involvement of the conference, there will more representation for the betterment of TX Impact and our state.
Shared by Sheila Angerer, TX Impact Board Member
It is with joy that I announce the ordination of Kerry Kirtley by the Heart of Texas Association on Pentecost Sunday, May 23rd, at Touchstone Community Church in Boerne at 10:30 am, as the church gathers again to worship in person for the first time since March, 2020. Kerry, who was approved for ordination last spring, is one of the two founding and current pastors of Touchstone, along with Billie Watts. She has waited to be ordained until it would be safe to meet. The church is working to have a hybrid service — online and in person — and we invite those of us who can be part of it to come and share in the celebration. Touchstone Community Church meets (in the past and when they reconvene) at Kronsky Place, 17 Old San Antonio Rd., Boerne, Texas. Look for the ordination news on their website, https://touchstonecc.org/.
At our Heart of Texas Association spring meeting, we held two Ecclesiastical Councils, voting during these to grant Privilege of Call in the United Church of Christ to Amelia Fulbright and Sid Hall. Privilege of Call is the process for bringing ordained ministers of a different denomination into full ministerial standing in the United Church of Christ. Amelia was ordained at First Baptist Church of Austin in 2007. She has served as the Associate Minister of University Baptist Church of Austin, as the Labyrinth Progressive Student Ministry founding minister, as sabbatical minister at Congregational Church of Austin, and (most recently) as the Designated Senior Minister at University Baptist Church during their transition time. Sid was ordained as an Elder in the United Methodist Church in 1986, has been the Lead Minister of Trinity Church of Austin (formerly Trinity United Methodist Church) since 1988, and serves on our Association Committee on Ministry. Sid is retiring from Trinity in July and will gain full standing in the UCC at that time. We welcome these two valued and respected colleagues to this new era in their ministries among us.
At our Association Meeting, Charles Stark and Campbell Lovett (our Interim Conference Minister) also educated those present about the possibility of a Unified Fitness Review Committee which would consist of members from all of the South Central Conference Associations and conduct clergy fitness reviews. These reviews occur when a complaint is raised about a clergy person that challenges their fitness to continue in ministry. Currently, these reviews are conducted by the Association Committee on Ministry. The purpose of having a Unified Committee would be to take the substantial burden of conducting fitness reviews off of the Association Committee to allow them to do the normal work they need to do. Our Committee on Ministry is still considering and doing “due diligence” to understand how a Unified Committee would work, and will bring this possibility back to the fall meeting for consideration.
We have two clergy and church transitions to share. Rene Slateper has been called to be the Designated Term Pastor at Hope United in Georgetown, officially beginning his ministry on Easter Sunday. He also serves as Co-Pastor of Labyrinth Progressive Student Ministry, is now a Licensed Minister in the Heart of Texas Association, and is a Member in Discernment in the ordination process. Nikki Stahl has resigned as Associate Minister of United Christian in Austin, where she has served for the past 9 years. Nikki is taking a well deserved break as she finishes her excellent work at the South Central Conference Board President. Our prayers and blessings are with Rene and Nikki as they go forward in Christian ministry.
Blessings in Christ, Liz Nash, Association Minister
Shared from Friends Congregational UCC Facebook Page
As many in our church family know, our beloved Linda Coats suffered a massive stroke on March 5. She has received excellent medical care through CHI St Joseph, College Station, and then at Accel at College Station since March 15.
Linda has moved to an assisted living facility in Humble, TX where she will continue to receive the rehab and assistance she needs in the next step in her recovery.
To send cards or flowers:
The Suites at Crimson Heights
19279 McKay Dr, Room 701
Humble, TX 77338
Information is forthcoming regarding financial support for Linda, as well as visitation details. In the meantime, please continue to keep Linda and her family in prayer.
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