Sustaining Our Worship During & After a Pandemic

A note from Pastor Rich:

The congregation met via Zoom on Wednesday July 22nd. Those who attended voiced some sadness for some of the things our Zoom worship cannot provide like hugs, congregational singing and cake. Overall though the feedback was that given the restrictions of Covid, things are going quite well. People are generally pleased with the Sunday service and appreciate some of the things Zoom gatherings provide, like opportunity to see everyone’s faces during worship, the ease of attending worship and discovering new music. One of the primary advantages of Zoom worship is that we have people participating from far away and our attendance is up significantly.

The reality is that we will be doing Zoom worship for many months to come and possibly we will keep Zoom worshipping at some level even after a vaccine has been distributed to everyone. Given that, we are now moving from doing Zoom worship as an emergency response, to working out how we can continue to do such worship sustainably. That means that we are going to need to have more people trained in using the technology and we will need to standardize the technology we are using so that various people can do the work.

The long and the short of it is that we are building something new and lasting and that will take some time. We ask that the congregation please be patient as we work out a system that will run as smoothly as our traditional worship did.

Environmental Voter Project Training on Aug. 4

The Environmental Justice Team of the Pacific Northwest Conference of the UCC will host a training with the Environmental Voter Project on Tuesday, August 4, at 2 p.m. on Zoom.

The Environmental Voter Project’s mission is to persuade environmentally passionate people to vote. Statistics show that many of them don’t. This has effects, not only on the outcome of elections, but on policy decisions. Politicians shape their agendas around the concerns of reliable voters. The EVP targets twelve states where turnout among environmentalists is particularly poor, reaching out to them through texting and phone calls. This is strictly nonpartisan. The EVP never endorses candidates or supports initiatives on the ballot. They simply offer information and encouragement.

 On Wednesday, August 5, the EVP will be sending 500,000 text messages to Florida residents to urge them to sign up for vote-by-mail. The PNC Environmental Justice Team has made a commitment to send 25,000 of them. The training on August 4 will help prepare folks to take part in this mass text message effort!

The Keystone Green Team has identified voting as a key action for climate justice, and several members of the team are participating in this training. If you’d like to take part, contact Pastor Yuki, or sign up with Roberta Rominger by emailing roberta.rominger@ucc-ccmi.org.

Meaningful Movies Online: I Am Not Your Negro

7 P.M.. WEDNESDAY, JULY 29

Release Year: 2016
Running Time: 92 minutes
Director: Raoul Peck

In 1979, James Baldwin wrote a letter to his literary agent describing his next project, “Remember This House.” The book was to be a revolutionary, personal account of the lives and assassinations of three of his close friends: Medgar Evers, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr.  At the time of Baldwin’s death in 1987, he left behind only 30 completed pages of this manuscript. Filmmaker Raoul Peck envisions the book James Baldwin never finished.

Please watch the film before the discussion.  It’s free on Kanopy via the library. It’s also available for 99 cents on YouTube and Amazon (free on Amazon if you have a prime account).

Email meaningfulmoviesspokane@gmail.com to get the Zoom link for the discussion, which will be held at 7 p.m. (Pacific Time) on July 29.

Take 5 for Advocacy This Week: July 22, 2020

EXTEND EVICTION MORITORIUM:  Washington’s eviction moratorium ends August 1. Without an extension, hundreds of thousands of Washington residents could lose their homes.

A new analysis based on U.S. Census data estimates that without adequate rent assistance, 195,000 Washington households could face eviction over the next four months if the moratorium expires. Among those, Communities of Color are likely to be hit the hardest. Even before COVID-19, Black/African American households were about 10-times and Latinx renter households were almost twice as likely to face eviction as white households. Homeless students service provider David Sims said, “These numbers are infuriating, but not surprising.” We must also consider the layers upon layers of trauma that residents, particularly from Communities of Color, are experiencing right now with increased health issues, loss of family members, income loss, childcare challenges, and more. This is on top of the daily fear of losing their home. 

The Washington Low-Income Housing Alliance is asking for folks to call for lawmakers to extend the eviction moratorium through March 2021. Take action at https://bit.ly/ExtendEvictionMoratorium. 

You can also talk about your advocacy  and share the action link on your social media networks, using the the hashtags #HomesAreEssential and #RentReliefNow, and encourage others to join you in this effort. 

Meaningful Movies Online Discussion: Do Not Resist

7 p.m. Wednesday, July 22

Release Year: 2016
Running Time: 72
Director: Craig Atkinson

Meaningful Movies has gone online! Even though the pandemic is keeping folks apart physically, we can still come together to learn about important justice issues together. Meaningful Movies is hosting several online discussions this week. Tonight's movie is the documentary Do Not Resist, an urgent and powerful exploration of the rapid militarization of the police in the United States. Starting on the streets of Ferguson, Missouri, as the community grapples with the death of Michael Brown, “Do Not Resist” – the directorial debut of Detropia cinematographer Craig Atkinson – offers a stunning look at the current state of policing in America and a glimpse into the future. The Tribeca Film Festival winner for Best Documentary puts viewers in the center of the action – from a ride-along with a South Carolina SWAT team and inside a police training seminar that teaches the importance of “righteous violence” to the floor of a congressional hearing on the proliferation of military equipment in small-town police departments – before exploring where controversial new technologies including predictive policing algorithms could lead the field next. Written by Katie Atkinson

Please watch the film before the discussion.  The film is available on Amazon and YouTube for about $3.00. 

Email meaningfulmoivesspokane@gmail.com to get the Zoom link for the discussion, which will be held at 7:00pm (Pacfic Time) on July 22.

Other movies to view in the next week:
Tuesday, July 28, 6 p.m.: Join Fix Democracy First and Meaningful Movies Project for a screening and discussion on democracy and the media with filmmaker Kevin Bowe on his film, “Democracy Through the Looking Glass: Politics & Media in the Post-Truth Era.” Register for the event here: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Nz5z6HiuT92lS8A4VWwOJg. “Democracy Through the Looking Glass” covers the national conversation around the 2016 presidential election, rather than focusing on the daily sound bites or sniping between campaigns. The documentary explores the evolution of traditional media models and their coverage of the run-up to the election. It also covers the very profound impact technology had in uniting and amplifying previously silent segments of society that dominated political discourse during the campaign.For more info and to view the trailer visit: https://www.democracythroughthelookingglass.com/