Take 5 for Advocacy: Week of Sept. 21, 2020

Image description: A logo that reads “Take 5 for Advocacy, “ featuring the words “Take 5” in red, with the 5 in a circle of lines that indicate a watch face, and the words “For Advocacy” in green. The words sit in front of a pattern that looks like a mosaic of stones, with a green cross surrounded by multicolored blocks.

Actions You Can Take This Week

TAKE FARE ENFORCEMENT OUT OF THE COURTS: The Sound Transit Board is considering changes to fare enforcement on the Link Light Rail and Sounder trains. Some of these proposals are are positive, like increasing the number of warnings from one to two, and lowering the fine from $124 to $50. However, Sound Transit is still proposing that citations be handled by the court system, and that law enforcement may be called to fare enforcement interactions. You can read more about these proposals here. Please take a moment to strong urge the Sound Transit Board to totally divorce its fare evasion policies from the court system, criminal legal system, and law enforcement. Click here to take action. 

TELL CONGRESS TO INCLUDE HOUSING IN COVID-19 RELIEF PACKAGE: Housing justice advocates are asking Congress to include funds to address housing and homelessness needs as part of the upcoming Covid-19 relief package that lawmakers were working on before their August recess. These additions would include emergency rental assistance to help cushion the shocks caused by job losses during the pandemic, funding for actions to help keep people who do not have permanent housing sheltered and protected from Covid-19, an eviction moratorium, and other moves to help get people in their homes. Take action to connect with your lawmakers by clicking here. 

STILL TIME TO RAISE YOUR VOICE ON KALAMA REFINERY PROPOSAL: The time is NOW to give your comments to the Washington State Department of Ecology, about Northwest Innovation Works' and the Port of Kalama's application to build the world’s largest methanol refinery in Kalama. The Department of Ecology will take public comments through October 2 both online and at public hearings, which will be conducted remotely when possible. You can read more about the comment process at the Department of Ecology's web site here, and leave a comment online here. Rich Voget has provided this handout to help guide your comments and make them more effective. He also shared this flier (download here) on the Kalama Refinery and why Sierra Club opposes it, to find out more about the training workshops, and connect with Sierra Club at monthly meetings on the topic every third Thursday on Zoom. Email sept.gernez@sierraclub.org for the Zoom link.

"TEXT BANKING" SWITCH TO FRIDAY: Those who are taking part in the Environmental Voter Project's text banking with the UCC Pacific Northwest Conference have been asked to switch their texting day from Wednesday this week to Friday. Texts will be directed on Friday to voters in Florida, who will receive their mail-in ballots on Thursday. Regular text banking on Wednesdays should resume the next week.  If you haven't been part of the EVP text banking efforts with the PNC, and you'd like to know more, contact Roberta Rominger, or talk to Pastor Yuki. 

Prayers of the People: Week of Sept. 21

A line drawing in gray of two hands holding a heart, behind words in red that read “Prayers of the People”

In worship on Sept. 20, we joined together in holding up these prayers:

• For the everyday workers for justice, especially teachers who are trying to keep learning equitable and alive. 

• For teachers who are rallying with and for their students across all educational systems. 

• For the life of Ruth Bader Ginsberg, her courage and her ability to carry on, we thank you for her life of bringing about justice in the world. 

• For students who are already struggling with education, who are already vulnerable, and who cannot manage these new forms of online school. May we find a way forward to make our education system something that supports them. We pray for their lives, and for those who are in need of our help and our blessings. 

• For all those who are in cages, who have lost everything but their lives, and for those who have lost their lives. For those who have died of Covid. Help us get better leaders who will make our country better. 

Holy God ... hear our prayers!

These prayers are crafted to carry those shared in worship to our whole community, in the general spirit in which they were given (one pastor or leader makes note as one prays), while guarding their privacy as this newsletter is carried into the digital world.  We also especially welcome you to send Rev. Lauren your note during the week with any prayer request, we are so happy to incorporate it into our online worship (if you may not be up for voicing it). We are also always glad for you to add your prayers to the Zoom chat box during live worship, and we can fold them in to the spoken prayers. Contact Keystone's pastors for any pastoral concerns (contact info is below and at the bottom of this newsletter)

Prayers to include in the newsletter? Email them to Pastor Yuki (yuki.schwartz@keystoneseattle.org), Pastor Rich (keystone5019@gmail.com), &/or Pastor Lauren:  lauren.cannon@keystoneseattle.org, or text/ call Lauren cell:  773.501.7382

Meaningful Movies Virtual Screening & Discussion: Hard Road of Hope

4 p.m. Thursday, SEPTEMBER 24, 2020

Release Year: 2020
Running Time: 86 minutes
Director: Eleanor Goldfield

“It’s hard to win around here, it really is,” says Lynn Beatty, a resident of Doddridge County, the epicenter of the fracking boom in West Virginia. A neighbor, Linda Ireland echoes that sentiment: “You feel like there’s nothing you can do. Because you have these gas companies with all their resources. And the state seems to be on their side as well.”

Backbone Meaningful Movies presents its first virtual screening. On Thursday, Sept. 24 at 4 p.m. Pacific/7 p.m. Eastern they are screening Eleanor Goldfield’s “Hard Road of Hope.” This film takes a  journey into West Virginia, artfully exploring the radical history that’s been amputated from the people there and how folks are working to fight coal and fracking.

After the film screening, Eleanor will be on hand for a Director Q&A. Tickets can be purchased for $0-$10 here: https://www.eventbrite.com/x/hard-road-of-hope-a-backbone-meaningful-movies-virtual-film-screening-tickets-118965518067

MORE MEANINGFUL MOVIES: 6 p.m., Thursday, Sept. 24: The Vow From Hiroshima is an award winning film which provides an intimate portrait of Setsuko Thurlow, a survivor of Hiroshima, who has devoted her life to ridding the world of nuclear weapons. Her moving story is told through the lens of her growing friendship with a second generation survivor, Mitchie Takeuchi. Register at  https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-vow-from-hiroshima-screening-panel-discussion-tickets-116246431205. After registering, you will receive a zoom link for the screening and panel discussion.
Release year: 2020. Running time: 82 minutes. Directors: Susan Strickler

Crossing the sea tonight: Practice Lectio Divina @ 6:30 pm

Practice contemplative Lectio Divina tonight:

Make some tea, grab a Bible, come for centering & connection

Open gathering September 23:

6:30-7pm

We will spend some time with Exodus 14: 10-15 crossing the sea, since this Sunday Sept. 27, Rev. Rich will preach on “Path of Faith.”

We will share a couple minutes in mindfulness to begin, and then a few rounds of seeing what phrases stick out to us, and how we connect with this passage, in the midst of all that is going on this week in our world. Our last round of the practice leads us to what God is asking us to do through this text. Give yourself about 30 minutes to connect in this small group community- that always has new folks coming!

Also mark each Wednesday eve, at 6 - 6:20 pm, we do the same, for the upcoming Sunday scripture, before the gatherings at 6:30- 7 pm.

Let Pastor Lauren know if you want to be one of tonight’s 3 readers!

lauren.cannon@keystoneseattle.org

Meaningful Movies Virtual Screening & Discussion: Knock Down the House

A rectangle featuring two boxes showing two images. In the left box, which has a white background, are two speech bubbles stylized to look like film strips, one in red and one in blue, with the words “Meaningful Movies Project” beside them. Beneath these words is the website address: www.meaningfulmovies.org. and “Social Documentary Film and Community Discussion. The right box is a segment of a movie poster for the film “Knock Down the House, ” which features the picture of four women clustered together, all looking in different directions, with a faded image of the U.S. Capitol behind them on a blue background.

7 p.m. Thursday, SEPTEMBER 17, 2020

Release Year: 2019
Running Time: 86 minutes
Director: Rachel Lears

When tragedy struck her family in the midst of the financial crisis, Bronx-born Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez had to work double shifts in a restaurant to save her home from foreclosure. After losing a loved one to a preventable medical condition, Amy Vilela didn’t know what to do with the anger she felt about America’s broken health care system. Cori Bush was drawn into the streets when the police shooting of an unarmed black man brought protests and tanks into her neighborhood. Paula Jean Swearengin was fed up with watching her friends and family suffer and die from the environmental effects of the coal industry.

At a moment of historic volatility in American politics, these four women decide to fight back, setting themselves on a journey that will change their lives and their country forever. Without political experience or corporate money, they build a movement of insurgent candidates challenging powerful incumbents in Congress. Their efforts result in a legendary upset.

The film is available through Netflix or on YouTube (https://youtu.be/YCSo2hZRcXk).  Please watch the film on your own, then join the panel discussion with Meaningful Movies in Kirkland on Thursday, September 17 at 7pm.

Special guest for the discussion is Shelley Kloba, Representative, 1st Legislative District.  

To register for the discussion, please follow this link.  You will receive a link to the discussion meeting by return email.

MORE MEANINGFUL MOVIES: 6:30 p.m., Thursday, Sept. 17: Attla tells the gripping but virtually unknown story of George Attla, an Alaska Native dogsled racer who, with one good leg and one outlandish dream, dominated the sport for five decades, becoming a rockstar figure for both indigenous people and white people. REGISTER HERE: https://kcls.bibliocommons.com/events/5f4e7b45636c1c3a006490e3 
Release year: 2019. Running time: 57 minutes. Directors: Catharine Axleyf