THIS SUNDAY: Community of Pilgrims Presbyterian Fellowship, Pentecost, May 31, 2020, Zoom; Contact Pastor Brett Webb-Mitchell (919) 444-9111; brettwebbmitchell@gmail.com
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Dear Pilgrims of Pentecost,
What a glorious day it is to live in Oregon! The sun is out! A gentle breeze is blowing. Flowers are blooming, and spring is in the air.
This Sunday, May 31, 2020, is Pentecost. The focus Scripture is Acts 2:1-21. While we will discuss the roots of the word “Pentecost” in fuller depth and detail this Sunday, be sure to wear something red when we gather together in our Zoom time, because red is the liturgical color for the day, and it doesn’t happen that often. Some people understand that this is the birthday of the Church, because the Holy Spirit descended upon us, the people, in a fabulous way. Luke’s description of the event is absolutely wild and chaotic, in our purview, because this was all the work of God, made possible by God’s gift of grace through faith, and not our works. The results of this gift of the Holy Spirit was we, today, call the church. The writer Kathleen Norris has a simply lovely idea of the nature of the church: "Church is other people, a worshipping community. The worship, or praise of God, does not take place only when people gather on Sunday morning, but when they gather to paint the house of an elderly shut-in, when they visit someone in the hospital or console the bereaved, when the Sunday school kids sing Christmas carols at the nursing home. If a church has life, its 'programs' are not just activity, but worship. And this is helpful, because if the Sunday morning service falls flat, it is the other forms of worship that sustain this life” (from Amazing Grace: A Vocabulary of Faith). I would add that church is also gathering on Zoom and checking in with each other on a Sunday afternoon. Church is wearing a face mask during a pandemic for one and all. Church is continually reaching out to the people on the margins of society and needing help. And church is finding a quiet place and thanking God for life and love for and with one another. Friends, let us be church! Happy Pentecost! A worshipping and praying people, a serving people, a people of fellowship, an educated people, a people who love God and love neighbor. Join us this Sunday on Zoom as we celebrate Pentecost and the gift of being church with one another.
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Requests and Opportunities
Hold on to your 40 items of clothing from Lent, in which, when the pandemic “shelter in place” order will be lifted, and we can take these items to SnowCap.
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While we are not meeting in person, the Community of Pilgrims will still welcome your financial contribution. Please make a check out to Community of Pilgrims, and mail it to Brett Webb-Mitchell, 9460 SW Martha St., Tigard, OR 97224. Many thanks!
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For those who want to volunteer some more in the Portland-metro area, here’s a list of volunteer opportunities: https://www.opb.org/news/article/coronavirus-help-oregon-washington-volunteer-donate-give-blood/. And here’s a neat calligraphy project that Lorinda Moholt participated in, with proceeds to Oregon Food Bank: https://give.oregonfoodbank.org/CCC
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The Presbytery of the Cascades chose to give $1,000 to churches and new faith communities to make a change in the world. We are working with the folks at Moreland Presbyterian Church to figure out how to grow the amount of giving from this stimulus check to include Human Solutions and other non-profits doing good work in this day of COVID 19 pandemic.
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Events!
May 31, Pentecost! Gather and Devotion, Zoom!
June 7, Gather and Devotion, Zoom!
June 14, Gather and Devotion, Zoom!
June 21, Gather and Devotion, Zoom!
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Poem
One Searing Word, by Jan Richardson
On the day
When you are wearing
Your certainty
Like a cloak
And your sureness
Goes before you
Like a shield
Or like a sword,
At the sound
Of God’s name
Spill from your lips
As you have never
Heard it before.
May your knowing
Be undone.
May mystery
Confound your
Understanding.
May the Divine
Rain down
In strange syllables
Yet with
An ancient
Familiarity,
A knowing borne
In the blood,
The ear,
The tongue,
Bringing the clarity
That comes
Not in stone
Or in steel
But in fire,
In flame.
May there come
One searing word:
Enough to bare you
To the bone,
Enough to set
Your heart ablaze,
Enough to make you
Whole again.
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Buen Camino!
Pastors Brett & Chris
Rev. Dr. Brett Webb-Mitchell (919) 444-9111; brettwebbmitchell@gmail.com Rev. Chris Dungan chrisdungan1@msn.com