Drawn In Again: Creating as Compassionate Resistance
This week, we heard from our own Johana Castillo, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and Matthew McConaughey in talking about "hovering." We heard from Johana about her own creative endeavors with her website, mamatortuga.org, and we heard and sang some beautiful music. You can watch the service on our website. Next Sunday, we move to the hard part of creating, risk. Join us on Zoom, Facebook, or YouTube.
See the order of service here.
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Practicing Creativity
Janet Lisle has offered a great suggestion for exercising our creative muscle. Try summing up your experience of the pandemic and/or social distancing in six words. For example, Janet's is "Early morning walks are my salvation." What is your 6-word story?
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Community Problems Assembly
Monday night, November 9, is our justice ministry Community Problems Assembly. Our Network Members will join with Network members from across our county to be updated on our issues and plan our research to action process. If you are a Network Member that hasn't registered for the meeting yet, please do so here.
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Police-Community Relations - Sheriff Bradshaw Meeting
Last week, members of the PEACE Police-Community Relations Steering Committee met with Sheriff Bradshaw to discuss next steps. You can watch the full video here.
During this meeting, Sheriff Bradshaw agreed to meet with Professor Jack McDevitt, an expert on tracking and analyzing traffic stops, on January 13. While he did not agree to move forward with implementing a data collection system, he did say he was open to working with us, especially if the system is "reasonable."
Additionally, Sheriff Bradshaw confirmed that he wants to keep all eligible children out of the criminal justice system. He is open to our suggestions on ways to do that. We are sending him a strategy that works in Polk and Pinellas County.
At the end of the meeting, Sheriff Bradshaw shared that he has been particularly moved by the fear that he has seen with immigrant families. He talked about folks being scared to go get COVID-19 testing because they were scared they would be arrested. This caused him to rethink his stance on Community IDs, and he is willing to revisit that discussion in January!
It took years of building our justice ministry networks and our power to get to where we are today. As 2 Timothy 1:7 says, God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love. This spirit of power and of love has allowed us to make tremendous progress, and we're not done yet!
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Thursday Morning Chat & Fellowship
Join us on Thursday mornings at 10:00 for virtual chat and fellowship in our "virtual parlor." You can join us by clicking here. If you join us by computer, clicking the link will download the necessary software and take you right into the "sanctuary." If you are joining on your smart phone or pad, you will need to download the Zoom app
from the Apple App Store or Google Play. You can also call 646-558-8656 and enter code 718419400.
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As another way of connecting with our congregation and our community, we have started a YouTube channel. Here, you can watch (and share) sermon and teaching videos as well as videos from our life together.
Go to our channel, subscribe to it, and share it with others. When we get to 100
subscribers, it unlocks some additional features we can use.
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Needing Help With Zoom?
It has been a challenge for most of us to learn new technologies in such a short period of time. Sometimes it feels like we're in Disney World's Carousel of Progress, but it's spinning way faster than it should. If you're still having difficulty with signing on Zoom, here is a tutorial that might be
helpful.
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Facebook
First, go to our page and "Like" us. However, just liking us does not mean that you will see everything we post. Each of our Facebook posts only goes to about 2% of the people who like our page. To make sure you see everything, after you like us, go to the pull-down menu on the "Like" button and click
"Get Notifications." This way everything that we post will show up on your own Facebook wall. If you are on Facebook, you can keep up with what is happening "between Sundays" on our Facebook page.
| Facebook Live
As much as we love gathering together on Sunday mornings, there are times when we are out of town or otherwise unable to be there in person.
You can now watch our worship service live on Facebook right on your computer, tablet, or smart phone. At 10:30 on Sunday just head over to our Facebook page and join us!
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Thank you for your consistency and your generosity in your giving during our current unique and challenging circumstances.
Have you explored the opportunity of electronic giving? You can choose to have a set amount taken from your bank account on a regular basis or you can make a one (or more) time gift by checking account or credit card on our website. Your regular electronic giving means that your gift is available for ministry even when you are away (or forgot your checkbook!). Thank you for your continued
support of the ministry of First Congregational Church!
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