AUSTIN INTERFAITH CANDIDATES' FORUM

    In a recent Sunday morning reflection marking the Centennial Celebration of our renovated first floor and courtyard, I commented on our place in the cosmos. On our tiny planet earth, a microscopic speck of rock spinning somewhere in the midst of hundreds of billions of galaxies, each with a hundred billion stars, it is tempting to think our lives are insignificant. In the cosmic dimensions of time and space, we are smaller than puny and the brief flickers of our lives hardly register. Lost somewhere between immensity and eternity, we may even ask whether God notices us, and if so, do our concerns matter to God?
     As Christians, we trust that God does notice us and care about us. We believe that God was present in some way, shape, or form in Jesus of Nazareth, and that through Jesus, God noticed people in need and reached out to care for them. We also believe that God is present in some way, shape, or form within the Christian church, and that through us, God notices people in need and reaches out to care for them. In other words, when we recognize another person's concerns or needs, and then experience a desire to respond in an appropriately compassionate manner, we are experiencing God's spirit working within and through us. This may take the form of making our building handicap accessible, serving food to hungry people, or advocating public policies that create more justice and equity in our city.
    On the same day that we celebrated our renovations at church, Bill Beardall, Doris Williams, Dan Jeffery, Robin Chapman, and I attended the Austin Interfaith Candidates Forum. Candidates running for the Austin City Council, Austin Community College Board, and Austin Independent School District Board were given a slate of issues and asked whether or not they would support them if elected to office. The issues included increasing funding for job training, requiring companies that receive City tax incentives to pay a living wage, increasing the City's investment in English as a Second Language programs, making health care coverage for AISD employees more affordable, and installing a traffic light at a dangerous intersection on Metric Boulevard.
    In the cosmic scheme of things, these issues may seem insignificant and petty. But for the people they impact, these justice, equity, and safety issues are of great significance. I'm hoping our church will take an active interest in Austin Interfaith, and in doing so, in the concerns of the people with whom we share this city. I believe God is calling us to notice what is happening in our city, and that God is seeking to respond through us with efforts to bring about greater justice, equity, and safety in the community in which we live. When opportunities arise to participate in an Austin Interfaith event, please make the effort to notice and respond.

Tom       
                 

FROM THE DEACONS: PLANNING FOR EASTER 2009 (ALREADY?!)

    Although it's nearly a year away the deacons are already thinking about next year's Easter services. In the fall we expect to call a congregational meeting so that everyone can have input on the question of how to make Easter even more meaningful. We are looking at how the services that day contribute to the spiritual lives of individuals and of our church. Do we want our sunrise service to be a meaningful and intimate gathering for members of our church to celebrate new life? To provide a public service? To serve as a touchstone for the unchurched? To make our name known in the wider Austin community? We hope you will continue the conversation that we have been having in the last year or two, and help us grow our ideas and plans for next year.
    Together with the members of the Board of Christian Education (BCE) we are developing a plan for extra coverage in the nursery and toddler area during worship time. The good news is that our young population is growing, but the challenge is to continue first-rate care. If you are interested in helping with infant care or any of the children's programs please contact a Deacon (Betty Bodman, Dennis Murphy, Barbara Burnham, Bill Beardall, Greg Futch, Marilyn Vache) or a BCE member (Paula Fracasso, Doyal Pinkard, Nancy Edison, Bill Phillips, Jen Howicz, Liz Nash) or Rev. Tom VandeStadt.
    We are working to make sure that there are rides for everyone who wants to get to church but has problems with driving or transportation. In addition, with gas prices and awareness of global warning increasing, more and more of us may wish to carpool. We have a sign-up sheet for drivers and riders in the fellowship hall -- please look for it and for a map of members' locations that should make it easier for us to connect.

Chairs of our Boards

Trustees:                Reuel Nash
Deacons:                Betty Bodman
Christian Education:
Christian Outreach:   Dan Jeffery
Moderator              John Goff

CHRISTIAN EDUCATION

    It is time to sign up for Sunday School Lite! The curriculum for the summer is Whole People of God, which will be accessible for your perusal and lesson planning online. If possible, we ask that two people sign up for each Sunday. Sign up sheets are available on the easel in the Fellowship Room.
On Sunday, June 8, we will celebrate Annie Nash's High School graduation during fellowship. Annie plans to study film arts in college, so the gift theme this year is "unique" or non-mainstream movies (DVD's), especially ones addressing social or political issues. Please feel free to contact Reuel or Liz Nash (reuelnash@austin.rr.com; lizknash@gmail.com) if you have a movie in mind but want to make sure it is not already in Annie's collection. Gift cards are also welcome!
    Our nursery teacher, Melissa McFerrin, will be on vacation the month of July. We are currently looking for a substitute to fill in for her. If you know of any childcare providers who would be interested, please contact Jennifer Howicz at jhowicz at austin.rr dot com or 512-468-5107.

PERSONALS
by Pat Oakes

    Our congregation has been hard hit this month, losing three of members of our church family. Flo Chiles, 85, a longtime member who had not been to services in several years because of her painful arthritis, died on March 17. She and Mary Charles Williams were great friends and advocates for mentally retarded adults. They missed coffee hour most Sundays as they set out for Sunday lunch with with the folks that they mentored. Flo was an adoption social worker for the State of Texas. Her memorial service will be held this summer at her much-loved cottage on Lake Superior where she spent her summers.
    Bob Gillogly, a new member of the church, died on Sunday, April 6, just two weeks after attending the Easter service. Bob, 41, an architect, had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer about 6 months ago. He had first come to the church the preceding Easter, and we had all hoped that he would become an old friend, but that was not to be. He is survived by his wife Janet, also an architect, and their five-year-old son Albert. His memorial service will be held in June.
    John Alford, 79, husband of Frances, died on Sunday, March 13. John had been in ill health for some time. He was a businessman, investor, and philanthropist who also served in the military during the Korean War. The funeral service on March 16th was moving and filled with loving tributes from many friends and family--including Frances Something truly special was the arrival of the Huston-Tillotson University Choir. John and Frances have been long-time supporters of the school and when the choir director realized that the service was at the same time the choir was scheduled to practice, she organized their robes, loaded them up in the university van, and brought them over. Their anthem was beautiful and heart-felt. There was a small reception at the church followed by a larger one at the Alford home.
    With all of the sadness, it is a joy to announce the birth of Julianne Lucille Lippert on March 18. Julianne is the daughter of Andria Miner and Alan Lippert. She was 6 lbs. 12 oz., and 18 3/4 inches long. After a somewhat rocky start, Andria reports that they are beginning to get the hang of functioning without much sleep, feeding every 3 hours and doing mountains of laundry. She says "Life is good!" They send a big thank you to everyone at church for the baby shower and car seat. Andria says, "It really meant a lot to have everyone gathered, and wishing us well before baby arrived."
    Many thanks to all of the folks who helped make the annual post-church Easter brunch a festive and filling affair. Helping with all of the food and serving were Sara Ross, Cathy Hubbs, Nancy Edison, Fran Briggs, Hannah Norton, Tiina Tapia, Lynn Lemley, Michelle Ulerich, Tommie Pinkard, and Pat Oakes.
    Our secretary Trish Karli had surprise visitors in late March, John Horner and his daughter Holly stopped by for a visit. The Horners were members here some years ago (during Yoshi Kaneda's pastorate) and Holly was baptized at the church. They were visiting in town from their home in Morgan HIll, CA, on Holly's spring break. Holly remembered the sanctuary as being much bigger! They were on their way back home by the time Sunday came around (they were driving) but they send everyone a fond hello.
    The peripatetic Liz Nash has been traveling with several trips interspersed with just enough time at home to prepare for a class she is leading, wash clothes, and re-pack. She took Annie to visit the College of Santa Fe, went to visit family in New Mexico while she was there, headed up to the Boston area for her aunt's memorial service (in a really interesting church -- Old Ship Church, which is Unitarian, in Hingham, which is the oldest building continuously used for worship in the country -- has small gated areas, like compartments, for everyone to sit in), then flew into Dallas/Ft. Worth and met everyone else there to celebrate Ellie's birthday. She is a fearful flyer, so medication to help with that has been her salvation.
    Olivia Vaché and her best friend Lizzy Schwartz (who went with our kids on the trip to Back Bay Mission in 2005) were in Florida for two weeks. They were doing their 11th grade work experience requirement at a Head Start program in Ft. Walton Beach where Lizzy's Aunt Alice lives. They were getting in lots of beach time and planned to visit at least two Florida colleges, including one that includes "Circus" as a PE option -- Lizzy is a budding trapeze artist.
    Emily Howicz recently placed third in the University Interscholastic League's competition for Listening in the Round Rock School District meet. She also scored 9 out of 12 possible points in the Oral Reading competition. However, her best win (at least in her parents' eyes) did not fall under an official UIL category: before the Oral Reading competition, Emily gave her favorite poetry selection to a classmate who had forgotten his reading binder, choosing that poem to give him because she "knew he could read it how it should be read." He did a great job, scoring 12/12, and Emily was ecstatic. Needless to say, Dad and Mom are very proud of her! Sister Tess is doing well and anxious for her next cast-less summer (the casts help to correct Tess' scoliosis). Much to her father's delight, Tess is turning into quite the soccer buff. She began soccer lessons at school last fall and is hooked.
    Congratulations to Linda Berard who will be graduating on May 25 from Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary with a Master of Arts in Theological Studies. We haven't seen much of her or Diane recently as Diane works most Sundays now. Linda has been attending a church closer to home in Georgetown to conserve gas, but she is keeping a toe in the Congregational Church of Austin by contributing her design skills---most recently to the new church signs. Thanks, Linda!
    Don Miles spent 5 days in San Miguel de Allende, where his hosts invited him to join them at their Anglican church on Sunday, April 6. It was the Sunday that Mexico was changing to Daylight Savings Time, and two of the three basses in their choir had missed the changeover. "Are you in the choir back home?" asked one of his hosts. "Yes," Don replied. "Good," they answered, "then you're in the choir here!" The service - including the sermon - was in both English and Spanish, and Don kept up with it pretty well.
    George Carruthers and Marilyn Gaddis flew to California April 16th to attend the memorial services for George's best Air Force buddy, H. Ray Davis. Col. Davis' last assignment was Assistant Deputy Director, Strategic Air Command, where he took turns controlling the "Red Phone" to guard against an attack from the USSR. He was buried with full military honors in Chico, California.
    Mathis Blackstock had a great time at the church retreat at Slumber Falls the weekend of April 11-13. He reports, " The retreat offered a better than usual opportunity for us to know each other, and I regret more didn't participate." Marilyn Vaché cooked for the entire time so we enjoyed very good meals throughout the weekend. Retreat gave us an additional chance to know our in-care candidate Jack Harris-Bonham. Hymn singing was better than usual, lasting a good hour and seemingly not wearing out our voices. Rambie in his customary generous way provided excellent accompaniment." For those who don't know Rambie's instrument of choice, it is the accordion!!
    Jack R. Harris-Bonham, in-care student at the church, will graduate with a Master of Divinity degree from Brite Divinity School, TCU, on Saturday, May the 10th. An ad for his one-man show Stonewall Jackson & the Moral Ambiguity of War will appear in the June 3rd edition of the Christian Century.
    The Church Ladies competed for the 5th time (having placed first in the 4 previous contests) in the April 17th Literacy Coalition of Austin Great Grown-Up Spelling Bee--and lost! They placed 4th out of 19 teams. Sadly, Pat Oakes got lost in her word and misspelled camaraderie (She put an a in place of the first e--sigh). The other two team members from Central Presbyterian Church, Susan Richter and Laurel Stoddard, have agreed that this will take the pressure off when they compete next year. The team, which raised more than $2400 for literacy services, thanks all their donors and supporters for their great generosity in this worthwhile endeavor. The whole event raised more than $71,000 dollars for literacy. It is indeed startling to realize that twenty percent of the people who live in the greater Austin area are functionally illiterate--and if you look at the figures for the areas of Central Texas outside of Austin, the figures rise to thirty percent.

WELCOME
Julianne Lucille Lippert
Daughter of Andria Miner and Alan Lippert born on March 18.

MAY BIRTHDAYS
  2 Louise Froelich
  3 Joyce Sinclair
  4 Stephen Luna
  6 Fran Briggs
11 Mel Oakes
13 Florence Castle
16 Mary Charles Williams
22 Julia Kato Kaneda
23 Heather Cole Fernandez
    Ben White
26 Matthew Wilding
28 Gregg Appel
29 Matthew Tomasek
30 Kathleen Hawes-Domingue
31 Louise Whitworth

IN MEMORIUM

We heard of the deaths of John Alford, Flo Chiles, and Robert Gillogly in April. Please remember their families in your prayers.

BRAZOS ASSOCIATION NEWS

    On Saturday, April 12th, 50 women gathered at St. John's UCC in Burton for the Association Women's Retreat hosted and planned by the Burton church. Plans are in the works for another retreat next fall, as well as for having our conference host the UCC Southern Regional Women's Meeting at a retreat center in New Braunfels in 1999. I am passing along a report about the retreat to let people know the "Good News" from that event so even more women will come to the future gatherings.
    We had a joyous day of sharing among women from Burton, Friedens UCC Washington, Lyons UCC, Faith UCC in Bryan, and Congregational Church UCC in Austin. The theme was "Seasons of Our Lives," and the time was filled with worship, wonderful music, workshops, a keynote, an offering for the Washington County Center for Abused Women, and lunch together, all in the new fellowship hall of St. John's. We had workshops with the whole group on each of the seasons as metaphors for seasons of faith in our lives, with spring being a time of new beginnings or renewal on our journey, summer being an active time of working on what we are called to do as Christians as well as a time of withdrawal and rest, fall being a time of surrender in faith to what has happened or to how we are called, and winter being a time of Advent and waiting. One emphasis was that these seasons, for many people, happen not just once in our lives: they happen multiple times. The keynote offered the context of faithfulness to each other as a part of faith in God along with human forgiveness as two vital needs in our lives together through the seasons of faith.
    Frances Sidenblad, one of our Association Lay Licensed Ministers from St. John's Burton, was the innovator, energy, and guide for the retreat. Many women from the Burton church helped to make the room beautiful, provide snacks (Frances's family catered the lunch), and in other ways. We benefitted from Burton's talented musicians who played several instruments, sang solos, and sang in harmony together. Workshop leaders included Frances, Lay Licensed Minister Cindy Miller, Rev. Karen Buck Nelson, and me. I presented the morning keynote.
    We have great and generous leadership for events like these in our Association. I understand, too, that the Conference Women's event is happening in April (before this is published), and the plans for that weekend at Slumber Falls look outstanding. I encourage all of our women to watch for the publicity for upcoming retreats, and plan to come!
    Beyond that, I encourage all of us to be part of these kinds of multi-church gatherings to build our faith, meet in warm community, give us a time to retreat and reflect, and/or engage in social action and mission projects. We have gifted leaders and wonderful folks in our Association churches, and we benefit from our diversity and common faith when we share.
        Blessings in Christ,
                Liz Nash, Associate Conference Minister, Brazos Association

WORSHIP GIFTS

    Yes, it's that time again, something I look forward to all year long! If you have a gift you would like to share with the congregation during the summer--a favorite poem, something you wrote, a hymn you love that we don't have in our hymnals, a musical offering, a choral reading--anything you could bring to enrich our worship experience, please see me, Nodie Murphy, call me at 255-4602 or email me at nodie at austin.rr com. I'm waiting.....

CCA TALENT SHOW IN JUNE

    The Annual, Bi-annual, Semi-Annual or Whenever-We-Get-Around-to-It Talent Show is finally scheduled--on a date you won't forget: June 13, 2008. Yes, Friday, the 13th! We will be providing soups, drinks, and desserts before the show. Nodie Murphy will be signing up acts in the Fellowship Hall after church. Remember, the only limit on the performances (besides "good taste") is that they last no longer than THREE minutes! Our antics will benefit a fund to help pay for a new AC condenser for the Huston-Tillotson library. Please reserve this date; it's a great chance to share your gifts, time AND talent.

COFFEE HOUR

    Please sign up in the Fellowship Room to be coffee hour hosts on an upcoming Sunday. The coffee hour time is such a good opportunity to visit old friends and meet visitors. We keep coffee and ginger ale and some punch fixings in the pantry in the kitchen. There are usually paper napkins, and we use coffee mugs and punch cups to avoid wasting natural resources. Your menu can be as simple or complicated as you want. Cookies and/or chips and salsa are just fine! If you have questions, talk to Pat Oakes, Tommie Pinkard, or Lynne Lemley.

Plumeria Day

    The garden committee as part of its effort to increase your opportunities of appreciation of flowering plants is having a Plumeria Day on Sunday May 4. Free Plumeria plants will be available to all with instructions for growing. You need to be aware that Plumeria are a native Hawaiian plant with flowers so fragrant that they make perfume from them. The plants are also rapid growing and very attractive to the eye. Also there are a limited number of small oak seedlings which are available as long as the supply lasts. They will be available at the coffee hour on the patio.


Deadline for June VISITOR -- May 16

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