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From the Pastor
An inner wisdom tells you, "to reach Him who you do not know, you must go by a way you do not know."
--James Finley, Merton's Palace of Nowhere
It is no surprise to us when we encounter stories about Jesus shocking the sensibilities of people in his time and place. We are all too familiar with the accounts of Jesus saying and doing highly controversial things--turning people's worlds upside down and inside out by eating with sinners, telling stories about despised outcasts who are models of faith, forgiving the unforgivable, touching the untouchable, telling folks who are learned they are ignorant, warning those who have everything they'll have nothing, transgressing cultural boundaries left and right, even raising the dead.
We are used to Jesus messing with other people's heads and undermining their perceptions of reality. It is does not shock us when Jesus pulls the rug out from under other people's consciousness in order to open their eyes and ears, hearts and minds, as if for the first time. And that's a problem. We are so familiar with the stories showing Jesus shocking his contemporaries that they take on a "been there, done that" quality. We read them and say, "Ho hum. Nothing new. We know he was controversial to those people back then. We get it."
We may get these stories intellectually, but I don't think we get them on a far deeper level. We understand that Jesus really shocked other people, but he no longer really shocks us. When we read these stories, Jesus does not really mess with our heads or undermine our perception of reality. He does not pull the rug out from under our consciousness and challenge us to open our eyes and ears, hearts and minds.
I believe this confronts us with an ironic faith crisis. Jesus sought to radically rearrange people's heads and hearts. To do this, he had to lead them through a process of disorientation and reorientation. He had to lead them through a faith crisis. Only then could they be deeply transformed. The ironic faith crisis we face is that these all too familiar stories about Jesus no longer push us into the faith crisis the truly shocking Jesus provoked in others. The stories don't radically rearrange our heads and our hearts, disorient us and reorient us, or move us to undergo a thorough transformation.
This is a problem because our contemporary hearts and minds need transformation every bit as much as the hearts and minds of our spiritual ancestors--those people back then--needed transformation. Our need for disorientation and reorientation is every bit as real. We are in need of a faith crisis, but the ironic faith crisis we face is that the stories about the Jesus who confronted other people with a faith crisis no longer have that same shocking, transforming impact on us.
So what do we do?
This is a difficult question to answer, difficult not because it is intellectually challenging like a physics problem, but because it takes a tremendous amount of commitment to search for an answer. It takes commitment to a search that will lead you "by a way you do not know."
Tom
A CHALLENGE FROM THE BOARD OF DEACONS
At our last meeting we spent a great deal of time asking each other how we might all help members of our community feel more included, more honored, more loved. One of our jobs as a committee is to welcome new visitors, answer their questions, and help them discern whether or not this is the place they want to worship and grow. We are also charged with reaching out to those who can't attend church regularly because of age or illness.
But we are also aware that many regular and occasional attenders have needs that might not be obvious. We are thinking of ways that, as an institution, we can honor and include each other more. The upcoming Friendship Suppers are an important part of that effort, and all are encouraged to sign up for those. In smaller ways, though, we can all reach out to one another -- inviting someone to sit next to us in the pews, writing a greeting card during fellowship hour after church, saying "thank you" to choir members who give so generously of their time and talent every week. Together we can share God's love, and thereby live out the gospel more fully
A reminder about our church's sponsorship of the Transgender Day of Remembrance. On Tuesday, November 20, 2007 at 6:30 p.m. the transgender community of Central Texas and its allies will gather for a vigil at the Austin City Hall Plaza (301 W. 2nd Street) to honor those killed because they didn't conform to traditional gender norms. The event is part of the internationally coordinated 9th Annual Transgender Day of Remembrance to be held in more than 90 cities worldwide. This is the seventh year that the vigil has been observed in Austin. For more information visit htt;://www.gender.org/remember/day/index.html
The Nominating Committee asks that all who wish to be of service to the church in one of its elective posts starting in 2008 or who know of someone who might wish to serve please contact any of the following:
Paul Deisler (721-3325 or sinprsa@earthlink.net);
Matt Blackstock, (459-8595 or mblackstock@copper.net);
John Burlinson (cell, 254-634-7252, or John.Burlinson@dshs.state.tx.us);
or the church office.
Chairs of our Boards
Trustees: Reuel Nash
Deacons: Betty Bodman
Christian Education: Paula Fracasso
Christian Outreach: Tommie Pinkard
Moderator John Goff
Micah 6 Event
On Monday, November 12 at 7:00 pm the Congregational Church of Austin will host an educational event for Micah 6. Bill Beardall, the executive director of the Equal Justice Center, will speak on the work of the Equal Justice Center as they assist workers in collecting earned wages due to them. Since we are hosting this event for all of the Micah 6 churches we encourage you to attend as hosts. Parking will be available in the University Baptist Church lot. Please use Lot A.
STATUS OF ACCOUNTS SEPTEMBER 30
David W. Ross, Treasure
Having begun the year with a surplus in the General Fund (budgeted operating expenses), we approved an ambitious budget for 2007 with the expectation of running a deficit for the year. When I reported in these pages in April, that deficit had begun to show itself. Now it has increased to approximately the amount we expected by this time:
General Fund
Balance 12/31/06 $30,491.32
Income to 9/30/07 $133,063.60
Expenses to 9/30/07 $146,312.25
Balance 9/30/07 $17,242.67
This shows a net decrease of $13,157.08, an amount that is exaggerated somewhat by the payment of large quarterly obligations in September. As expected, income rose significantly in September after a summer slow-down.
The final three months of the year will again tell the tale. We usually pay most of our Outreach pledges in December, including the remaining half of OCWM ($7,050). In recent years our December income has been enhanced by end-of-year donations, including prepayment of pledges for the following year. If this trend continues, we should finish the year with a deficit in the neighborhood of the amount projected at the 2007 Annual Meeting ($14,000) and a positive balance to begin the new year of a comparable amount.
The end of September was a tough time for the Towery family. For those of you who are new to the church, John is the pastor emeritus of the church and was pastor here for many years. His wife Eleanor slipped and fell at their home on the 25th of September. Grandson Ricky came over and ended up taking her to the hospital. She had fractured her pelvis and a bone in her upper left arm near her shoulder. She was in Seton for several days and then was moved to St. David's Rehabilitation Center for about ten days. She is now at Buckner Villas off of Braker Lane undergoing further rehabilitation. If you would like to send a card, the address is 11110 Tom Adams Drive, Austin, TX 78753. She is in room # 405. In the middle of all of the concern about Eleanor, John and Eleanor's daughter Mary got a call on the 28th from her husband Danny who has been working since mid-June on a pipeline job near Cheyenne, WY, saying that he was on his way to the hospital with terrible abdominal pain. Mary, their son Ricky, and his girlfriend Monica immediately set out to drive to Cheyenne to look after Danny while John and Eleanor's son Ches and wife Maggie stayed behind to help John and Eleanor (you may remember that their Massachusetts daughter Sally's husband Tommy had by-pass surgery in August). Danny's appendectomy was laparoscopic, so he was released fairly quickly from the hospital when Mary, Ricky, and Monica arrived 24 hours after the initial phone call. They stayed for three days, did some light sightseeing, and came home--leaving Danny behind to continue working on the pipeline. The Towery "kids" have worked out a schedule so that John takes a cab to Bruckner Villas before lunch, has lunch and dinner with Eleanor and watches her work on getting better, and then either Mary, Ricky, Ches, or Maggie come by to visit Eleanor and to take John home. Get well soon, Eleanor. We are thinking about you.
Congratulations to pastor Tom Vandestadt and Robin Chapman who participated in the Longhorn Tri Festival-Half Iron. Tom and Robin were team "Andromeda" and competed in the Co-Ed relay division and finished in 6th place with a time of 6 hours, 13 minutes, 47.05 seconds. The race was on October 7, 2007.
A young man in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, "Googled" his father's name on the internet this past summer and said, "Hey, Dad, it says you're an author in Texas!" The dad's name is Donald W. Miles, and his wife is a Spanish teacher. They ordered 260 copies of "our" Don Miles' book about Cinco de Mayo for her classes, 130 in Spanish and 130 in English. Don drove to Bethlehem and spent a night with Mrs. and Mrs. Don Miles, and addressed seven Spanish classes at an area high school there. He also hosted a family reunion at the historic Bird and Bottle Inn in upstate New York with his younger brother and a cousin and their families whom he had not visited in more than thirty years.
Andria Miner and Alan Lippert have some exciting news to report. They are expecting a baby in March/April, 2008. The baby is actually due on their first wedding anniversary which is March 23--that makes it easy to remember.
Recently Yoshi Kaneda (pastor of the church before Tom) and his wife Setsuko came back home to Bonita, CA, from a 19 day escorted tour with Grand Circle Travel in Turkey. Among the scenery, the most impressive was that of Cappadocia where numerous "strange" shapes of soft rocks called "fairy chimneys" kept their close attention. There are so many ruins of historical significance in Turkey and many of them are still being excavated and reconstructed. There are also glorious architectural masterpieces preserved rather in good shape such as Hagia Sophia in Istanbul. A bridge between Asia and Europe, Turkey is one of the great cradles of many different civilizations, i.e. Assyrians, Hittites, Hellenistic, Christian, Romans, Byzantine and Ottomans, etc. Added programs in their tour included being hosted by a local village family for lunch, a cooking class by a retired chef, a lecture by a woman college professor and a slide show by a professional photographer. They also visited three career missionaries of the UCC at Ushkdar American Academy one afternoon. Setsuko enjoyed the hotel accommodations, mostly superior class with three day stays, and Yoshi enjoyed a balloon ride over the Cappadocia landscape. Oh, how many years he had waited for that rare opportunity! She didn't care much about a great variety of food, but Yoshi devoured fresh veggies like tomato and cucumber and at times lamb and fish. Their recommendation: "Sell your shirts and visit Turkey, but please don't drink tap water."
Beth Placek is just back from a great trip to San Diego. She went with friends Kathy and Jim who visited our church the day Beth danced for the service. They visited friend Keith (who has also visited us here). They stayed at a place right on Balboa Park , 3 houses joined together by courtyards and turned into a hotel where each room has a name. Beth's was the Aruba room, right on trails for running. They enjoyed the many funky coffee shops there where they took turns ordering one thing to share.
Marilyn and Gary Pickens are delighted to announce the coming marriage of their daughter Ms. Larissa Anne Pickens and Dr. Hans Georg Freiermuth in Zurich, Switzerland, on Saturday, November 24 2007. It will be a simple bilingual civil ceremony. Larissa grew up in the Congregational Church of Austin, but since her college days she has been a citizen of the world. At present, she has a successful Web design business (www.larissapickens.com) and maintains clients in a variety of locations. Hans Georg is currently an assistant to the Executive Board of Allianz Suisse in Zurich, but will be moving to a new posting in Stuttgart, Germany, in January. The two met in New York when Larissa was earning an MFA at Parsons School of Design and Hans Georg was working on his Ph.D. at Columbia University.
It was a joy to have Priscilla Perkins Grew at church on Sunday, October 14. Her parents were active in the church during the late 1950s and 1960s. She was attending the convention of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology at the Austin Hilton. She is director of the University of Nebraska State Museum of Natural History and they are recruiting for a new faculty member in their Department of Geosciences who will be Museum Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology. Priscilla also was recently appointed Chair of the Global Climate Change Solutions Committee of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists. She was nominated for that position by a professor at the University of Texas and met with him and others in the Jackson School of Geosciences during the week she was in town. That job will be a real challenge because the committee members have widely divergent views and perspectives on the global climate change issue, but she is looking forward to working with them. Priscilla pointed out that she and Rizer Everett used to see each other at AAPG meetings. In a conversation with Rizer at home, he fondly remembered her father Dr. James Perkins who taught at Huston-Tillotson--and, of course, also remembered seeing Priscilla at AAPG meetings.
Mel and Pat Oakes enjoyed an amazing, astounding, marvelous, informative, educational 4 week trip to China during the month of September. They covered more than 6000 miles within China, traveling by train (3 separate trips), 2 short airplane flights, 3 nights on board the ship Victoria Empress on the Yangtze, and numerous bus trips. The Elderhostel tour group of 33 included Jewel and Mary Johnson--Jewel is a retired area UCC pastor, peace activist, and train aficionado. Jewel and Mary live out near Lake Travis and occasionally worship at our church. They saw Tienanmen Square, the Summer Palace and the Forbidden City in Beijing, the Great Wall (climbed a good portion of it), the Longmen Grottoes (1500 year old huge Buddhas carved into a mountainside), many temples, the birthplace of Mao Zedong, the terra cotta warriors in Xian, the Three Gorges dam, rice being harvested, silk being made, tea being harvested-- and so much more. Be careful--don't show too much interest in their trip. Pat and Mel took more than 4000 digital photos on the trip--some serious editing is underway. To break up the trip on the way home, Pat and Mel enjoyed visiting with daughter Mardie and son-in-law Tony in San Francisco. A highlight of that part of the trip was seeing one of the completed homes in the project that Mardie is director of--building/ retrofitting homes (70 of them in the Bay area) for physically and developmentally challenged clients who are finding new housing as the state of California closes down its large institutions.
CHILDREN'S CORNER
Thank you to everyone who has donated beautiful junk. We have begun making wind socks and will finish them soon (it is a multi-week process). The younger children have adjusted nicely to the nursery, with some of the older children going to Sunday school now. The children are still enjoying play-doh every week.
Melissa MeFerrin
CHOIR CONCERT SUNDAY, NOV. 4TH
Our choir will join with the University Christian Church choir in presenting Morton Lauridsen's Lux Aeterna,. We will perform this short piece with a chamber orchestra at their church, located at University and 21st Street, across from Littlefield Fountain, at 2 p.m. on Sunday, November 4th. University Christian has invited us to a pot luck lunch before the concert; we'll bring salads and desserts. Please sign up to bring something and spend part of an afternoon enjoying beautiful music.
NOVEMBER BIRTHDAYS
1 Tommie Pinkard
4 Nannette Strickland
5 Mary Blackstock
7 Ann Hubbs
Tom VandeStadt
8 Setsuko Kaneda
Maggie Taylor
9 Craig Barrett
Bree Hawes-Domingue
12 Michael Adams
Gabriel Pinkard
Harrison Tucker
16 Brian Prioleau
Norma Hawes
17 Dennis Murphy
18 Jennifer Bratton
Jacob Bardati
22 Mariah Newell
23 Kathleen Strong
Terri Ocean
24 Jim Howicz
27 Tess Howicz
30 Betty Bodman
News From the Brazos Association
I am writing this article just before our Brazos Association Fall Meeting at St. Peter's UCC in Coupland. We plan to have a morning of sharing good ideas from our churches, followed by a time of fellowship as we enjoy the lunch served by St. Peter's. I am also writing this in the middle of the time when many of our Association churches are sharing fall events that are open to the wider community: Pfolkfest at St. John's Evangelical Lutheran UCC in Pflugerville, the Fall Festival at United Christian in Austin, and Kirchenfest (the Church Festival) at St. Peter's in Coupland. We rejoice in the ministry and celebration our churches share with their wider communities. We rejoice, too, that the building expansion at United Christian has begun after a period of patient waiting for building permits. (We know they tried to be patient!)
Last month, our Brazos Association Executive Board discussed the "Friends of the Conference" giving initiative started this year by the South Central Conference. Our Association is giving $500 this year to this initiative. I mentioned it briefly in an earlier article, but the Board and I agreed that I should lift it up with our churches again. The South Central Conference has extended an invitation for individuals and groups to make gifts to our Conference as Friends of the Conference (a Friend of the Conference is a gift of $100 or more) that will be used to fund the Conference's work over and above the pledges to Our Church's Wider Mission, or OCWM. Most of our OCWM giving goes directly into our Conference's budget, but it is not sufficient at this time to fund a balanced budget that allows us to meet expenses for the travel necessary for Conference committees to meet as often as they need to; to support the work of our Conference Minister, Douglas Anders and the work of the Conference office in Houston; to allow our Conference to contribute to Back Bay Mission and other important outreach work; and to help fund training that supports our ministries. The Friends of the Conference effort has been initiated to allow the Conference to do the work that will allow our churches to count on the ministry of the Conference when we need it, as when our pastors need a pastor, when we search for new ministers, when we try to start new churches, or when we need conflict management. Our Conference does a great deal with a small budget and our Conference Minister and Office Administrator (Tim Marquez) do the work done in many other Conferences by a larger staff. I invite you to help put the Conference on a more stable financial foundation by giving to the Friends of the Conference. Checks to the South Central Conference marked "Friends of the Conference" can be sent to the South Central Conference United Church of Christ, 9022 Long Point Road, Houston, TX 77055.
Blessings in Christ,
Liz Nash, Associate Conference Minister, Brazos Association
The Return of the Friendship Dinners:
Last fall and spring many of us enjoyed meeting together for dinner in smaller groups at people's homes. The primary purpose of the gatherings is to build community and friendship. The groups of 6-10 people will change for each date. Hosts would provide (besides their home) a main course and would assign others to bring appetizers, salads, etc. If you don't drive, we'll help you find a ride. The dates for this season are: November 3; December 8; January 19; February 23. We'll have sign-up sheets in the Fellowship Hall and hope you can participate on at least one of the dates. Andria Miner, Betty Bodman
Mt. Bonnell Clean-Up
Saturday, November 17 from 8:30 am until 12:00 noon.
"All things come to those who wait"
Most of us do not use the alley as much as we used to when we parked in the Cadeau Parking lot. Therefore, you may not have noticed that the City of Austin has finally responded to our plea for repairs to the pavement and drain adjacent our building. They have also done a much needed clean-out of the drain. We are hopeful that these repairs will eliminate the flooding of our basement which occurred in the past. Go on by and check it out for yourself.
The garden committee
BEWARE THE DREADED TIME-CHANGE
Yes, it's almost that time of year again. We get to "Fall Back" an hour. This year we have to pay attention. Some of our "automatic" electronics are old enough to remember the "old" system, so they will be misleading us. They will change their clocks earlier than is correct. Daylight Saving Time ENDS this year at 2:00 am on November 4. On the bright side.....it's always good to be early!
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.
Deadline for November VISITOR -- November 16
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