frankly speaking....
"Take this most seriously. A yes on earth is yes in heaven, a no on earth is no in heaven. What you say to one another is eternal. I mean this. When two of you get together on anything at all on earth and make a prayer of it, my Father in heaven goes into action. And when two or three of you are together because of me, you can be sure that I'll be there.
"Matthew's Gospel 18:18-20 Peterson translation
The abbey at Iona in Scotland is appropriately remote for an historic ecumenical Christian community that works intensely at creative and centered worship and Christian discipline. It is a setting for vigorous "Reformed" and ecumenical lay theological reflection and expressions of Christian witness that reach far beyond the bluffs of Scotland to every continent. Its companion in a youthful young adult community of gatherings is at Taizé in eastern France. Together, gentle persons have impacted so much of the way we now worship and seek to express ourselves. One of the Taizé songbooks is in our pews. Some of the Iona hymn writings are in the New Century Hymnal, many of them by Brian Wren. Brian, in doing some work years ago in San Antonio, warmed my heart, lifted my spirit and helped unlock any predispositions about worship that I had grown up with as the "assumed way or ways." And, I want you to know I feel and experience that warmth of heart and spirit of hopeful promise in gathering with you right there in Austin on the "drag" often. For this special treasure, I praise God and say "gracias" to many among us.
My friend and former ecumenical colleague, Michael Kinnamon, wrote with his talented wife, Katherine, that "Coming together is at the center of our life with Jesus, for he said that where two or three are gathered...he is in their (our) midst." When we assemble, Michael and Katherine point out, as Christians singing songs of praise, telling stories of the faith, offering prayers, contributing to the needs of others, we are standing in the apostolic stream of faithful witness. That's quite an affirmation of connections past, current and future! I hope we can be together in these next weeks, sensing the flow for the whole journey of faith and faithfulness.
I'll be looking for you in our time yet to be together, affirming and supporting the ministry of sabbatical pastor Tom and in grateful affirmation and support of the witness you shape as a faith family right in the heart of Austin!
yours,
frank h. dietz, sabbatical pastoral supporter
BOARD OF CHRISTIAN OUTREACH
The Board of Christian Outreach called a Congregational Meeting on Sept 13, 2009, to ask the church to support the Workers Defense Project in its effort to pass a city ordinance to improve working conditions for construction workers in the City of Austin.
For several years, our church has supported the Workers Defense Project. We have provided financial support, our pastor and various church members have participated in vigils to help workers reclaim wages stolen by their employers, church members helped host a dinner and conference for workers working in unsafe conditions in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, and our pastor is now serving on WDP's Board of Directors and working on its Building A Better Austin campaign.
The Workers Defense Project is now working with the Austin City Council, in particular, with Councilman Mike Martinez, to draft a city ordinance that will improve working conditions for Austin's construction workers through more effective monitoring of illegal activity and improved worksite health and safety standards. The wording of the ordinance is still being worked out, but the Workers Defense Project is asking faith communities, community groups, local businesses, and unions to sign a "Letter of Support" asking the Austin City Council to continue working closely with the Workers Defense Project to draft an ordinance that will tangibly improve working conditions for Austin's construction workers.
The motion to support this effort carried unanimously.
Reuel Nash
FROM THE TRUSTEES
Beyond the usual building and operational items, the Trustees have adopted a formal investment policy for church funds, examined the vacation and sick policy for Sunday-only employees, voted for some chair and shelving upgrades to the Sunday school room, pestered the IRS to confirm our non-profit status, and scratched out heads about what, exactly, the city plans to do just outside our door along 23rd street. All of it great fun. We anticipate starting next year's budgeting process at our upcoming meeting on October 7th.
Chairs of our Boards
Trustees: Jaime Hadley & Rhys Ulerich
Deacons: Barbara Burnham
Christian Outreach: Reuel Nash
Moderator: John Goff
HEALTH CARE
Doris Williams, Robin Chapman, and Marilyn Vache attended the Austin Interfaith (AI) Health Care Civic Academy on Wednesday, August 19. Austin Interfaith leaders from member institutions outlined the core principles of health care reform advocated by AI, which were distilled from the shared views of its member institutions. In addition, Anne Dunkelberg, from the Center for Public Policy Priorities (CPPP)/Texas Voice for Health Reform, which shares similar core principles and seeks to inform and mobilize Texans in the national debate on health care reform, gave a presentation on some of the common elements and differences among bills now pending in Congress.
The core principles that AI supports for any comprehensive health care reform are:
- Quality health care, including mental health services
- Affordable health care
- Accessible health care for all
- Health care based on these principles without the cost falling heavily on those least able to pay
To follow up on our congregation's commitment as a member of AI, its members are being asked, to the extent consistent with their own views, to take action to advocate for these principles. Please e-mail Doris Williams at williams-doris@att.net to let her know which actions you take. This will help AI track its members' participation and the level of collective action taken. Action items include:
- Writing letters to our elected officials to ask that they support comprehensive health care reform based upon these principles. See below for more on how to participate in letter-writing;
- Calling our elected officials to ask that they support comprehensive health care reform based upon these principles. A sample phone script is attached;
- Encouraging other friends and members of the congregations to also write letters and make calls;
- Getting involved with the AI Health Care Research Action Team as it works to address this issue at the local, state and national levels.
PERSONALS
by Pat Oakes
John and Lois Drachenberg's last Sunday with us was October 4th. They are relocating to be near John's daughter in Florida. They have been a wonderful presence here in our church for a number of years and will be sorely missed. They have contributed so much to the choir and as readers for many different services. Lois has shared her readings, art, and tapestries and we have all enjoyed John's stories. You can stay in touch with them by writing to them c/o Laurie Drachenberg, 2035 Heatheroak Drive, Apopka, FL 32703-4704. Their cell number is 512-772-4041. Since they are trying to downsize and save on moving costs, Lois and John were delighted to be visited by Tom Vandestadt and Greg Futch just before Tom's sabbatical started. Greg and Tom packed up a thousand pounds of books and brought them back to the church where they are currently boxed in the Corliss library. Word is that there will be a book sale (with other folks adding to the nest egg of books) in our future.
Beth Placek had a wonderful nine-day trip to England in early September. She took some of her favorite walks with a friend, going to Lichfield, Bakewell, and Derbyshire, places she has enjoyed on earlier trips. She didn't miss the heat here at home and found that there was only one warmish day while in London. Even though it was a little warm, it was still gorgeous as she jogged along the Embankment. Also while in London she met a number of old friends for a mini-reunion near Covent Garden.
Don Miles enjoyed his third annual week-long hiking and camping trip with a neighbor to the Guadalupe Mountains National Park. They, too, enjoyed wonderful scenery and cooler temperatures. Don is also staying very busy making plans for the 150th anniversary Cinco de Mayo celebration which will take place in 2012. He already has folks from the French Foreign Legion interested in the battle reenactment--and a Mexican cavalry unit from the Dallas area is also signing on. That cavalry unit is going to be taught the maneuvers by Don's equestrian daughter with all of the commands given in Spanish. Also in the works is a French Army military ball with everyone in costume from the period. Stay tuned for further developments.
Vic Appel enjoyed a visit from daughters Cheryl and Debbie (plus Bob, Emily, and Sam). They were looking at alternative places to live (he is currently living in San Marcos near his friend Betty). Decisions are being made about whether or when to sell Vic's house here in Austin.
Dave and Sara Ross had an unusually eventful summer, beginning with their 50th anniversary celebration in June, followed by a five-week vacation trip They visited Yellowstone, Glacier, and Waterton Lakes (Canada) National Parks, camping all the way. Pictures from these events (and some church activities) may be viewed at http://gallery.me.com/saradave. Their latest adventure was a hot-air balloon ride on September 8, an anniversary gift from son Andy and his wife Leslie. They glided gently above fields, houses, and highways north of Dell Diamond in Round Rock. This delightful experience was enhanced by meeting physics colleague Larry Shepley, who coincidentally had signed up for the same ride. The other passengers were a young couple, who got engaged while they were in the air. She did not know she was going to be asked but said "yes" with enthusiasm. Andy came to see them take off and ended up riding with the support vehicle to meet them as they landed.
Rizer and Hildegard Everett were longtime pillars of this church. Their daughter Dot Waldrip and her husband Bryan have now both retired and are planning to travel the world with the same gusto that Hildegard and Rizer did. They will be in Rome for two weeks in October. They are also enjoying having their daughter Kate (who attended many church services here when she was visiting her grandparents) and her family close by. They just moved from Alameda, California, to Albuquerque where the Waldrips live. Dot and Bryan are delighted to have their grandchildren Megan, 12, and Parker, 5, in the neighborhood--and Kate and her husband, too, of course.
Liz and Reuel Nash and their daughters had a busy summer of travel in several different directions. The house that Liz's family shares with her extended family's home in Massachusetts was packed with people pretty much the whole time they were there in late June/early July (beds for 11 with more than that staying there for part of the time, and one bathtub for the whole crowd). The Nashes were there with other relatives in the adjacent houses. Shooting off fireworks from the raft in their lake and going to Jacob's Pillow (the magnificent dance center) will perhaps be what will mark this year's trip to the Berkshires for them. In late July/early August, everyone came and went at various times to their former home in Newark, California, to Reuel's nearby work in Mt. View (Google), back and forth to UCC Camp Cazadero, and to see their dear friends in Sonora. Becky had her last summer as a camper at Camp Caz near Guernville, a milestone in their family life as their girls have been part of this wonderful camp since they each were 6 years old (and Liz was on the staff there before that). After working this summer at Ski Shores on Lake Austin, Annie headed up to Boulder, Colorado, at the end of the summer to start college at Naropa University, a school that blends eastern and western approaches to education. Liz enjoyed a visit with Annie in Boulder in mid-September, as Annie was getting settled in school. Ellie also went to Camp Caz to be a counselor, to San Diego, to Disneyworld, and then to be a counselor at Frog Camp, the TCU camp for new students, just before going back to TCU for school. Youngest daughter Becky is a senior at the Khabele School--how time flies!
Former choir member Sarah Gourlie and Michael Gale were married on Sunday October 4th! The wedding was at the Old Town Alexandria history museum called the Lyceum, and the reception was at the Carlyle Club, which is styled after a '20s era night club. The ceremony included a handfasting ritual, with a special handfasting cloth woven by Sarah's confirmation sponsor from Center Church in Connecticut, and a song written for them by their friend Zia. Stellar choir member Hannah Norton (who has been doing a wonderful job as cantor for the Psalms we have been singing) was a bridesmaid, of course. And the next day they headed off to Argentina for their honeymoon! In other news, Sarah and Michael bought a house in Alexandria, right in the Old Town area but about 5 blocks from the metro. It is a 2 bedroom/1 bath duplex with a finished basement, and is the perfect size for the newlyweds' first house. Sarah says that she misses everyone at Austin UCC, but they are making quite a nice life there in Virginia! Their new address is 1604 Princess St., Alexandria, VA 22314
Paul Deisler writes that after two emergency hospitalizations within a month, Ellen is currently in the skilled nursing unit at The Summit at Westlake where they will attempt to rehabilitate her so that she will be able to come home and live with Paul at The Heritage. Whether that will be possible or not Paul cannot now say. If she must go into long-term nursing care, he will move to The Summit so he will be able to walk to her bedside and visit with her. Now, Paul spends several hours each day with Ellen and then comes back to the apartment at The Heritage. Paul and Ellen's son, Conrad has been a great help in all of this! People at The Heritage, residents and staff alike, are very supportive. Paul says he has seen other members of the congregation pass through similar times and that their courage encourages him. To the congregation at CCA Paul says: Enjoy life and good health while you have it!
Pat and Mel Oakes' daughter Beth enjoyed a week performing with the Maia Quartet in the Austin area (Mary Hardin Baylor School of Music in Belton, 2 concerts in Austin under the auspices of the Austin Chamber Music Center, and then a 2 day workshop and concert at Stephen F. Austin University in Nacogdoches). Beth and the first violinist Tricia Park stayed with Pat and Mel. Pat had been warning them for weeks that they would perish from the heat when they arrived--but, fortuitously, their arrival coincided with an upper level low which brought lower temperatures to heat-wracked Austin (it never got above 83 degrees) plus 3-4 inches of slow rain after a desperately dry summer. Beth was delighted to see old church friends at the concert on the 12th--Dave and Sara Ross, Barbara Burnham, Florence Castle and her son Paul, Nodie and Dennis Murphy, and especially former church members Gary and Judy Cole (who came up from San Antonio) and their daughter Heather (who lives in Austin now) and her friend Kevin.
L.R. Dave, Sara Ross, Judy Cole, Beth Oakes Garry Cole, Heather, Kevin, Dennis Murphy
OCTOBER BIRTHDAYS
1 Ann Horner
Frances Alford
Emily Grace Knowlton
2 Gary Pickens
4 Marie Scheel
Lana Harris
6 Kiana Pinkard
7 Catherine Hubbs
8 Samuel Jon Knowlton
10 John Burlinson
14 Beth Placek
15 Marguerite White
17 Derrick Evans
18 Olivia Deisler
19 Beth Oakes
George Carruthers
Conrad Deisler
Don W. Brown
22 Paula Fracasso
25 Michael Sparkman
28 Olivia Vaché
AUSTIN INTERFAITH REPORT
As a new member, with our entire congregation, of Austin Interfaith (AI), I am continually amazed at what a dynamic organization it is. At the August leaders' meeting Doris Williams and I learned that the organization has been instrumental in obtaining $18 million in 2008-2009 for:
- job training (locally, Capital Idea, and state-wide, Jobs and Education for Texans)
- education (including ESL, parent and teacher training, and after-school programs),
- water infrastructure (connecting 40 families in eastern Travis county to running water for the first time in 5 years),
- and traffic safety (a new traffic light).
One of AI's greatest achievements has been its creation and ongoing support of Capital Idea (job training program). Capital Idea will celebrate its 10th Anniversary with a party on Sunday October 11, under the Palmer Events Center canopy from 4:30 to 6 p.m. It will be a great opportunity for our church to show its support of the changes our community needs. Other events we are invited to include fall festivals at other AI churches, including ones at St Ignatius on September 26, and San Jose on October 3.
Another achievement: the Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University has just released a study of how, over 6 years, Austin Interfaith worked with East Austin schools to raise student achievement and improve professional culture and parental involvement.
But much lies ahead: Locally there is an effort to work with city council members to make sure that they keep their campaign promise that companies seeking city tax exemptions provide a living wage to their workers. And nationally AI is making its voice and principles heard in the debate on health care reform. All members of our congregations have been asked to write letters and follow up with phone calls to our Senators and Representatives, and to ask that AI's goals be included in any legislation: Quality care, including mental health services, that are affordable, accessible to all...while the cost does not fall heavily on those least able to pay
AI leaders are meeting with corporations to raise funds; if you know of a corporation that may want to partner with AI, please let one of the AI leaders in the congregation know about it. We are:
Doris Williams, Cathy Hubbs, Sam Bean, Matt Blackstock, Ben White, Bill Beardall, Bill Mueller, Robin Chapman, Kevin Dietz, Tomi Pinkard, Doyal Pinkard, and Vic Appel.
BRAZOS ASSOCIATION NEWS
You are all invited to our Brazos Association Fall Meeting on Saturday, October 24, 10 am through lunchtime, to gather for fellowship, business, and an exciting opportunity to hear from three visitors from Eden Theological Seminary: students Julie Watson and Debbie Douglas, and Contextual Education Professor Martha Robertson. Eden is sending these representatives to give us the opportunity to learn firsthand about education for ministry and to share our church life with them. Come to find out about how one of our best seminaries educates the ministers of the future, to show how our churches fulfill the call of Christ in our place and time, and to show them that the Brazos Association is a great place to serve. The meeting will be held at the Evangelical UCC of Lyons, located at 320 Silver Maple Dr. in Lyons (from Highway 36 in Lyons, turn west on FM 60, right on Silver Maple). The church phone number is (979) 596-1456.
In addition to sharing during our Association Meeting, our three Eden visitors will be hosted by three Association churches .-- St. John's UCC in Burton, Friends Congregational UCC in College Station, and Church of the Savior in Austin -- while participating in events, discussion, and worship at their host sites over the weekend. The plans right now are for St. John's to host a Saturday night gathering to give area Eden supporters an opportunity to have an update and conversation about life at Eden. Each church will be planning weekend activities with their Eden visitor. We are grateful to St. John's, Friends, and Church of the Savior for their hospitality and willingness to share their church life.
We also now have two interim ministers in our Association churches: George Klett, interim pastor at Friedens UCC in Washington and Frank Dietz, interim sabbatical minister at Congregational Church of Austin. Let's join together to welcome them at our Fall Meeting and at other opportunities for fellowship. This fall, Tom Vandestadt, pastor of Congregational Church of Austin, and Jerry Carpenter, pastor of Weimar UCC, are on sabbatical. Our prayers and best wishes are with them to become refreshed and renewed during this time. Jerry and Doris Carpenter are traveling in England and Germany as they study the family and church roots of the Weimar UCC congregation. You can read Jerry's blog about his travels at http://community.ucc.org/Jerry/blog.
Finally, congratulations to St. John's UCC in Burton. They have just paid off the mortgage on their activities building, finishing years of hard work on fund-raising and building. Their ministry to the church, the community, and the South Central Conference has expanded through their generous spirit with this building, and we pray that this ministry will continue and grow.
Blessings in Christ,
Liz Nash, Brazos Association Minister
Promote Fair Trade Chocolate on Halloween
On Halloween, chocolate is the tastiest of treats. Yet, in reality, our favorite candy is bitter sweet... 284,000 children toil in abusive labor conditions in West Africa's cocoa field, many trafficked from neighboring countries Cocoa companies pay prices so low that many cocoa farmers cannot meet their families' basic needs
http://globalministries.org/news/africa/fair-trade-chocolate.html
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 -- October 15
|
