29 - sonkaucc.org - Southwest Ohio Northern Kentucky Association
29 - sonkaucc.org - Southwest Ohio Northern Kentucky Association
29 - sonkaucc.org - Southwest Ohio Northern Kentucky Association
Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
SNIPPETS April <strong>29</strong>, 2013<br />
SOUTHWEST OHIO NORTHERN KENTUCKY ASSOCIATION<br />
OHIO CONFERENCEUNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST<br />
‘The heavens are yours, and yours also the earth;<br />
you founded the world and all that is in it.’<br />
(Psalm 89:11; NIV)<br />
THIS NEWSLETTER IS MADE POSSIBLE BY YOUR OCWM GIVING.<br />
SONKA Church Gets Behind Mission 4/1 TreePlanting Goal<br />
First St. John UCC in Hamilton may be small in numbers, but their commitment to the UCC’s Mission 4/1<br />
Earth campaign is very big. In addition to supplying a matching challenge grant to help fund a new water<br />
delivery system for SONKA’s Global Partners in<br />
Rubate, Kenya, the church recently was out in force<br />
for tree planting in a local park. The UCC’s<br />
Mission 4/1 has three goals, one of which is the<br />
planting of 100,000 trees. Roughly 45 members<br />
and friends of First St. John came out on Sunday,<br />
April 21, to participate in an Earth Day blessing and<br />
ceremonial planting of a large red oak in Governor<br />
Bebb Park, followed by the planting of 100 red oak,<br />
sassafras and redbud saplings in two area Metro<br />
Parks. Even members who were not physically able<br />
to plant trees joined in by providing a lunch for the<br />
participants and park staff, Pastor Mark Young says.<br />
Another activity the church has undertaken to<br />
contribute to the Mission 4/1’s goal of doing one<br />
million hours of earth care was participating in<br />
Hamilton’s annual<br />
Spring Cleaning Day,<br />
which promotes actions<br />
to create a cleaner and<br />
more pollutionfree<br />
city. The church also<br />
will work with the<br />
Hamilton Farmers<br />
Market to promote<br />
fresh, locally grown<br />
foods available from<br />
local farmers. Foods<br />
from local farms do not<br />
have the expense and<br />
carbon footprint of<br />
foods imported from far<br />
away, Pastor Mark<br />
reminds.<br />
Campaign<br />
Continues<br />
until May 19<br />
In honor of Mission 4/1 Earth, members of First St.<br />
John UCC plant a large red oak tree in a Butler<br />
County park (above). Church member and office<br />
manager Connie Wyatt (l.) joins the group that<br />
followed up by planting 100 saplings in two area<br />
Metro Parks.<br />
In addition, worship each week at the<br />
church’s Ross Avenue meeting place<br />
has highlighted a different<br />
environmental issue, with the spiritual<br />
and theological connections<br />
emphasized.<br />
Lynne Wise
Any Interest in OWL Facilitator Training this Summer in Dayton?<br />
Do you teach Our Whole Lives (OWL) in your church? Are you running out of trained<br />
facilitators? Do you want to start or expand your program? Harmony Creek Church in<br />
Kettering is hoping to host a junior and senior high facilitator training session this summer<br />
(date TBD). But there needs to be an adequate number of registrants for the sessions.<br />
Anyone interested in taking facilitator training for the OWL sexuality education program<br />
is asked to contact Aaron Saari, Youth Pastor at Harmony Creek Church, at<br />
aaronsaari@yahoo.com. He hopes to be able to gauge the number of possible participants<br />
so that the group can discuss cost per person and training dates.<br />
NEW! National Day of Prayer Service<br />
A National Day of Prayer Interfaith Prayer<br />
Service will be held Thursday, May 2, at 7:30<br />
a.m. at the Dayton International Peace<br />
Museum, 208 W. Monument, Dayton. The<br />
doors will open at 7:15 a.m., with the halfhour<br />
program starting promptly at 7:30.<br />
Refreshments will be served from 88:15 a.m.<br />
The program is being cosponsored by<br />
Interfaith Forum of Greater Dayton.<br />
THIS WEEK<br />
NEW! Troy Relay for Life<br />
The large and dedicated Relay for Life teams<br />
from First UCC in Troy will once again be out<br />
at the Miami County Fairgrounds for the annual<br />
walk, scheduled this year for Friday through<br />
Saturday, May 34. The event raises money for<br />
cancer research and awareness programs, and<br />
First UCC’s team walks in 2012 Relay for Life.<br />
the Troy teams always get behind the cause<br />
wholeheartedly , holding fundraisers throughout<br />
the year and operating a booth at the Relay site.<br />
NEW! St. John Rummage Sale<br />
St. John UCC in Bellevue, KY, will have a<br />
rummage sale at the church on Saturday, May<br />
11, from 8 a.m. – 2 p.m.<br />
NEW! Heidelberg Choir Concert<br />
The Heidelberg University Concert Choir will<br />
perform at Harmony Creek Church, Kettering,<br />
Tuesday, May 14 , at 7 p.m. Highlighting the<br />
program will be compositions by Howard<br />
Helvey (O lux beatissima), Gwyneth<br />
Walker (I Will Be Earth), David Conte (a<br />
setting of Theodore Roethke’s The Waking),<br />
Irving Berlin (Blue Skies) and more.<br />
Complementing these compositions will be<br />
arrangements of traditional folk songs and<br />
spirituals. The concert is free and open to the<br />
public. A freewill offering will be taken.<br />
NEW! Cluster 2 Meeting<br />
SONKA’s Cluster 2, comprised of Westside<br />
Cincinnati churches, will meet on Thursday,<br />
May 16, at 7 p.m. at Trinity Hill Church.<br />
2<br />
COMING UP<br />
Helen Prejean Talk<br />
The author of Dead Man Walking, Sr. Helen<br />
Prejean, will speak at Epiphany Lutheran<br />
Church, Centerville, Saturday, May 18,<br />
beginning at 5:30 p.m. Good Shepherd<br />
Ministries of Dayton,<br />
a faithbased nonprofit<br />
which offers<br />
counseling, career<br />
planning and spiritual<br />
development to people<br />
with histories of<br />
incarceration, is<br />
sponsoring the event,<br />
which also will feature food, raffles, a silent<br />
auction and testimonies. Advance tickets are<br />
required. Helen Prejean, a Roman Catholic<br />
nun, wrote Dead Man Walking, an<br />
autobiographical account of her relationship<br />
with a death row inmate. It served as the basis<br />
for the wellknown feature film, an opera and a<br />
play. For more information, call 937/9385781<br />
or email dalenieberding@hotmail.com .
SONKA Minister Getting To Be Huffington Post Regular<br />
Those who are avid readers of the online newspaper The Huffington Post may have noticed that one of our<br />
own SONKA ministers is becoming somewhat of a regular on its Religion pages. Michelle Torigian, pastor<br />
of St. Paul UCC in Colerain<br />
Township, has now had five commentaries included in the<br />
“Featured Blog Posts” in the<br />
national newspaper’s religion section.<br />
From the “great cloud of<br />
witnesses” at the finish line of the Boston<br />
Marathon, to Jesus viewed as a single man, to the<br />
call of women to ordained ministry, topics<br />
Michelle has written about are culturally relevant<br />
and timely, and her style is always accessible.<br />
Maybe that is why she also has been asked to write<br />
regularly for the UCC website’s Feed your Spirit<br />
section, pages on ucc.<strong>org</strong> that seem especially<br />
geared to younger people, perhaps the under40<br />
crowd. For example, Michelle contributed the<br />
April 18 entry for the “Peek, Ponder, Pray”<br />
feature, which uses images to prompt spiritual<br />
reflection and prayer. She also has written some<br />
of the “Praying the News” items, in which clergy<br />
contributors lend faith perspectives on national<br />
news stories. To view Feed your Spirit, go to<br />
http://www.ucc.<strong>org</strong>/feedyourspirit/.<br />
Ponder: John 1:5 says, "The light shines in the darkness,<br />
and the darkness did not overcome it." How does Christ's<br />
light come into your life in the midst of even your darkest<br />
hour?<br />
Pray: When I become too focused on the limitations and<br />
sorrows of this world, help me to see the light and the<br />
hope that Christ brings. Amen.<br />
Photo: Michelle Torigian<br />
The Great Cloud of Witnesses at the Finish Line<br />
Rev. Michelle L. Torigian<br />
Pastor, St. Paul United Church of Christ, Old Blue<br />
Rock Rd., Cincinnati<br />
It may take time, but I pray that many who suffered this<br />
week will see the presence of God in even through their<br />
distress. And from this time forward, I can't help but<br />
believe that we will all think of our sisters and brothers at<br />
the Boston Marathon finish line each time we find…<br />
One of her biggest honors, however, came when she was asked to write the Worship Ways resource for<br />
Pentecost Sunday, May 19. That will be the last day of the UCC Mission 4/1 Earth Campaign, so<br />
Pastor Michelle’s<br />
contribution has a creation care theme. Titled<br />
“Hoping and Dreaming with Creation: Service<br />
Feed your Spirit Prayers for Pentecost Sunday.” View it at<br />
http://uccfiles.com/pdf/HopingandDreamingwithC<br />
reationPentecostMay19.pdf . Pastor Michelle also<br />
has written some of the Stillspeaking Daily<br />
Devotionals.<br />
When she isn’t busy writing for the UCC national<br />
website or the Huffington Post, the SONKA pastor<br />
writes regularly on her blog, God Goes Pop,<br />
focusing on seeing the Spirit in movies, television,<br />
music and the news. Recently Michelle, one of<br />
the younger ministers in SONKA, compiled a<br />
“resurrection playlist” for her blog, including<br />
songs such as: “Carry On” (Fun), “The Heart of<br />
the Matter” (Don Henley), “Anything Could<br />
Happen” (Ellie Goulding), “I’ll Be There” (Escape<br />
Club), and 26 other songs which would largely<br />
appeal to younger and middleaged listeners. She<br />
also has blogged about milestone birthdays, bucket<br />
lists, Alanis Morisette, and the expression, “It<br />
sucks.” To view her blog, go to<br />
http://michelletorigian.com/.<br />
Lynne Wise<br />
West Liberty UCC to Install New Pastor, Paul Forrey, May 19<br />
West Liberty UCC will have a special installation service for its new pastor, Paul Forrey, on Sunday, May 19, at<br />
3:30 p.m. at the church, 212 W. Newell St. Clergy are invited to dress casually for the installation, which will<br />
be followed by a reception with light refreshments. All in SONKA are invited.<br />
3
Churches Have Legal, Ethical Responsibility<br />
Insurance Board Gives Churches Advice on Preventing Bullying<br />
Bullying isn’t just a schoolyard activity anymore. It follows kids home and to church through the wide<br />
array of technology available to our young kids, says the UCC Insurance Board.<br />
The Insurance Board likes the term SafeConduct when referring to abuse prevention, stressing how to<br />
act in different relationships, whether adultadult or adultchild, and especially childchild. Standards may<br />
apply to professional boundaries, displays of affection, discipline, out of program contacts, and, most<br />
critically for young people, proper use of social media. Incidents of cyberbullying are serious and<br />
have led to serious consequences including suicide.<br />
The Insurance Board reminds church leaders that it is an ethical and legal responsibility of leadership to<br />
identify and investigate these circumstances, and especially to be sure that bullying does not occur within<br />
churchsponsored social media. Your abuse prevention policy, whether you call it SafeConduct or safe<br />
church, safe sanctuary, child safe or otherwise, needs a social networking Code of Conduct.<br />
The nonprofit corporation, which serves entities within the UCC, Christian Church (Disciples) and<br />
Presbyterian denomination, recommends that churches go to the “Safety Solution” tab on its website,<br />
www.InsuranceBoard.<strong>org</strong>. Then go to “SafeConduct Workbench” to examine a complete abuse<br />
prevention policy template, a self assessment and information on special training.<br />
* NATIONAL AND CONFERENCE *<br />
NEW! New Church Leadership Institute<br />
“Prophetic Renewal: A Conference on<br />
Starting or Renewing Your Church” is the<br />
theme for The Center for Progressive<br />
Renewal’s annual New Church Leadership<br />
Institute (NCLI), to be held Aug. 69, in<br />
Decatur, GA. Created seven years ago, NCLI<br />
features church planting and renewal experts<br />
within the progressive church. Dozens of<br />
speakers will participate this year, including<br />
Carol Howard Merritt, Johnathan Wilson<br />
Hartgrove, Yvette Flunder, Lisa Allen,<br />
Cameron Trimble and many others. The<br />
conference will focus on six major themes,<br />
including global trends that are reshaping what<br />
it means to be church in this time; how leaders<br />
can “retool” themselves to lead churches into a<br />
new age; and how to build sustainable<br />
ministries for the present and future. For those<br />
who want to concentrate on specific issues, a<br />
oneday preconference intensive will be held<br />
in seven specific areas including PreLaunch<br />
Church Planting, Digital Discipleship: Social<br />
Media in Ministry, PostLaunch Church<br />
Planting, Children and Youth Ministry in the<br />
21st Century, and Social Justice: Community<br />
Organizing Training for Your Church Leaders.<br />
Registration is now open here.<br />
Conference Summer Camp<br />
Have you registered your camper yet? The<br />
<strong>Ohio</strong> Conference Outdoor Ministries group<br />
reports a number of camps are already full or<br />
almost full. Go online and register soon<br />
at www.journeythehills.<strong>org</strong>.<br />
* OPPORTUNITIES *<br />
Knob Prairie UCC in Enon is looking for an <strong>org</strong>anist/accompanist to accompany its choir during Sunday<br />
worship services and Thursday evening practices. The salary is negotiable. Interested musicians should<br />
contact Worship Director Debbie Kunselman at 937/2321967 or kkunselman@sbcglobal.net.<br />
Interim <strong>Association</strong> Minister Kathryn Anadein: kathryna@<strong>sonkaucc</strong>.<strong>org</strong><br />
Snippets Editor/ Communications Coordinator Lynne Wise: lynnew@<strong>sonkaucc</strong>.<strong>org</strong><br />
Bookkeeper Wilda Peters: wildap@<strong>sonkaucc</strong>.<strong>org</strong><br />
Registrar Jim Hill: jimh@<strong>sonkaucc</strong>.<strong>org</strong><br />
SONKA: 937/4388050 or Toll Free: 888/6319578<br />
SONKA WEBSITE: www.<strong>sonkaucc</strong>.<strong>org</strong><br />
NATIONAL UCC WEBSITE: www.ucc.<strong>org</strong><br />
OHIO CONFERENCE WEBSITE: www.ocucc.<strong>org</strong><br />
Where in the World is Rev. Kathryn?<br />
Interim <strong>Association</strong> Minister Kathryn Anadein will worship with David’s UCC in Kettering Sunday morning,<br />
May 5.<br />
4