29 - sonkaucc.org - Southwest Ohio Northern Kentucky Association

SNIPPETS April 29, 2013
SOUTHWEST OHIO NORTHERN KENTUCKY ASSOCIATION
OHIO CONFERENCE­UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST
‘The heavens are yours, and yours also the earth;
you founded the world and all that is in it.’
(Psalm 89:11; NIV)
THIS NEWSLETTER IS MADE POSSIBLE BY YOUR OCWM GIVING.
SONKA Church Gets Behind Mission 4/1 Tree­Planting Goal
First St. John UCC in Hamilton may be small in numbers, but their commitment to the UCC’s Mission 4/1
Earth campaign is very big. In addition to supplying a matching challenge grant to help fund a new water
delivery system for SONKA’s Global Partners in
Rubate, Kenya, the church recently was out in force
for tree planting in a local park. The UCC’s
Mission 4/1 has three goals, one of which is the
planting of 100,000 trees. Roughly 45 members
and friends of First St. John came out on Sunday,
April 21, to participate in an Earth Day blessing and
ceremonial planting of a large red oak in Governor
Bebb Park, followed by the planting of 100 red oak,
sassafras and redbud saplings in two area Metro
Parks. Even members who were not physically able
to plant trees joined in by providing a lunch for the
participants and park staff, Pastor Mark Young says.
Another activity the church has undertaken to
contribute to the Mission 4/1’s goal of doing one
million hours of earth care was participating in
Hamilton’s annual
Spring Cleaning Day,
which promotes actions
to create a cleaner and
more pollution­free
city. The church also
will work with the
Hamilton Farmers
Market to promote
fresh, locally grown
foods available from
local farmers. Foods
from local farms do not
have the expense and
carbon footprint of
foods imported from far
away, Pastor Mark
reminds.
Campaign
Continues
until May 19
In honor of Mission 4/1 Earth, members of First St.
John UCC plant a large red oak tree in a Butler
County park (above). Church member and office
manager Connie Wyatt (l.) joins the group that
followed up by planting 100 saplings in two area
Metro Parks.
In addition, worship each week at the
church’s Ross Avenue meeting place
has highlighted a different
environmental issue, with the spiritual
and theological connections
emphasized.
­Lynne Wise

Any Interest in OWL Facilitator Training this Summer in Dayton?
Do you teach Our Whole Lives (OWL) in your church? Are you running out of trained
facilitators? Do you want to start or expand your program? Harmony Creek Church in
Kettering is hoping to host a junior and senior high facilitator training session this summer
(date TBD). But there needs to be an adequate number of registrants for the sessions.
Anyone interested in taking facilitator training for the OWL sexuality education program
is asked to contact Aaron Saari, Youth Pastor at Harmony Creek Church, at
aaronsaari@yahoo.com. He hopes to be able to gauge the number of possible participants
so that the group can discuss cost per person and training dates.
NEW! National Day of Prayer Service
A National Day of Prayer Interfaith Prayer
Service will be held Thursday, May 2, at 7:30
a.m. at the Dayton International Peace
Museum, 208 W. Monument, Dayton. The
doors will open at 7:15 a.m., with the half­hour
program starting promptly at 7:30.
Refreshments will be served from 8­8:15 a.m.
The program is being co­sponsored by
Interfaith Forum of Greater Dayton.
THIS WEEK
NEW! Troy Relay for Life
The large and dedicated Relay for Life teams
from First UCC in Troy will once again be out
at the Miami County Fairgrounds for the annual
walk, scheduled this year for Friday through
Saturday, May 3­4. The event raises money for
cancer research and awareness programs, and
First UCC’s team walks in 2012 Relay for Life.
the Troy teams always get behind the cause
wholeheartedly , holding fundraisers throughout
the year and operating a booth at the Relay site.
NEW! St. John Rummage Sale
St. John UCC in Bellevue, KY, will have a
rummage sale at the church on Saturday, May
11, from 8 a.m. – 2 p.m.
NEW! Heidelberg Choir Concert
The Heidelberg University Concert Choir will
perform at Harmony Creek Church, Kettering,
Tuesday, May 14 , at 7 p.m. Highlighting the
program will be compositions by Howard
Helvey (O lux beatissima), Gwyneth
Walker (I Will Be Earth), David Conte (a
setting of Theodore Roethke’s The Waking),
Irving Berlin (Blue Skies) and more.
Complementing these compositions will be
arrangements of traditional folk songs and
spirituals. The concert is free and open to the
public. A freewill offering will be taken.
NEW! Cluster 2 Meeting
SONKA’s Cluster 2, comprised of Westside
Cincinnati churches, will meet on Thursday,
May 16, at 7 p.m. at Trinity Hill Church.
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COMING UP
Helen Prejean Talk
The author of Dead Man Walking, Sr. Helen
Prejean, will speak at Epiphany Lutheran
Church, Centerville, Saturday, May 18,
beginning at 5:30 p.m. Good Shepherd
Ministries of Dayton,
a faith­based nonprofit
which offers
counseling, career
planning and spiritual
development to people
with histories of
incarceration, is
sponsoring the event,
which also will feature food, raffles, a silent
auction and testimonies. Advance tickets are
required. Helen Prejean, a Roman Catholic
nun, wrote Dead Man Walking, an
autobiographical account of her relationship
with a death row inmate. It served as the basis
for the well­known feature film, an opera and a
play. For more information, call 937/938­5781
or email dalenieberding@hotmail.com .

SONKA Minister Getting To Be Huffington Post Regular
Those who are avid readers of the on­line newspaper The Huffington Post may have noticed that one of our
own SONKA ministers is becoming somewhat of a regular on its Religion pages. Michelle Torigian, pastor
of St. Paul UCC in Colerain
Township, has now had five commentaries included in the
“Featured Blog Posts” in the
national newspaper’s religion section.
From the “great cloud of
witnesses” at the finish line of the Boston
Marathon, to Jesus viewed as a single man, to the
call of women to ordained ministry, topics
Michelle has written about are culturally relevant
and timely, and her style is always accessible.
Maybe that is why she also has been asked to write
regularly for the UCC website’s Feed your Spirit
section, pages on ucc.org that seem especially
geared to younger people, perhaps the under­40
crowd. For example, Michelle contributed the
April 18 entry for the “Peek, Ponder, Pray”
feature, which uses images to prompt spiritual
reflection and prayer. She also has written some
of the “Praying the News” items, in which clergy
contributors lend faith perspectives on national
news stories. To view Feed your Spirit, go to
http://www.ucc.org/feed­your­spirit/.
Ponder: John 1:5 says, "The light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness did not overcome it." How does Christ's
light come into your life in the midst of even your darkest
hour?
Pray: When I become too focused on the limitations and
sorrows of this world, help me to see the light and the
hope that Christ brings. Amen.
Photo: Michelle Torigian
The Great Cloud of Witnesses at the Finish Line
Rev. Michelle L. Torigian
Pastor, St. Paul United Church of Christ, Old Blue
Rock Rd., Cincinnati
It may take time, but I pray that many who suffered this
week will see the presence of God in even through their
distress. And from this time forward, I can't help but
believe that we will all think of our sisters and brothers at
the Boston Marathon finish line each time we find…
One of her biggest honors, however, came when she was asked to write the Worship Ways resource for
Pentecost Sunday, May 19. That will be the last day of the UCC Mission 4/1 Earth Campaign, so
Pastor Michelle’s
contribution has a creation care theme. Titled
“Hoping and Dreaming with Creation: Service
Feed your Spirit Prayers for Pentecost Sunday.” View it at
http://uccfiles.com/pdf/HopingandDreamingwithC
reationPentecostMay19.pdf . Pastor Michelle also
has written some of the Stillspeaking Daily
Devotionals.
When she isn’t busy writing for the UCC national
website or the Huffington Post, the SONKA pastor
writes regularly on her blog, God Goes Pop,
focusing on seeing the Spirit in movies, television,
music and the news. Recently Michelle, one of
the younger ministers in SONKA, compiled a
“resurrection playlist” for her blog, including
songs such as: “Carry On” (Fun), “The Heart of
the Matter” (Don Henley), “Anything Could
Happen” (Ellie Goulding), “I’ll Be There” (Escape
Club), and 26 other songs which would largely
appeal to younger and middle­aged listeners. She
also has blogged about milestone birthdays, bucket
lists, Alanis Morisette, and the expression, “It
sucks.” To view her blog, go to
http://michelletorigian.com/.
­Lynne Wise
West Liberty UCC to Install New Pastor, Paul Forrey, May 19
West Liberty UCC will have a special installation service for its new pastor, Paul Forrey, on Sunday, May 19, at
3:30 p.m. at the church, 212 W. Newell St. Clergy are invited to dress casually for the installation, which will
be followed by a reception with light refreshments. All in SONKA are invited.
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Churches Have Legal, Ethical Responsibility
Insurance Board Gives Churches Advice on Preventing Bullying
Bullying isn’t just a schoolyard activity anymore. It follows kids home and to church through the wide
array of technology available to our young kids, says the UCC Insurance Board.
The Insurance Board likes the term SafeConduct when referring to abuse prevention, stressing how to
act in different relationships, whether adult­adult or adult­child, and especially child­child. Standards may
apply to professional boundaries, displays of affection, discipline, out of program contacts, and, most
critically for young people, proper use of social media. Incidents of cyber­bullying are serious and
have led to serious consequences including suicide.
The Insurance Board reminds church leaders that it is an ethical and legal responsibility of leadership to
identify and investigate these circumstances, and especially to be sure that bullying does not occur within
church­sponsored social media. Your abuse prevention policy, whether you call it SafeConduct or safe
church, safe sanctuary, child safe or otherwise, needs a social networking Code of Conduct.
The non­profit corporation, which serves entities within the UCC, Christian Church (Disciples) and
Presbyterian denomination, recommends that churches go to the “Safety Solution” tab on its website,
www.InsuranceBoard.org. Then go to “SafeConduct Workbench” to examine a complete abuse
prevention policy template, a self assessment and information on special training.
* NATIONAL AND CONFERENCE *
NEW! New Church Leadership Institute
“Prophetic Renewal: A Conference on
Starting or Renewing Your Church” is the
theme for The Center for Progressive
Renewal’s annual New Church Leadership
Institute (NCLI), to be held Aug. 6­9, in
Decatur, GA. Created seven years ago, NCLI
features church planting and renewal experts
within the progressive church. Dozens of
speakers will participate this year, including
Carol Howard Merritt, Johnathan Wilson­
Hartgrove, Yvette Flunder, Lisa Allen,
Cameron Trimble and many others. The
conference will focus on six major themes,
including global trends that are reshaping what
it means to be church in this time; how leaders
can “retool” themselves to lead churches into a
new age; and how to build sustainable
ministries for the present and future. For those
who want to concentrate on specific issues, a
one­day pre­conference intensive will be held
in seven specific areas including Pre­Launch
Church Planting, Digital Discipleship: Social
Media in Ministry, Post­Launch Church
Planting, Children and Youth Ministry in the
21st Century, and Social Justice: Community
Organizing Training for Your Church Leaders.
Registration is now open here.
Conference Summer Camp
Have you registered your camper yet? The
Ohio Conference Outdoor Ministries group
reports a number of camps are already full or
almost full. Go on­line and register soon
at www.journeythehills.org.
* OPPORTUNITIES *
Knob Prairie UCC in Enon is looking for an organist/accompanist to accompany its choir during Sunday
worship services and Thursday evening practices. The salary is negotiable. Interested musicians should
contact Worship Director Debbie Kunselman at 937/232­1967 or kkunselman@sbcglobal.net.
Interim Association Minister Kathryn Anadein: kathryna@sonkaucc.org
Snippets Editor/ Communications Coordinator Lynne Wise: lynnew@sonkaucc.org
Bookkeeper Wilda Peters: wildap@sonkaucc.org
Registrar Jim Hill: jimh@sonkaucc.org
SONKA: 937/438­8050 or Toll Free: 888/631­9578
SONKA WEBSITE: www.sonkaucc.org
NATIONAL UCC WEBSITE: www.ucc.org
OHIO CONFERENCE WEBSITE: www.ocucc.org
Where in the World is Rev. Kathryn?
Interim Association Minister Kathryn Anadein will worship with David’s UCC in Kettering Sunday morning,
May 5.
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