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Lenten Walk: Thanks to everyone for submitting your miles to the office! This week, we walked a total of 402 miles up the coast from Mazatlan (in the state of Sinaloa) to Ciudad Obregon (in the state of Sonora), population 400,000. In March, the average high is 84F, but in summer months temperatures average over 100F. Economic activity here is primarily agricultural. Crime and gang violence is slightly less intense here than in Mazatlan, but still enough of an issue that the US State Department asks Americans to reconsider traveling here. A caravan of 900 Central Americans passed through this city as recently as 2018. We must walk 660 miles more to reach the border at Tijuana by Easter Sunday. Continue to submit your miles to the office! (It’s not too late to join us.)
As you walk, please consider the needs of immigrants and refugees in our community, especially in this difficult time. If you are able, consider donating to The Refugee Center in Champaign (www.therefugeecenter-cu.org/). The Refugee Center was founded in 1980 by Vietnamese refugees to provide commonly needed services to other newly arrived refugees, and to help them acclimatize to American culture. In its 40 years of service to our community, The Refugee Center has expanded its scope to assist all immigrants, political asylees, and refugees, regardless of country of origin.
—The Wellness Committee Report miles to the office.
Reminder: Any aerobic exercise counts (we can walk, bike, skate, swim, Zumba)! All exercise will count as two miles for every 30 minutes, unless you have another way to calculate your distance.
Helping Immigrant Families | The Refugee Center | Illinois
www.therefugeecenter-cu.org
Serving immigrants, refugees, and migrant families in Champaign, Urbana and the entire East Central Illinois region.One Great Hour of Sharing
Through One Great Hour of Sharing, we become the household of God. We extend shelter to those who have no place to stay, offer compassion to those who have pain—be it physical, emotional or spiritual—and we set a feast, with God, for those who lack access to enough food to eat. God’s household filled with love and everyone is welcome.
When a new landlord acquired her building, Monica was repeatedly and falsely accused of being late with a rent payment, or not paying the rent at all. Each time, the charges were dismissed in court, but she was becoming very worried that one day the landlord might find a way to evict her from the affordable apartment where she had lived for more than a decade — especially since she could not afford a lawyer.
Thankfully, Monica connected with a tenants’ rights group supported by gifts to One Great Hour of Sharing that helped her find reasonably priced legal representation. She learned that her new landlord has a history of forcing people from their apartments and significantly raising the rent in violation of rent control and other housing regulations. No longer having to face the legal system alone, Monica was vindicated yet again, and now has the knowledge and help to secure affordable housing.
You shall be called repairers of the breach
— Isaiah 58
In Isaiah 58, God issues a call and a challenge—to love one another more deeply by sharing what we have with those in need. Together, we become the household of God where those seeking shelter, food and renewed hope are welcome.
Received during the season of Lent, One Great Hour of Sharing (OGHS) is the single, largest way that Presbyterians come together every year to build God’s household and welcome our neighbors-in need around the world by providing relief from natural disasters, food for the hungry, and support for the poor and oppressed. Each gift to OGHS helps to improve the lives of people in challenging situations through three impactful programs:
PRESBYTERIAN DISASTER ASSISTANCE: Works alongside communities as they recover and find hope after the devastation of natural or human-caused disasters
PRESBYTERIAN HUNGER PROGRAM: Takes action to alleviate hunger and the systemic causes of poverty so all may be fed
SELF-DEVELOPMENT OF PEOPLE: Invests in communities responding to their experiences of racism, oppression, poverty and injustice and educates Presbyterians about the impact of these societal ills
Join with Presbyterians worldwide in answering God’s call. This Lenten season, please give generously to One Great Hour of Sharing. IF WE ALL DO A LITTLE, IT ADDS UP TO A LOT!
We will receive and dedicate the OGHS offering on Easter Sunday, April 12.
Sunday, April 5, 2020 - Palm Sunday
Worship – Streaming at 9:30 a.m. on Sunday morning
Thursdays: Mid-day Prayer – Streaming at 12:15 p.m.
“Crown of Thorns,” an improvisation from 2007, on the West Pier, Brighton, England.
My how so much has changed. We are in the midst of a health emergency, an employment emergency, and an economic emergency. Customary patterns have been disrupted. Perhaps you feel you have been doing your best just to keep up. I also suspect that our thinking, our assumptions and our preconceptions, have not caught up. All of that will have to change as well. I love this photograph. We can imagine someone walking under that pier one day when the inspiration surprises. We can hope that there will be much more of this kind of inspiration and improvisation in the days ahead. How do we take present realities and present inspiration to make something meaningful and maybe revelatory? Palm/Passion Sunday did this. Jesus came among us to show us God’s way in the world, to show us how we can live in a way that pleases God, and to show us how we can love one another. He knew that the powers and principalities would resist him. Still, he entered Jerusalem that final Sunday and began a week of exposing the powers and principalities for what they were. Paulo Freire put it this way: “To speak a true word is to transform the world.” But both Jesus and Freire would have us know that we cannot be bystanders. The true word must be spoken. Freire wrote, “Washing one’s hands of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless means to side with the powerful, not to be neutral.” Join us on Sunday as we mark the turn from the Palms to the Passion.
You can join us by way of our Facebook Live Stream at:
www.facebook.com/FirstPresChurchUrbana/
Scroll down to the post which announces “Morning Worship at FPCU.”
- To join us by way of Zoom, click on the link below:
- zoom.us/j/8144246357
- Enter the Meeting ID: 814 424 6357
If you calling in by a landline or a phone that is not a smart phone:
1 (312) 626-6799.
Then enter the meeting ID above.
Pastor David
Join us for Palm/Passion Sunday and online communion.
• We invite all to prepare a special place for communion, where you can participate and watch the service online.
• We invite you to place a Bible there, a candle or two, a cross, and a purple cloth for Lent, and then a white cloth for Easter, if you have it. Place the bread on a plate ready to share, and grape juice, or wine, or another festive beverage.
• We invite you to print out the bulletin for joining the service on Facebook Live or follow along on Zoom, which includes the customary slides we are used to when we worship in the sanctuary.