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Saturday, April 30, 2022

What happens when a new denomination launches?

United Methodists will gather for worship, attend Bible studies and join in ministries such as housing the homeless and feeding the hungry on May 1 as they do most Sundays. 

That same day, organizers of the Global Methodist Church plan to mark the official launch of their new, theologically conservative breakaway denomination. But don’t expect things in the 13-million-member, international United Methodist Church to look much different come Monday morning. 

Both United Methodist and Global Methodist leaders agree that any separations from The United Methodist Church will take time to sort out.

After all, Methodism’s founder John Wesley instructed: “Do not rashly tear asunder the sacred ties which unite you to any Christian society.”

The United Methodist Church by design makes breaking up — and especially taking church property — hard to do. Wesley himself established the forerunner of the United Methodist trust clause, which states that all church property is held in trust for the entire denomination. That means congregations can’t just leave and take church buildings with them. 

However, the requirements of gaining release from the trust clause have become a source of contention and confusion as churches plan for the future. 

Online Worship Tomorrow


Join us Sunday, May 1, at 10:15 a.m. for online worship here. Worship this week will be online only, per the recommendation of the Boulder County Health Department. Preview Sunday's order of worship here.

We will celebrate communion on Sunday. Please provide for yourself bread or crackers (any type) and juice (any kind).

Friday, April 29, 2022

Every day to us is Easter: Experience resurrection all year long


During the Easter season, many United Methodists sing, "Every day to us is Easter, with its resurrection song." These words open the last verse of "Easter People Raise Your Voices" (United Methodist Hymnal #304) penned by United Methodist pastor the Rev. William M. James. The hymn reminds us that we celebrate renewal every day.

As Easter people, we know that even in the tragedies of life, God is at work bringing renewal. Some of those renewals we get to experience: national revival, new church buildings and rebuilt homes. Others, like the death of a loved one, we wait to celebrate in the Kingdom of God to come.As Christians, we experience resurrection every day and are called to share it in our worship and work. Every day can be Easter, all year long.

This feature was originally published March 1, 2016. Edited April 20, 2022. 

Read more at this link.

Thursday, April 28, 2022

Love Beyond Borders: The Interfaith Movement to End the Pandemic


For #WorldImmunizationWeek, we celebrate the impact of interfaith efforts to provide equitable distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine around the world and invite you to join in the effort!

Learn more and make a gift at this link

Bishops urged to work for 'big-tent' church

After long wishing that United Methodists could remain together in one body, Bishop Cynthia Fierro Harvey acknowledged that the time has come when some will break away.

“Every part of the body is important to the whole,” Harvey preached April 25 during her final address as the Council of Bishops president. “I also realize that it might be time to bless and send our sisters and brothers who cannot remain under the big tent.”

She spoke as the week’s Council of Bishops meeting got underway — just days before the planned May 1 launch of the Global Methodist Church, a new theologically conservative Methodist expression.

Harvey based her address on Romans 12, in which Paul proclaims: “We are one body in Christ, and individually we belong to each other.”

She expressed grief that some people have decided they belong elsewhere. However, Harvey also shared her hopes that the international United Methodist Church will remain a big tent — a welcoming home to Christians no matter their sexual or theological orientation.

“I believe in The United Methodist Church, and I believe in you,” she told her episcopal colleagues and those watching the bishops meet via Facebook. “Continue to be the people of God that boldly and courageously tells the story of a church that is big enough for the left, the right and the in-between.”

Read more at this link.

Wednesday, April 27, 2022

Lest we forget


Yom Hazikaron laShoah ve-laG'vurah, known colloquially in Israel and abroad as Yom HaShoah and in English as Holocaust Remembrance Day, or Holocaust Day, is observed as Israel's day of commemoration for the approximately six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust by Nazi Germany and its collaborators, and for the Jewish resistance in that period. 

In Israel, it is a national memorial day. The first official commemorations took place in 1951, and the observance of the day was anchored in a law passed by the Knesset in 1959. It is held on the 27th of Nisan, unless the 27th would be adjacent to the Jewish Sabbath, in which case the date is shifted by a day.

Today at St. Paul's



It was a wonderful morning at St. Paul's! The children of Sunshine Preschool were featured in their spring musical with family and friends in attendance. Meanwhile outside, Suzanne Polacek was busy working on the Memorial Garden that is being planned. 

Wednesday with Wesley


You seem to apprehend that I believe religion to be inconsistent with cheerfulness and with a sociable, friendly temper. So far from it, that I am convinced, as true religion or holiness cannot be without cheerfulness, so steady cheerfulness, on the other hand, cannot be without holiness or true religion. And I am equally convinced that true religion has nothing sour, austere, unsociable, unfriendly in it; but, on the contrary, implies the most winning sweetness, the most amiable softness and gentleness. Are you for having as much cheerfulness as you can? So am I. Do you endeavor to keep alive your taste for all the truly innocent pleasures of life? So do I likewise. Do you refuse no pleasure but what is an hindrance to some greater good or has a tendency to some evil? It is my very rule; and I know no other by which a sincere, reasonable Christian can be guided.

~ John Wesley (letter to Mrs. Chapman, March 27, 1737)

Tuesday, April 26, 2022

The mysterious, connectional act of prayer


From UMC.org:

When Linda Douty’s friend died from a brain tumor, the event sent the lifelong United Methodist on a spiritual spiral as she sought to understand why the prayers of many failed to result in her friend’s healing. 

“She was fit, successful, all of the plusses in life you can imagine,” Douty shares about her 50something-year-old friend. “Every prayer group I knew was praying for her. And she died.”

“Wait a minute,” she remembers thinking, “This doesn’t add up to what I’ve been taught.

When she shared her confused anguish with her pastor, he counseled, ““When I feel like you feel right now, I pray, because Jesus prayed.”

At the time, Douty thought the answer was “glib,” she recalls. Thirty years later, Douty, who is a spiritual director in Memphis, Tennessee, doesn’t have a better response.

“It was an unsatisfactory answer at the time,” she shared. “But I call myself a Christian, a follower of Jesus. And what did Jesus do? He prayed in every circumstance. He prayed when he was happy, when he was sad, when he was bewildered, in the Garden of Gethsemane, even on the cross. So whatever this mystery is, Jesus thought it was important. “ 

The acts of asking for prayer, praying for others, reciting prayers together are built into our faith tradition. Jesus modeled it, we repeat it. But do we understand it? United Methodist spiritual leaders offer help unraveling the complexity of prayer, and, perhaps in doing so, leading us to accept the mystery and seek a deeper connection with God.

Read more at this link.

 

Monday, April 25, 2022

This week @ St. Paul's UMC

Monday

9:00 AM, Office Hours

 

Tuesday

9:00 AM, Office Hours

 

Wednesday

9:00 AM, Office Hours

9:30 AM, Wednesday Weeders

10:00 AM, Virtual fellowship

7:30 PM, Choir                      

                                                                                                           

Thursday

9:00 AM, Office Hours

 

Saturday

5:00 PM, Bishop Oliveto on Facebook

 

Sunday (Sunday events are tentitive)

8:45 AM, Adult study class

10:15 AM, Worship

11:15 AM, Fellowship time

11:45 AM, Church Council

12:30 PM, BBKC

Scripture lessons for May 1

We begin the month of May with two passages from the Book of Revelation, 1:4-8 and 5:11-14.

Sunday, April 24, 2022

April 24 @ St. Paul's UMC: Prayers


Joys: 

+Steve Matthew's friend, Courtney, delivered a beauitful baby girl last Monday.

+Melanie and Bob Muckle are thankful that Alex and Jessie are visiting this week.

+Sally Owen is thankful for the visits her son is having with family in Boston.

+Angela B. gives thanks that George is recovering well at the rehab facility and may be able to come home this week.

+Steve Matthews is thankful for the quick response by the firefighters to the recent wildfires in the area.

+Belinda Alkula gives thanks for the use of technology to keep us connected.

+Judy Waller is thankful for the neighbors who checked on her this week.

+Suzanne Polacek is thankful for neighbors who brought groceries this week.

+Sally Owen is thankful for the time spent with her daughter. Sally also gives thanks for the arrival of a new baby in her family.

+We give thanks this morning for this week's birthdays: Josie Glancy, Ben Himes, & Christina Pulaski.

+We give thanks this morning for Belinda Alkula (video/slides), Etta Levitt (Zoom usher), & Claudia Mills (liturgist).


Concerns:

+We continue to offer our prayers for those dealing with the pandemic, especiallly we lift up those in our church family who are experiencing the effects of Covid-19.

+We offer our prayers for those continuing to be impacted by the war in Ukraine.

April 24 @ St. Paul's UMC: Announcements


+The Season of Easter, sometimes called Eastertide, continues for another six weeks until The Day of Pentecost (this year on June 5).

+Virtual Worship Team meeting tomorrow evening @ 7 PM. We'll be looking ahead to the summer music program.

+The Wired Word is available each Thursday via email. This is a wonderful way to connect your faith with the current news of the day. Let Pastor Charles know if you'd like to be on the email list.

+Bishop Oliveto offers a weekly devotional, live on Facebook, each Saturday at 5 PM.

April 24 @ St. Paul's UMC: Worship

 
Today’s Meditation Verse: "We are witnesses of such things, as is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey Him.” —Acts 5:32

Welcome... Pastor Charles

Prelude...  

Call to Worship (Safiyah Fosua, UMC Discipleship Ministries) ... Claudia Mills

It’s the Sunday after Easter; the lilies are gone. And we are alone with our faith. Thomas said, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe” (John 20:25b, NRSV). Easter is past, and we are alone with our faith. On this Sunday after Easter, help us grow into the faith that we confessed and celebrated last week. Reveal evidence of Your resurrection for the days when we feel that we are alone with our faith.

Music...  "How Great Thou Art" - Hannah Gu, July 4, 2021

Confession and Pardon (Rev. Thom Schuman) ... Claudia Mills

We can hold on to hurt until our hands begin to cramp and keep holding. Though they bow our back, we refuse to set our grudges down, because we don’t know what it would feel like to have that weight off us. And we think that is the way God operates as well. But God’s anger lasts for just a moment, while the grace, the forgiveness, and the hope God offers never goes away. Let us dare to bring our prayers to the One who hears us and heals us, as we pray together, saying...
Now that Easter is done and gone, Holy One, we no longer hear the special music, but listen to temptation’s familiar refrains. We no longer walk those straight paths of joy and wonder but wander the crooked streets to our old haunts. Rather than living in the newness you bring, we do things the way they have always been done. Fortunately, God of seaside breakfasts, you know the way out of our messy lives, and so take us by the hand to lead us. You wipe our busy schedules off our calendars so we may spend more time with those who need our love and attention. You challenge us to fish from the other side of our worries, so we may pull in all the grace, wonder,  and mercy offered to us by Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. Silence is kept 
Why should we weep? Joy comes to us this morning, and every moment of our lives. The Lamb of God has come, to share mercy and hope with us, so we can praise our God with joyous hearts. We will lift glad songs of joy, for all the blessings God has given to us. We will offer our hearts and hands in love and serve to others. Thanks be to God, we are forgiven! Amen.

Community prayer requests, concerns, and celebrations
Pastoral Prayer / The Lord’s Prayer... Pastor Charles

First Lesson: Revelation 1:4-8... Claudia Mills

Music...  "Homage to Thomas Campion (for 4 hands)" - Suzanne Polacek and Carol Wickham, November 15, 2020

Second Lesson: John 20:19-31... Pastor Charles
Pastor: This is the Word of God for the people of God. People: Thanks be to God.

Sermon... Pastor Charles / “What would you have said?”

Music...  "As We Leave This Sacred Place" - Alpha & Omega, November 1, 2020

Words for the Journey... Pastor Charles

Saturday, April 23, 2022

Worship with us tomorrow via Zoom


Reminder: Due to the Covid outbreak at St. Paul's UMC, we will worship only via Zoom tomorrow. Join us at 10:15 for worship at this link.

Friday, April 22, 2022

St. Paul's Covid update


In the past two days, at least nine St. Paul’s UMC members and two members from the Beautiful Korean Church have tested positive for Covid-19. Several more have reported feeling unwell with negative test results. In keeping with our Covid response plan, t
he Peaks/Pikes Peak District superintendent has been notified. 

The Boulder County Health Department has also been notified of a potential outbreak, but no information has been returned to the church as of Friday afternoon. 

In light of the potential impact on the church family, worship on Sunday will be by Zoom only. The Korean church is also taking this step.
 
Please let Pastor Charles know if you have any questions or need to report a Covid positive or other concerns.

Worship with us at 10:15 a.m. on Sunday, April 24 via Zoom here.

UMCOR collaborating to relieve the suffering of Ukrainians

The United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR), the Arlene Campbell Foundation – a Texas-based humanitarian organization focused on Ukraine – and Ohio Health are collaborating to send 47,895 pounds of medical supplies and equipment worth $935,000.00 to three hospitals in Kyiv, Ukraine. AEC Parcel Services is handling transport of the supplies, which are being sent in three shipments.

The effort was put together by the Arlene Campbell Humanitarian Foundation, headquartered in North Zulch, Texas, which has links to health facilities in Ukraine. UMCOR is paying specific costs, including transportation, of approximately $160,000. Ohio Health, a not-for-profit, charitable, health care ministry of The United Methodist Church, donated the supplies through a medical surplus program. UMCOR put the foundation in touch with Ohio Health and opened the door to the United Nation’s Logistics Cluster to move the supplies into Ukraine after they arrived in Poland from the U.S. via chartered jet.

Read more at this link.

Wednesday, April 20, 2022

Report released on church’s net-zero efforts

Kennicott Glacier near McCarthy, Alaska

It’s been a year since most of the agencies of The United Methodist Church    committed to reducing greenhouse-gas emissions to a point in 2050 where they are adding nothing — net zero — to cause global warming.

The most important lesson learned so far? It’s an extremely complicated endeavor. 

“An important focus of this work is equity and justice,” said the Rev. Jenny Phillips, senior technical adviser for environmental sustainability at United Methodist Global Ministries, who is a co-convener of the agencies' net-zero effort. 

“We want to be sure that the interventions we take are ones that don’t off-load more suffering on communities that are already experiencing hardship due to pollution and climate,” she said. “We could all just run out and buy whatever offsets are on the market, but if they’re offsets that have negative impacts on certain communities, that’s not the right solution.”

Read more at this link.

Monday, April 18, 2022

This week @ St. Paul's UMC


Monday

9:00 AM, Office Hours

 

Tuesday

9:00 AM, Office Hours

7:00 PM, Virtual Trustees Meeting

 

Wednesday

9:00 AM, Office Hours

10:00 AM, Wednesday Virtual Fellowship

7:00 PM, Choir practice

 

Thursday

9:00 AM, Office Hours

 

Friday

6:00 PM, PPP Circuit Gathering (Pastor)

 

Saturday

5:00 PM, Bishop Oliveto on Facebook

 

Sunday

8:45 AM, Adult Study Class

10:15 AM, Worship

11:15 AM, Fellowship

12:30 PM, BBKC

Scripture lessons for April 24


We continue in the Season of Easter with lessons from Revelation 1:4-8 and John 20:19-31.

Easter Monday devotional from John Wesley

Wesley Chapel - London

Note: We bring our Lenten Devotional to a close today with these words from John Wesley:

“Now, then, do all diligence to walk in every respect according to the light you have received. Now be zealous to receive more light daily, more of the knowledge and love of God, more of the Spirit of Christ, more of his life, and of the power of his resurrection. Now use all the knowledge and love and life and power you have already attained. So shall you continually go on from faith to faith. So shall you daily increase in holy love, till faith is swallowed up in sight, and the law of love established to all eternity.” 

  

The Rev. John Wesley


The Law Established through Faith,


Discourse II

Sunday, April 17, 2022

Easter Sunday @ St. Paul's UMC: Prayers

Joys:

+We give thanks for the memorial service for Harry Owen last Monday at Fort Logan National Cemetery.

+Rebecca Glancy gives thanks for the beautiful flowers that Angela brought..

+Belinda Alkula gives thanks for being able to worship together in-person on Easter!

+Rebecca Glancy gives thanks for the continued healing for Amy A.

+Pastor Charles gives thanks for the visit during worship of Sammy the cat!

+Our deep thanks and appreciation to to Angela Baker for bringing flowers for the sanctuary, Pastor Dawoon Jung and the Boulder Beautiful Korean Church, to Claudia Mills for serving as our liturgist; and to the St. Paul’s UMC Fellowship Team and BBKC for hosting fellowship time today.

+We give thanks to Belinda Alkula, Sandra Jordan, and Judy Waller for making the church look so nice for our Easter celebration.

+We give thanks for this week's birthdays: Jodi Bullock, John Courier, Ariel Crowley, and Sandra Jordan.

+We give thanks this morning for the ministries of Belinda Alkula (video), Angela Baker (flowers), Tim Cook (adult class), Austin Cooper (sanctuary usher), Etta Levitt (Zoom usher), Kathy Lloyd (Zoom), and Claudia Mills (liturgist).

+And a very special thanks to all this morning’s musicians: Lorie Courier, Louise Cook, Hyeji Park, Sela Park, Suzanne Polacek, and Ron Revier.

Concerns:

+Steve Matthews asks for prayer for his friend, Courtney, who is having her baby tomorrow.

+Angela Baker asks for prayers for George who is facing health issues.

+We have recently learned of the death of Alan Nesbitt, the second pastor here at St. Paul's UMC (1971-1975). He and Carolee were living in Las Cruces, NM.

+We offer our prayers for those affected by the war in Ukraine.

+We pray for all dealing with the lingering pandemic.

Easter Sunday @ St. Paul's UMC: Announcements


+The adult study, led by Tim Cook, has resumed meeting in the "Blue Room" each Sunday morning at 8:45 AM. All are invited to attend and grow in faith together!!

+Skippy's "Guide for Living" which was shared at her memorial service, is available on the blog at this link.  

+Church Council will be meeting next Sunday. Watch for time in the weekly "News you can use."

+Easter is not over - The Season of Easter continues for fifty days and concludes on the Day of Pentecost (this year on June 5).

Easter Sunday @ St. Paul's UMC: Worship

Fellowship time delights

Sammy, the neighborhood cat stopped for a visit
Easter egg hunt!

Today’s Meditation Verse:
 
“But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead. He’s the first crop of the harvest of those who have died.” —1 Corinthians 15:20

Welcome / Pastor Dawoon Jung

Prelude:  “Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee" Lorie Courier 

*Call to Worship (St. Hippolytus of Rome, 170-236 CE) / Claudia Mills

Leader: Christ is Risen: People: The world below lies desolate.                    Leader: Christ is Risen: People: The spirits of evil are fallen.                         Leader: Christ is Risen: People: The angels of God are rejoicing.                        Leader: Christ is Risen: People: The tombs of the dead are empty.               Leader: Christ is Risen indeed from the dead, the first of the sleepers,                         People: Glory and power are His forever and ever.

*Hymn“Christ the Lord Is Risen Today” (UMH #302) / Louise Cook

Prayer for Easter Morning (Rev. Michaela Youngson, the Methodist Church of Britain) / Claudia Mills

When everything was dark and it seemed that the sun would never shine again, your love broke through. Your love was too strong, too wide, too deep for death to hold. The sparks cast by your love dance and spread and burst forth with resurrection light. Gracious God, we praise you for the light of new life made possible through Jesus. We praise you for the light of new life that shone on the first witnesses of resurrection. We praise you for the light of new life that continues to shine in our hearts today. We pray that the Easter light of life, hope and joy, will live us each day; and that we will be bearers of that light into the lives of others. Amen.

Special Music: St. Paul’s Chancel Choir / “He Is Not Here" by Russell Nagy

Gospel Lesson: John 12:24-25 / Pastor Dawoon Jung

Sermon: Pastor Dawoon Jung / “Seeds that fell on Easter morning”

Special Music: Hyeji Park (piano) and Sela Park (violin) / “Amazing Grace and Arirang (Korean Folk Song)”

*Offering/Doxology (UMH #94)

Pastoral Prayer / Pastor Charles

The Lord’s Prayer (UMH #895) / Pastor Dawoon Jung

하늘에 계신 우리 아버지여,

이름이 거룩히 여김을 받으시오며,

나라이 임하옵시며,

뜻이 하늘에서 이룬 것 같이

땅에서도 이루어지이다.

오늘날 우리에게 일용할 양식을 주옵시고,

우리가 우리에게 죄 지은 자를 사하여 준

것같이 우리의 죄를 사하여 주옵시고,

우리를 시험에 들게 하지 마옵시고,

다만 악에서 구하옵소서.

대개 나라와 권세와 영광이

아버지께 영원히 있사옵나이다. 아멘.

Second Lesson: Acts 10:34-43 / Claudia Mills

Hymn: “Christ Is Alive” (UMH #318) / Suzanne Polacek

Second Lesson: Luke 24:1-12 / Pastor Charles

Sermon: Pastor Charles / “Truth or consequences”

*Hymn: “Up From the Grave He Arose ” (UMH #322) / Hyeji Park

*Words for the Journey / Pastor Charles

Postlude: "Because He Lives"Hyeji Park

Devotional for Easter

Lapel pin

Behold, two of them were going that very day to a village named Emmaus, which was sixty stadia
from Jerusalem. They talked with each other about all of these things which had happened. While they talked and questioned together, Jesus himself came near, and went with them. But their eyes were kept from recognizing him. He said to them, “What are you talking about as you walk, and are sad?”

One of them, named Cleopas, answered him, “Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who doesn’t know the things which have happened there in these days?”

He said to them, “What things?”

They said to him, “The things concerning Jesus, the Nazarene, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people; and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death, and crucified him. But we were hoping that it was he who would redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things happened. Also, certain women of our company amazed us, having arrived early at the tomb; and when they didn’t find his body, they came saying that they had also seen a vision of angels, who said that he was alive. Some of us went to the tomb, and found it just like the women had said, but they didn’t see him.”

He said to them, “Foolish men, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Didn’t the Christ have to  suffer these things and to enter into his glory?” Beginning from Moses and from all the prophets, he explained to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself. They came near to the village where they were going, and he acted like he would go further.

They urged him, saying, “Stay with us, for it is almost evening, and the day is almost over.”

He went in to stay with them. When he had sat down at the table with them, he took the bread and gave thanks. Breaking it, he gave it to them. Their eyes were opened and they recognized him, then he vanished out of their sight. They said to one     another, “Weren’t our hearts burning within us, while he spoke to us along the way, and while he opened the Scriptures to us?” They rose up that very hour, returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven gathered together, and those who were with them, saying, “The Lord is risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!” They related the things that happened along the way, and how he was recognized by them in the breaking of the bread.

Luke 24:13-35  (World English Bible)

~ ~ ~

 “Easter was when Hope in person surprised the whole world by coming forward from the future into the present.”


N.T. Wright, Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church