Parkway United Church of Christ  E-news
March 9, 2017

 
Worship with Us this Weekend!

Join us this Sunday for our 9:30am Traditional Worship Service and/or Informal Worship Service at 11:00am.

Reminder: Daylight saving time begins at 2:00am THIS  Sunday, March 12. Remember to set your clocks forward one hour Saturday night.
 
It's the Second Sunday of Lent. Our scripture passages are Genesis 12:1-4a and Psalm 121 with a sermon entitled Courage. Abraham (Abram) and Sarah (Sarai) are told by God to leave everything and go...It took great courage to trust and venture forth into the unknown. What is it like to trust God with your going out and your coming in? "God will keep your going out and your coming in from this time on and for evermore." - Psalm 121:8
 
We will light our Lenten Candles of courage , vulnerability, patience, flexibility, receptivity, advocacy, generosity and extinguish one additional candle each time we worship this season - all the way to darkness on Good Friday. We will light each of them again on the morning of halleluiahs - Easter!

 
2nd Mile Lent & Easter 2017 - Go the 2nd Mile with us !
The Christian Services Commission is pleased to announce that Parkway will again support four worthy organizations with its Second Mile Giving for Lent and Easter. We believe this blend of support will help Parkway create a local, national and international impact with its gifts. Please remember that Second Mile Giving is over and beyond the Operational Budget and donations will be divided evenly among the organizations listed below. Please be generous as these organizations depend on our gifts.
 
Lydia's House in St. Louis
Lydia's House works in faith to end domestic violence by being a place of healing and a voice of hope for abused women and their children. The agency provides safe, confidentially-located furnished apartments for up to two years, assists women in creating and implementing goal plans that will help them live independently, and increases community awareness of domestic violence. For more information, please visit lydiashouse.org
 
Neighborhood Houses
For more than 100 years, Neighborhood Houses has loved children in St Louis. Currently, there are three main facets to their mission:
 
Early Childhood Education - Caroline Mission is a licensed and accredited Early Childhood facility operated by Neighborhood Houses. Our Mission is to provide quality affordable child care for children from 6 weeks to 5 years of age. Caroline Mission is a "home away from home."
 
Girls' Night Out: Neighborhood Houses and Parents as Teachers collaborated together in the design and execution of a program dedicated to supporting and assisting young mothers, ages 13-22.Girls Night Out  is designed to promote healthy individuals and families.
 
After School Programs : Neighborhood Houses is the #1 provider of after school programming with the St Louis Public Schools ... fun & creative activities,   homework assistance, character education, cultural awareness, health & fitness focus, arts & crafts, supervised recreation, and much more! For more information, please visit neighborhoodhouses.org
 
Heifer International
Heifer International does so much more than put food in the mouths of hungry people. Heifer helps people to feed themselves. The goal of every Heifer project is sustainability - project partners achieving self-reliance. And year after year, as partner families "pass on the gift" of knowledge and one or more of their animals' offspring to others in need, they become links in a network of hope, dignity and self-reliance that helps hundreds of others care for themselves. For more information, please visit heifer.org
 
Eden Seminary
Eden Theological Seminary is a graduate school preparing women and men for ordained Christian ministry. One of the six seminaries of the United Church of Christ, Eden is a community that seeks God's justice and peace in the world. Eden is welcoming, inclusive and ecumenically diverse.
Eden was established in the summer of 1850 at Marthasville, Missouri. It was established because a European education was not adequate to prepare pastors for Evangelical churches on the North American frontier. From its beginning, Eden has embodied an ecumenical spirit. Its first graduating class included six Evangelicals as well as a Methodist and a Mennonite. 
 
Eden admitted its first African American student in 1933. In 1965, the late Joseph Cardinal Ritter of the Saint Louis Archdiocese became the first Roman Catholic Cardinal to address a graduating class in a Protestant seminary.
 
Today, students from many different denominations are engaged in theological education at Eden. Eden remains committed to educating faithful and effective leaders for church and society. The seminary counts among its distinguished graduates Reinhold and H. Richard Niebuhr and Walter Brueggemann.
 
Eden Theological Seminary is committed to the study of theology in the context of the ecumenical Christian community and the contemporary world.
For more information, please visit eden.edu.
Please be sure to clearly mark your 2nd Mile gifts throughout the season of Lent/Easter. Thank you!

Inclement Weather Policy
If we need to cancel church on a Sunday morning due to wintry weather, we will communicate with you in a variety of ways:
  • Church wide email.
  • Facebook/Twitter post.
  • KSDK.com listing.
  • Voicemail at church.
Judgment whether to come to church rests with the individual. If you feel it is unsafe to drive, please don't risk it. Stay safe. Stay home.

 

Adult Education
Sundays | 9:30am & 11am | Heritage Room

This Sunday, March 12: Progress West Hospital
- Steffanie Rauscher
Having recently joined the team at Progress West Hospital in O'Fallon as Director of Nursing, PUCCer Steffanie Rauscher has been a nurse for many moons. Come hear about the mission and realities of a hospital from her unique angle. You may never look at a hospital in the same away again.




Prayer Updates
Cheryl Schrenker - back to work this week! as healing continues.
Nancy (Cannon) Masterson - recent hospital stay.
Jennifer Woodson and son Connor - car accident; sore but OK.





Into the Mystic is the Rev. John C. Dorhauer's weekly podcast on UCC.org. 



Announcements
Tuesday Evening Dialogue March 14
2nd & 4th Tuesdays | 6:00-8:30pm | Heritage Room | Potluck & Discussion

Men, Women, Couples, Singles. ALL WELCOME! March 14 and 28 we start a new book focused on "sustainability"-The Comforting Whirlwind by Bill McKibben.
In The Comforting Whirlwind, McKibben turns to the biblical book of Job to demonstrate our need to embrace a bold new paradigm for living if we hope to reverse the current trend of ecological destruction. Arguing that we are entrapped by " our belief that endless material growth and expansion is both possible and fulfilling, " McKibben asks, " How can one believe deeply in God and yet be so cavalier about God's creation? " An environmentalist, Sunday school teacher, and the author of The End of Nature and The Age of Missing Information, McKibben uses the biblical story of Job to articulate modern assumptions that hide us from the larger perspective of God's grand and glorious creation. In the process, he comments on the modern sins of consumerism, overreliance on automobiles, overpopulation, and placing ourselves at the center. His illustrations of how we are creating a " managed world " that will be " even less hospitable to our religious message than the current one " are wide-ranging.

Contact Karen Boyd: kkseib@gmail.com | 314-878-1002
 

NJFM Outing: International Photography Hall of Fame & Museum; Say "Cheese!"
Friday, March 24, 2017| 11:00am | Carpool from church at 10:30am
The Not Just for Men Group will visit the International Photography Hall of Fame and Museum, Friday, March 24 at 11:00am. It is located in the Grand Center on Olive near the St. Louis University campus. Admission is $5.00 or $3.00 for seniors. 

Call Harold Cobb at 965-4147 with questions. 




Community

Sustainability Seekers & Women's International League for Peace and Freedom is sponsoring a talk called Fracking 101
T hursday, March 30, 2017 at 7:30-9:00 in the Heritage Room.  

Fracking is  the process of injecting liquid at high pressure into subterranean rocks, boreholes, etc., so as to force open existing fissures and extract oil or gas. Fracking has made the USA an exporter of oil and gas after years of having to import it and has brought down the domestic price of oil. However, research is showing that it has a poor environmental impact. Environmentalists say potentially carcinogenic chemicals used may escape and contaminate groundwater and the air around the fracking site. Fracking is causing earth tremors. Our speaker, Connie Gray, will share her experiences living near fracking sites and the impact on her family.  

Contact Joan Brannigan for more information: 314-997-7698 | joan@mac.com


Please consider speaking your faith
on issues that matter to you! Reach out to our government as they use their power and influence...Text your zip code to 520-200-2223. You'll get an immediate text back with the phone numbers of your US Senators and Representative and your State Senator and Representatives. Call them to thank them for their service and to give them a piece of your mind, heart and spirit.
 
Read our Missouri Mid-South Conference publications to find out what is happening around the Conference:



VIDEO of the Week
 
Joke 

How do you make an egg-roll? 

You push it!



Inspiration 
I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.- Nelson Mandela