Fifteenth Sunday After Pentecost    
September 22, 2019
Meeting at 500 E. Colorado Blvd.
Sunday Worship Service: 11:30 am, FUMC Chapel
Our Core Values: 
Spiritual Growth. Welcome. Justice-seeking
Reflection for Worship. . .

Luke 16:1-13

This parable is one that definitely leaves you scratching your head. It is about a property manager who is about to be fired due to his squandering of property. On one hand it seems to affirm the craftiness of the dishonest manager who does what he needs to do to secure loyalty as he is dismissed from his job. And then right after that we hear about the need to be faithful in all things big and small. Which is it? Take care of ourselves or be honest and faithful in all things? Serve God or serve wealth. I invite you to ponder that in preparation for worship on Sunday.

Hope to see you in the beautiful chapel!

-Rev. Marlene W. Pomeroy

Also on Sunday: All church members are invited to vote on the proposed Outreach Grant Guidelines this Sunday. Vice Moderator Krysty Leckrone will have a ballot for all active members at the back of the chapel after worship. Feel free to cast your ballot and then head to the Fellowship Hall where a catered lunch is waiting for all of us!! Our goal is to have a meal provided for us once a month to give us a chance to have some fellowship together while we eat. Since our worship time ends right at lunch time, we want to provide sustenance as we all sit and visit. Join us!!!

Confirmation Update: The Confirmation Class will be held this Sunday Sept. 22 nd at 3:00 in the Main Office. Our confirmands are Elle and Kamryn; their adult partners are Heather Bland and John Gamber-Thompson. Pastor Jake will be leading this class. Please keep our confirmands and partners in your prayers as they explore their faith and their understanding of the church.

Call for a Special Church Business Meeting
From our FCC Clerk Kevin Cordova-Brookey: A special Church Business Meeting will be held on Sunday Sept. 22nd following worship in the FUMC chapel at 12:30 for the purposes of approving the guidelines for our Outreach Grant Guidelines. 

  Join Us For these Fall Events! Details will be forthcoming in future Touchstones.

Wed. Sept. 25th - Friends in Deed Jazz on the Green Fund-Raiser 6-9 p.m. Details below.
Sun. Sept. 29th Youth Pool Party - 1-4 p.m. Bonzo's
Sat. Oct. 12th Aid Africa Walk for Water
Sat. Oct. 19th - Fruit Pick 10:00-11:30 a.m.
FUMC Mozart Requiem Concert 7:30pm.
Sun. Oct. 20th - Rev. Anne Cohen's Retirement Party following worship with catered luncheon.
Sun. Oct. 27th Halloween Party and lunch following worship.
Sat. Nov. 2nd - Aid Africa Fund-Raiser on-site in Fellowship Hall
Sun. Nov. 3rd Pasadena CROP Hunger Walk

Worship Leaders
Rev. Marlene W. Pomeroy
Rev. John H. Pomeroy

Liturgist  
Tara Bernard
  
Ushers
Judi Tyler
Dana Pell
Mary Camacho
Jeff Tyler


Pianist & Music Director 
Connie Washburn

Church School
Combined class for elementary & youth, Krysty Leckrone/Roberta White are teachers in Room 302. 
   
Church Nursery (for infants - K)
Kaye Jenkins & Lachlan Ashenmiller
     
This week everyone comes to the Chapel at 11:30am and stays through the Children's Time and then heads to the nursery with caregivers and parents. 

Visit us at:  uccpasadena.org

Sermon Podcast : 
  
Did you miss a worship service and want to hear the sermon? Please visit uccpasadena.org and select 'podcasts' from the menu on top of the home page or click below


Office Hours 
 Mon. - Thurs. 
9 a.m. - 5:30 p.m.

  Lunch Hours
 12:00 p.m. - 1:30 p.m.  
 
  Tel. # 626.795.0696
Fax. # 626.795.0698 

Nina Kung  


Tracking Our Out-Reach Hours - send your hours and info to Pastor Marlene

A new activity that we will be doing this Fall is tracking our outreach hours. We do a lot of outreach that goes unnoticed and unrecognized so let's do something about that. How can you help ? Anytime you engage in outreach that is FCC related, please calculate the amount of time, people and money that is spent; For example, if 4 people serve Union Station for 3 hours each, send that info to Pastor Marlene along with the amount of money you spent on food (Alpha Team please send me your September info).

Let's see how many hours, people and funds we are offering. If you are part of a group, please have the leader send me an email. If you buy a bag of supplies for the FID Food Pantry, just send me the amount you spent and how long you shopped. How many hours of outreach can we offer to those beyond us???

Outreach Grants Update
In our new world of debt-free budgets and investment income dedicated to service and outreach, the Budget Committee and Church Council considered setting aside $100,000 of 2019 income for Outreach Projects, in addition to our usual allocations for Union Station, Friends In Deed and other activities. There was considerable support for this idea at the Budget Forum but also a little reluctance to commit to a significant new program without first setting some guidelines. While the new $100,000 outreach budget line was not actually in the final budget approved at the Winter Business Meeting, the Church Council initially approved three projects in line with our mission and vision:

·       Offering five month’s direct support, with the Neighborhood Church on Orange Grove, of $1,000 a month to a woman and her four children who came from Honduras in the caravan at our border and resettled in Pasadena.
·       A $10,000 contribution to our own Women's Scholarship Fund that allowed us to offer increased scholarship amounts this year.
·       A $5,000 contribution to the Jackson Elementary Dual Language STEM Science Camp on Catalina Island that made it possible for 15 fifth grade students to attend who otherwise would have had to skip the trip due to a lack of funding.

Additional new outreach spending awaits approval of parameters and a more formal plan for awarding grants, a plan informed by our values, mission and vision and the guidelines expressed in a trust document naming the church as a beneficiary.

In May, an Outreach Grants Committee comprised of Bevin Ashenmiller, Brian Cordova-Brookey, Elizabeth Lanski, Lu Nguyen, Carolyn Olney, and Roberta White was formed. They have worked diligently to develop a process for outreach grants, establishing sources of funding and parameters for the use of those funds, defining types of grants, crafting an application and review process, setting areas of priority, selection criteria, exclusions, and assessment and oversight.

A Forum was held Sunday September 15th to share the plan for awarding grants and to answer questions about the process. This Sunday September 22nd we will vote to affirm the guidelines. Paper or E-copies are available from Nina in the church office.

Once the plan is finalized, we will solicit applications so that we may fund additional outreach projects before the close of 2019 and start soliciting 2020 grant applications.

-Elizabeth Lanski, Chair
Outreach Grants Committee

Upcoming Events for Youth
(6th - 12th grade)


Sunday Sept. 29 th Pool Party at the Bonzo’s house from 1-4:00. We will be updating you on monthly events.

Please keep Sun. Oct 6 th set aside for the
Rise Against Hunger event in the Fellowship Hall taking place from 12-2:00. We will join the Methodists and folks from the Islamic Center as we pack 27,000 meals to be used for hunger relief around the world.

Check out their website for more information about this organization


We will also plan to walk the CROP Walk and participate in Backyard Fruit Picks this Fall. More info to come!
 

Nourishing Lives

School is a Happy Place for 5-Year-Old Tra in Vietnam.
Parenting Book and Discussion on
Bless This Mess
Being a parent is an incredible journey and one that does not need to be done without support and encouragement!  

So far we have several parents interested in the book and we will gather for a discussion of it and parenting at a date in October. Please let Pastor Marlene know of your interest so she can include you in the selection of the date for the first discussion. We are looking for a house to meet in for our October meeting. Please contact Pastor Marlene if you can host.

It is written by a UCC Pastor and a Child Psychologist and has some very thoughtful insights about parenting along with a lot of stories and support. What makes it so special is that it approaches parenting from a progressive Christian perspective! We will use the book as a jumping-off point to discuss our own experiences of parenting. The cost of the book is $13.50 each.
 
Friends In Deed - Jazz on the Green


Seven FCC folks will be attending the event thanks to the generous support of the Appley Foundation.


ZenDigital
We have been working with Paulina Lainez at ZenDigital to update our social media and website. She has been posting on our Facebook and Instagram accounts a number of different postings including testimonials of members, staff bios, the history of FCC, and our podcasts just to name a few.   We would like to thank those who have written articles. The UCC has taken notice, too and are pleased that we are using their icons plus asked if they could use Kim Story’s testimonial for another publication. Please look for the postings and "like" them, comment on them or feel free to share them. Paulina has also been stream lining our website and making it more user friendly. Through this process, we are updating pictures, staff bios, access to the Women’s Scholarship application, along with information on FCC. The website should be going live in the next couple of weeks. Just a notice, that pictures that are taken at the church or on church events may be used for either the website or social media unless we hear from you that you would prefer not to. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.
-Krysty
Will you offer flowers for our worship one Sunday?

Sign up to remember/honor someone or event! The Flower Chart is located by the entrance in FUMC Chapel or you can contact Nina at the Church Office 626.795.0696 or email her at fccmonina@gmail.com . The cost is $40.
Sept. 29, Oct. 27, Nov. 24 and Dec. 1, 15, & 29 are available. Thanks to all who have already donated!

(We offer a reminder that altar flowers donation are not tax-deductible.)
CROP HUNGER WALK
November 3, 2019
Save the date! Crop Hunger Walk, Sunday November 3, St. Elizabeth of Hungary Catholic Church, 1879 N. Lake Ave., Altadena, 12 Noon registration begins, 1:30 the 5K loop walk begins.

Save the date! Recruiters Info/Materials Rally,
* New 50th anniversary materials
* Inspiration and information
*Help setting up your web page
St. Elizabeth Parish Hall
1840 N. Lake Ave., Altadena, CA
(EAST side of Lake Ave., at the school)
Jennifer Lanski: Solo Show


I would like to invite everyone to the opening of my solo show, 
"Places: Famous and Ordinary"  
at the LA Artcore Union Center for the Arts.

I will be exhibiting 71 works total from three different series.

The show runs September 5-29, 2019
Gallery hours are Thursday-Sunday 12-4 pm

La Artcore Union Center for the Arts
120 Judge John Aiso St., Los Angeles, CA 90012

(Take the Gold Line to the Little Tokyo station and walk a few blocks, or there is inexpensive parking in a lot across the street from the gallery: $1/hour for the 1st 2 hours; metered street parking is more expensive.)

-Jennifer Lanski

1. Can children come?
 Yes, as long as they are old enough to not touch the art, young enough to be unable to do so, or supervised so they won't. All the work in my show is appropriate for all ages.

2. Is there a cost to come to the gallery?
No. And no one will pressure you to buy art (think a grocery store, not a car dealership). But you can if you want to (unlike in a museum).

3. Is there a dress code?
No. Dress comfortably. I might be a little dressed up (or maybe not), but if you don't know me well, you probably won't be able to tell.
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We worship at 11:30 a.m. at the Chapel of First Methodist Church every Sunday.
We are the First Congregational Church
of Pasadena,
United Church of Christ
500 E. Colorado Blvd.,
Pasadena, CA 91101
Telephone: (626) 795-0696
OFFICE HOURS:
Mon to Thurs
9AM – 5:30PM
Lunch Hour:
12 – 1:30PM