Weekly Word | November 12, 2021 | Issue 15

A celebration of life for Marilyn Murphy will be held at Prescott Valley Christian Church at 7655 Long Look Drive (across Windsong from Emmanuel) tomorrow, November 13, at 2:00 p.m. Marilyn died at home under hospice care on Tuesday, November 2.

A Memorial Moment for Marilyn will be offered during worship at Emmanuel in the near future as well as for Ron Kovara who died in Phoenix on Saturday, October 30.

One way that you can help is pictures. We need pictures of people doing church activities. So if you are attending worship or Bible Study or playing handbells or meeting with the quilters or helping with the Interfaith Meal…take a picture and send it to the church! If you have a smartphone you can email your pictures to the office at emmanuelelca@gmail.com. We want to share with folks the personality and character of our church: giving, loving and learning!

You may have noticed all the Angel Tree gift tags for the Navajo Lutheran Mission have been taken. That is two gifts each for all of the 39 children at the school! New underwear will be purchased for each student using a Thrivent Action Team card. Please get your wrapped gifts into the church narthex by November 28. If you didn’t get a chance to grab an Angel gift tag for this go around, don’t despair, we will also be hosting Christmas for three families from a local school. Look for a signup sheet and information about how you can help, coming soon!

Jim Rebholz, council liaison for the Fellowship Ministry Team, is hosting a meeting of the Fellowship team on Wednesday, November 17 at 7:00 p.m. During the pandemic, we have not been able to hold our traditional fellowship time between services, and the team would like to gather together any folks who might have some ideas about how we can bring our congregation together socially and safely!

Please put on your thinking caps and come to the meeting! Even if you don’t have any ideas currently, our discussion may spark an idea. An email invitation has been sent out to all the people who have food handler’s certificates on file, but everyone is welcome to attend. If you can let Jim know you are coming, that would be helpful, please email him at Jimrebholz@yahoo.com.

After a year of Covid and the pride festivities on Zoom, the gay pride event was in full force once again. My spouse (of almost 40 years) and I safely enjoyed the “40 Years of Fortitude” gay pride parade last weekend. It was a moving experience to see people like us everywhere, from the start of the parade with roaring Harley Davidsons to the marching band and chorus and ending with fathers with children on their shoulders.

For two hours businesses, educational institutions, TV anchors, politicians, sanitation companies, and city governments marched to support their LGBTQ+ communities in solidarity. Amidst demonstrators calling us names and promising hell, it was apparent this parade crowd of over 10,000 did not strike back with hate but reflected tolerance. The cheering of the supporters of gay people eventually drowned out the promoters of hate and threats of death by God’s hand.

It is often lonely to live, worship and work in our community as a gay family. This experience was moving and we made friends and shared life stories all along the parade route, including a Prescott lesbian couple with eight children. We made other friends from Iowa and Phoenix while on the Light Rail and waiting in lines. It was hopeful to see at least four church bodies participating, including the Episcopal and United Church of Christ from around Arizona. Wouldn’t it be great if we gay families could feel this kind of solidarity in the Prescott area more! Our church is one possible supporter for them if we remain visible.

Interfaith Climate Action Team

Gary and Jean Kiser

In 2015 the Paris Climate Accord—an international treaty on climate change—was adopted by over 190 countries and entered into force in 2016. Its goal is to limit global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius, recognizing that this would have a significant impact on climate change. This was an historical moment: so many countries could agree on one program; combat climate change. ...

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Click here to read the Caregiver Support Group article

included in last week's newsletter

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Just like we did in the monthly newsletter before the pandemic, if you have anything to contribute to our weekly newsletter, please send it in so we can share what's going on with each other! Email your submissions to Kimberly at ELCPVnews@gmail.com (or click on the email link, or simply reply to this email!) by Wednesday afternoon to be included in the Friday email.