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How to Be the Church while Social Distancing
Although we can’t meet in person for worship or other church events, we are learning how to be church away from our building. Worship continues each Sunday at 10:30 a.m., but online instead of in our sanctuary. Bible study and team meetings have gone online, too.
To join online Sunday worship:
Join Zoom Meeting
https://zoom.us/j/267383079
Meeting ID: 267 383 079
Password: 254198
One tap mobile
+12532158782, 267383079#
Dial by your location
+1 253-215-8782
Meeting ID: 267 383 079
(Find your local number: https://zoom.us/u/akLOmMhJI)
1. Once you are in the meeting, move your cursor to the bottom of your screen, where you will see a row of control icons.
2. You'll see a box that asks you to choose between a phone call or computer audio.
3. At this time, you may start video (lower left) if you wish to show your face to the other participants.
4. Please mute yourself once the worship service has begun. To mute yourself on phone, click *6. To mute computer audio, click the microphone icon in the lower left.
5. To connect by phone, dial the number (starting with 1).
6. You'll be instructed to enter the meeting ID shown in the box on your screen. Be sure to end it with the # sign.
7. You'll be instructed to enter your participant ID shown on your screen. Again, be sure to end it with the # sign.
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Giving
While we have had to cancel in-person worship services, Prospect still has expenses. To continue giving, you may set up automatic payment with your bank or mail checks to the church yourself. We also offer three ways to donate electronically:
- Go to https://www.prospectseattle.org/donate to set up electronic giving online for one-time or recurring donations;
- Download the free Give Plus Church mobile app: here for iOS and here for Android;
- Choose Give Plus, Vanco Payment Solutions;
- Select Prospect Congregational UCC;
- Create an account using your email address. (If you already have online giving set up, you can sign in using your same login information on the app.)
- Watch this video if you still have questions.
- NEW! Text-to-give to our general operating fund:
- Text 833-297-5332 and enter the amount you wish to donate: $xx or $xx.xx;
- Click the registration link and enter your payment information;
- Receive a verification text as well as an email receipt.For future giving, simply send a text to the same number with the amount you wish to give, and your donation will process automatically. (Watch this GivePlus Text video to see how easy it is to make a quick donation.)
Vanco Payment Solutions' Client Services team will also take donations over the phone: 800.675.7430.
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Minister’s Greeting
God Is Doing a New Thing
I am about to do a new thing;
now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?
I will make a way in the wilderness
and rivers in the desert. —Isaiah 43:19
Up at the sheep farm on Whidbey Island, where I am staying home and staying healthy, spring is springing forth all around us. There are apple blossoms, baby lambs, and birds building nests. After a winter of eating stored hay and alfalfa, the sheep find the new green grass juicy and sweet. They are especially enjoying the bluebells that grow right outside their pasture. (I’m not sure the bluebells are big fans of all this attention.)
Even as spring unfolds in the usual way around us, we humans are experiencing it mostly by looking out the window as we stay home to avoid spreading the COVID-19 coronavirus. This virus has upended all the usual ways we live, all the routines, any impression of standing on solid ground.
Many of us may have more time than usual to reflect on these changes. We recognize that when we emerge from this time of isolation, we will not be the same, either as individuals or as a society. And this time of enforced isolation and immobility may be pointing out old, unjust ways of doing things and opportunities to make something new happen instead. As God says in Isaiah 43, there are new things springing forth, if we but take the time to see them.
Here are some of the ideas I see springing forth in this time of pandemic:
- Health care: If everyone can get this virus, then for the health of everyone we can’t afford to deny health care to anyone. Even people experiencing homelessness and unemployment.
- Pollution: The air has gotten cleaner since we all stopped driving and flying. The Himalayas are more visible than they have been in years. How do we say, “We want more of this?” even when it’s possible to get back in our cars?
- Crime: Most crime went down, but domestic violence went up. It remains to be seen whether divorce and birth rates will spike as we emerge from this time of isolation.
- Food systems: Our food distribution systems are not flexible. Farmers are forced to dump milk and plow under ripe fields because they sell in bulk to schools, restaurants, airlines, etc. Meanwhile, grocery shelves are bare.
- Immigrant and migrant labor justice: Undocumented farm workers, who are always being told that they’re not wanted, are suddenly recognized as essential. They are still not paid well or given adequate means to maintain social isolation. But if we all want to keep eating, we need these workers, and we need them healthy.
- Immigrant and prison justice: Immigrants in detention centers and people in prisons are being held too close to each other. In some cases, more for the sake of health than justice, some are being released. What if we could be this compassionate all the time?
- Climate change: In the midst of this virus, tornadoes have torn across the South, wreaking even more havoc. Whidbey Island has already experienced small brush fires that don’t usually start until late May or June. How can we take what we’re learning from this virus pandemic and use it to mobilize people to deal with climate change, which unfolds at a much slower pace but is an even more dire emergency?
In all this instability, with reality changing under our feet, plenty of new things are springing forth. Do we perceive them? How is God preparing us for something new?
Let us keep listening and watching for God’s new thing. Let us keep our hearts open and supple, ready for new ideas, looking for opportunities in the midst of hardship. And may we never lose sight of God in and all around us. Other ground may shift beneath us. God is always with us—that does not change.
Blessings,
Meighan
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The office will be (even more) closed for Karen's vacation. Tuesday and Friday emails will be scheduled in advance to go out at the usual times. Voice mail will be checked periodically for urgent pastoral care needs. Other messages will be handled when Karen returns to work Tuesday, May 19.
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Stewardship Sunday
May 17
How does our church do what we do? There are so many ways, as many ways as there are members and friends of Prospect. It takes all of us to do what we are called to do, and it takes all “humility, gentleness and patience, bearing with one another in love” to make our church a place where we can be equipped for the work of ministry.
Financial support is one of those ways. Please complete and return your pledge form by May 17, or send an email with the amount and frequency of your pledge. If you are able, please consider increasing what you pledged last year. If you have not pledged before, please know that even small regular gifts are important and appreciated.
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Masks
Cora Trujillo is sewing cloth masks. If you need one contact her at trujcs1@gmail.com. Mailing isn't working so well so pick up or drop off would need to be arranged. She is accepting donations of cotton T-shirts: when cut up they make excellent ties.
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Applications are now being accepted for grants from the Weter-Roberts Endowment Fund. Application Deadline is May 1, 2020. The purpose of the Weter-Roberts Fund is to enhance the work of the church and to perpetuate the values of Christian Life through:
1. Support of educational programs in our church and wider community.
2 .Mission services in the local and world community.
3. Scholarship aid to members and friends of Prospect Church.
More information and application guidelines can be obtained from the church office or any member of the Weter-Roberts Board, or apply online here.
The members of the Weter-Roberts Board are:
Cora Trujillo, chair
Robin Russell
Suzanne Fry
Patsy Severson
Jack Force
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April 19, 2020 Online
Present: Adam Dahl, Terri Dowling, Suzanne Fry, Jan Kinney, Louise Morehead, Meighan Pritchard, Patsy Severson
Discussion about people to keep in prayer
March meeting minutes were approved.
Accepted today’s agenda, with the following additions:
- Prospect Enrichment Preschool (PEP)
- Small groups
- Worship sharing proposal from Conference
Accepted Office Manager’s report as written—no questions or comments
Budget, and congregational meeting (4/19/2020, post-church). Discussion on suggestion* from meeting that we draw on Osgood for just as much as we need to cover any shortfall for June (note that we can cover April and May payroll and utilities with completed pledges and extra gifts from members). This would require a congregational meeting with two weeks’ notice. It’s challenging to plan for this because June’s shortfall is uncertain. We currently have $24,000 in Umpqua account. There are quarterly bills due July 1, but Patsy suggests paying them late. We may not know what the shortfall is until well into May, and we would give congregation two weeks’ notice in May. Transferring money from Osgood to Umpqua would take less than a week.
(*Other suggestions included applying for a Small Business loan, and asking the congregation for more.)
There is a $2100 line item in the SEJ Team’s budget (originally for an intern), but it probably won’t be used by June 20 and may consequently disappear from the budget. Can we search the 2019-2020 budget for similar line items that haven’t been fully spent this year, to help narrow the shortfall? Patsy volunteered. She’ll make a list in the interest of transparency, to give to the congregation.
We may want to offer cut-rate rentals as people regain confidence about renting again, through Peerspace.
Patsy suggests we get in line at Umpqua in case there’s another round of forgivable Small Business Loans (contingent on retaining and paying all employees). She suggested we start the application process—unanimous approval.
Results of our pledge calls: Adam reports that four of the six callers did NOT like their jobs—it was uncomfortable and awkward to frame the calls as both a welfare check-in and a financial request (and the two who didn’t report that discomfort also felt it). Consensus was that we should NOT make further stewardship calls other than calls to those who don’t respond to the stewardship campaign (which is in progress now).
Patsy suggest we re-send the pledge statements with corrected and updated information, as a reminder and incentive to pledge for 2020-21. Content of cover letter is undecided as yet.
Coronavirus conversation
From our phone calls, we are not aware of COVID-19 cases in our midst, but we do have members who are experiencing wage insecurity. Could the church set up a fund to help those folks? Could we gather information about applying for government funds, to help them? We could put it on our website.
Small groups: There are some challenges in connecting with members of small groups. Some are not responding to calls or emails. Some questions about how they are supposed to work: should we designate a facilitator by the week, or give groups a discussion topic? Who is supposed to call whom? Are we supposed to call everybody every week? Some people are well-supported by friends or relatives, others are not.
Feedback indicates that we need to be more explicit about expectations. Purpose is mainly staying in touch, keeping a conversation open about how people are coping.
Worship-sharing email from Courtney Stange-Tregear from the Conference, inviting congregations to join together (groups of four congregations) to plan and offer worship services, to take the onus off individual worship leaders. Could happen as often as weekly, or less. Enables idea-sharing and deepening relationship, and experience of different worship styles.
Is there the possibility that we might lose our inter-Prospect relationships? Kia and her store of music are a pivot of familiarity in a strange world. Jerry and Brian have learned a huge amount about Zoom. We have it down pretty smoothly now. Still, do we want to help take the burden off the tech people? We come to Prospect to be fed—would we find that nurturance in other churches?
Do we have the energy to encounter and approach new people at a time when we need the comfort of familiarity?
Side issue: Might we do a Prospect hang-out on a week night, to talk about prayer issues, concerns, casual comments—would that feed us in the way “coffee hour” does now?
Consensus is not positive about joining worship with other churches.
Building Access Committee: “Dead in the water.” Waiting for Governor’s decision to ease self-isolation. BAC hasn’t been meeting, because there’s nothing to meet about. We do have one tenant who is using the space and paying rent (northwest office of the third floor).
Pastor’s report: Meighan is staying on the island, well stocked.
Sabbatical committee met this week to work on the application. It’s about 80% done.
PEP: Terri expressed concern about the ongoing viability of the Preschool, given financial challenges, under-enrollment, and now COVID-19. The auction, which is its biggest fundraiser, has been postponed to October.
Terri will contact Donna Guna, the Preschool director, about coming to the next CB meeting, to provide a status report.
Patsy suggests they apply for a Small Business Loan (forgivable).
- Agenda for May meeting—May 17
- Discussion of/with PEP
- 2020-21 budget
- Readerboard needs to get rid of the “Worship at 10:30” notice, or replace with “Worship online at 10:30.” Suzanne will replace the rather tattered rainbow banner.
- Closing prayer
Submitted by Jan Kinney
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Great Courses DVDs for Borrowing
These days many of us have a good bit of time on their hands. The stay-at-home order has some of us going stir crazy, in fact. We wish for something to occupy our time. Over the years I have collected a number of courses on various subjects from a company called The Great Courses. They are on DVD, and are presented by some excellent instructors. Some of you have had an introduction to the courses when we studied the Old Testament and New Testament in the parlor after church. I have developed a catalog of the courses, and if any of you wish to take advantage of them, I will be glad to get them to you.
Bill Van Pelt
CATALOG OF COURSES
1. Mythos I, Mythos II, Joseph Campbell
2. The Power of Myth, Joseph Campbell with Bill Moyers
3. Paul - An Appealing or Appalling Apostle, John Dominic Crossan
4. Classical Mythology: 24 30 Minute Lectures
Prof Elizabeth Vandeventer, Univ of Maryland
5. Questions of Value: 24 30 Min Lectures
Prof Patrick Grim, Univ of New York
6. Great World Religions: 12 30 Min Lectures Each
J Judaism- Prof Isaih Gafni, Hebrew University
I Islam - Prof Joseph Esposito, Georgetown Univ.
B Buddhism - Prof Daniel Eckel, Boston Univ A/B
C Christianity - Prof Luke Timothy Johnson, Emory Univ
H Hinduism - Prof Mark Messer, Rhodes College
7. The Old Testament: 24 30 Minute Lectures A/B
Prof Amy Jill Levine, Vanderbilt Univ.
8. The New Testament: 24 30 Minute Lectures
Prof Bart Ehrman, Univ of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
9. The Lost Christianities and the Battle for Authentication A/B
24 30 Minute Lectures, Prof Bart Ehrman, Univ of NC
10. The Historical Jesus: 24 30 Min Lectures A,B
Prof Bart Ehrman, Univ of North Carolina
11. From Jesus to Constantine; 24 30 Minute Lectures A/B
Prof Bart Ehrman, Univ. Of North Carolina
12. The History of the Bible, the Making of the New Testament Canon: 12 30 Minute Lectures, Prof Bart Ehrman
13. After the New Testament - The Writings of the Apostolic Fathers: 24 30 Minute Lectures, Prof Bart Ehrman
14. The History of Christian Theology
Prof Philip Cary, Eastern University
15 The Greatest Controversies of Christian History: 24 30 Min Lectures, Prof Bart Ehrman, Univ of North Carolina
16 The Fall of the Pagans and the Rise of Medieval Christianity: 24 30 Min Lectures, Prof Kenneth Harl, Tulane Univ
17. The History of Christianity in the Reformation Era: 36 30 Minute Lectures, Prof Brad Gregory, Stanford Univ.
18 Popes and the Papacy- A History: 24 30 Min Lectures Prof Thomas F X Noble, Notre Dame
19. Philosophy of Religion: 36 30 Minute Lectures
Prof James Hall, Univ of Richmond
20. Science and Religion; 12 30 Minute Lectures A/B Prof. Lawrence Principe, Johns Hopkins Univ
21. The Darwinian Revolution: 24 30 minute Lectures Prof Frederick Gregory, Univ of Florida
22. Conquest of the Americas: 24 30 Minute Lectures Prof Marshall Eakin, Vanderbilt Univ
23. The Joy of Science: 60 30 Minute Lectures
Prof Robert Hazen, George Mason Univ.
24. The History of the English Language: 36 30 Minute Lectures Prof Seth Lehrer, Stanford University
25. A History of European Art: 48 30 Minute Lectures Prof William Kloss, Smithsonian Institute
26. Understanding the Human Body: 32 45 Minute Lectures Prof Anthony Goodman, MD, .Facs, Montana State
27. How to Listen to and Understand Opera: 32 45 Minute Lectures Prof Robert Greenberg, San Francisco Conservatory
28. Medical School for Everyone: Emergency Medicine 24 30 Minute Lectures, Dr. Roy Benaroch, Emory Univ School of Medicine
29. The Other 1492 - Ferdinand, Isabella, and the Making of an Empire: 12 30 Minute Lectures, Prof Teofelio Ruiz, Univ of Cal, La
30. The Joy of Mathematics: 24 30 Minute Lectures
Prof Arthur Benjamin, Harvey Mudd College
31. The Odyssey of Homer: 12 30 Minute Lectures
Prof Elizabeth Vandeventer, Univ of Maryland
32. The Iliad of Homer: 12 30 Minute Lectures
Prof Elizabeth Vandeventer, Univ of Maryland
33. The Life and Operas of Verdi: 32 45 Minute Lectures Prof Robert Greenberg, San Francisco Conservatory
34. The Nature of Earth - An Introduction to Geology: 36 30 Minute Lectures, Prof John Renton, W Virginia U.
35. My Favorite Universe: 12 30 Minute Lectures
Neil Degrasse Tyson, Haydon Planetarium
36. Woodworking 101: 15 Lectures Of Various Length George Vondriska, Woodworkers Guild of America
37. The Everyday Gourmet - Rediscovering the Lost Art of Cooking: 24 30 Minute Lectures, Chef Bill Briwa, Culinary Institute
38. The Everyday Gourmet - Making Healthy Food Taste Great: 6 30 Minute Lectures, Chef Bill Briwa, Culinary Institute
39. The Everyday Gourmet - Baking Pastries and Desserts Chef Stephen Durfree, Culinary Institute
40. The Early Middle Ages, 300 -1000 AD: 24 30 Minute Lectures Philip Daileader, Prof of History, College of Wm and Mary
41. The High Middle Ages, 1000 – 1300: 24 30 Minute Lectures Philip Daileader, Prof of History, College of Wm and Mary
42. The Late Middle Ages, 1300 – 1500: 24 30 Minute Lectures Philip Daileader, Prof of History, College of Wm and Mary
43. Oceanography: Exploring Earth’s Final Wilderness: 36 30 Minute Lectures, Prof Harold Tobin, Univ of Wisconsin
44. Why Evil Exists; 36 30 Minute Lectures
Prof Charles Matthews, Univ of Virginia
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Save the Date: Church Camping Trip July 27-29
 The Prospect Church summer Camp trip has been scheduled for Monday, July 27 through Wednesday, July 29, 2020. There is no cost to campers, check in is after 2:30 pm, Monday, check out is after 1:00 pm Wednesday. For further information contact Bill Van Pelt, 206-356-4986.
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Ongoing Groups
Beyond Belief Faith Study is on hiatus until we can resume in-person meetings. Rick Russell facilitates.
Beyond Fundamentalism Book Group meets monthly at the home of Jim & Mary Alice Power, 1107 22nd Ave E.
Bible Study meets most Mondays online to study the lectionary texts for the coming Sunday. All are welcome; weekly attendance is not required
Godly Play Sunday school is offered for children ages 3-10 during the worship service once a month, usually on the second Sunday. It will not be offered while we are not meeting in person, but Cora Trujillo is preparing video to share with our Sunday school families. Please contact Cora Trujillo with questions: trujcs1@gmail.com or 206-330-4201.
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Pacific Northwest Conference News
The Spring 2020 issue of the Conference UCNews is now online at https://www.pncuccnews.org with information on:
• The Conference's and congregations' response in this time of COVID-19
• How camps are gearing up - and some regular camp stories.
• Lenten story sharing facilitated by Courtney Stange-Tregear
• Plans to cancel the in-person Annual Meeting and emerging plans for live streaming some parts|
• An introduction to the PNC's upcoming moderator, Hillary Coleman
• The success of the Climate Change Task Force out of the Fall Gathering
• Lora Rathbone educating Richland's Shalom UCC on environmental justice
• Andy and Jim CastroLang bringing a UCC justice witness to Spokane City Council.
• Magnolia UCC's second Community in Service Sunday
• Pilgrim Firs' gift to update South Lodge and the couple giving funds
• N-Sid-Sen's need to replace cabin 8
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I hope that this message finds you in good health and high spirits. April was a quiet month for our preschool classroom, as there were no little voices filling the program with delight and laughter. And sadly, it looks as though our doors will remain closed through May and for the rest of the school year since the announcement was made that public school students will remain at home until next fall. But, there is always a silver lining! These unprecedented times have challenged us to approach situations with creativity and innovation to adjust our routines and daily lives to the new normal. Since the children are not able to come to us for school we have found a way to take the school to them! We have started a remote learning program that parents can access online, through our website. It provides daily activities that parents can easily do with their children that promotes their development and growth at home. Our Family Resource webpage also has a ton of useful information, everything from virtual fieldtrips to COVID-19 response community services. We are also delivering supply packages to families with all the basic materials we would use in the classroom to complete activities and projects. The program is also continuing to provide all our families with personal family support services. Our mission is to provide education and support for all those in need, and our families are in need now more than ever. We will continue to meet our goals, and help our families and community any way we can. Together, we will make it through this.
In auction news, we have decided that having a May event, even if allowed, would not be prudent. We are hopeful that we will be returning to some sense of normalcy by this fall and have postponed the Auction to mid-October. Should a fall event become unlikely, we will keep you up to date with any decisions made.
Preschool News at a Glance:
 56th Anniversary Celebration & Annual Auction
When: October 17, 2020 at 6:00 PM (tentatively)
Where: Mount Baker Community Club
Cost: $100 general public, $75 church members
Sincerely,
Donna Guna
Director, Prospect Enrichment Preschool
pepseattle@gmail.com 206-324-5230
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Ignatian Spirituality Center
May Events
The First Spiritual Exercises
Inner Peace in the Service of God
5 Mondays, May 4 - June 1, 2020
6:45 - 8:15 pm
Online via Zoom
Matt Barmore, Retreat Giver
In his radically innovative book The First Spiritual Exercises, Australian Jesuit retreat director Michael Hansen, SJ, presents four different retreats on inner peace. These retreats combine spiritual conversation and spiritual exercises akin to the form of the spiritual exercises thought to be given by Ignatius and the early Jesuits to anyone of good will. The core of this particular retreat, “Inner Peace in Service to God,” is praying the Beatitudes, gifts of the Spirit, works of mercy and more, in a way that draws naturally on our own experience of these gifts in our lives. We are encouraged to ask for the grace we most need now.
Each four-week retreat in daily life involves a commitment to 40-50 minutes a day of structured prayer from Monday to Thursday and a weekend exercise. Retreatants meet via Zoom weekly during the retreat to receive guidance from Matt Barmore (retreat giver) and to share their experience in small group spiritual conversation with facilitators. Come and experience this journey into a more fruitful service!
Please spread the word to anyone you know, near or far, who might be interested in joining you for this online retreat!
Cost
- Standard Program Fee: $55
- Young Adult (20’s and 30’s) Program Fee: $40
Registration Link: https://www.ignatiancenter.org/the-first-spiritual-exercises
The cost of the program does not include the required book. To participate, please purchase The First Spiritual Exercises: Four Guided Retreats by Michael Hansen, S.J. (Ave Maria Press or other outlets) to arrive at your home by May 4th. If you have any issues finding or ordering this book, email us at info@ignatiancenter.org.
Partial scholarships available.
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You can now manage your giving to Prospect UCC online. You can set up one-time or recurring contributions and review your online giving history anywhere you have access to the internet. Follow these easy steps:
- Go to https://www.prospectseattle.org/donate to set up electronic giving online for one-time or recurring donations;
- Download the free Give Plus Church mobile app: here for iOS and here for Android;
- Choose Give Plus, Vanco Payment Solutions;
- Select Prospect Congregational UCC;
- Create an account using your email address. (If you already have online giving set up, you can sign in using your same login information on the app.)
- Watch this video if you still have questions.
- NEW! Text-to-give to our general operating fund:
- Text 833-297-5332 and enter the amount you wish to donate: $xx or $xx.xx;
- Click the registration link and enter your payment information;
- Receive a verification text as well as an email receipt.For future giving, simply send a text to the same number with the amount you wish to give, and your donation will process automatically. (Watch this GivePlus Text video to see how easy it is to make a quick donation.)
Vanco Payment Solutions' Client Services team will also take donations over the phone: 800.675.7430.
We have obtained a mobile credit card reader so we can receive credit/debit card donations on Sunday mornings and at special events. It is being rolled out gradually, so may not be available every Sunday.
If you give to Prospect through the web-based donation page or mobile app but still wish to participate in the Sunday morning offering, you are invited to give a token cash gift or place an “Electronic Giving” card in the offering plate. These cards are found in the pew rack.
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