What a great Sunday we had last week! About 35 people attended the special adult forum on “Five Lies Christians Tell about Mental Illness” led by Rev. Dr. Sarah Griffith Lund, Rev. Jerene Broadway, and Paulette Heck (from NAMI). Many personal stories, testimonies, and confessions were shared which always leads to new insights and new friendships. Sarah preached a powerful sermon on Judas and suicide, and over 70 people came to the Lunch and Learn” session after worship! Obviously there is tremendous interest in the issue of Mental Wellness and in how we can help each other and our neighbors achieve healing from diseases that also often stigmatize and isolate. Has the time come for FCUCC to start a Mental Health Ministry? Are you interested in being part of such a team?
Sarah shared 10 steps for developing a Mental Health Ministry (which can be found with more details in the back of her book, Blessed Are the Crazy):
1. Make a commitment—this will be a long-term project, and may involve a lot of time, but even if there are only “two or three,” we know that a lot of ministry can happen!
2. Educate yourself—NAMI has lots of materials and trainings. Sarah recommends their “Family-to-Family” and “Peer-to-Peer” classes.
3. Get buy-in from your clergy and staff—At FCUCC that means be in touch with Yolanda Adams! She will help give you the support and guidance you need to get a ministry started.
4. Form a task force or ministry team (see above)
5. Decide with your team what you want to offer/accomplish—Who do you want to serve/include? How? By offering support groups? Creating a resource center? Hosting/leading educational workshops? Do you want to include just the major mental illnesses, or other brain differences, such as addictions, brain injuries, dementia, autism, etc.?
6. Define strategies for keeping the congregation involved.
7. Make an inventory of available resources in the congregation, the community and on line.
8. Join with other organizations, perhaps creating an interfaith network on mental illness.
9. Communicate
10. Be prepared to nurture you ministry—“Creating a successful Mental Health Ministry takes more than passion. It also takes persistence.”
If you are interested in helping get a ministry started, please be in touch with Yolanda by phone (828-279-4899) or email (ministry@uccasheville.org). This has the potential to be a powerful outreach in our congregation and the wider community!
On a personal note: This week we learned that our two-month-old granddaughter, Grey, has a cancerous tumor in her left eye, and maybe also a tiny one in her right eye. It’s a condition known as Retinoblastoma. She has had a thorough exam and MRI at the Children’s Hospital in Denver and will be starting chemotherapy soon. Please keep her and her parents and grandparents in your prayers.
A word from the Governing Board: We want the congregation to know that we continue to respond to concerns that have been raised by the congregation in the past several months. At our March meeting we passed a new Alcohol Policy. In short it says that for our church to provide a safe and welcoming environment for all, including people in recovery, "Alcohol of any kind will NOT be served at church sanctioned events taking place on FCUCC property, with the exception of wine at communion." Wine and beer may be served in Friendship Hall by those who are renting the space, recognizing that all laws and statutes governing the serving of alcoholic beverages are observed. You may read the Policy at this link.
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Dear Friends,
It seems that Summer is here and the flip flops and shorts and being pulled from the closets.
What a wonderful weekend of learning in community it was. I had the pleasure of hearing the Rev. Dr. John C. Dorhauer, the General Minister and President of the United Church of Christ. The dynamic preacher and teacher spoke on “White Privilege and Racial Justice”. He said many sobering yet hopeful things. The quote that resonates with me from the workshop is “When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.” ― Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship
Doing the right thing is not always the easy thing is it? Maybe we can help each other in community to try to do what is right for and to everyone without bias.
I would also like to thank everyone who attended all or part of the programs of Mental Health Sunday. Rev. Dr. Sarah Lund was just enthusiastic and engaging and we were fortunate to have Paulette Heck and Rev. Jerene Broadway here to give us vital information and help us to further understand the resources available to us.
Thanks for all the help in setting up and cleaning up the Friendship Hall. Thanks for being a welcoming and inviting congregation.
I will not be in the office next week, so there will not be a message from me in the newsletter. See you on Youth Sunday, May 8th and of course I will see you this Sunday. Behave y’all – Yolanda
DEACONS OF THE MONTH AND THEIR INFORMATION:
This month the Deacons of the Month are Terry Kaeser and Carol Duin. They will be available at the doors to greet you and help with the handicap door and lift. The Deacons help with pastoral care to ALL the congregation, so please do not hesitate to call on any Deacon if you need them. The Deacons do keep in communication with an alphabetical listing of our congregation especially in the times of inclement weather and cancelled worship services.
Contact information for the Deacons of the Month:
Terry Kaeser: 618.889.9082 (cell)
Carol Duin: 828.254.4068 or scduin@gmail.com
Here is how the list is divided:
A - B Randall Bowman
C - D Mary Ann Brackett
E - F - G Carol Duin
H - I Julie Everett and Terry Kaeser
J - K Matt Graham
L - M Mary Kancevitch
N - Q Bev Reddick
R - Smith Sharon Stepp
Spencer - T Jacque Wuelling
U - Z Beaver Wyatt
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Youth Sunday is approaching fast and the teenagers have been working hard to bring you something completely unique. So don't forget that Sunday, May 8th is Youth Sunday.
The youth group will meet this Sunday night, from 5:30 to 7:00 in the youth tower.
Remember, it's not too late to register for Wild Goose Fest. Wild Goose Fest is open to upcoming 6th graders through finishing 12th graders. It is such a blast and we'd love to have more people join us!
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Acts 11:1-18 (NRSV)
Peter’s Report to the Church at Jerusalem
11 Now the apostles and the believers[a] who were in Judea heard that the Gentiles had also accepted the word of God.2 So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers[b] criticized him, 3 saying, “Why did you go to uncircumcised men and eat with them?” 4 Then Peter began to explain it to them, step by step, saying, 5 “I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision. There was something like a large sheet coming down from heaven, being lowered by its four corners; and it came close to me.6 As I looked at it closely I saw four-footed animals, beasts of prey, reptiles, and birds of the air. 7 I also heard a voice saying to me, ‘Get up, Peter; kill and eat.’ 8 But I replied, ‘By no means, Lord; for nothing profane or unclean has ever entered my mouth.’ 9 But a second time the voice answered from heaven, ‘What God has made clean, you must not call profane.’ 10 This happened three times; then everything was pulled up again to heaven. 11 At that very moment three men, sent to me from Caesarea, arrived at the house where we were. 12 The Spirit told me to go with them and not to make a distinction between them and us.[c] These six brothers also accompanied me, and we entered the man’s house. 13 He told us how he had seen the angel standing in his house and saying, ‘Send to Joppa and bring Simon, who is called Peter; 14 he will give you a message by which you and your entire household will be saved.’ 15 And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them just as it had upon us at the beginning. 16 And I remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said, ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ 17 If then God gave them the same gift that he gave us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could hinder God?”18 When they heard this, they were silenced. And they praised God, saying, “Then God has given even to the Gentiles the repentance that leads to life.”
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NOAA recently reported March was the 11th straight month with record warmth. Significantly, March's average global temperature was 2.20 degrees above last century’s average and 0.58 degrees warmer than March 2015.
Conservation measures in US have recently reduced the amount of “dirty” coal burned and increased solar and other renewable energy methods. But the fracking boom — the source of most natural gas now replacing coal — has a troublesome consequence: methane. Methane is a principal component in natural gas. When methane enters the atmosphere unburned, due to leaky fracking processes, methane produces up to ten times stronger warming effect than carbon dioxide (from dirty coal).
Take action by lobbying for renewable solar, wind and hydro energy sources and taking a stand against poorly-regulated fracking!
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Stirrings from Stir The Soul Center:
Stirrings among the Stacks: The Library shelves have been neglected these past few months, so anyone interested in helping us get back up to speed, come for fellowship and a bit of dusting. We always manage to have fun and still accomplish something. See you at Wednesdays at 2:00!
We have our own BLOG. Because there is always something to share at odd times of the week, and our e-newsletter needs to be kept brief, Stirthesoulcafe.wordpress.com has been created to inform, engage, and encourage us along our own spiritual journeys. It is hoped that an on-line community of souls will follow and contribute. Please check it out. The link will be here and on the website for access. But please be patient with the administrator - she is not too good at this 'new' stuff! But it will be fun.
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Karen Richardson Dunn is an ordained minister with the Southern Conference of the United Church of Christ and a member of First Congregational UCC/Asheville. She has served in parish ministry on Edisto Island, SC, Winston-Salem, NC, Northumberland, England, and most recently at Warren Wilson College Chapel/Presbyterian Church. Karen is an environmental activist with Creation Care Alliance of WNC and is in the process of creating an environmental-ministries justice network for the UCC's Southern Conference. She lives in Asheville with her two sons. 
