The Southwest Conference is pleased to offer Best Skills Best Churches (BSBC/UCC), a certificate program offered in partnership with ASU Lodestar Center for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Innovation. The program is also open to MIDs, clergy, and lay leaders! Applications are being accepted online for the September cohort of 30 participants. The program is also open to MIDs, clergy, and lay leaders!

The program begins in September and will meet by zoom. BSBC meets continuing clergy education requirements for standing. Generous financial assistance is available through United Church Fund's Brown Endowment and the SWC for SWC members.

Click here for more information and to apply.

by Rev. Deb Worley

“You’re the coolest minister I’ve ever met.” 

So said the tattoo artist who gave me my first ever tattoo, just a few weeks ago, at Talisman BodyArt in Santa Fe. To honor the struggle she and we have been through in the past eighteen months, and the progress she has made, and the commitment we both have to her full recovery, Sarah had invited me to join her in getting a tattoo that she had designed, based on the logo for NEDA, the National Eating Disorders Association. 

In spite of my very real fear that the pain would be excruciating and I would not be able to keep myself from screaming, sobbing, passing out, or otherwise completely embarrassing myself, I took a deep breath and agreed. Truth be told, I felt honored by her invitation. And besides, on the verge of turning the ripe old age of 52, I decided it was high time I got my first tattoo! 
 

I went first—knowing that if I watched Sarah get hers, I might very well bolt, never to return again, and I really did want to do this. Jordan, the tattoo artist, was a lovely young woman who, as it turned out, had grown up in Los Alamos. She had been doing tattoos for several years and, when she found out she would be giving me my first one, quickly and graciously put me at ease.  

When she was ready to start the actual tattooing, she told me she would do one small section and then check in with me to see how I was doing. I had, of course, shared my fear and dread with her! I told her I was ready, and looked away, looking instead at Sarah, who was sitting on the other side of me. She smiled at me, and I smiled back, putting on a brave face and bracing myself for the pain. And then Jordan began. 

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Attention churches: If you’d like a separate article about your news to appear on the website and The Loop, please submit it to Wende by Thursday at noon to have it included in the following Monday’s Loop.

Holly Herman reads your church newsletters and compiles the highlights to keep us up-to-date on the amazing work happening at the Southwest Conference churches. (Thanks, Holly!)
 

Kudos to the team that creatively tweaked the typical UCC greeting. UCCers will note a creative take on the logo as well. The segments of the 'comma' are embossed with 'love', 'care', 'share', and 'serve'--the four corners of Desert Garden's mission statement.

"Being a member of First Church and volunteering to welcome asylum seekers (at the Phoenix Welcome Center) and other initiatives of Light to the World has taught me something about Jesus and helping people. What I mean is, for me, for a long time, and also I think for many Christians, what Jesus taught about caring for the poor, loving your neighbor, and welcoming the stranger, sounds wonderful in theory, but in practice is challenging because the poor will be with us always (he said), and also because you can’t help everyone. Maybe true. Maybe. But I found that sometimes we can help the person in front of us right now, today. We can give a thirsty visitor a bottle of water. We can feed a hungry stranger who is on a long journey down a difficult path. We can ask people to donate small stuffed toys to give to children who aren’t sure where home even is, then see the smile of a child who maybe hasn’t smiled in days when they get the toy. We can arrange for people who haven’t showered in days to take a shower. We can serve people a hot meal of familiar food from a nice restaurant. We can sometimes help families who have nowhere else to stay by giving them a place to live for a short time until they can arrange for their next home. We can serve as support for COVID testing, hygiene kits, clean clothing and shoes, and so much more.

We can even just show human kindness to someone who might be wondering at that moment if there’s any human kindness left in the world."

Being a member of First Church and volunteering to welcome asylum seekers has shown me that sometimes helping the person standing in front of me now actually does help everyone. A spark of compassion for the person standing in front of you now, today, brings light into the whole world. A word or gesture of liberation for someone just out of detention is a sacred expression of something greater than any one of can achieve alone.

To experience the moment when people from detention are told that they are free now is to see the light of the Spirit touch their faces. The bottle of water and the snack we hand to them in that moment is small but meaningful spark of compassion that may just change lives and give hope. To experience the moment when people from detention are told that now they are free to go feels like standing on holy ground. Once you feel that and understand it, it starts to become clear that all this ground, all around, is holy, and change is possible, and gets started just by helping the one person standing in front of you now.” --Stu Selthun, Assistant Moderator Light to the World
 

And as a follow up to that, an article from Rev Rich Doerrer-Peacock:

My Experience at the Welcome Center  (as of June 2021)

Holly Herman invited me to consider volunteering at the Welcome Center in Phoenix.  I’ve always liked the idea of being a greeter at Wal-Mart.   So the idea of welcoming our neighbors who have migrated to the US to seek asylum…well, I was extremely excited, to say the least!  

I’ve only been to the Welcome Center twice and only for a few hours each time.  Although I have not been at the front door, I have been in the Ropa Room welcoming people as they come in and helping them find clothes.  (Ropa means clothes in Spanish.)  Each guest is able to pick out a few items ranging from shirts and blouses, pants, jeans, underwear, socks, light jackets, and possibly shoes in addition to toiletries for their shower and a small backpack. The guests have been very appreciative.  It’s been great to meet them, the other volunteers, and the staff.  Jane McNamara, from First Church Phoenix has really helped me settle in to this new opportunity.  

The asylum seekers are at the Welcome Center for only a few days maximum. Soon they will be on their way to their sponsors.  Sponsors are the ones who pay for their transportation and will help them live in the US while the seekers wait to hear if their application is accepted.  Often times that takes as long as 3 years.  If their application is then accepted, then their status changes to “refugees”.  And they are entitled to the rights and resources accorded to other refugees.  This enables them to settle into the culture of the US.

So the Welcome Center is a little oasis along their long road toward finding safety, reuniting with family, and hopefully an opportunity for a new life. And personally, I’m really glad for this opportunity to be of service.


This family was in a UN Refugee camp for 20 years. They just arrived in the United States last week and in partnership with Church of the Palms, Shadow Rock helped put the first groceries in their kitchen. New neighbors, we celebrate your being here!



 

Congratulations to Rev. Lynne Hinton! She has been elected as Conference Director of the New Mexico Conference of Churches, effective July 1, 2021. Lynne is a member of First Congregational UCC, Albuquerque. Read more.






 

Associate Conference  Minister Rev Barb Doerrer-Peacock got creative on her vacation. New stoles for herself and  Bill Lyons using symbols from the new Conference logo.





 

On Friday and Saturday the youth at Scottsdale UCC gathered for a "camp" experience. Friday festivities included s'mores, games like flashlight tag, handing out camp shirts (designed by Lily Ledner) and lots of socialization. Saturday they had planned to work on a painting project for the church but it was just too hot, so they set up the sprinkler, a slip and slide, a kiddie pool and added water guns and balloons for loads of cooling fun. The big kids had a water balloon duel with the little kids and the youth group leaders were ambushed with buckets and water guns. Sandwiches, drinks and many Oreos were shared along with more socialization. Katie's new puppy Savannah was an adorable addition to the group and was thoroughly enjoyed and loved on by the kids. It was a superb "camp" experience and the kids were so happy to be together again. 

Calling all readers, bookworms and bibliophiles! The Beatitudes Book Club meets monthly on the first Thursday at 6pm  for fellowship and discussion of the month's read which is "The Scalpel and the Silver Bear" by Lori Arviso Alvord, M.D.  

ZOOM LINK MEETING ID: 830 0101 8834 PASSCODE: 434768

First Congregational UCC in Albuquerque is collaborating with Abq FaithWorks to set up an ice water station near the east entrance of the church.
 

An excerpt from Rev Seth’s newsletter article to Rincon:

“I walked in my home late Monday night from my time away to a flooded house. Burst pipe. The damage is…extensive. I’m still living out of my travel bag. It’s all a bit surreal still, to be honest, as I navigate the “triage” necessities of clean-up, immediate fixes, insurance claims and estimates, and contractor meetings. The timing is still to be determined for when habitation will commence again. Just…yikes.  I ruefully joked in the wee hours of Tuesday morning that “I’m sure there’s a sermon in here somewhere” and a fellow pastor, a dear friend and comrade from Charlottesville, saw my post and reminded me with love and care of Isaiah 43.

 God says “when you pass through the waters, I will be with you”

(You have to have a sense of humor….)

Registration is now open!

Sept. 16: 12:30–3:30 p.m. Alternative Healthy Ministry Module #1, “Best Practices & Parameters for Clergy in Retirement”

Sept. 22: 8:30–11:30 a.m. Healthy Ministry Module #1, "The Fundamentals of Healthy Boundaries"

Oct. 15: 8:30–11:30 a.m. Healthy Ministry Module #2, "Healthy Boundaries for Interpersonal Relationships"

Nov. 4: 9 a.m.–12 p.m. Healthy Ministry Module #3, "Healthy Boundaries for Finances, Resources, & Work"

Nov. 18: 1–4 p.m. Healthy Ministry Module #4, "Healthy Boundaries for Use of Technology & Social Media"

See updates from Katie Adams in our D.C. office about the child tax credit, infrastructure package, national gun registry, IMF special drawing rights, AUMF, and Iran's ballistic missile program.

Check out anti-racism resources from CHHSM (Council for Health and Human Services Ministries, UCC).

All things ONA from the Open & Affirming Coalition of the United Church of Christ.

Believing that as followers of Christ we are called to love and affirm all expressions of human gender and sexuality, the United Church of Christ Mental Health Network (MHN) declared its official commitment to being an Open and Affirming (ONA) Ministry of the UCC.

The designation was made through a covenant that was accepted by the ONA Coalition on June 2.