KMUCC News & Events

Well, my term as Moderator is off to a good start – I was absent the first three Sundays and Kairos-Milwaukie UCC did just fine.

Our July Council meeting came off OK, too. Had a small celebration for the departing members, with light refreshments and parting wisdom, got through the agenda and ended on time. We won’t meet in August, but we will meet the 3rd Sunday in September, the 16th.

Council will have a retreat on Saturday, September 22, at the Pankratz’ home. Details to follow.

Learning

I believe that the biggest part of moderating is learning about church needs and doing something to meet them, so please feel free to let me know what you think Kairos-Milwaukie needs.

I will also be talking with others, particularly with the ministry chairs, Council members and others who contribute in many ways to our congregational existence, to help me learn the ropes and serve as best I can.

Sanctuary

The word “sanctuary” has been in my thoughts lately -- not only because of immigrants and refugees but because of the word itself. A sanctuary is a safe, sacred space, something especially needed in these unsafe, profane times. We worship in a sanctuary, and creating such a safe, sacred space in all we do is vital to our mission as a church. Throughout my term as Moderator I will work to create sanctuary, and I invite you to join me in that work.

Kairos-Milwaukie UCC participated in conversations about immigration in July that helped us understand the complexities of the issue. One such conversation was among members who gathered to discuss the book The Far Away Brothers, the story of two El Salvadoran teenagers who entered the United States without documents to escape gang violence in their town.

Summary from the publisher:

The deeply reported story of identical twin brothers who escape El Salvador’s violence to build new lives in California—fighting to survive, to stay, and to belong.

Growing up in rural El Salvador in the wake of the civil war, the United States was a distant fantasy to identical twins Ernesto and Raul Flores—until, at age seventeen, a deadly threat from the region’s brutal gangs forces them to flee the only home they’ve ever known. In this urgent chronicle of contemporary immigration, journalist Lauren Markham follows the Flores twins as they make their way across the Rio Grande and the Texas desert, into the hands of immigration authorities, and from there to their estranged older brother in Oakland, CA. Soon these unaccompanied minors are navigating school in a new language, working to pay down their mounting coyote debt, and facing their day in immigration court, while also encountering the triumphs and pitfalls of teenage life with only each other for support.

Book group members’ personal connection to immigration

Members’ stories of what makes them passionate about immigration issues were varied and fascinating. However, many had a continuing thread – a personal connection.

One person’s grandson’s girlfriend’s grandfather is from Yemen; another member’s uncle is Puerto Rican and her son’s closest friends are from all over the world. Another worked for the Providence Sisters, who are active in helping El Salvador’s families. One member, involved with immigration and refugees since she was a pre-teen, was a member of the old sanctuary movement and a UCC church that helped an undocumented immigrant. Another member is a middle school teacher who teaches a social justice unit to a predominately white class, helping them use another lens to know that not everyone thinks the same way.

One group member lived internationally and experienced many cultures, while another experienced being a minority in her first job in Chicago and got a wake-up call recently from a granddaughter who is an activist opposing current immigration policies. 

One member, whose daughter is from Guatemala, became revitalized toward global issues in her and her daughter’s adoption journey and her own graduate studies.

Our book group leader, Kathy Anderson, shared that when she was 10 her family moved to a Klamath Indian Reservation. Other cultures fascinated her. Her immediate family is truly international. Kathy married an Iranian and values multiculturalism throughout her family and life.

Ideas for what is to come at Kairos-Milwaukie UCC

The group was energized to continue to learn about immigration. We will next read The Line Becomes a River, which we will discuss in September. Anyone is welcome to join!

We shared resources to learn more and will explore partnering with another church to further learn about and help with immigration. We plan to soon have table talks during coffee hour to explore the issue more. We are building toward congregation-wide vote on whether to become an immigration-welcoming church. Questions, concerns? Feel free to talk with Jeanne Randall-Bodman, Macy Guppy or Mary Crocker.

This week the Supreme Court of the United States of America upheld the Trump administration’s ban on people from seven majority-Muslim nations entering the US.
This week at least 2000 children are still detained away from their undocumented parents after having been separated at the border. Plans are being made to house families that *can* be re-united, together. Indefinitely.
This week we learned that the administration has cancelled an eight year old policy designed to protect oceans from a repeat of the Deepwater Horizon disaster.
This week -- today as I write the story is unfolding– five journalists were murdered at the Capital Gazette newsroom in Maryland – after months of Mr. Trump calling the news media the “enemy of the American people,” and two days after Trump supporter Milo Yiannopoulos urged people to “start gunning down journalists.”
It is a weary, frightening time in our beloved country. Some days I am tempted to despair.
But maybe we were called into community for just such a time as this -- a time of injustice; a time of fear; a time when the world needs light.
For such a time as this we will need to gather our courage, remember who and whose we are, ground ourselves in God’s love, and rely on each other and the great cloud of witnesses. We will need to remember that the struggle for justice is the struggle of a lifetime but it need not be a lonely struggle. For such a time as this we will need to remember that we really only have a few jobs while we are here on this planet: To love God and to love each other. So…
take care of yourself, attend to your spiritual life.
And then get out into the streets.
And that’s it. Our strength comes from the inner journey toward joy and the outer journey of justice. The two move in tandem. (John Fugelsang and Diana Butler Bass in conversation)
Move inward, move outward. Take breaks. Take heart and be of good courage. We are not alone.
In Solidarity and Hope, Jeanne

I have truly enjoyed being your Moderator over the last 4 years. While it has been a lot of work, it has also been fun and rewarding. When I accepted the position, however, I had no idea how many challenges our church was going to face.

First Pastor Rick retired. We threw a party, we raised $15,000 to give him and his wife a parting gift. I know that they left with very good feelings about this congregation.
We went nearly 6 months without a pastor. We brought in guest speakers, but primarily we drew upon the immense talent in our own congregation. And we did just fine.

We set up a Pastoral Search Committee. They worked long and hard. We had a great many very qualified applicants. This was a prime job opening. We may not be large, but have no debts and have a very engaged and passionate congregation.

We hired a new pastor. We managed to work out all the financial details. We then had to adjust to someone new. Pastor Jeanne made it easy. She has incorporated new ideas and ways of doing things – yet left our basic structure intact – so that our church still feels as much like HOME as it always has.

We then raised enough money to put on a new roof. When the company said they didn’t have the manpower to build it last year – our strong negotiating team made sure it got done – and at a reduced price. So we had money left for new speakers, restroom updates, and sprucing up the exterior.

Powerful Painting in the Narthex

This vivid painting in the narthex (right) is by local artist Joe Riso and is on loan to the church by Chris Christensen. Check out his website at www.risoart.com.

Chris reports that Joe is teaching as well as painting as he is supporting himself and his young son.

Kairos Hikes

Any and all are welcome to join for fresh air, movement, and conversation. Saturday, July 28 at Elk Rock Island in Milwaukie. Meet at 10:00 AM at the Spring Park trailhead on SE 19th Avenue and Sparrow Street. For more information, contact Mica Richards at church.

Becoming an Immigrant Welcoming Church

The United Church of Christ has a long history of following in the way of Jesus by working for justice and in solidarity with the suffering. During the 1980s many of our congregations were involved in the “Sanctuary Movement,” providing shelter, material support and often legal advice to Central American Refugees fleeing civil wars in their home countries. In addition to offering direct aid to individuals and families, the Sanctuary Movement was influential in the passage of a 1990 congressional bill authorizing temporary protected status for Central American refugees, and the 1997 Nicaraguan Adjustment and Central American Relief Act which allowed Central American refugees to apply for permanent residence.

The commitment to Sanctuary is still strong in many congregations. In 2016 the Central Pacific Conference covenanted together to become an Immigrant Welcoming Conference and in July 2017 delegates to the National Synod voted overwhelmingly to declare the whole United Church of Christ an Immigrant Welcoming Denomination.

In a new and different political landscape, the needs of refugee and immigrant people are changing—they need less physical sanctuary and more welcome, accompaniment, and bold advocacy for compassionate immigration laws. Immigrants seeking financial security and refugees fleeing violence still arrive at our southern border; some entering without documentation and others presenting themselves at appointed places to request asylum. What is new is the enhanced enforcement. What is new and morally abhorrent is the Department of Homeland Security’s policy of separating children from their parents to deter others from coming to our borders.

In light of all that has come before, and the extreme enforcement measures being taken at the border and by ICE agents across the country, I hope that we as a congregation will do all we can to stand together with our immigrant brothers and sisters and their families. Macy Guppy, Mary Crocker and I have been involved with IMIrJ’s education efforts over the last year. We will be offering opportunities to engage in a congregation wide conversation this summer so that together we can decide how we want to respond to the current crisis. Join us as we educate ourselves about immigrant issues and learn how we might advocate for human rights, and how to accompany our immigrant neighbors in times of need.

To help us enter into conversation I have invited Rev. Linda Jaramillo to join us for worship on June 10. Rev. Jaramillo who served as executive minister of UCC Justice and Witness Ministries for nearly a decade will bring us a word of persistence and hope!

When an immigrant resides with you in your land, you shall not oppress the immigrant.
The immigrant who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you;
you shall love the immigrant as yourself, for you were an immigrant in the land of Egypt.

Leviticus 19:33-34