KMUCC News & Events

God has told you, O mortal, what is good;
and what does the Lord require of you but
to do justice,
and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6:8)

This well-loved verse comes to us in the lectionary this month. These are some of the Protestant world’s most oft-quoted words from Hebrew scripture; words we sing every week as part of our offering ritual:

Help me do the justice to be done today.
Help me love kindness in all I do and say.
Help me walk humbly with you, O God, I pray,
Every step of the way, every step of the way.

With these words we remind ourselves of who we wish to be as a community and the work that we feel ourselves called to do. And we throw ourselves into that work with such generosity and such deep kindness! Our care, financial support and donations, from Clackamas Service Center right around the corner, to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation halfway across the country, to Cetana Educational Foundation halfway across the world -- and many other places in between. We donate our time and energy to feed folks at Hoyt Street each month, and we walk to raise money for senior housing with Northwest Pilot Project every spring. We try to stay awake and aware, always learning about the real injustices and crises in our world so we can respond – to racial injustice, the mistreatment of refugees and asylum seekers, the needs of immigrants, the reality of the climate crisis…

On January 12, 2020, we took 3 full truckloads and at least 5 carloads of styrofoam in for recycling. Wow!

We found out that a local Milwaukie non-profit called Exceed Enterprises has a styrofoam pickup location near Bob’s Red Mill restaurant. They take it to Agilyx for recycling. Exceed is a supported employment agency for disabled people, but a group called Milwaukie Environmental Alliance has set up this pickup location in the Exceed parking lot. They are only doing pickup Mon-Fri daytime through March of this year. It appears to be a trial setup but they seemed thrilled to have us bring so much stuff!

An interesting note is when we returned to the church for our last load (that we thought would be a light one), we were surprised that someone had dropped off a big stack of containers!

Some notes about this project: We need to check what people give. That was done well right after church but later donations had random junk plastics and some flexible stuff that resembled styrofoam but isn't. We bundled things in plastic bags which is good for handling, but we now have maybe 20 bags (we need to reuse those next time).

We would say the styrofoam recycling project was an awesome success! Thanks to everyone that contributed.... and it was a lot of people!

The Second Sunday of Every Month from 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm

We gather to cook and eat a meal together, to talk and laugh, sing and pray.
Everyone of every age is welcome!

We are all meant to be mothers of God.
What good is it to me if this eternal birth of the divine Son
takes place unceasingly, but does not take place within myself?
And, what good is it to me if Mary is full of grace if I am not also full of grace?
What good is it to me for the Creator to give birth to a Son
if I do not also give birth to him in my time and my culture?
This, then, is the fullness of time: When the Son of Man is begotten in us.
-- Meister Eckhart

For the last six weeks, the flow of the church year has focused our attention on the events of 2000 years ago, retelling and celebrating our ancient stories about divine presence with and for us.

As we approached a new decade many people, especially on social media, have spent time reflecting on the decade that was… where they personally were in 2009 and the successes, failures, adventures, and resiliencies that had brought them to 2019.

But the invitation of standing on the edge of a new year and a new decade and the yearly invitation of the Christmas story is to turn from what has been, to what will be.

This moment invites us to consider where we hear God speaking to us in our individual lives, to listen for where God might be leading us.

This moment invites us to consider where we hear God speaking to us as a congregation. With all of the challenges facing our Portland community and our country, with immigrants and refugees being scapegoated, with an uptick in antisemitic violence shocking us all, with the climate crisis facing the whole globe; with all the challenges of 2019 rolling over into 2020, how are WE being called to be the body of Christ in the world?

What gifts and graces do we have as a community and how are we being called to use those gifts to speak peace and justice into the world in new ways? The promise is that God will not leave us on our own; the challenge is to bring that presence to a world longing still for peace, for love and for hope.

Peace and blessings as we journey together.

The Green Team and Pastor Jeanne have invited Milwaukie Mayor Mark Gamba to deliver a “Mission Message” on January 19, 2020 during worship and speak on the current Climate Crisis and what Milwaukie city government is doing to address this issue, as well as fair housing and other issues related to climate justice.

Mayor Gamba, formerly a nature photographer for such magazines as National Geographic, saw first-hand the destruction of such important ecosystems as the Great Barrier Reef. Read more about Mayor Gamba at the City of Milwaukie website (click here).

We will be ready to pick up all your Styrofoam on Sunday, January 12th at church. The Styrofoam should be clean, please. If it is small pieces, please put them in a bag. The Green Team will be taking it to a company called Agilyx in Tigard. And you can feel good that they actually re-processes the Styrofoam for reuse! It won't just go to a landfill! The company is Agilyx and you can learn more at their website (click here). Agilyx recycles not just Styrofoam, but any #6 plastic.

If you have a recycling question of any kind, you can call Ask Metro at 503-234-3000.

If you want to find a recycler near you, there is a nice tool on the Metro website (click here).