June 22, 2006 Volume 18, Number 12

ICE CREAM SOCIAL!!!

Sunday, July 16

……Sponsored by the Official Board….following the 10:00 a.m. worship service

Bring your appetite!

HELP BCAP IN JULY

July is FCC’s month to donate to the Boulder County AIDS Project food cupboard. Each year, our church collects monetary donations to help cover costs that supply nutritious foods for BCAP clients. Your cash donations may be put in pew envelopes [please mark them “BCAP PANTRY”] and placed in the offering plate on any Sunday morning in July. Or, checks made out to the church with the memo indicating “BCAP PANTRY” will be accepted via the offering as well.

In addition this year, we are asked to provide volunteers to help bag food items for distribution. Our days to bag are the 1st and 3rd Wednesdays – July 5th and 19th – for 1½ hours between 1 - 4 p.m. We need three or four people for each of those days. The BCAP food cupboard is located at 2118 Fourteenth Street, next door to Lucile’s restaurant. If you are interested, please contact the church office at 303.442.1861.

LIFE AND NEWS OF THE CONGREGATION!

The “Choo-choo Princess!” That might be a new name for Mary ann Pinon. She recently completed a train trip from Toronto to Jasper/Banff, Canada (with scenery provided by the

Canadian Rockies) with continued travels to Vancouver.

The Ford Family will be making their annual summer Pilgrimage back east to vist family. Heather, Camden and Bennett will be gone for over 5 weeks and Chris will join them for half this time. Off to “buckeye land,” no doubt!

Wishing they could make it an annual Pilgrimage, Marcie Geissinger and Neil Ashby returned last week from a business/fun trip to Sicily! The pasta flowed freely, we are told.

Prayers of thanksgiving filled the air at worship Sunday when news was shared that, as confirmed by MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Joann Dennett does not have cancer as was first diagnosed!

In celebration of his parents’ wedding anniversary, John, Teri, Lindsay, and Jack Stickle are joining with other members of the extended family on a cruise to Alaska! Visions of salmon dance in their heads!

The grapevine reports that former members, Sally and Chuck Reister, are temporarily living in Salt Lake City! Seems that Chuck was called out of retirement for “one more” consultation commitment.

A visitor from afar stopped by the church office briefly last week. Dorothy Rosenberger (who now lives on an island in Washington state) was in Denver for a national meeting of her Women’s Club and dropped by with her daughter, granddaughter-in-law and 3 great grandchildren! Husband, Glenn stayed on the island. All are doing well.

The church mouse reports that Debra, Chip, Kayleigh, and William Manchester from Ypsilanti, Michigan will be worshiping with us July 9th.

I'd like to thank everyone at FCC for your thoughts, prayers, visits, cards, flowers, and well-wishes before, during, and after Steve's surgery. I feel blessed to be part of such a wonderful church family! Heather Avens

THANK YOU FOR BEING ANGELS

A huge thank you to all of you who have remembered us in your prayers and with your cards and good wishes during my open heart surgery and recuperation time. Gordon and I have been so touched to have felt so much warmth and caring from Terry and so many of you when we have been a part of this congregation for such a short time. We certainly know now that our first impression on that first Sunday when we walked in the door that “this is where we belong” was right on! We are looking forward to being back again soon on Sundays! God Bless – Barb and Gordon Koshio

WE REMEMBER IN PRAYER

Sandy Bish, Pam Crary (friend of Sandy Bish), Joann Dennett, Dennis & Eleanor Hubbard (as they travel), Charles & Shirley Kassinger (as they travel), Barb Koshio, Lacy Lowery (friend of Maggie Haseman), Doris Martin, Donna Newitt (friend of Linda Abel), Si Sellers (father of Joe Sellers), Linda Silverman (friend of congregation), John Stickle, Chuck Wilkerson & Family (friends of Gary Howell), life & death of Dennis Ludwig (friend of Warren & Sharon Wendling).

WOMEN’S BOOK GROUP

The Women’s Book Group will meet on Monday, June 26 at 6:30 p.m. at the home of Priscilla Gifford, #703, Golden West. Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo A. Anaya will be discussed.

FCC BOARD MEETING

The next FCC Board meeting is Tuesday, July 11 at 7:00 p.m. in the Education Building, Room #5.

COMMUNITY TABLE BOARD

The next Community Table Board meeting is

Thursday, July 13 at 6:00 p.m. in Riley Hall.

FCC – COMMUNITY TABLE

Thursday, July 20 is FCC’s night to serve at Community Table.

ALL-CHURCH RETREAT

Saturday, August 5 is the date for the annual All-Church Retreat. Location to be announced.

ELDERS

The next Elders meeting is Sunday, August 6 following the sanctuary worship service in the Education Building, Room #5.

ANNUAL RUMMAGE SALE

The sale dates for the Annual Rummage Sale are Friday, August 25 and Saturday, August 26.

CRMR - MEN’S RENEWAL CONFERENCE

The Rocky Mountain Men’s Ministries 2006 Men’s Renewal Conference is September 22-24 in Estes Park at the YMCA of the Rockies. For further information about the conference, please go to the CRMR Website:

Centralrockymountaindisciples.org. All registration and scholarship forms can be downloaded.

JULY BIRTHDAY AND ANNIVERSARY GREETINGS:

03 Teresa Tuschhoff

Jeff Wilkins-Crowder

04 Mary Crowder

05 Marj Collins

06 Sandy Bish

Mardi Byers

08 Dave Manica

10 Patty & Bill Crowl

11 William Manchester

Debbie Manica

13 Rosemary Campbell

14 Bernie Egeland

15 Dorothy & Glenn Rosenberger

Gertrude Walker

19 Samantha Landis

23 Kay & David Norris

24 Cindy & Steve Crowder

Clara Lemons

25 Keith Lance

26 Frank Campbell

Bill Real

Frances Swanson

27 Aimee Shepherd

28 Shirley Kassinger

30 Roberta McClintock

31 Al Denton

NEW IN THE PEW

Barbara (Barb) and Gordon Koshio joined FCC Boulder on Easter Sunday, moving their affiliation from First Congregational Church in Boulder. They both have long roots in Colorado – Gordon was born and raised in Fort Lupton, and Barbara has lived here since 1967. They met and married while both were teachers at Crestview Elementary in Boulder. Barb also taught and was a library aide at Whittier Elementary, while Gordon spent a number of years at Crestview and then was a coach for girls’ basketball at Fairview High for ten years before he retired.

They have two children – their daughter Anne lives in Denver, and is working on her Masters in High School Counseling. Their son Miki lives in Lakewood with his wife, and they are expecting a child in August. The Koshio’s are very excited about this, their first grandchild, and plan to be very busy spoiling the child once it arrives. Barb also has a horse that she “hangs out with,” and the Koshios share their house with Buddy the cat.

Gordon keeps very busy with many activities, including sports, photography, growing plants,

fly fishing, and a remodeling business that he started after “retirement.” Barb volunteers in the library at Whittier Elementary, and also at Boulder County Public Health. It was while volunteering at Boulder County that she met Rosie Campbell, who invited her to visit First Christian.

The first visit convinced them that we were the church for them – as Gordon said, “It just felt right.” This was reinforced when they returned the next Sunday and happened to attend the FCCafé where Sara Sheldon was speaking about her experiences in Iraq. Barb had connections with Sara going back many years, and was glad to reconnect.

While Barb’s recent surgery (two open heart surgeries!) has kept them away for a time, they plan to return as her health improves. Welcome Barb and Gordon Koshio – two of the newest members of our church family! Erik Mason

Marriage and Equality in Colorado:

Do We Have to Make a Choice?

A Public Forum Presented by

The Interfaith Alliance of Colorado

Sunday, July 9, 2006, 4:00 – 5:30 PM

Cameron United Methodist Church

1600 S. Pearl Street, Denver

A look at November ballot issues dealing with marriage & domestic partnerships:

What do you need to know? How can you get involved?

Moderator: Mike Littwin, Rocky Mountain News Columnist

Panelist: Rep. Terrance Carroll: Member House of Representatives for District 7

Rev. Phil Campbell: Colorado Clergy for Equality in Marriage

Patrick Steadman: of Mendez, Steadman & Associated

Staff member for Coloradans for Fairness and Equality (TBA)

IN ADDITION

Protecting Civil Rights and Representative Democracy in Colorado:

Information will be provided on several other ballot issues such as immigration, initiated legislation, and others.

Reception and refreshments begin at 5:30

…GOD’S GONNA TROUBLE THE WATERS

Many of you know I am a part of the Central Rocky Mountain Region’s Anti-Racism/Pro-Reconciliation Team, and some may know that I was a part of the latest Organizer Training with the General Church and Crossroads Ministry in April. It was a very intense 5 days together, with the Pacific-Northwest Region’s team, the Core Trainer Team, and members of the Illinois-Wisconsin team. Some of you may know that Reconciliation, as a ministry of our general church and a special offering, is struggling.

Jessica Vazquez, our national leader in the efforts of reconciliation, anti-racism, and the training of teams throughout the church, has left the position due to financial issues. Some in the church blame the great destruction of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in the Gulf Coast, others fault the church in making this yet another “special offering” rather than a primarily part of the structure of the Disciples. Some feel that our focus should be on poverty, rather than on the sin of racism and white privilege and power. Nonetheless, change is ahead. Many around the country, including our own regional minister Ron Parker, are presently a part of an eight month process of evaluating the ministry of Reconciliation and creating a plan for the future. Stay tuned and pray for what this group of people will recommend. (Disciples World is a good place to watch).

At the most recent CRMR Regional Assembly one of our team members was deeply upset by some of the comments shared with her by several people who approached our display. Some said, “you are just stirring things up,” with regard to racism, unable to see that it still exists in our society and world today. Our focus within the church and Crossroads is not on individual prejudice and racism so much as on the systems and institutions that continue to oppress persons of color. I, as a white person, am continuing to learn, and to look for the ways that I am “privileged” and given access and power in this society, simply because I am white. I invite you to join me in reflecting on and looking with new eyes at the ways privilege is given to white people, not necessarily taken away from people of color.

In reflecting on the words of the one who spoke critically to a member of our team, I remembered the spiritual, “Wade in the Water.” We as Christians are invited into the waters, the healing, cleansing, and saving waters of God. However, when we enter the water, the song tells us, “God’s gonna trouble it!” That’s where I am in my journey with racism today in the church. God is simply troubling the waters where I wade, swim, and struggle. I am troubled by racism, “not stirring things up” myself, but stirred by God. I have hope that our church, in the decades ahead, will become Anti-Racist, AND Pro-Reconciling for all God’s children. I invite you to join me in this struggle and learning.

Janet Barriger

HEALTH KITS – WE DID IT!

Thanks to our Youth and Deborah-Rebekah Group’s efforts, 20 “health kits,” valued at $255, were sent to refugees through Church World Service. A hand towel, washcloth, comb, nail file or clippers, bar soap, toothbrush and toothpaste and band-aids were placed in each kit – the very most basic of health needs. This project came out of Disciples Women’s study of Kenya this past year.

Did you know that Kenya is the location of the All-Africa Conference Churches, a gathering of church leaders from across Africa which aims at alleviating the suffering of the most vulnerable people in Africa: women, children and HIP-positive people? And, did you know that the Christian Church has 3 staff members in Nairobi — Phyllis Byrd, David and Roxi Owen?

Thank you, youth and Sherrill, for helping to make this outreach a success!

Jan Einert, Deborah-Rebekah Disciples Women

LATE BREAKING NEWS

Unfortunately, Sunshine Mountain Inn, where we normally have our Annual All-Church retreat is booked for the month of August. Other church space in Boulder is being investigated. Stay tuned for further details. The Annual All-Church retreat will still be held on August 5. The following “Living the Questions” is the topic of the Annual All-Church retreat.

.. ABOUT "LIVING THE QUESTIONS"

“It’s been especially powerful for some of our newer folk from other traditions who are just astonished that we’re allowed to talk about these things in church, allowed to ask questions.”

--Rev. Petra Malleis-Sternberg, First Congregational UCC, San Bernadino, CA

People know that at its core, Christianity has something good to offer the human race. At the same time, many have a sense that they are alone in being a "thinking" Christian and that "salvaging" Christianity is a hopeless task. What is needed is a safe environment where people have permission to ask the questions they've always wanted to ask but have been afraid to voice for fear of being thought a heretic.

Living the Questions is a 12-week DVD and web-based small group study exploring beyond the traditions and rote theologies in which so many people and local churches seem to be stuck. Ideal for Christian invitation, initiation and spiritual formation, Living the Questions will help seekers and "church alumni/ae" alike in discovering the relevance of Christianity in the 21st Century and what a meaningful faith can look like in today's world. This series will begin at the church retreat scheduled August 5th. Participate in this special opportunity!

CONTENTS:

2 Prayer, Calendar, Directory Updates

3 Troubled Waters, Health Kits

4 July Calendar

5 July Celebrations, New In the Pew

6 Forum on Colorado Ballot Issues

7 Life & News of the Congregation, Thanks, More Thanks

NEXT RAM’S HORN DEADLINE: MONDAY, JULY 10

Your Church Staff:

Terry Zimmerman, Pastor Sherrill Morris, Youth Director

Linda Abel, Administrative Secretary Jaime & Leticia Alvarez, Custodians

Rory Cowal, Summer Accompanist

An open and affirming congregation.

E-mail: fccboulder@fcc-boulder.org

Terry’s E-mail: terryzimmerman@fcc-boulder.org Linda’s E-mail: lindaabel@fcc-boulder.org

Office Hours: Monday – Friday - 9:00 am – 4:30 pm (303) 442-1861 Fax: (303) 442-6413

Web Site: www.fcc-boulder.org