Archive for May, 2009

Holy Covenant is proud to be a reconciling congregation and welcomes people of all sexual orientations, gender identities, and people of every human category. As a sign of our witness to God’s all embracing love, we invite you to march with us in the 40^th Annual Chicago Gay Pride Parade on Sunday, June 28 after the 11:15 am service. We will provide hospitality and walk together to Holy Covenant’s float near Diversey and Halsted.

This year, we will be wearing T-shirts from the United Methodist Church’s “Rethink Church” campaign. T-shirts cost $15 each. Sign-up and indicate your T-shirt size in church or by emailing lay leader David Braden. To secure your T-shirt, you can write a check to “Holy Covenant UMC” with “Pride Parade” in the memo line and then return it to David or place it in the offering plate. Celebrate your Pride!

Many have asked about the roadmap for the next month of transition. Here are some important dates and ways to celebrate, share, and be authentic in this time.

Sunday, May 31: Congregational Hymn-sing in all worship services and Potluck after 2nd morning worship
Sunday, June 7: Lay-led morning worship while clergy are at annual conference, with Kristen Kumpf and Mission Trip folks reflecting
Friday, June 19: All-congregational party to give thanks for and celebrate the shared ministry of this congregation and Trey Hall for the past five years (contact Brittany Isaac)
Sunday, June 21: Services of Leave-taking for Pastor Trey
Week of June 22: Parsonage work to prepare for Pastor Kate’s arrival
Wednesday, July 1: Pastor Kate begins
Sunday, July 5: Pastor Kate’s first Sunday in worship

Friends in Holy Covenant,

This morning I’ve been going through the books on the shelves in my study, separating the ones I will box and move from the ones I will box and take to the thrift store. It’s an extremely difficult process for me, and I remember the suggestion I read in an article a few years ago that perhaps the only reassuring way for a book-lover to part with a book is to eat it.

As painful as the process is, though, I’m grateful for the time it takes and for the memories that are called up as I go from title to title. Since I came to Holy Covenant five years ago, I’ve filled a several more shelves with new books, and among the titles I find folded minutes from Holy Covenant meetings, old service bulletins and to-do lists, notes and cards that I’ve received from parishioners over the years. Under one stack of books I found an “ingenious” filing system that I devised a few years ago only to immediately lose it under the pile, forgotten until now. Under another stack, a picture that a child drew for me in Sunday School last year. And I’m knocked over by a wave of gratitude and simultaneous sadness and joy.

Friends, in the relentless pace and the necessary tasks of this transition time (for both me and for this congregation), I want you to know how profoundly thankful I am that our lives and ministries have shared a path this past half-decade. I am grateful for the feelings of love and support and kindness and laughter we’ve experienced. I’m even grateful for the times and feelings of frustration and conflict and disappointment. There have been all these things in our life together, if we’re honest – this is the nature of human life — and in the midst of it all, God has been with us.

In the various celebrations and services over the next four weeks, we’ll have the opportunity to remember and lift up these things in a public way. But please also feel free to find me before or after worship to talk and share for a little while; or email me at pastortrey@holycovenantumc.org. I’ll look forward to unshelving the memories, giving thanks for the present, and together tracing God’s grace through it all and into the future.

With abiding gratitude,
Pastor Trey Hall

Thanks to your continued funding of the Capital Campaign we are finally able to replace the floors and paint the walls of the sanctuary. Beginning on June 1 and continuing for at least 2 weeks (through June 15), the Holy Covenant sanctuary will be under renovation-the walls will be repaired, cleaned, and repainted; the old flooring will be removed and new hardwood floors installed. This will be wonderful for our worship space but of course will mean a significant bit of dust and chaos as the renovation is underway. It also means that the sanctuary space will not be usable for the entire two weeks (June 1-June 15). Services will be held in the Gallery on June 7 and June 14. We’re sorry for the inconvenience of this renovation, but hope that by mid-June, you’ll be thankful for a renewed, more beautiful space in which to worship. Questions? E-mail the office.

Mark your calendars for our children’s summer ministry program, aka Vacation Bible School! On the Move – God’s Grace from Place to Place! Holy Covenant will host this the week of July 19th – 26th, beginning Sunday, July 19th during first service worship and will continuing through the following Sunday. We will gather M-W- F from 5:30-7:30 with dinner served from 5:30-6:00pm. Questions? If you have questions or would like to volunteer please contact Donelle Sommer.

During the summer months, our small groups ministry shifts a bit as we take advantage of the good weather and all the wonderful (and cheap) ways to enjoy the city. In previous years we’ve had picnics, gone to outdoor concerts at Millennium Park, enjoyed tours of the Art Institute, and much more. As we plan a series of events this summer, we’re looking for more ideas and for people to take responsibility for organizing and/or leading an event. For example, maybe you really want to hear a classical concert at Millenium Park…would you be willing to invite folks from Holy covenant to join you and be the point person to get folks organized? We’d like to publish the event calendar by June 7th, so email your ideas now to groups@holycovenantumc.org.

Tuesday, May 26, anytime between 5:00-7:00p
Every Tuesday evening at Holy Covenant, Dignity Diner offers a meal to the homeless and hungry of our community. Usually on the fourth Tuesday of every month, Holy Covenant is responsible for providing volunteers to help cook, serve, and clean up after the meal. Holy Covenant is responsible for providing volunteers on Tuesday, May 26.  If you are able to help this month or on the fourth Tuesday of any month, please contact Steve Bindrich, Dignity Diner Lay Leader. If you cannot come to the Diner on a Tuesday but would like to find out other ways you can get involved, or with any other questions, please contact Kara Teeple, Director of Dignity Diner.

Friends in Holy Covenant,

Today I’m working on my Sunday morning sermon, which turns on (at least, right now it does: no promises that it will by Sunday!) the story of Noah’s Ark. As I’ve been pondering the story, and the places in my life and in the life of the world that feel like they could drown me, overwhelm me, I happened upon this poem, which the writer and critic Andrew Sullivan posted on his Atlantic Monthly online blog. It’s by American poet W.S. Merwin, who was recently awarded (for the second time) the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. Offered for your pondering…

Peace,
Pastor Trey Hall

“Before The Flood” by W.S. Merwin

Why did he promise me
that we would build ourselves
an ark all by ourselves
out in back of the house
on New York Avenue
in Union City New Jersey
to the singing of the streetcars
after the story
of Noah whom nobody
believed about the waters
that would rise over everything
when I told my father
I wanted us to build
an ark of our own there
in the back yard under
the kitchen could we do that
he told me that we could
I want to I said and will we
he promised me that we would
why did he promise that
I wanted us to start then
nobody will believe us
I said that we are building
an ark because the rains
are coming and that was true
nobody ever believed
we would build an ark there
nobody would believe
that the waters were coming

Friends in Holy Covenant,

As the next evolution of the United Methodist “Open hearts. Open minds. Open doors.” welcoming and advertising campaign, RETHINK CHURCH seeks to redefine the church experience beyond the church doors and invite people to become engaged in the world. The campaign aims to spark a global conversation around the rhetorical question, “What if church were a verb?”

RETHINK CHURCH is a new welcoming campaign that will raise awareness of The United Methodist Church by posing the rhetorical question, “What if church were a verb?” It is an evolution of the denomination’s “Open hearts” advertising and welcoming ministry. Learn about the campaign here by visiting www.rethinkchurch.org or www.10thousanddoors.org.

Peace,

Rev. James Preston
District Superintendent

Sunday June 7, 9:30a and 11:15a
As our clergy are away at United Methodist Annual Conference, one of our fabulous lay leaders, Kristin Kumpf, will be preaching.  Kristin is a leader in and outside the church.  Kristin works as an organizer at Interfaith Worker Justice, where she resources local religion-labor affiliates and creates/develops new affiliates. Kristin also spent several years as a community organizer with the Philipino Workers Center in Los Angeles and as a statewide organizer with the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights. Kristin has a B.A. in Sociology/Anthropology and Spanish from Ohio Wesleyan University and a Masters in Social Work, with a focus in community organizing, policy and advocacy work, from St. Louis University. She has also lived and worked in the Philippines, Ecuador and Rwanda.