Volunteer opportunities

On March 25 and 26, 2013 the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) will consider two important cases: challenging the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and California’s Proposition 8 (Prop 8). Bringing these cases before SCOTUS is a pivotal opportunity for far-reaching, lasting change for LGBTQ people and their partners — including the opportunity to legally marry, and to receive benefits that are in many states only available to heterosexual married couples.

Holy Covenant’s Church & Society Committee invites you to show your support, in any way that speaks to your heart and fits into your schedule:

Rally & March
On Monday, March 25 at 5:30 p.m., gather in Federal Plaza (Adams & Dearborn) for a rally followed by a candlelight march to Pioneer Plaza (near Tribune Tower). (March 25 is also the anniversary of the 1965 march from Selma that Dr. King described as “a shining moment in the conscience of man.”) Please bring a candle, and dress warmly! RSVP and more info on Facebook.

Virtual Vigil
At 12:00 noon on Tuesday, March 26 and Wednesday, March 27, you are invited to take 10-15 minutes, find a calm space (even if only in your heart), and dedicate this small window of time to prayer. Spread out across the city, in offices, homes, coffee shops, cars, trains, buses, churches, and on the sidewalk, we will lift up our hearts together in wishes for clarity and acceptance among the judges of the Supreme Court, and strength of purpose for those who speak to them on behalf of LGBTQ Americans. Tuesday’s case is about Prop 8, and Wednesday’s case is about DOMA. Click here for our “virtual vigil” prayer guide/resource.

Social Media Support
Between now and the end of the hearings, show your support and share your thoughts and prayers by connecting with Holy Covenant via social media:

“Like” the Holy Covenant page on Facebook

Join the Holy Covenant Facebook group

Follow us on Twitter: @holycov

Handles and hashtags to follow & mention:
@holycov
@rmnetwork
#scotus
#Time4Marriage
#UnitedforMarriage
#pray4LoveJustice
#loveprevails
#lgbt
#marriageequality
#repealdoma
#NoH8

More Information & Inspiration

It’s the reason for the season.

It’s the thought that counts.

It’s meaning in giving.

What is this season all about, anyways?

Christmas-time, it comes every year and every year we are reminded to buy more so that we can give more. But where is our money going, are we really giving with meaning, thought, or reason.

Tuesday morning, I was watching the Today Show (like I do every morning while I drink two cups of coffee and monitor the CTA bus tracker) and I was reminded why I love the holiday season with a segment called TODAY’S Professionals; they “weigh in” on today’s hottest topics. Matt Lauer asked “Is it okay to outsource your holiday chores?” I guess you can hire someone to complete everything for you, like picking out a tree or wrapping your gifts or evening picking out the presents you give to family and friends. And I thought “we are kinda doing that at the Alternative Giving Fair…”

The AGF committee and volunteers have spent time making hand-made gifts and up-cycled presents for you to purchase. And the money you spend on these items will go to a charity, The Crib – a youth shelter on Chicago’s north side. Is it wrong that you purchase already hand-made gifts? No! Is this like outsourcing crafting or baking or candy making? Yes, and that’s okay.

AGF is a place you can come to get away from the hustle of the Mag mile or State Street, all the traffic on the Dan Ryan, Kennedy, or IKE, and even pushy sales associates. AGF is a place that welcomes all to take part in the main reason for the season; to celebrate the love, light, and glory Christmas is all about.

At the 4th Annual Alternative Giving Fair, adults and kids can all learn to make fun, creative, and low-cost gifts. This year’s event will include many “upcycled” projects, to re-use things that we might otherwise toss. Instead of throwing it away, you can learn how turn a t-shirt into a beautiful hand-made gift. If you teach a man to fish…

Gift stations will include jars of cookie and soup mixes, dog treats, candle luminaries, cardboard tube ornaments, bottle top magnets, cork planters, coasters, spiced nuts, home-made soda, t-shirt scarves, and more. There are projects for all ages and abilities! We have all the supplies ready to go and friendly instructors ready to teach you how to make the gift. “Ready-hand-made” or “Outsourced-hand-made” gifts will also be available for purchase as well. Let us know you’re coming on Facebook.

Christmas-time for me is about loved-ones, God, the birth of my Savior, and celebrating life everlasting. Because like Star Jones says, “I focus on, honestly, the religion part of it. I really and truly do. I can’t outsource that part of it.”

Emily Davis Arthurs
AGF Committee

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This summer, many of us went to the peace marches all over the city, and felt profoundly moved by it; moved that these communities embraced us with open arms. Surprised that they wanted us to be there at all.

This Saturday we can bear witness to what’s hopefully a part of the solution to this summer’s violence, and a part of Chicago history. The Peace Basketball Tournament brings together four rival gangs, taking them off the street and onto a basketball court. Its a tournament to see which gang has the best basketball skills. An idea thats as crazy as it is brilliant. Brought to you by Father Michael Pfleger. Inspired by God.

The event is free and takes place at Saint Sabina’s gymnasium from 12-6 p.m. this Saturday, September 22, and we want to be there. A group will leave Holy Covenant by 10:30 a.m. so we can get good seats. The place will probably be packed as Pfleger has gotten basketball legend Isiah Thomas, and Bulls center Joakim Noah to participate.

Contact me if you can make the time to be there. Drivers are also needed.

Peace,

Josh Bonifas

I spent the weekend with teenagers again! Sometimes this makes me feel young; by 1:00am on Saturday morning, I was not feeling very youthful. But, I wouldn’t have missed it. I got to make Hamburger Helper dinner for 40 people at Cafe Pride with Chris.

About 19 years old, Chris has been working for the new Walmart on Broadway (which provides many of our youth with manageable work schedules) and was recently promoted to be the Night Manager downtown. This week, he told me how he will be going back “to the hood” on the far south side. His mother has “dropped off the wagon again” and he needs to return home to care for his three elementary-school-aged siblings. I filled with tears at his sense of love and responsibility for his family. I filled with anger at the fact that he will likely risk his own newly attained stability in order to act on this love. Life is hard. Chris smiled, and taught me the proper way to season and brown meat. “Don’t measure anything- it’s by taste.”

For years, we have had a growing population of homeless teenagers in my neighborhood. Lakeview draws youth from near and far as it seems to be a welcoming and affirming community for young people who don’t quite fit into traditional gender categories or sexual orientations. Often kicked out of their homes, neighborhoods, and communities of faith, they find themselves on the streets around my home. Perhaps Lakeview is, in theory, more hospitable than the rejection they face at home. But, living on city streets, hungry, often treated violently, Lakeview is not the utopia these youth often imagine.

Many local congregations have responded to the needs of our young people. The Night Ministry, an organization we at HCUMC support, created a youth shelter, The Crib, which is located at Lakeview Lutheran Church. The Crib lost funding this summer, and is now closed until October. Local clergy responded by forming a committee, “Hearts for Youth”, to attempt to fill in the service gaps left by the Crib. Safe showers are now offered at Broadway UMC each Sunday from 1-4:00. Meals and safe hang-out space are offered at Cafe Pride on Friday nights from 8-12:00. Safe rest is provided at the Broadway Youth Lounge two days a week, and support is offered through the Broadway Drop-in Center four days a week. The Center on Halsted has increased its youth programming in an effort to offer more safe space and snacks. ALL of these programs are seeking more support.

Since I am not a parent in a traditional way, I feel blessed to have the opportunity to care for those with so many needs. The resilience, hope and community these young people teach me week after week are gifts as well. But, they have grown up too fast, and they are very tired. I learned this weekend that one of the youth I know quite well has such bad night terrors that he literally does not sleep. Instead, it is his job to stand guard on the streets so that his new family can get some rest once in a while. In my dreams, I long to educate their communities of origin on gender and sexuality so that they might not reject these children of God. I brainstorm for ways to secure safe housing. I am regularly overwhelmed with the urge to just bring them home. For now, we give them space and acceptance and some food.

And, on Fridays and Sundays I have learned about Britney Spears, and voguing, and how to play Aces. I’ve watched movies I would never otherwise see, and shared smiles I hope not to forget. Once in a while, it does make me feel young!

Polly Toner
Ministry Associate

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There are moments in our lives when God is evident in everything we see and do. Other times, we catch glimpses of light that give us hope and strength to continue on. Yet sometimes, the maintenance of our lives in our own place obscures that light. Sometimes, we need to journey outside of the comfortable and into the foreign. Ever since the beginning of God’s covenant relationship with humanity, sojourning to seek and follow God has been a key part of our faith story.

This November 1-4, you have the opportunity to add your story to that list of sojourners who have ventured out into the world seeking to follow and find another glimpse of the divine. Join the Holy Covenant Missions Team in Homestead, Florida, as we volunteer with Sembrando Flores Compassionate Care Ministries. Sembrando Flores is a grassroots, ecumenical,faith-based, HIV/AIDS and social service organization whose ministry focuses on promoting wellness of the mind, body, and spirit by providing compassionate care and personal advocacy.

Our time with Sembrando Flores will be spent assisting its staff with one of its free community HIV/AIDS testing clinics, facilitating a night of fellowship with teens in the community, and assisting the organization with other tasks as needed to make the facility a place where the community can feel comfortable.

The deadline to register is Saturday, September 1. To register, or for more information about this or any of the exciting things happening with Missions at Holy Covenant, please email the Missions Team.

We hope that you will consider joining us, and we look forward to finding ways to help you encounter God in service to others.

Lisa Rothman, Mat Schramm, Sarah Tidwell, Emlyn Torres, and Nathan Voris
Holy Covenant Missions Team

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As someone who grew up in small-town Northwestern Indiana, I am aware of how small things can be seen as insignificant. Of course, that is unfair as many small things have the potential to make a big difference. Many of the ministries we participate in at Holy Covenant are examples of this. I want to take the time to share some of those with you.

BY THE HAND CLUB FOR KIDS
Children like Nesitia and Leon who participate in the By the Hand Club for Kids realize and understand the importance of reading to do well in school, but the resources at By the Hand are limited and donation-based. In 2010, only 24% of their students met or exceeded Illinois reading standards. This past year, 43% of their students met the standards – an 82% improvement! Holy Covenant has offered to help the organization grow their library as their organization grows exponentially. If you have any children’s books (K-12), bring them to Holy Covenant during February-March and put them in the donation box inside the front door. If you’d like a list of their requested books or have questions, email missions@holycovenantumc.org.

RELATIONSHIP AROUND THE TABLE
Dignity Diner needs tables! This Sunday, visit the church gallery and sign up to sponsor a portion of a table so all of our guests can have a place to eat every Tuesday. You can sponsor a chair for $10, or donate what you can to the general fund. Thanks in advance for your help in making sure everyone can sit at the welcome table.

In January, members of Holy Covenant met with guests from Dignity Diner to make crafts together. Join us next Tuesday, February 21 from 7-8 pm in the church basement for another night of crafts as we get to know our regular Dignity Diner guests.

Mat Schramm
Mat is your missions team chair and is passionate about working with to find opportunities for the Holy Covenant community to live out its mission to Seek God, Love All People, Change the World. Do you have ideas about how Holy Covenant can better serve our communities both locally and globally? Want to get involved? Email Mat and the Missions Team at missions@holycovenantumc.org.

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When I was five I was confident I knew where my life was heading, where my talents would lie. I remember telling my mom that I was going to be a bus driver….or a waitress. At 17 while choosing colleges I imagined where my life would take me and I was sure that my calling was to help others and to care for the sick. I was going to be a nurse…until I remember that blood made my nauseous and needles scared the crap out of me. Upon graduation from college? I was going to change the world from the top – I knew I was destined to be a mogul. And at 27 I realized how happy baking made me.

I don’t know why this was such a revelation. I grew up in the kitchen. One of my first memories from childhood was from when I was four or five. I was kneeling on a kitchen chair so that I could reach the counter and I was helping my mother make homemade noodles. In another early memory we were making divinity – that sickly sweet candy of sugar, egg whites and pecans – for the holidays. And I have a scar right here on my chin from the night I was trying to look into the electric skillet to see what my mom was making and I got just a bit too close. My mom and I have always bonded over cooking. The recipes she taught me are some of the same ones her mom taught her. On weekends we’d bake cookies or brownies. We’d make dinner together – Chicken and broccoli au gratin. Mostacolli. Boneless skinless chicken breasts, pan fried until they were crispy, served with canned green beans from grandma’s garden and homemade mashed potatoes.

In fact, I don’t remember not knowing how to cook. It’s always been a big part of who I am. So it wasn’t until I became part of the Holy Covenant family just over a year ago that I realized that not everyone just shows up with a plate of scones and hopes someone will want to eat them. (more…)

Dear Holy Covenant Community,

In front of God and everybody. How many times have you heard that phrase, usually in a less than positive way (Fred skinny dipped in Buckingham Fountain, in front of God and everybody…). Well, ladies and gentleman, I’m here today to take the rain in that phrase and turn it into a rainbow (ow-did I just say that?). Ok, more specifically, I am here to invite you to share your love of music (and who doesn’t love music?) with God and everybody by joining the Holy Covenant Celebration Choir as we prepare this fall to once again blend our voices together in song and worship and praise. There are no auditions, no scales to sing in order to prove your vocal capabilities. Just a love of God, and the aforementioned love of music. There, see? You’re in. All practice materials are posted on the web, we gather on Monday nights to rehearse and then do a short run through on Sunday morning before singing at the 11:15 service. It’s fun, it’s community, it’s worship, and I truly hope you’ll consider it. In front of God and everybody.

Now if you are just not the singing type, there is still room at the musical table for you. We are looking for all manner of musicians to offer their talents during Communion at our 9:30 service. Guitar, violin, flute, kazoo, (ok-probably not kazoo), classical, contemporary-please accept this invitation to offer your gifts to this community.

Finally, if you are more of a behind the scenes person, please consider joining our Audio Visual team. This VIP position takes care of the Powerpoint and simple audio adjustments during our worship services. I’ll tell you everything you need to know (no previous experience necessary), and ideally, with enough folks in rotation, we only ask one service of you a month.

For further communications, questions, and volunteer hand raising, please contact me by e-mail.

peace,

Andrew Collins

Dear Holy Covenant family,

Our hearts are heavy for Haiti, and all those connected to this horrendous tragedy. My thoughts and prayers are with each of you, especially those who are connected to Haiti and waiting to hear from friends and family. As we face this unimaginable disaster, we do so as a family of faith and love. Here are some ways we are responding as a community and you can get involved:

1) Give
On Sunday, we will be taking a special offering for the United Methodist Committee on Relief for their work in Haiti. If you are looking for a way to contribute, consider donating to UMCOR. 100% of your giving goes to relief efforts, and UMCOR is one of the first responders in a disaster and stays long after the immediacy of the crisis. Please make checks out to UMCOR International Disaster Relief Advance #982450, Memo line: Haiti. Or, you can contribute on-line.

2) Assemble Health Kits
One of the ways Holy Covenant is helping right now is by assembling health kits to send to Haiti through UMCOR. Read about this ministry. Emma Cushman Wood is leading Holy Covenant’s effort and you will hear more about this on Sunday. Please contact Emma with questions or to volunteer to help.

3) Pray
As our we grieve, mourn, weep, and seek out ways to act, we also turn to prayer. I offer you this prayer, written by Dr. Pamela Lightsey, in response to the devastation:

O God, we have been stunned once again by an event
Which seems so unnatural and yet is called “natural disaster.”

We have no words to answer the “why” which we feel,
No wisdom to explain away the unexplainable areas of life.

Keep us from attributing this event as a heavenly reprimand,
Or from a certain haughtiness that tempts the distant soul.

Give us to be compassionate and gentle, servants to those in need.
Remind us of your gracious love in the midst of sorrow,
And your ability to work miracles when hope is faint.

We pray for those who suffer in Haiti even now
And for those who await rescue.
For relatives, for the children,
For mothers and fathers,
Sisters and brothers,
Grandparents, aunts and cousins.
For the survivors who question what more they might have done.
And for those who must keep on keeping on, in spite of.
For the leaders,
For those who bring aid
And those who await news.
Strengthen and encourage them we pray.

Now unto you, O God, we take the burdens of this hour and place them in your divine care.
For all you do and are doing, seen and unseen, we give thee thanks, Eternal God of All Creation.
Amen.

Grace and Peace,
Kate