Have you had a chance to check out the Green Challenge Vine at the Chapel?

This vine made of recycled materials is an installation in progress. It will grow and
evolve over the course of year, until Easter 2013, as members and visitors of the
Chapel participate in the Green Team Challenge.

The Chapel’s Green Team has outlined ways ULC members can lessen their burden onthe Earth and its resources by providing a list of earth-friendly changes they can make in their lives. The challenges include tasks such as walking to work instead of driving, drying clothes on a clothesline instead of using the dryer, using a compost bin, and getting a Home Energy audit. You may already be doing a lot of these things, but there are certain to be some new challenges that you can incorporate into your life.

Each week, members who have made these changes are encouraged to find the Green Team representative with the clipboard and mark down the challenges they have accomplished during the week.

A leaf for each challenge completed will be added to the vine to represent the collective progress we are making to help preserve the Earth.

We hope the vine will grow so fast that it eventually covers the Chapel wall with its leaves. And, we hope that this year-long Green Challenge will shine a light on how we all can be better stewards of God’s Creation.

Children sometimes ask us “Aren’t Lutheran people Christian?”

In The Little Lutheran Barbara Jurgensen answers:

Do you have a favorite flavor of ice cream? My favorites are butter pecan and pralines and cream. There are lots of other great flavors: chocolate, almond crunch, vanilla, peach, strawberry, cherry nut, chocolate chunk, raspberry — to name just a few. And all are delicious.

It is the same with churches. There are Presbyterian, Methodist, Roman Catholic, United Church of Christ, Episcopal, African Methodist Episcopal, Pentecostal, Reformed, Quakers, Church of the Brethren, Lutheran and many others.

They are all part of our Lord’s church here on earth. Any church that wants to follow Jesus as their Lord and do what he wants them to do is a Christian church. It’s the same with people: any person who looks to Jesus as their Lord and Savior and wants to follow him is a Christian.

You might enjoy visiting a church that is different from your own. We can learn things from other churches because we are all brothers and sisters in our Lord’s big family.

One of the reasons we have so many different denominations in the U.S. is that many of them began in other countries where they spoke a different language.

When people came over from Germany they built churches where they could worship in German. People fromPoland needed to worship in Polish, and people from Mexico, the Caribbean and some South American countries in Spanish. But we are all one in our Lord. The church is Jesus’ church, and we need to make everyone welcome.

There also can be other reasons why the various denominations formed. For instance, some people wanted to place more emphasis on God the Father, some on Jesus and some on the Spirit. Some wanted their worship geared more toward the intellect, and others more toward the heart.

Christ’s passion, death, and resurrection are held together in one liturgy lasting three days (triduum).

The liturgy of the Three Days begins on Maundy Thursday with an act of confession and absolution. This year, we revive the practice of  footwashing, reiterating Jesus’ sign of communal love. “Mandatum,” the “command” to love, is the source of the term Maundy. This eucharist recalls Jesus’ last meal with his disciples, and concludes with a stripping of the sanctuary of all adornment, in preparation for Good Friday.

In ancient times the second part of the Three Day Liturgy was called the Triumph of the Cross. English speakers now call the day Good Friday (originally “God’s Friday”) because we know the end of the story, the resurrection.  The service concludes when at the foot of the life-giving cross we pray for everyone and everything on earth and engage in a ritual of reverence for the cross on which hung Christ, the Savior of the whole world.

Forgotten by most Christians for about 1400 years, the Easter Vigil has been restored to its rightful place as the central worship service of the year. We gather outside to light a great fire and light the new paschal candle, praising the risen Christ as our light. We conclude this three-day triduum liturgy with the first holy communion of Easter, and we get to once again sing alleluia again.

Maundy Thursday
Apr 5 @ 7:30 pm liturgy with foot washing, meal at 6:30 pm (bring a potluck dish!)

Good Friday
Apr 6 @ 7 pm

Easter Vigil
Apr 7 @ 9 pm with brunch at midnight (bring bells for the celebration!)

After a busy weekend things have slowed down a little for us at the Chapel, but not for our friends who are walking across country in support of the Campaign for an American Dream. 

In their first week they trudged mile after mile through heavy rains and finally arrived at the State Capitol where they received a standing ovation from legislators. Sadly Jose had to leave the walkers in order to attend his Deportation Court Date. We are with him in our thoughts and prayers as he defends himself and his right to stay in his home country.

The other five walkers have arrived at Lake Tahoe and are facing much colder temperatures and snow in the Sierras. We are planning on having them call in at the Chapel so we can hear of their most recent stories. Take a look at their blog which is full of adventures and deep reflections, as well as lighthearted and funny encounters with mud puddles, blisters, and piglets.

You can also connect with them on Twitter and Facebook. We are also tracking their progress the “old school”, with a non-digital paper map, sticky notes, and push pins on the big pin board downstairs. Take a look next time you are at the Chapel!

This Sunday (March 25th) we will celebrate the Baptism of Vivienne Frieda Fernanda Grantham.

In Vivienne’s honor, a special luncheon will be held following liturgy (at 11 am), sponsored by Vivienne’s grandparents, Jim and Rebecca Shields.

We are very excited for Vivienne, her parents, and grandparents and are looking forward to celebrating with them this coming Sunday. Everyone is invited to stay for the luncheon!

Blessings to Vivienne, her parents Issabella and Ted, and the rest of her family who will be joining us for this exciting day.

We are very excited to host Syrian nonviolence advocate and Muslim scholar Jawdat Said at the Chapel this coming Monday, March 19 at 12pm.

Jawdat Said will be speaking on the crisis in Syria, reformist Islam, and nonviolent interpretations of the Koran. He holds degrees in Arabic Literature and educa- tion from universities in Cairo, Egypt where he witnessed the violent confrontation between the Muslim Brotherhood and the secular government of Egyptian President Gamal Abd an-Nasser.  His initial reaction gradually became an intellectual orientation based on the idea that violence is in contradiction to humanity and that coercion should be removed completely from the realm of ideas. Said’s principles were tested when he served obligatory military service in 1959. Altogether, Said has been imprisoned five times for his political and religious views.

Come meet Jawdat Said and learn from his views and experiences, this coming Monday, March 19 at 12pm.

On Monday we had the opportunity to meet the walkers for the Campaign for an American Dream. After sharing a fabulous meal complete with homemade berry cobbler and stone-ground fair-trade chocolate, we gathered to listen to the stories of the four walkers.

Lucas shared how he grew up in this country since he was 12 months old, never thinking that he was any “less American” than any of his friends. English is his first language and he excelled in school as a straight A student. When he learned that he was undocumented at age 16, his entire world collapsed.

Jonatan told his story of dreaming of “jumping out of helicopters into the ocean” as a search and rescue diver in the military. His eyes sparkled as he relived his excitement walking into the recruiters office at age 17. His shock, disappointment and despair at being told he was “illegal” was devastating. Jonatan also recounted heartbreaking stories from his time in a detention center.

Raymi was born in the US to a family of mixed statuses. She recounted her family being turned in to immigration and nearly torn apart. Her love for her siblings runs deep and she relived her nightmare of loved ones being torn from their homes possibly never to be seen again.

Nico shared not only his experiences living in a community dominated by fear, he also told of the tragedies he experienced in his family. Nico describes himself as undocumented, unafraid, and queer. He has come through facing rejection by his family when coming out and then loosing his mother to cancer. His perseverance and courage now lead him to inspire others and fight for human rights.

Hearing the stories of these four remarkable  individuals was deeply moving and we all went through a number of tissues. We are grateful and proud to support them in their fight and are looking to the kick-off event this Saturday, March 10th.

How much we really know about the coffee we drink? We consume over 2 billion pounds of coffee beans and every one of those beans is hand-picked.

The link below shows the process of growing coffee from hand-picking the beans to roasting them. Here at the Chapel we use only Fair Trade coffee.

From Crop to Cup

Fair Trade helps farmers and artisans build a better future for themselves, their families and their communities. By supporting Fair Trade, we make choices in line with our faith values and affirm human dignity.

This Sunday we are offering Fair Trade coffee, tea, chocolate, and other foods from our Fair Trade Mercado at the Chapel right after eucharist  at 11am. Come join us for worship and enjoy a cup of Fair Trade coffee this Sunday!

YES!  is a magazine that will help to change your life.  I know that it has mine!

The most recent issue addresses the immense power corporations have come to wield over our lives and steps you can take to fight back.  Sara van Gelder, the Executive Editor of YES!  writes that “Most of us know corporations have too much power. Eighty percent of Americans oppose Citizens United, the Supreme Court ruling that opened the floodgates to corporate campaign contributions. But challenging the power of Wall Street and big corporations seems impossible precisely because they have so much wealth and power.   For the spring issue of YES!, our editors set out to find the best strategies for putting We the People in charge. Because otherwise it will be difficult—perhaps impossible—to address joblessness, the climate crisis, insolvent state and local governments, corrupted elections, and financial schemes that siphon off money and resources from the 99 percent.”

We will have copies of this magazine available for you at the Chapel over the next couple of weeks.  Make sure you pick up one and subscribe!

Lucas, Jonaton, Nico and Raymi have arrived at the Chapel this week to set up an office and to prepare for their walk across the country beginning March 10th.  The are a part of the Campaign for an American Dream which has as a mission “to walk across the nation from San Francisco to D.C. creating dialogue around the passage of the DREAM Act and immigration reform with the values of equality, unity, and diversity. We believe all people are equal, all those who are oppressed should be united, and our daily lives and the Campaign itself highlight diversity.

“The community will come together March 10, 2012 to join in a walk across the nation from the Golden Gate Bridge to Washington D.C. with the aspirations of creating productive dialogue around the plight of undocumented youth in small towns and big cities along the route. Educating communities and opening spaces where all people can come together and discuss the opportunities of seeing all youth properly included into our American society via the passage of the DREAM Act and immigration reform. We are willing to walk the nearly 3,000 mile trek from the Pacific to the Atlantic. Are you willing to support us? Will you stand in solidarity with us?  Let’s walk and talk.”

Read up on each of the walkers on their website, and join the Chapel community in welcoming these courageous young men and in blessing them as they begin their journey on March 10th.