Remembering the Connections We have Lost in our Conference

Every year, during Friday night Worship, we pause to remember by name those who we have died over the last year. These are people who we have valued connecting with in our Conference over the years. We pause to reflect on their accomplishments and service in our Conference -- and the value of their friendship. We pause to see how their presence helped to point so many in a direction of hope and faith.

Watch and listen...again to these remembrances.

Every Stitch Tells a Story: A Worldview Workshop

Mary Maxwell led this workshop on Friday afternoon. Thanks to Kizzie Jones for providing the video of this workshop.

This workshop invites you to a trip around the world, a "trunk show" of colorful studio art quilts illustrating stories based on memories of world travel and living overseas (Saipan, Mariana Islands, Ecuador, and Nepal). She expresses her ambivalence with the changes in the traditional life of indigenous people that have resulted from development and concern about the direction the world is headed. She served as a docent at the Portland Art Museum since returning to the U.S. after four years as a Global missionary in Kathmandu. Mary Maxwell is a retired oncology nurse from the Portland Veterans Hospital.

She has served as a UCC global missionary, teaching nursing in Kathmandu. She has lived and traveled worldwide collecting ethnic textiles and creating colorful textile art inspired by her travels. She has created fiber art based on the changes in the traditional life of indigenous people that have resulted from development and contemporary global issues.

Da Vita MacCallister Friday Workshop

Our first chance at Annual Meeting to meet Rev. Da Vita MacCallister, Connecticut Conference Associate Minister for youth and young adults was Friday afternoon during this workshop.

Here are the PowerPoint Slides that go with this workshop

Friday Night Worship Bulletin

The Music and Sermon from Friday night have been posted on this Blog. Here is the Bulletin for that worship.

Friday Worship Bulletin

All the Friday Night Worship Music

Here is all the spectacular music from Friday night Annual Meeting worship in one playlist.



More videos are coming..over the next few days....keep your eyes on this Blog.

Pelicans and Grasshoppers: Da Vita Friday Sermon

Are you a grasshopper or Pelican? If you never considered it, this sermon will have you asking yourself and others.

friday worship: sermon from PNC UCC on Vimeo.

Friday Night Worship: Music Part 1

The videos will start rolling....here is the first video of Friday night worship...some of the exquisite music..more to come.

Friday Workshop: The Moses Project

Brooks Brandt talks about how a church and a child advocacy organization partnered for social action.



Thanks to photojournalist Ed Evans for the video clip!

David Domke: On the Grid 12/7

Live Streaming right now.... University of Washington professor David Domke leads a workshop about the "On the Grid...how we live in this connected world" Tune in!

Annual Meeting Live

Dynamic & Diverse Workshops

I wandered the halls of University Congregational UCC during this first workshop time at the 2011 Annual Meeting. Yes, I missed the full experience of any of these workshops as popped around. But...I got a sense of the various subjects and energies of the workshops.

Right now in the Sanctuary, Da Vita MacCallister our keynote speaker is entertaining us with very serious discussion about how we include all in worship and church when we come from so many different generations and styles of communicating. How do we respect all and give a full church experience to all? Da Vita helps us to learn to understand those who relate in a different way than I do.

As I walked around, I saw workshops about who we are in the UCC and how we are structured. I encountered justice discussions around "Closet Activism", as well as OWL sexuality curriculum, managing the finances of our churches, and the one that makes me self-conscious....Interplay Body Movement and expressing. That was the only group that I asked for permission to take some pictures. They were kind enough to say Yes.

I wish I had heard the Food, Faith, and Justice workshop -- can anyone tell me what that was all about?

More to Come...

Brandon Welcomes Everyone

Thanks Brandon for such a warm welcome -- expressing the wonder and meaning of our living together in Covenant. Did you know that this is the first Annual Meeting on the Westside in more than a decade.

Rodger Nishioka Opening Worship Sermon

The 2010 Annual Meeting Keynoter was Rodger Nishioka. The Keynote address was Saturday morning but first we were introduced to Rodger in the Friday night opening worship as he was the preacher. Enjoy his sermon and in a few days we will post his keynote speech.

Rodger Nishioka Opening Worship Sermon from PNC UCC on Vimeo.

Prayer to Close Friday Plenary

A few people have asked for a copy of the prayer Andy CastroLang shared at the closing of the Friday Plenary.



Andy began: "From a wise old man...."

Let me make an uncommonly honest confession. In the course of a half century, I have seen more Christian corruption than you have read of. I have tasted it. I have been reasonably corrupt myself, and yet, I joy in this church-- this living, pulsing, sinning people of God-- love it with a crucifying passion. Why? For all the Christian hate, I experience here a community of love. For all the individual repressions, I breathe here an air of freedom. For all the fear of sex. I discover here the redemption of my body. In an age so inhuman, I touch here tears of compassion. In a world so grim and humorless, I share here rich joy and earthy laughter. In the midst of death, I hear here an incomparable stress on life. For all the apparent absence of God, I sense here the real presence of Christ.

Walter J. Burghardt, SJ