Bethel Weekly Highlights

Toc Soneoulay-Gillespie and John Herrera of Oregon Catholic Charities will speak at Bethel’s Social Justice Forum THIS Sunday, March 26, at 11:30 AM. They will address a variety of immigration topics, including issues faced by refugees and legal and illegal/undocumented immigrants, sanctuary, and the latest travel ban.

Ms. Soneoulay-Gillespie, Refugee Resettlement Program Director, was born to Laotian parents in a Thai refugee camp. Her family moved to the US when she was four. Mr. Herrera, Director of Immigration Legal Services, first encountered Catholic Charities when seeking asylum following his work in the legal field in Colombia. Catholic Charities provides one of the most widely respected immigrant- and refugee-support programs in Oregon.

Beaverton HS Homeless Students Fed Over Spring Break

Bethel Congregational United Church of Christ provided food and supplies for 40 Beaverton High School homeless families over spring break. Each family received seven bags of groceries including a backpack with personal items. Watch the video on KPTV.com.

Adult Education Sunday Morning at 9:00 AM

During the Lenten Journey the morning class will be exploring “Gifts of the Dark Wood” by Eric Elnes with Video and discussion from the Darkwood Brew study series. Have you failed recently? Do you feel lost, or like the road ahead is unclear? Are you ever tempted? Do you find any part of your life exhausting? Do you feel out of place among your peers, or society at large? Based on the themes explored in the book this video/discussion series explores the proposition that our best help on life’s journey often comes from the most unlikely and misunderstood of places: a place known famously, or infamously, as the Dark Wood. March 26: The Gift of Disappearing, video from chapter 7. April 2: The Gift of Misfits, video from chapter 8. April 9: Where we go from Here, video from chapter 9.

Holy Week 2017

Holy Week Dates for 2019:

Palm Sunday, April 5
Maundy Thursday April 9
Good Friday, April 10
Easter Sunday April 12

Bethel Congregational United Church of Christ begins the celebration of Holy Week with a very special Palm Sunday service culminating in a beautiful celebration of Easter and the risen Christ followed by a fun Easter egg hunt for all ages. You and your family are invited to join us for any and all of the Holy Week activities.

Palm Sunday - April 9 at 10:00 AM

We will gather at the Front entrance of the church and in the Narthex for a congregational procession into the sanctuary with palms waving! Director of Music, Owen Hofmann-Smith has prepared a processional song for all ages. Beth Astarte will offer a dramatization of the first Palm Sunday with a “character from the crowd.” Worship will conclude with the building and procession of the cross (made from the trunks of our Christmas trees).

Maundy Thursday - April 13 at 7:30 PM

The Maundy Thursday worship service draws its purpose and themes from historical events that our Christian tradition believed happened on the Thursday before Easter. It is a reenactment of the Last Supper. “Maundy” is the English form of the Latin word meaning commandment. Jesus’ new commandment, “Love one another as I have loved you”, is the focus of Maundy Thursday.

Good Friday “Walk of the Cross” - April 14 at 10:00 AM

Bethel will once again serve as the gathering place for the Walk. The Walk is a one mile pilgrimage through downtown Beaverton, with stops at several different “stations”. Each station examines a different aspect of Life, Peace and Justice through Scripture, personal witness and prayer. Representatives from various churches will lead us to each station. Walking between the stations, participants will carry a large cross to remind them of the cross that Jesus carried over 2000 years ago and which is still being carried today. The Walk of the cross is a great way to identify with Jesus’ historic walk, to consider the “crosses” of social justice to which Christ continues to call us, and to sing and pray with sisters and brothers from various Christian traditions.

Bethel Weekly Highlights


We will be providing food for Spring Break for 40 homeless students at Beaverton High School. Sunday, March 19 after Faith Cafe we will move the food to the Fellowship Hall. Assembly and delivery day will be Monday, March 20. Volunteers are needed for the following tasks: 9:00 am - Bagging food; 10:15 am - Driving for delivery.

Bethel Weekly Highlights

“On both side of the river is the tree of life…; and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.” Rev. 22:2b

Much about our nation and the other nations of the world is broken. The same is true in our personal lives. We yearn for healing. Recognizing this yearning for healing and wholeness in a broken world, Bethel is offering a healing worship service on Sunday, March 12 at 2:00 PM. There will be quiet prayer, soothing music, and the option of anointing with oil for healing. Whether your concerns are for society, for your family, or for your own life, you are invited to come to experience God’s loving presence and power to strengthen, guide, and uphold you. All are welcome and encouraged to attend.

Bethel Weekly Highlights

Guest speaker Jo Ann Hardesty, President of the Portland NAACP, will speak at Bethel's Social Justice Forum THIS Sunday, February 26 at 11:30 AM. The forum will focus on the award-winning book “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness,” by Michelle Alexander, which describes how the War on Drugs and associated racial bias in laws, policing, courts, prison systems, media, and government programs continue to devastate black communities with many of the same problems seen in the Jim Crow era.

Hardesty served in the United States Navy and was elected to the Oregon House in 1994, holding office until 2001. She later served as executive director of Oregon Action and became president of the Portland chapter of the NAACP in January 2015. She provides consultation and training on a wide variety of social justice issues, including a 6-hour workshop on how to "Organize a Movement to End the New Jim Crow."

Click for the latest news on Oregon's "Unequal Justice" system featuring Jo Ann Hardesty.

Bethel Weekly Highlights

Discussion of “The New Jim Crow” by Michelle Alexander is underway now at 9:00 AM on Sundays, and it's not too late to join in. Books are available in the church office for $12.00.

February 12, 2017 Chapters 4 & 5

These chapters illustrate that overt racial hostility is not the most insidious attribute of this process of otherization.

Dehumanization: What happens when we begin to view people as less than human, as shameful or characterless? What parallels between the “get tough” movement aimed at immigrants and the “get tough” laws aimed at African Americans?

Human Rights: Laws that discriminate in employment, housing, education, and public benefits make it difficult if not impossible, for people to find work in the legal economy, and greatly increase the likelihood of repeated offence. Are these laws necessary? Under what circumstances? In certain professions? For how long?

Shame, White Privilege and Human Failings: What can we do to address the shame and self-hatred that keeps communities impacted by mass incarceration divided? What can be done to cultivate more concern, understanding, and cooperation across racial lines? As we are all sinners and have failings, do you agree that in order to end mass incarceration, a cultural shift is needed? Do you agree that mass incarceration is rooted in racial indifference – a lack of care and concern across lines of race and class?

Bethel Weekly Highlights

How are you doing using your non-violent communication skills as you talk to people about the current state of the nation? If you are feeling challenged in listening with a compassionate heart, then join us the 2nd and 4th Mondays from 7-8:30 pm for a Compassionate Communication Practice Group. We'll review the concepts and then work as a group to support each other in practicing and using the skills. Beth Astarte, Jean Doane and Patti Matson will take turns facilitating. The first group will meet on Monday, February 13 at 7 pm in the Narthex Conference Room.