Bethel’s Social Justice Forums

Bethel’s Social Justice Forums

Come meet with Bethel’s Social Justice Advocacy Team on Sunday, July 23, 11:30-12:30 in the Narthex Room to help plan this fall’s Social Justice Forums. Past forums have provided information on homelessness, affordable housing, the 2016 ballot measures, The New Jim Crow, and immigration. So far, suggested topics for our fall forums include health care, disability discrimination, housing/evictions, sexual assault prevention, and Israel/Palestine.

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Beaverton Community Rummage Sale and Music Fundraiser

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Beaverton Community Rummage Sale and Music Fundraiser

Bethel's Rummage Sale

Bethel’s Rummage Sale this year will be held on Friday, October 6 and Saturday, October 7. As in the past, proceeds from this sale will benefit our music program. Donated items may be brought to the church Monday and Tuesday, (October 2 and 3) between the hours of NOON and 8 PM. If you need assistance with your donations, please contact George Patch at 2lula@frontier.net or (503) 625-0910.

PLEASE NOTE: The Monday and Tuesday hours are a departure from previous years. Volunteers will start working at noon, rather than 9 AM, so that donations can be received later in the evening. We are hoping that the later evening hours (to accommodate those working during the day) will also mean more volunteers to help with this enormous undertaking of sorting and pricing, or to help during the actual sale, on Friday and Saturday. Last year during the sale, at times, we were swamped with customers and there weren’t enough workers (critical to the success of the rummage sale).

If you can volunteer for any amount of time, please contact our volunteer coordinators, Carolyn Rundorff at carolyn@rundorff.com or Cathy Thoma at cdthoma4@comcast.net. Thank you for your contributions to Bethel’s Music Program!

80+ Birthday Celebration

You are cordially invited to a 80+ Birthday Celebration on Sunday, July 30 at 10:00 am Service & 11:15 am Fellowship Time. Bethel will honor all our Elders who are Celebrating their 80th (or up!) Birthday with a Special Worship Service and Fellowship Time! If you would like to be part of the worship service call BETHEL at 503-646-1191, ask for Beth, or leave a message. We will be having Birthday Cake and Tea Sandwiches in your honor. Please join us!

Lynne Elbert, on behalf of the Diaconate, Staff and Membership of Bethel

Pride Northwest 2017 Impressions

Pride Northwest 2017 Impressions

Bethel showed its gay pride last Sunday with over 20 marchers representing our open and affirming church at the Pride NW parade in Portland.  The only dreary signs were the morning clouds - everything else around us glittered with rainbow colors.  The spirit of the event matched our identity and mission as a welcoming congregation.  Warm smiles, words of encouragement, feelings of shared values, and sheer joy knit us together as an affirming community.  
 
I was impressed with the rich diversity of our Bethel contingent:

Gay Pride and LGBTQ Allies Show Support

Gay Pride and LGBTQ Allies Show Support

This is a great opportunity on Pride Sunday to talk about why it is that we practice a theology of inclusiveness or a theology of inclusion. There are a couple of reasons why we intentionally affirm, why we're an open and affirming congregation, why we're a progressive Church that believes that it's important to welcome, to affirm, to love, and to incorporate folks from the LGBTQ community into the life of our church, the full life of our church

We practice this radical inclusivity because that's how Jesus lived out his ministry. In his teachings there are a plethora of examples...

Bethel Shows LGBTQ Pride

The annual Portland Pride Parade will happen THIS Sunday, June 18 in downtown Portland. We would like a robust presence from Bethel to join with our sister UCC congregations. Pastor David will march again this year. Plan on meeting at Bethel at 8:45 AM to ride the MAX downtown. Click on the link to read about our participation: http://pamplinmedia.com/pt/9-news/362840-242869-lgbtq-friendly-church-to-march-in-pride-parade

Immigrant Rights Presentations

Bethel will host two presentations on immigrant rights on Sunday, June 11, in the Education Hall. John Herrera, Program Manager of Immigration Legal Services at Catholic Charities, will present in English at 11:45 AM and in Spanish at 12:45 PM. The public is invited, including Bethel’s members, friends, ESL students, and Food Cupboard clients.

Bethel Weekly Highlights

Bethel Shows Its Pride

The annual Portland Pride Parade will happen Sunday, June 18 in downtown Portland. We would like a robust presence from Bethel to join with our sister UCC congregations. Pastor David will march again this year. We had about 10 folks from Bethel last year. Can we double that this year? If you would like to walk in our Bethel group, please email Neomie Lemke who has offered to help coordinate this effort. We need one more coordinator and advocate for this important witness. Details about the spot in the parade, when and where to meet will be announced after June 1st. Sign ups will be at church on Sunday!

Bethel Weekly Highlights

Building Bethel: A Place to Call Home

For the next couple of Sundays, we are going to be building a representation of our church home and we need YOUR help! In the Narthex before service and in the Fellowship Hall after service, there will be Lincoln Logs (yes, we get to play with Lincoln Logs!) Please think about what makes Bethel feel like "home" to you and then write that word on one of the small logs. We will use those logs to "build" our home with all the qualities you write.

We will also have a basket of logs in the office if you are here during the week and would like to write on one of the logs.

Let's have some family fun!

Sunday Morning Announcement PowerPoint Slide Preparer Volunteer Job Description

PowerPoint 2013 Logo

Sunday Morning Announcement Slide Preparer

Job Description

The Sunday Morning Announcement Slide Preparer (the Preparer) is responsible for preparing a PowerPoint presentation containing one slide for each article published in Bethel Highlights the Friday preceding Sunday worship and sending this slide presentation electronically to the pastor, the program coordinator, the Bethel Facebook administrator, and the other slide preparer(s) in a timely fashion each week. The Preparer will need to be able to summarize the Highlight’s articles since the amount of material in Highlights is often much greater than the amount one can present on a slide. The Preparer should have a working knowledge of PowerPoint software and, ideally, experience using it, including facility in choosing backgrounds, fonts, and images appropriate to the church year, the calendar year, and/or the current worship theme or emphasis. Attention to detail is critical. The task includes setting up the slide show, including looping and timing the slides.  In most cases the slide show should last no more than 3.5 minutes so that it can repeat 3 times during the 10 minutes before worship. Meeting this restriction may involve making judgements about how long each slide will appear and also what material to omit, if necessary. The Preparer must have sufficient time available on Friday and/or Saturday to complete the task.