Gaza Ceasefire Pilgrimage

MINISTRY OF SOCIAL JUSTICE & OUTREACH
Saturday, March 23rd, 2024
This Saturday, March 23rd, the day before Palm Sunday, UCC Congregations and others will join together to walk/roll along the shores of the Mississippi River as part of a global pilgrimage calling for a permanent ceasefire, release of hostages and political prisoners, life-saving aid, and a just peace in Israel/Palestine. One of the lead sponsors of the larger Gaza Ceasefire Pilgrimage movement taking place during Lent is Churches for Middle East Peace (CMEP), supported by the United Church of Christ. Funds raised by this local pilgrimage will benefit CMEP's ongoing advocacy efforts to support just peace in the Middle East, and particularly in Israel/Palestine.

The total distance of the Twin Cities pilgrimage is approximately 22 miles (Brooklyn Park to Fort Snelling), the distance Palestinians traveled while fleeing from Gaza City to Rafah at the start of the war. We (and Mayflower Church) will start at Faith Mennonite Church in the Seward Neighborhood of Minneapolis at 1:30pm. We’ll continue to 176 N Mississippi Blvd, and then onward to Minnehaha Falls. See the full route, schedule, and sign up at https://www.peacecatalyst.org/gcpilgrimage-davis

Save the Date for Church Camp!

MINISTRY OF FAITH FORMATION
August 2, 3, 4 | Registration Link Arriving in April
You are cordially invited to save the date for Church Camp at Camp Onomia on August 2-4. Camp Onomia is a beautiful retreat center in Onamia, MN with incredible lake views and plenty of space to explore and enjoy nature. It's also a time to conect with other friends of the SPUCC community with plenty of time to build new friendships and continue to nurture exiting ones. Camp is also a very family oriented time for children and youth to make friends with their peers and to have plenty of intergenerational interaction. A registration link will be available in April. 

Volunteer Opportunities from Interfaith Action

MINISTRY OF SOCIAL JUSTICE AND OUTREACH
Department of Indian Work
We are in need of at least 2-3 volunteers 1x per month on every fourth Friday (the first one being Friday, March 1st) from 10am-1pm (or so) to help with our Elders Lodge delivery orders. The volunteers would shop already completed order forms and bag them up, label them and get them ready for delivery. If you're interested, please reach out to Emergency Services Manager Theresa Halvorson-Lee at 651-789-3864 or Thalvorson-lee@interfaithaction.org . We are collecting food items to keep our pantry stocked! The most needed items right now are: cereals, cooking and baking items, side dish items and snacks, and gluten-free, low-sodium, or organic items. You can drop off donations during food shelf hours which you can find here on our website.

Project Home
We are still collecting winter gear for families at Project Home through our Adopt-a-Family program. Please click HERE for more information and to sign up to provide winter gear for families. 

Faithful Hospitality (NEW!)
At the end of this month, Interfaith Action will launch Faithful Hospitality, an initiative to provide mobile shelter to help Hennepin County shelters deal with an overflow of families experiencing homelessness. We are looking for overnight shelter host volunteers to provide warmth and hospitality to guests. Overnight hosts are on duty 7pm-7am weekdays and 7pm-8am weekends. Please reference the attached volunteer flyer and volunteer position description for more information. Details can be found here on our website. Ready to sign up? Please fill out our volunteer form HERE.

School Tools Drive

Donations Due Monday, August 14th
MINISTRY OF SOCIAL JUSTICE & OUTREACH
The School Tools Drive is an easy way to join together with area faith communities and organizations to help children in our community who are affected by poverty. Each year, we collect new backpacks and school essentials to benefit children from families with low-income who are served through nine different programs in Greater Saint Paul. Annually faith communities, businesses, and individuals collect more than $24,000 of school supplies to fill hundreds backpacks! St. Paul's UCC is the host site once again this year!

SUPPLIES NEEDED Backpacks, 3-ring binders, loose-leaf paper and folders, Calculators, Spiral and composition notebooks, Pencils, pens, markers, colored pencils, crayons, erasers, highlighters, pencil sharpeners, Glue sticks & bottles, Scissors & rulers, Facial tissue, School boxes, Hand sanitizer, Reusable masks

Place your donations in the Narthex by the School Tools Drive Sign - you have until August 14th! Monetary donations are used to purchase needed supplies not collected at the drive. Click here to donate online. Make sure to choose the "School Tools Drive" fund in our giving page drop down menu.  

St. Paul’s UCC Drop-Site for HAFA CSA again this Year

EARTHWISE CREATION JUSTICE
St. Paul’s UCC will serve as a CSA (community supported agriculture) drop-site again this year. As with last year, we will be a drop-site for the Hmong American Farm Association (HAFA) CSA. You can learn more about them and sign up at https://www.hmongfarmers.com/csa. Don’t delay: the official deadline for the spring season is May 1, with first pick-up, May 17. Our drop-site location may fill before that, so be sure to sign up soon to ensure you can get weekly boxes of great produce delivered every Wednesday. HAFA offers vegetable boxes – as full or half shares – for 3 “seasons”: spring (4 weeks), summer (12 weeks), and fall (6 weeks). You can sign up for any of these seasons right now. Note: a HAFA representative explained that during the summer a “half” share is about 2/3 of a full share, and during the fall season a “half” share is about 3/4 of a full share. A flower share is also offered in the summer and fall seasons.

Those who have used HAFA in the past have felt that the produce is outstanding! If you have questions, please contact Laura Michelson, who will serve as a drop site coordinator this year, at 651-343-3649 or lmichelson8402@msn.com.

Pack the Pews! March is MN Foodshare Month

MINISTRY OF SOCIAL JUSTICE AND OUTREACH
This March St. Paul’s UCC and St. Paul’s Childhood Center are partnering to collect food and funds for the Department of Indian Work Emergency Food Shelf at Interfaith Action. This food drive is part of the MN FoodShare March Campaign, which brings together organizations, businesses, faith communities, and individuals to help stock and support the capacity of nearly 300 food shelves.

Food donations can be left in the back pews of the sanctuary March 5-26 as we “Pack the Pews” with our extravagant generosity. Checks can be mailed to the church office by March 26 with “MN Food Share” in the memo line or donate online using the "MN Food Share" in the fund dropdown.  

Honoring Music for Black History Month

Many of the beloved spirituals that we sing in worship were never credited to their creators. Over time, the names of the enslaved people who created these songs have been lost, and their music claimed by other individuals or declared to be public domain. To honor these musical creators, who were kept as chattel slavery, and to offer a measure of reparation to their descendants, Saint Paul's UCC will be making a donation to a local non-profit organization whose mission is to offer holistic transformation for young African-American men experiencing inequity at the intersection of race and poverty. 

Summit Avenue Artisan Festival

The halls were fulled with cheer Saturday, December 3rd. We enjoyed our 13th annual Summit Avenue Artisan Festival. We had over 600 attendees, 40 vendors, crafts for children, Santa and smiling faces through and through. Throughout the event we heard that this was such a happy and welcoming place. Thank you vendors for being a part of our special day. Thank you staff and volunteers that worked tirelessly to confirm vendors, volunteers and silent auction items. It was a wonderful fun-filled festive event!

Thanks for Giving!

On Sunday, November 13th, we celebrated with a special postlude, and a "Thanks For Giving" Lunch, hosted by the Stewardship Committee. If you were unable to make it click here to view the service online. We celebrated after worship with a Thanks for Giving lunch in honor of all those that submitted a 2023 Pledge. Click here to learn more about our 2023 Shared Giving, Extravagant Welcome Campaign.

Notice Nature Project

EARTHWISE-CREATION JUSTICE

God's beautiful creation surrounds us! Connecting to nature brings us closer to God. Sharing our connections with each other reminds us of the richness and diversity of creation, deepening our connections to one another. You are invited to share your connection to nature through any way you choose:  words, photos, fabric, music, objects etc.  For more instructions and ideas, pick up a handout from an usher or the Notice Nature Collection Basket in the Narthex. Add your name to your work and place it in the Collection Basket or email it to Tracie Olson Payne at tapayne58@gmail.com. Your submission gives SPUCC permission to use the image or written piece in digital and/or printed publications (perhaps a nature book). A compilation of entries can be found here. 

Introducing Azure Anderson! 

Azure will be leading the alto section in the Sanctuary Choir while Stephanie Litz, who is expecting her first child in December, is out on parental leave. In addition to singing with the SPUCC Sanctuary choir, Azure is a member of the VocalEssence Chorus. She is also an artist in her spare time, creating digital pieces for her husband Satish’s fantasy novels, as well as book binding and drawing. She lives in Minneapolis with her husband and two cats, Mouse and Myles.

Juneteenth Celebration

Sunday, June 19th, we will celebrate Juneteenth, which is now a Federal Holiday. Last year, President Biden signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act, making it the first new federal holiday since Martin Luther King Jr. Day was added in 1983. Juneteenth is also known as Freedom Day or Jubilee Day, gaining more awareness among white communities in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement, and George Floyd's murder in 2020. June 19, 1865 was the date the last slaves were freed in Galveston, Texas -- it took soldiers over two months to reach them after the Civil War ended on April 9, 1865.

While we should acknowledge that we are late in coming to the table, and understanding this history, we also should not avoid engagement because of our discomfort. We will carefully honor what this day means for our black siblings, and name our own privilege in previously being ignorant to its importance in our nation's history. Juneteenth is a joyful and sacred day that celebrates the full humanity, freedom, wisdom, spirituality, and experience of black people in America. It is worthy of our time and attention this Sunday!

-Rev. Sarah Brouwer, Lead Minister

Remembering for Change

Today, May 25, 2022 is the two year anniversary of George Floyd's murder. I spent two hours yesterday, along with Amber Dallman, on a meeting about public safety for the Building the Beloved Community Public Safety Project through Interfaith Action. We were all reminded of this important work that is slow, but inching toward more justice. I hope you can find a way to remember today, whether through prayer or action.

And, as we remember this, we think of the shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas that happened just yesterday. Nineteen children and two teachers are dead, and this comes after a slew of other shootings in the last week and a half. Let's join the deepest part of our hearts together to hold that community close in God's embrace. They will surely need it. Kyrie Eleison (“Lord, have mercy”).

To you, God's people, the peace that passes all understanding,
Rev. Sarah Brouwer
Lead Minister, St. Paul's United Church of Christ

Church Camp

Come away with us to Camp Onomia in Onamia, MN (just 90 miles north of St. Paul) August 12-14. Click here to register! Members and friends of our congregation are all welcome to participate in our annual Church Camp Weekend. We'll enjoy faith formation, lakefront recreation, and community meals in a relaxed setting. Recreational activities include walking trails and sports equipment. This fun weekend together will be a wonderful opportunity to deepen our connections with each other and to celebrate being together! We will stay in a lodge with private bedrooms with bunks that have a double bed on the lower level. There is a private bathroom with shower in each room. Meals will be provided. We will arrive at 7pm on Friday and depart by 11:00am on Sunday. Registration along with full payment is due July 11. If costs are prohibitive, please request a scholarship form from our Reinecke/Salstrom Endowment for Faith Formation.

Contact Lori Peiffer (loripeiffer@comcast.net) with any questions.

SPUCC Work Day

Several members and friends of St. Paul’s United Church of Christ showed up for our SPUCC Work Day. We did a lot of work outside, clearing pounds of rocks from our front walkway and beyond. Thank you to all of you that gave your time, hands and hearts!

CSA Sign up!

We've filled ALL 18 of our spots for the spring CSA season! Those first boxes of fresh spring veggies will be delivered on May 18. But there's still time (and still 6 open spots!) to sign up for a summer CSA with HAFA – deadline May 27. Click here to learn more about HAFA and sign up. Fresh veggies from farm to church: it's like the answer to your prayers. Go ahead, say Amen! 

Click here to be directed to the Earthwise-Creation Justice page

Building the Beloved Community Public Safety Project

Please join us after worship on May 15 for the second in our series of discussions regarding public safety. We will collect your feedback and provide it to interfaith Action, along with the other congregations participating.

We know that people of faith are compelled to seek justice. Interfaith Action is inviting interfaith leaders to a series of compelling conversations about creating a better system of public safety and policing in Minnesota. St. Paul's Ministry of Social Justice and Outreach is participating.

Together with Minnesota Commissioner of Public Safety John Harrington and several state public safety leaders, Amber Dallman and Sarah Brouwer will be walking through real-life scenarios that police officers face on the job. We will ask ourselves questions like: what do we want our public safety officers to do in these situations?

Then, after Friendship Hour, March 20th, Amber and Sarah shared their experience gathering with other leaders and clergy from around the metro, and offered attendees a chance to give feedback on some of the same scenarios and questions. Woven was a brief text study to help guide us. We will do this several times in 2022, and the responses we generate will help our state collect data on what people of faith are thinking about public safety.

We strongly urge you to attend! And you do not need to RSVP. This is a way we can make a tangible difference, using our faith. If you aren't able to make it in person you can also join by zoom.

Deep peace,

Sarah Brouwer and Amber Dallman
Ministry of Social Justice and Outreach

March is Food Share Month

Did you know March was Food Share Month? We along with the St. Paul’s Childhood Center supported Interfaith Action and the Department of Indian Work Food Shelf by putting grocery bags in the pews! We filled multiple pews and delivered them to at the end of March.

Lenten Reflections

Click here to read thoughtful Lenten Reflections from SPUCC members.

Journey of Faith

We have enjoyed a series of presentations that helped us understand our church’s tagline “journeying together to deepen our faith, seek justice for all, and share God’s unconditional love with the world”.

Click here to learn more about Adult Faith Formation offerings.

CROP Hunger Walk

SPUCC members and friends participated in the CROP Hunger Walk Sunday, October 10. We helped raise awareness and funds for hunger relief around the world and here in Saint Paul.