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Church women united made the papers http://registerguard.com/rg/life/lifestyles/34167242-74/bound-by-caring.html.csp
Church women united made the papers http://registerguard.com/rg/life/lifestyles/34167242-74/bound-by-caring.html.csp
The mission that drives us . . .
Church Women United, an ecumenical movement of Christian women impassioned by the Holy Spirit, advocates on behalf of women and children throughout the world. We find unity in diversity, and we work for a world of peace and justice.
Church Women United of Lane County supports the National programs, priorities and goals, and celebrations. Our monthly forums reflect the concerns of participants and explore issues of concern to local and state governments and to the citizens of Lane County, Oregon. |
Willamette Valley at rest. Photo by Mary Sharon Moore, 2010
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A word from our President ... Anne O'Brien, President
A WORD FROM OUR PRESIDENT Anne O’Brien We probably all know the story of the Good Samaritan. But chances are we miss the depth of the story because we're not aware enough of the hostility, the hatred that existed between Samaritans and Jews. It had gone on for hundreds of years. The story is told to illustrate the importance of loving our neighbors, using a person who would have been hated by the Jews of the time and who would have been of a group that hated Jews. They were true enemies. Yet in this story, when a Jewish traveler was moving from Jerusalem to Jericho (a very dangerous road), and is attacked, a priest comes by and passes on. A Levite comes by and passes on. But a Samaritan (“The Other”) looks at this poor guy and is filled with compassion. Then he brings the healing and the love that God calls upon all of us to bring. The story is showing us that in order to break down hostility, in order to end violence, we have to be ready to be filled with compassion, be ready to love our neighbor. This goes beyond just someone who happens to be our neighbor, to even someone who may be an enemy. "Love your enemies; do good to those who hurt you." We have to ask ourselves whether we’ve really probed deeply enough to discover what is meant by this love of neighbor, love of enemy? In our Catholic Mass there's a passage that says to God, "Open our eyes to the needs of our brothers and sisters; inspire in us words and actions to comfort those who labor and are burdened.” We are going to be looking at the issue of violence at one of our forums next year so I hope we’ll all be thinking about how we can each work toward nonviolent, yes, loving responses as we live our daily lives. That means nonviolent verbal responses and even nonviolent thoughts. Let’s work on non-violent thought and action every day and help to create a loving community. CWU 75th CELEBRATION There is still time to register for the National CWU 75th celebration which will take place Oct. 13-16th in Louisville, Kentucky. Registration forms are available from Katharine Hunt keehhunt@gmail.com or 541-607-0106. Let her know if you plan to attend. Our CWU Unit has been given a quilt to contribute to the silent auction to be held at the celebration in October.. The crazy quilt was made by Bev Murrow and a group of women. Please thank her when you see her. A WORD FROM OUR PRESIDENT Anne O'Brien As I said during our presentation of the Valiant Woman award to our amazing Ruth Duemler, I am so proud of the amazing activists we have in this organization. I read this quote from Pope Francis, as he was reflecting on the parable of the Good Samaritan: “To ignore the suffering of another person is to ignore God.” He also said that going to church does not make one automatically love their neighbor. Knowing the whole Bible, the whole theology doesn’t make loving automatic. Pope Francis said there is no such thing as” true worship if it does not translate into service to one’s neighbor. “He goes on to say “Let us never forget: in the face of the suffering of so many people worn out by hunger, violence and injustice, we cannot remain spectators.” So, you amazing activists, I am so proud of you for not remaining spectators, but for getting out there and doing whatever your heart leads you to do in working to alleviate the suffering of our neighbors. Church Women United is a leader in social justice activities in our community. Cindy Kokis said it beautifully when she said that our works as Church Women United should be a “witness to justice in our community.” We are working on it, Cindy SUMMER FUN FUND Summer is almost here and the checks are beginning to flow in for our Summer Fun Fund project which raises money for 8 organizations that work with homeless and at-risk kids. So here comes the possibility for lots of swimming, camping, and many kinds of creative fun. Often repeated in the thank you notes is that without us, their kids wouldn’t have safe creative recreation and that this gives them a sense of normality which aids their healthy development. Most important! Want to help in this endeavor? Write your check to CWU and memo it to SFF and send to Phyllis Hockley, 220 N. Adams #2, Eugene, OR. Thanks!! __________________________ A WORD FROM OUR PRESIDENT Anne O’Brien A quote from Pope Francis: “We are all equal – all of us – but this truth is not recognized, this equality is not recognized, and for this reason some people are, we can say, happier than others. But this is not a right! We all have the same rights. When we do not see this, society is unjust. It does not follow the rule of justice, and where there is no justice, there cannot be peace. I would like to repeat this with you: where there is no justice, there is no peace!” -- Audience with children of the Peace Factory, May 12, 2015. For many years now CALC has organized a Tax Day event at the Eugene Post Office. Tax Day is chosen because it gives us the opportunity to focus on the injustice of how our tax dollars are spent. Susan Cundiff of WAND displayed her 2016 version of the graphic demonstrating the well over 50% of our discretionary taxes that our government spends on the military. This year veterans’ benefits outpaced education as the second place item in spending. Susan reminded us that we do owe a debt to our vets and also that this is another cost of war, one which is rising rapidly. Pope Francis says that without justice there is no peace. Certainly our national spending priorities do not support justice, therefore no peace. No wonder we have this oversized military spending. I guess it boils down to the old bumper sticker: “If you want peace, work for justice.” I believe that most of you are working for justice and I applaud you. I hope none of us gives up on our search for justice. As we say in Beyond War: “War is obsolete.” It was once thought that even human sacrifice was inevitable, that women could never get the right to vote, or, as I heard on the radio this week, women could never run a marathon. But those are obsolete notions now. There will come a day (of justice) when war will be obsolete too. Then we can spend our tax dollars on helping the less fortunate. Then could we solve the problem of so many unhoused people in our community? We are going to work on that. __________________________ PRAYER FOR JUSTICE Father, you have given all peoples one common origin. It is your will that they be gathered together as one family in yourself. Fill the hearts of mankind with the fire of your love and with the desire to ensure justice for all. By sharing the good things you give us, may we secure an equality for all our brothers and sisters throughout the world. May there be an end to division, strife and war. May there be a dawning of a truly human society built on love and peace. We ask this in the name of Jesus, our Lord. Amen. "Catholic Online" __________________________ A WORD FROM OUR PRESIDENT Anne O’Brien While we are still in the Lenten season I want to share some of what we are talking about at St. Jude in this Jubilee Year of Mercy proclaimed by Pope Francis. We even have a special arch of mercy to walk through as we enter our church. We are called to work at Corporal Works of Mercy and at Spiritual Works of Mercy. Here’s a list of those: Corporal: Feed the Hungry, Welcome the Stranger, Clothe the Naked, Give Drink to the Thirsty, Heal the Sick, Visit the Imprisoned and Bury the Dead. Spiritual : Counsel the Doubtful, Instruct the Ignorant (as in lacking in knowledge), Admonish Sinners (Pope Francis talks about how this is done after establishing a familial relationship and so that it heals), Forgive Offences, Bear Patiently Those Who Do Us Ill, Pray for the Living and the Dead. Regarding the issue of admonishing the sinner, I like this quote from the Catholic Register: “ In the end, Pope Francis has the heart of a shepherd and he sees many lost sheep in this world. Instead of beating the sheep into submission with his staff, he chooses to lift them up on his shoulders and carry them to restful waters.” That’s what’s special about this Pope . Can you think of some ways you have been performing these works of mercy? I believe that Church Women United with its purpose to ”go out together into every neighborhood and nation as instruments of God’s reconciling love.” is encouraging us as individuals and as an organization to perform works of mercy. Our April 1 Forum will be at St. Jude and will be about homelessness, one of the areas where we can certainly be instruments of God’s reconciling love. I invite you to join us at my “home.” Read more: http://www.ncregister.com/blog/ philip-kosloski/admonish-the-sinner-popefrancis-and-the-third-spiritual-work-of-mercy/ #ixzz42SBZ8rQb __________________________ I have to admit to being taken by Pope Francis. He seems to have a heart for dealing with many of the causes that we at CWU espouse: the homeless, the forgotten, the hungry, the poor… As we are entering Lent, a time when Christians traditionally sacrifice something in preparation for Easter, I do appreciate many of the Pope’s messages. We Catholics are celebrating this “Year of Mercy” proclaimed by Francis (we are on a first name basis). I think his quote: “A little bit of mercy makes the world less cold and more just" sums up his merciful attitude. It can guide us in our “works of mercy” as we try to make the world less cold and more just. One last thing about Lent. Many years ago I heard a person suggest that instead of giving up candy or other pleasures, give up resentment or holding a grudge or other negative thoughts we might have. I managed to give up a resentment I had about a person at work and it disappeared and I was able to love that person again and go on my __________________________ A WORD FROM OUR PRESIDENT Anne O’Brien I’m devoting this President’s message to the memory of our long time member, Peg Morton, who left us on December 19, 2015. Peg was a Quaker who lived out her faith. She has been active in peace and justice concerns for most of her life. Her many activities have included League of Women Voters, NAACP, CISCAP, Witness for Peace. She has worked for justice in Nicaragua, Guatemala, Cuba, and Columbia as well as here in the USA Since coming to our town in 1989 she’s facilitated lots of local actions from coordinating one to two week fasts to raising funds. She was a fixture at the Post Office on Tax Day, educating our community about how much of our taxes go to the military and how to withhold taxes to avoid financing wars. Peg’s played an important role in the activities of Church Women United for years. She was key in involving CWU in the Ribbon of Hope Project. Many of us made banners and used them on several occasions. A great memory was the night we stretched it across the back and then front of First Christian at the 9-11 service. Also remembered is the day we fasted, stretched the banner in front of the new Federal Building, and then prayed for the people in the building, that God would give them wisdom in the decisions they would be making. Peg was a real peacemaker. She worked at educating legislators, she coordinated silent peace vigils. She put her freedom on the line when she volunteered to be arrested at a vigil at Fort Benning and spent three months in a Federal Prison. She was arrested several times here in Oregon too. She was a brave soul. It was appropriate that she was the recipient of our highly valued Valiant Women’s Award in 2009 and, oh, did she deserve it. Her importance to the entire community was demonstrated by the huge crowd that attended her Memorial Service on January 16. How I will miss her warm greeting every time we saw each other. The world will miss you, Peg. You made a real difference. We offer our condolences to your family. __________________________ A WORD FROM OUR PRESIDENT Anne O’Brien I received an email from Raise the Wage worker Brandon Thompson who also attached an invitation to all to attend the hearing regarding Raise the Wage on January 14th at the State Capital. He referred us to an article in the Huffington Post by Rabbi Deborah Kolodny and I thought the message was one worthwhile sharing with those, like CWU, who are working toward a world that betters the lives of all of our sisters and brothers. The Rabbi reminds us that by focusing on the positive we can bring the positive into our lives. It starts with being grateful for what we do have by what she calls a “daily gratitude practice” or by “counting our bless-ings.” In her invitation to us to join the rally to Raise the Wage on January 14 at the Capital, she suggests we switch from “scarcity consciousness to abundance consciousness” which she believes could create some real change in our world. She asks that we start by feeling and showing real gratitude for minimum wage workers and thereby helping to Raise the Wage for everyone, at least in Oregon. Instead of blaming those we think are responsible for the poverty we see around us, instead of being righteous, we would start celebrating all the contributions that the people who deserve this Living Wage make to our own abundance. Can you make a list of all the low wage people who help you each day? That could be our caretakers, our grandchildren’s caretakers, our servers as we eat out, the people who keep our buildings clean, the people who help get our packages off to other parts of the world, the people who harvest our crops and process them. We can feel honored by them and we can honor them. As she says, “Their service to the collective is priceless.” An important fact for Church Women is that two thirds of these people we would celebrate are women, most of them raising families. We can be a part of im-proving their lives and bringing them hope by support-ing this Living Wage. __________________________ A WORD FROM OUR PRESIDENT Anne O’Brien Shocking (in a good way) Our own Phyllis Hockley quietly and with a huge amount of energy (and she’s even older than I am) and help from her friends, went about putting on a chili feast at St. Mary Episcopal on October 25. Ended up over 150 bought tickets and all were fed. The object was to raise funds for Community Sup-ported Shelters (communitysupportedshelters.org) which works for legal camping/housing for the un-housed. When Eric de Buhr and his wife Fay told the folks cleaning up in the kitchen how much had been pledged at the dinner, everyone was amazed ( of course, including Phyllis and Len Hockley) In the end over $30,000 was donated to CSS. What a shock!!! Thanks go to many helpers and to Holly Ca-bell from St. Mary who was so convincing in her plea for donations after dinner. Everyone deserves a home. And National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week, the week be-fore Thanksgiving -- Nov. 14-22 this year – is a good time for us to remember that. We know that $30,000 will be a real help to the work of CCS in housing the unhoused. Social teachings of the Catholic Church teach that safe and decent housing is a basic human right. We all have a moral obligation to help end homeless-ness. Most of us are old enough to remember when there were not groups of homeless people in our streets. Yes, we always had a few folks who “rode the rails” etc. But, we’ve seen a huge decrease in low cost housing solutions in the last 25 or 20 years. Yes, we all have a role in helping end home-lessness. THANK YOU PHYLLIS AND ALL OF YOUR CO-VOLUNTEERS. In the spirit of the beatitudes: "Blessed are those who help the unhoused, for they shall find a home” __________________________ A WORD FROM OUR PRESIDENT Anne O’Brien After our wonderful Forum on Fracking and its human rights implications and all that fracking can do to damage our environment I am driven to make some comments about Pope Francis’s Encyclical on the Environment: ”Laudato Si, On Care for Our Common Home” and how CWU can relate to this. Looking at some of the major points he makes and how that might affect each of us: Climate change has grave implications. “Each year sees the disappearance of thousands of plant and animal species which we will never know, which our children will never see, because they have been lost forever,” he writes. How do you feel about what kind of legacy we are leaving for our children and grandchildren? Rich countries are destroying poor ones, and the earth is getting warmer. “The warming caused by huge consumption on the part of some rich countries has repercussions on the poorest areas of the world, especially Africa, where a rise in temperature, together with drought, has proved devastating for farming.” Our speaker Fred Colgan of InStove has seen results of the drought first hand. Christians have misinterpreted Scripture and “must forcefully reject the notion that our being created in God’s image and given dominion over the earth justifies absolute domination over other creatures.” Many Christians are now seeing that we have not been given dominion over the earth. The importance of access to safe drinkable water is “a basic and universal human right.” Tom Kerns and Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal are emphasizing the importance of safe drinking water as a basic human right. Technocratic domination leads to the destruction of nature and the exploitation of people, and “by itself the market cannot guarantee integral human development and social inclusion.” The Pope is asking us to put technocratic domination in perspective and reduce the exploitation of people. I hope that our speakers will continue to inspire us to support activities that can change systems that are likely to cause more damage to our environment and earth’s inhabitants. We on the Board would love to hear from you if you have thoughts about speakers we could invite or activities we should encourage CWU folks to be involved in. It is always such a joy to witness the warm and spontaneous friendliness that goes on during “fellowship” time at our monthly meetings. It is a very important part of our get togethers. Dwight Lee Wolter has even suggested that “Coffee Hour” is a kind of sacrament. He doesn’t see this as belittling the sacraments but it seems that Coffee Hour is another indicator of communion and belonging. Wolter says that in baptism God comes to us, in communion we come to God, in Cof-fee Hour we come to each other. We share differ-ent bread and a different cup than we do in com-munion and we use different water than we use in baptism. We are touching souls in a different way as we enjoy each other’s company. We appreciate the efforts of our host churches in putting to-gether these fellowship times and we hope you all continue to enjoy these times. Wolter quotes Matthew 10:42 “And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones who is my disciple, truly I tell you, that person will certainly not lose their reward.” _________________________________ I hope you have had a restful and pleasant summer. It seems several of my dear friends are dealing with stressful times. I have been thinking about how Christians can cope with stress. Some would say leave it all to God and He will fix it. I think we need to do our part too. Getting some exercise that fits your health and life style, getting enough rest, proper diet, keeping a balance between work and fun and family, are all good ways to deal with stress. Lucky Christians have spiritual support too. Start with prayer. Instead of worrying over our problems which makes things worse, we can turn to prayer. This verse in Philippians offers the comforting promise that as we pray, our minds will be protected by a peace that goes beyond our ability to understand. Philippians 4:6-7 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Another spiritual support is to meditate on the Word of God. The Bible is filled with all kinds of promises from God. Meditating on these words of assurance can help us with our worry, doubt, fear and stress. Here are a few examples of the Bible's stress relieving verses: 2 Peter 1:3 His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Matthew 11:28-30 "Then Jesus said, "Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke fits perfectly, and the burden I give you is light." John 14:27 "I am leaving you with a gift--peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give isn't like the peace the world gives. So don't be troubled or afraid." Psalm 4:8 "I will lie down in peace and sleep, for you alone, O LORD, will keep me safe." A lot of Christians find stress relief when they praise God. Praise and worship can take our minds and thoughts off ourselves, our problems, and refocus them on God. Suddenly our problems seem small in light of the largeness of God. Music is another way to soothe our souls. Listening to Christian music or other quiet music can be a real antidote to stress. Try it… I hope you are not feeling stressed but if you are I hope this helps you or someone you know. I’m looking forward to seeing you all at our first Forum on September 4 (our 49th wedding anniversary!) at Unity of the Valley Church. Be well…. __________________________ June message I’ve already started 2 different messages this month but the prayer that Karla Dawson, our president at St. Jude Women’s Club brought to our end of the season luncheon today just seems to say it all. So, I must share that with you as my message this month. As a Christian (author unknown) I will do more than belong, I will participate I will do more than care, I will help I will do more than believe, I will live my faith I will do more than be fair, I will be kind I will do more than forgive, I will love I will do more than my job, I will serve. I will do more than teach, I will enrich. I will do more than be friendly, I will be a friend I will do more than live, I will grow. Amen I hope that is a good description of what we are trying to do in Church Women United. Thank you to all who are continuing to do all of the above and moving me to try to do better. Caring Connection If you know of a CWU woman or family member who needs a card or a contact because of sickness or other need call Anne O'Brien at 541-554-2646 |
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Web services by Mary Sharon Moore | Eugene OR | 541.687.2046
Web services by Mary Sharon Moore | Eugene OR | 541.687.2046
