Video Streaming is available on the uccwalker.com website and on youtube.com, search for Community Church of Walker United Church of Christ. All In-Person Services are suspended.

You may contact Pastor Michael at 218.280.1401 or email mjsmall.ucc@gmail.com

Our Mission

To offer a welcoming church home to all, where friendships grow, spiritual needs are met, community concerns

are addressed and where “God is Still Speaking…”

THE GOOD NEWS! Community Church of Walker

United Church of Christ P.O. Box 267

Hwy 371 & Tianna Drive Walker, MN 56484

(218) 547-1093 commchurchucc@arvig.net

www.uccwalker.com

GN

JUNE 2020

FROM PASTOR MICHAEL

The Church Essential and Virtual When we begin our Lenten journey back in February of 2020, it would have been unthinkable to say we would not have gathered in our building for worship and all other gatherings since March 8, 2020. We gave up the building for Lent – “The Church Left the Building”! As of the end of May and into June, we will continue to worship VIRTUALLY! Worship can be found on our webpage www.uccwalker.com. The dictionary now includes this definition of “virtually - by means of virtual reality techniques”. We are very blest with streaming equipment that enables you to experience and see and participate in worship. Bulletins and Churchly Happenings are sent on Saturdays to members and friends of CCOW-UCC. We know and proclaim, “Wherever one, or two or three are gathered, Christ is present!” We are still the church, we are still the people of God, we are still called to do the work of God by living out the words found in the Book of Micah. “God has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” Micah 6:8. St. Katharine Drexel (November 26, 1858 -March 3, 1955) writes “Justice ceases to be just when it ceases to be human.” Question, when we will come back together – person to person – in our building? The Church Council has established a work group to address this question. I find extremely helpful the words of the Rev. Shari Prestemon, Conference Minister of the Minnesota Conference UCC. She wrote a letter to Governor Tim Walz on May 22 saying, in part . . . “My own counsel to our United Church of Christ congregations across the State has been very clear: we should not rush to resume in-person worship or other activities and we should assume the need to continue virtual worship for at least another two months. Many of our congregants are in high-risk categories. Our gatherings are not highly predictable settings, many of our normal practices would be considered high-risk behaviors at present, our facilities often would not easily accommodate social distancing and appropriate traffic flow, and our worship alone is often 60 minutes in length. “Moreover, our pastors and congregations have continued to worship, pray, study, and serve in amazing and inspiring new ways throughout this pandemic. We have been fully the Church, steadfastly accomplish-ing our vital mission, and we can continue to be the Church virtually until such time as it is truly safe for our clergy and congregants to convene more normally again. In addition, as a denomination that strives to seek justice and share extravagant love with the most vulnerable among us, we are especially cognizant of the disproportionate impact this pandemic has had on our minority communities in Minnesota. United Church of Christ congregations show no propensity to defy your executive orders. We intend to practice love of God and love of neighbor by continuing to do what we must to protect the health and life of our communities and State. “The wider inter-faith community across Minnesota numbers at least 2 million people. The decisions we collectively make throughout this pandemic matter deeply and will have wide-spread consequence, for bet-ter or for worse, in our communities. Please know that I stand with you in support of the work you and your team are doing to help us make wise decisions. Should you desire to establish an interfaith advisory coun-cil, as some other states have recently done, I am also ready to offer my time and voice to that effort.” I hope you find these words helpful. Know that God is in the midst of this time doing a new thing. God still calls us to be God’s people in all we do. Thanks be to God!

Pastor Michael

The Good News!—June 2020 Page 2

These minutes are PENDING APPROVAL at the next Council Meeting.

COMMUNITY CHURCH OF WALKER

COUNCIL MINUTES

May 19th, 2020

Meeting by zoom/phone. Attending: Pastor Michael, Bonnie Bailey, Esther Covert, Jo-Ann Rand, Linda Barber, Gary Jacobson, Gay Jacobson, Doug Olson, Deb Farrell, Ruth Niedermann, Doris Johnson, and Sue Standeven. Meeting called to order by Bonnie. Pastor Michael led us in prayer. Minutes read and corrected to read lawn mowing is done by Sod Father not Turf Tech.

Motion to approve the minutes as corrected by JoAnn. Seconded by Doug. All ayes.

Written reports handed in. Memorial fund will be left as is. Board of Trustees:

Sod Father has done one mowing. Turf Tech has applied a weed and feed.

4 banners have been purchased from Amity Graphics of Bemidji for the outside of the church. One from UCC which will read ‘Be The Church’. The other 4 will read ‘Love One Another’, ‘Spirit Gives Life’, ‘Be Joyful In Hope’ and ‘Be Renewed In The Spirit’. Some of the cost is donated and rest will come out of the advertising budget.

The bell tower light is not working and will be looked into.

Natural Gas is coming to Walker. Tim will take care of this. The furnace will have to be converted to natural gas.

Steve has turned off the hot water, coffee water and also the gas to the stove.

The stewardship letter will be written and mailed next week. June 14th will be Stew-ardship Sunday.

Pastor Michael:

Gary is taking care of the video streaming. The service is recorded on Saturdays.

Angie will be here through June as she will be leaving the area. We will be in need of a piano player.

We will be having a book study on zoom starting June 4th from 9:00 to 10:00 and continuing on Thursday mornings. Holy Envy: Finding Faith in the Faith of Others by Barbara brown Taylor. This can be found on Amazon. Pastor Michael will send information on Small Talk.

Suggest we have our zoom coffee hour at 9:00 Sunday mornings so we can enjoy the summer weather. This will start May 31st.

Small Talk will continue.

The Good News!—June 2020 Page 3

The Good News!—June 2020 Page 4

Continued from page 3

Our web site is updated daily . Pay Pal is available and can be seen on the website.

Suggest that Women’s Fellowship meet on zoom.

A new Face Book page is being developed.

June 7th will be Graduation Sunday.

Old Business: Payroll Protection Loan has been approved and about $15,000 has been deposited in

our bank account. Church salaries have been brought up to date.

Annual Meeting will be July 19th. The meeting will be on zoom

Nominating committee needs to meet.

Possibilities for the Gazebo Concerts are being looked into. If we have the concerts it will not be until after July.

New Business:

Pastor Michael will be in touch with other local pastors about plans to open up the church. A Task Force committee is needed to come up with a plan/guidelines for our church. Pastor Michael, Bonnie and Gay will be on this committee and possibly a cou-ple more people. They will be in touch with the conference and state guide lines. One suggestion is outdoor services.

Annual reports are due in mid June. E-mail the reports to Marlys.

Next meeting is June 23rd. Seconded by Linda.

Sue Standeven, Clerk

WORSHIP MINISTRY ~

SOUND SYSTEM

Gary & Gay Jacobson

LITURGISTS

June 7 Joanna Aamodt June 14 Gay Jacobson June 21 Sonja Huber June 28 Deb Farrell

CHOIR DIRECTORS

Joanna Aamodt Sue Grage

The Good News!—June 2020 Page 5

FINANCIAL SECRETARY’S REPORT

Thank you for your continued support of the Community Church of Walker, UCC. JoAnn Rand, Financial Secretary

Electronic giving with a Debit Card, a Credit Card, or PayPal

is available on the website, www.uccwalker.com.

JUNE ANNIVERSARIES 12 Bob and Jo Horak

13 Joe and Retta Freeman

23 Tim and Shirley Smith

Pledge/Giving Analysis: April 2020

Pledge $5,725.00 Regular 900.00 Plate 25.00 Wells Fargo Dividend 94.35 Food Shelf 175.00 5th Sunday 75.00 OGHS 340.00 Grand Total $7,334.35

JUNE DATES TO CELEBRATE

4 Marilyn Vogt

Rev. Enno Limvere

6 Gary Jacobson

8 Jack Gyldenvand

9 Doug Olson

15 Matthew Artley

17 Kaitlyn Alderson

20 Bruce Haugen

21 Melanie Wolfe

30 Nancy Jacobson

JUNE BIRTHDAYS

The Good News!—June 2020 Page 6

The scheduled meeting of Women’s Fellowship for Wednesday, May 20, at 1:00 PM was put on hold. We hope to meet at a later date.

A small group of officers has met to discuss business decisions. We voted to order our lovely planters again for in front of the church. These are funded and cared for by Fellowship members and church staff. They will be delivered by Memorial Day. It gives our church a welcoming presence during these difficult times. We also appreciate the lovely lilies and other blooming plants gracing the church interior. Thy are a nice background for the sermon and music on Sunday (Sat.) Service.

If the Summer Concert Series happens in some format, Fellowship will be glad to support it with refresh-ments. Details will be arranged later.

Cleaning of the kitchen and other areas may be done by a small group prior to Fall. The gas to the stove has been turned off last week due to the strong odor. Other appliances were disconnected earlier.

The ‘Good Works Sale’ status is uncertain at this time. We will keep you updated. Lots of items are build-ing up in homes!

Cards continue to be sent on special occasions to members and friends of Community Church. If we miss an important date, please contact the office or let us know. It is a joy to keep in touch any way we can!

Information on the next meeting date will be sent in Happenings, Email, or hot air balloons. Just watch the skies! Remember, we’re in this together!

The Women’s Fellowship Team

Let us pray together for:

COVID-19 victims, their families, and all the men and women fighting this virus.

All the natural disaster victims worldwide.

The victims and their families lost to acts of violence.

Peace in the Middle East and all over the world.

The men and women in the Armed Forces and National Guard who have been called to duty.

We pray for the health of all our members, friends, and loved-ones. Special prayers go out to: Alison Koch, Shaleen Black, Tammy Artley, Lorraine Henselin, Kathy Austreng, Emma Halverson, Loretta Mayclin.

PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE

Sunday Virtual Coffee Hour Time Changes to 9:00 am All are welcome to this hour of conversation and sharing.

Provide your own coffee. Dress is casual.

The Good News!—June 2020 Page 7

Benevolence Board Report for May 2020 A total of $470 was received for One Great Hour of Sharing.

In June we will be collecting for Strengthen the Church. The collection will be handled in the same way as OGHS, with a request that donations be mailed to the Church.

BENEVOLENCE BOARD REPORT

Beginning Thursday, June 11 at 9:00 am, members and friends are invited to participate in the book study of Holy Envy:Finding God in the Faith of Others by Barbara Brown Taylor. Books may be ordered through Amazon.com., or there are a few books at the church. Call Pastor Michael if you are in need of a copy (218.280.1401). Book is described below. Happy reading! If you have not read the book, you are wel-come to the conversation. The renowned and beloved New York Times bestselling author of An Altar in the World and Learning to Walk in the Dark recounts her moving discoveries of finding the sacred in unexpected places while teach-ing the world’s religions to undergraduates in rural Georgia, revealing how God delights in confounding our expectations. Barbara Brown Taylor continues her spiritual journey begun in Leaving Church of finding out what the world looks like after taking off her clergy collar. In Holy Envy, she contemplates the myriad ways other people and traditions encounter the Transcendent, both by digging deeper into those traditions herself and by seeing them through her students’ eyes as she sets off with them on field trips to monasteries, temples, and mosques. Troubled and inspired by what she learns, Taylor returns to her own tradition for guidance, finding new meaning in old teachings that have too often been used to exclude religious strangers instead of embracing the divine challenges they present. Re-imagining some central stories from the religion she knows best, she takes heart in how often God chooses outsiders to teach insiders how out-of-bounds God really is. Throughout Holy Envy, Taylor weaves together stories from the classroom with reflections on how her own spiritual journey has been complicated and renewed by connecting with people of other traditions—even those whose truths are quite different from hers. The one constant in her odyssey is the sense that God is the one calling her to disown her version of God—a change that ultimately enriches her faith in oth-er human beings and in God.

Book Study Zoom Thursdays at 9:00 am

Holy Envy:

Finding God in the Faith of Others

By Barbara Brown Taylor

The Good News!—June 2020 Page 8

Dear Fellow Parishioners,

On behalf of your Church Council, Board of Trustees and Pastor, we would like to communicate a few bits of information to you.

First and foremost, we hope this letter finds you safe, healthy and coping with the shelter-in-place and social isolation recommendations. We want each of you to know that we are all in this together, and if you need ANYTHING or any HELP, please call Pastor Small (218-280-1401) or Moderator

Bonnie Bailey (218-766-5259).

There are a few developments and announcements we wish to pass on to each of you.

Our streaming of services on YouTube commenced on April 5th. We have now videoed our service 7 times and put it online. Weekly viewings are well over 100 per week! Go to YouTube and enter Community Church of Walker United Church of Christ. Or, you can go to our church’s website and there is a handy link that will take you right there. Our website is: www.uccwalker.com

Pastor Small has been emailing a daily message entitled Small Talk. If you are not getting it, please call the church office (218-547-1093) and be sure we have your email on file. These have been amazingly insightful and spiritually uplifting. His April 28th message was featured on the KAXE radio station website.

We would like to encourage everyone to continue to send their financial pledges to the church. Our building maintenance, utilities and other expenses still remain and we rely on your support to meet these obligations. In particular, our most significant expense – salaries – has been main-tained at the same level. To the extent that we can limit or lower our expenses, we have taken those measures. For example, we have lowered the thermostats, turned off the hot water heater and unplugged both the refrigerator and freezer. Our church mailing address is: PO Box 267, Walker, Minnesota 56484. Also electronic giving with a Debit Card, a Credit Card, or Pay-Pal is available on the website, www.uccwalker.com.

Another area of concern is for our local food shelf. As you may know, we had to cancel two fund-raisers just as demand started to soar! Both the Irish Concert and a pancake breakfast were canceled due to COVID-19. Please consider donating what you would have given at either of these events. Mailing address: Walker Area Food Shelf, PO Box 1101, Walker, MN 56484

Pastor Small has been hosting a weekly Virtual Fellowship Hour at 11 am Sundays on Zoom. It is a lively and fun way to visit and see each other. He has emailed a link to all membership. If you are not receiving the emailed link/invite, please contact the church office.

Finally, if you need help finding the taped service on YouTube, our website or linking up with the Virtual Coffee Hour on Zoom, our tech guru Gary Jacobson has graciously offered to help anyone who may need some technical assistance over the phone. His cell phone is (865) 308-0786. His

local landline number is (218) 224-2668.

Sincerely and prayerfully yours,

The Board of Trustees: Steve Bilben, Esther Covert, Gary Jacobson, Tim Johnson and Doug Olson

The Strengthen the Church Offering furthers the work of our conference and the national UCC as we work together to strengthen and renew existing congregations, fund leadership develop-ment, and provide exciting new programs for youth and young adults.

Our nation is amazingly diverse, representing divergent cultures and ethnic backgrounds. Yet most of us live in communities marked by sameness, among people who think, act, and look like us.

The vision of Pentecost is to experience unity among a diverse crowd. Yet how do we realize this vision? Through the funds provided by the Strengthen the Church Offering, The Penn West Conference provides a wonderful example. To support youth programming, this year, the Con-ference awarded grants to First Church in Irwin and First Church in Greensburg to send young people to the National Youth Event (NYE). Conference Minister David Ackerman explains why it matters, saying, “At National Youth Event, our youth get a sense of the width and breadth of the UCC. Most of our youth come from smaller rural churches. At NYE, they meet other youth from di-vergent backgrounds and come away with a sense of being united.” Every UCC conference uses your generous gifts to Strengthen the Church. The grants provided by the Penn West Con-ference will help young people, at a national gathering, experience God’s dream of a truly united and uniting Church, amid differences in cultures and backgrounds.

Every Conference faithfully uses your gift to invest in God’s vision for the Church. Please give generously to the Strengthen the Church Offering beginning on May 31

st and into the first two

weeks of Pentecost. Together, we can invest in God’s vision of Church.

Your donation may be sent to the church at: Community Church of Walker/UCC, P.O. Box 267, Walker MN 56484-0267

Please note in the memo line that it is for the Strengthen The Church

The Good News!—June 2020 Page 9

Sunday Virtual Coffee Hour Time Changes to 10:00 am

All are welcome to this hour of con-versation and sharing. Provide your own coffee. Dress is casual.

The Good News!—June 2020 Page 10

The Good News! is a monthly newsletter publication of the

Community Church of Walker United Church of Christ Located at the corner of Highway 371 & Tianna Drive, Walker, MN 56484

Mailing address: P.O. Box 267, Walker, MN 56484 Phone: (218) 547-1093 Email: commchurchucc@arvig.net

Website: www.uccwalker.com

Pastor Michael Small Mailing address: P.O. Box 38, Hackensack, MN 56452

Phone: (218) 280-1401 Email: mjsmall.ucc@gmail.com

Secretary: Marlys Lehn—Office closed until further notice Email: commchurchucc@arvig.net Phone: 218-652-4559

Church Moderator: Bonnie Bailey Vice-Moderator: Linda Barber Clerk: Sue Standeven Treasurer: Deb Farrell Financial Secretary: JoAnn Rand Historian: Sue Standeven Board of Trustees Chair: TBA Board of Benevolence Chair: Doris Johnson Board of Christian Education Chair: TBA Board of Memorials Chair: Ruth Niedermann Board of Music Chair: TBA Board of Spiritual Life Chair: Gay Jacobson Women’s Fellowship President: Jo Horak Minister/Church Relations Board Members: Deb Farrell, Bev Jorland, Doug Olson, Linda Barber Choir Director: Joanna Aamodt & Sue Grage Custodians: Doug Olson, Marlys Lehn

Articles for the July 2020 edition of The Good News! newsletter need to be emailed by 11:00 A.M. Thursday, June 25th, 2020

CONGRATULATIONS 2020 GRADUATES

Catherine (Cady) Niedermann

University of St. Thomas, Major: Psychology, Minor: Sociology.

Granddaughter of Earl & Ruth Niedermann.

Kristian Sanchez

University of Arizona Tucson, Great-grandson of Sue Standeven.

Aurora Diehl

Walker, MN High School, Granddaughter of Marge Koch.

Alison Koch

Fergus Falls, MN High School, Granddaughter of Marge Koch.

Angie Novinger

Bemidji State University, Major: Music

Entering two year medical program at The Mayo Clinic in Rochester

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The Good News!—June 2020 Page 11

The Good News! Community Church of Walker

United Church of Christ

Community Church of Walker United Church of Christ

P.O. Box 267 Walker, MN 56484

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