Hope Central Church

All are welcome.

Hope Central Church is a dynamic, spirited, progressive, inclusive Christian faith community seeking justice, loving kindness, and walking humbly with God (Micah 6:8).

Palm Sunday on Zoom One And YouTube (we hope)!

Please join us by Youtube!

This Sunday, we going to be together for Palm Sunday Service. While we'll be in the sanctuary that is our collective homes on Zoom One, our service will be so similar to you. First, we want to ask you to wear Red, at least from the waist up. We want to ask you to prepare for the Palm Sunday Service by having a house plant or a palm made from the resources below and do the Palm Sunday procession around inside your house. We will all do it together and sing "We Are Marching In the Light of God."

Here are links for ideas to make Palms:

  • Simple one appropriate for children (could also be an activity that kids could do during the passion reading): https://ministry-to-children.com/palm-sunday-leaf-craft/
  • Slightly more advanced: http://www.dltk-bible.com/crafts/mpalm.htm
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NgJ5c7veE8U
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRcf95hKdB4

Then we'll continue on with our service as we have done the last two weeks. We will also our usual readers' theater of the Passion of our Lord, Jesus the Christ According to Matthew - in the place of our sermon. Our cast is as follows. Please note that you are a part of a cast, if your name begins with A-M and N-Z.

We're going to try singing together. We know that it will be a chaotic singing - because we've been doing it every night for compline on zoom - but we have found it to be so joyful to hear each others' voices.

Please, also prepare communion for you and your family.

A special note - our friends have told stories and we have received warnings that zoom events are being zoom-bombed, featuring rehensible language and sentiments. We are making every effort to ensure this won't happen. If it does happen, we will try to remove them. If we are unable to remove the intrusion, I will ask you to leave zoom AND come right back.

Please join us by Youtube!

Tomorrow - Reparation Discussion Group, Sunday 9:30AM, Zoom Two

Reparations with Abra Mims and Ben Perkins. Abra writes, "Please join us this Sunday at 9:30 as we complete our series of discussions on reparations. Our topic is the Ta-Nehisi Coates article, The Case for Reparations. This is a bit of a long read so please make sure to give yourself plenty of time to digest it. You can read it here. We look forward to seeing you on Zoom Two. Ben and Abra

A special note - our friends have told stories and we have received warnings that zoom events are being zoom-bombed, featuring rehensible language and sentiments. We are making every effort to ensure this won't happen. If it does happen, we will try to remove them. If we are unable to remove the intrusion, I will ask you to leave zoom AND come right back.

Invitation/Links to this discussion group have been sent to our congregation.

Tomorrow - Children's Church on Zoom Three, 10-10:30

Patti Ryan will lead Children's Church, with our other Sunday School teachers.

10 - 10:05 Kids join the meeting, we say hello to each other etc.

10:05 Light the candle and ring the bell (I'll ask the walshes to light a candle for everyone to watch and Tater can ring a bell)

Introductions, saying:

1. your name and

2. one cool thing you have done at home lately

3. one thing you are looking forward to when you can go out and about freely

The story of Jesus on Palm Sunday.

Kids can be working on their palm leaf craft.

Prayers of joys or concerns.

Say goodbye.

A special note - our friends have told stories and we have received warnings that zoom events are being zoom-bombed, featuring rehensible language and sentiments. We are making every effort to ensure this won't happen. If it does happen, we will try to remove them. If we are unable to remove the intrusion, I will ask you to leave zoom AND come right back.

The invitation/links for Sunday School have been sent to our Parents.


Current Church News

Services on Zoom!

Our weekly Sunday church services are still happening every Sunday at 10:30AM, but have now moved online to Zoom! To see more about our services and to access the link to join the video call, visit our Worship page here.

Announcements

Palm Sunday is this Sunday! Our children will have a chance to see some of our Sunday School teachers between 10AM and 10:25 on Sunday. Our Palm Sunday service will be on Zoom One. You'll need Palms or plants or Paper Palms to waive as we parade around our individual homes - which collectively now, constitutes our congregations sanctuary. We will do our reader's theater of the Passion Play, the Gospel according to Matthew. We'll have communion. Our Holy Week services will also be on Zoom One. On Maundy Thursday, we'll gather at 6PM to eat together. You'll need to prepare a meal and join us. You'll need candles in your house to light our dinner. During Tenebrae, as we always do, we will blow out our candles one by one until all we have left is the Christ Light. . .

On Sunday, we begin the morning at 9:30 with our Lenten Group Discussion on Reparations with Abra Mims and Ben Perkins. Abra writes, "Please join us this Sunday at 9:30 as we complete our series of discussions on reparations. Our topic is the Ta-Nehisi Coates article, The Case for Reparations. This is a bit of a long read so please make sure to give yourself plenty of time to digest it. You can read it here. We look forward to seeing you on Zoom! You can join here.


Palm Sunday Services begin at 10:30 on Zoom here. Please wear RED! We will begin with Palm waving using plants you have in your house or these - Susan Lacefield has provided these links for creating Palms:

On Easter, we're asking folks to wear their Easter Bonnets. Prizes for creativity.


The Leadership Circle met last night to make powerful and forward decisions concerning our congregation's spiritual/financial well being and the care some of our folks will need. You'll hear more about this today and tomorrow so you can participate! You'll see our Leadership Circle around on Slack.


Acts of Generosity - here's just three - there are many more - from our congregation: Bobby Hall, so to be with his wife Joan - who lives in assisted living - decided to stay in assistive living with Joan. It's the medical staff, the residents patients, and Bobby. He can't come out because he can't come back in. The first act of generosity is the assisted living facility allowed Bobby to stay. The second is Bobby decided to stay with Joan. The third is, because Bobby is there without a computer and cut off from the world, two people from our congregation bought a computer for Bobby, will configure it so Bobby can use it easily, and will send it to Bobby tomorrow. God be praised. Generosity begets generosity. Thank you, dear ones.


Our Called to Care team, Jill Seaman-Chandler, Candace Chang, Julie Taberman, Ash Temin, Ezra Ercolini and I are noticing you who live alone, who live with chronic illnesses, who aren't connected to the internet, and all of you - so that all may be connected and cared for - as you need, can tolerate, and are willing to let us know. You can find the Called to Care Team on Slack. You can private @us in Slack. You could get ahold of me by typing @Laura Ruth Jarrett. Or you could get ahold of me and Jill by @ing both of us, or all of us.


Lent 2020, Reparations: A Spiritual Practice of Redemption and for Joy

The work of reparations isn’t the invention of people of African descent out of the slavery experience or of white American liberalism. Reparations, for us are in our sacred scripture and are at least 2500 years old.. Reparation are spiritual necessary not because we owe it, because we caused the harm or benefitted from the harm, but because reparations restore, preparations redeem the community. Reparations set things spiritual, relationally, economically right in a community.

At Hope Central this Lent, this year, Hope Central will explore reparations for people of African Descent out of the Slavery Experience. We will preach, pray, provide opportunities to reflect and explore together, to support and encourage one another. We think our explorations will touch our sorrows and create joy in us.

At the center of our focus and care will be our folks of African Descent Out of the Slavery Experience.

We can imagine all of us will be reminded of Empire’s systemic discrimination, it’s impediments in our own lives, what has not be available or what has been lost, we women, we immigrants, we Queer folks, we humans. These losses may surface and beg us for attention. We will attend to them and we won’t lose our focus on reparations for folks of African Descent out of the slavery experience. Small identity/affinity groups for pastoral care to attend our needs and build our skill in intersectional solidarity will be formed as we need or want. For pastoral care individually or in small groups, Ezra Ercolini will be available for Trans/Non-Binary. Ash Temin will be available for our Straight folks, Laura Ruth for Lesbian/Gay/Bi/A Romantic/A Sexual folks, Ben Perkins folks of color, Ash and Laura Ruth for our Women folks. Any one of the pastoral staff, Laura Ruth, Ben, Ash, Ezra will be available to anyone for this work.

Our Pastoral Staff be available to care for your needs so that at the center of our care for this work of reparations will be our folks of African Descent Out of the Slavery Experience.

Preaching in Lent and for Easter

  • 3/1/20 – Laura Ruth, The Need, and the Ancient, Biblical, Theological Practices of Reparations, and Joy
  • 3/8/20 – Ben Perkins, Faith Based Divine Data, the Devastation of Racism, and Joy
  • 3/15/20 – Ezra Ercolini, The Glory of Seeing Clearly, and Joy
  • 3/22/20 – Our services have moved online, Laura Ruth Jarrett preaching
  • 3/29/20 – Ash Temin, Deep Grief, Deep Joy
  • 4/5/20 – Palm Sunday, Parade and Passion Play
  • 4/12/20 – Ben Perkins, Reparations and Resurrection

Events and Opportunities

  • Why Reparations?: A Discussion. As we enter the Lenten Season, our theme will be reparations as a redemptive practice. We recognize that this is a bold undertaking! Where do we begin? How do we begin? And why does it matter? These are all great questions, and we would like to provide a forum for discussing this critical practice. Please join us as we engage with a few thoughtful resources: The Groundwater Report, the 1619 Podcast (episode 2: The Economy that Slavery Built), and The Vase for Reparations).
    • We will meet on 3/8, 3/22 and 4/6, 9:15-10:20 in the parlor. Contact Ben Perkins or Abra Mims if you have any questions.
  • Contemplative Prayer Sit on Sunday Mornings, 10-10:25
  • White People Talk about Race, a Sunday TBA, Noon-1
  • Small Affinity Groups as Wanted/Needed

We are a giving congregation. Your monthly pledges and occasional gifts allow Hope Central to do the work to which God calls us. We are thankful for your generosity.