Walk ‘n Talk
We meet at Gate 1 on Tuesdays and Fridays at 8:30am for a half hour walk and chat. Come join us, we’d love to have more folks come out.
Our Next Taize service will be Wednesday
May 1st at 6:30 p.m.
Family Fun Night
It’s a new year and Family Fun Night returns! We’ll meet in Fellowship Hall at 5:00 pm Sunday, April 28th. The menu consists of turkey tacos with all the fixins’ and a yummy dessert for a mere $1.00 per person. After dinner, board games for all ages and experience levels are played. Come and join the fun!
Gratefulness.org
A website dedicated to grateful living.
Crosswalk.com
Christian news in the 21st century.
“The intersection of faith and life.”
Devozine.upperroom.org
We encourage youth to check out The Upper Room’s Devo Zine, where you can find articles about spiritually active teens all around the world, connect with their social media outlets, post and respond to a live prayer wall, and even contribute articles and devotionals of your own.
General Board of Church and Society
www.umc-gbcs.org
General Board of Global Ministries www.umcmission.org
Methodist Federation for Social Action www.mfsaweb.org
cnumc.org
California-Nevada Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church
Many folks in our church community are unable to attend church on Sunday for one reason or another. We video our services each Sunday. These Services can be viewed on this Website at nevadacitymethodist.com and also are televised on Comcast Channel 11 and Suddenlink Channel 16 on Sunday at 8am the following week, and again that Sunday afternoon at 2pm (please note the new times). About 2 months of recent NCUMC church services can always be viewed on our web site by clicking Watch Videos on the sidebar at left. If you are unable to get to church, or simply want to view previous Services, they are readily available for you to absorb and enjoy at any time you wish. DVD’s are available for checkout each week, and we have generally been able to distribute them as needed to shut-in’s who cannot easily get to church to pick them up.
All this began with a phone call from the local Cable Company, NCTV, to Pastor Charles Smith in early 2007. Lew Sitzer of NCTV asked if we would be interested in providing videos of our Church Services to NCTV for them to broadcast each week. Pastor Charles, Bill Smith and myself met with Lew and thought this to be a great opportunity for NCUMC to further our outreach and visibility in the community. As both Bill and I had Broadcast Television experience, together we set about determining what equipment we would need and how it all might be handled. NCTV was in process of converting from analog TV to digital and offered us two used analog cameras and tripods for a nominal fee, and we moved on from there, adding audio and video control equipment to the mix. Arrangements were made to not only provide NCTV with the programs, but to also show them on our website as well.
A number of volunteers joined in equipment operation and program production, and the recording and showing of the NCUMC Sunday Services commenced in November 2007 and has continued uninterrupted ever since. Thanks to some generous donations we were able to move into the 21st Century with new digital cameras, computers and software a few years ago. The HD cameras provide a much sharper picture with the snow and noise of the older analog devices now eliminated. Telestream, a local Nevada City company with worldwide reach, generously donated a copy of their Wirecast software (valued at $1000) which we use each week to capture and produce the video programs. The High Definition system was put into operation in June of 2015 and has proven a great asset to the quality and viewability of the NCUMC Church Services.
Our great volunteer crew is what makes all this possible! Two persons are needed to operate a camera and control the video and audio, though often a third unscheduled person is there to operate the 2nd camera, rather than having to leave it pointed on a fixed shot. Our volunteer Video Ministry crew consists of:
Terry, Garry, Dan, Ken, Charles, Tom, Marsten, Garret, Bob Z, Cindy Z (when available)Two of these persons are on the schedule each week, which means they are needed just once a month in most cases. Also, after recording the Service, one of us takes care of editing each week, as it is necessary for the NCTV video to be a precise length so as to fit into the slot scheduled for us.
AND: we always welcome more help on our Video Ministries Team. We need a minimum of eight persons but would like to always have at least one more so as to be able to handle schedule conflicts when a person cannot be here.
As previously noted, each member of the Team is needed about once a month to operate a video camera or handle video/audio control. No experience is necessary - we will teach you - it is not difficult - and it is fun! This is an Equal Opportunity operation! Many ladies are involved in these tasks at Television Broadcast Stations.
If you have interest in this Ministry please see or contact me - call the church office at 265-2797 or just look at the end of the Church Directory for contact info.
Bob Z
PS: If you want to learn Video, this is a Great Opportunity!
LIFE AFTER THURSDAY
It’s time for another of our fun potlucks and all adults are invited to come celebrate spring at the home of DeeAnn & Bruce on Friday, May 3rd. Bring a dish to share for the gathering time or the meal, your table service and cold beverage of choice. Coffee and tea will be provided.CRAFT COMMITTEE
Inviting all crafters to join us at our next meeting on Tuesday, May 7th at 10am
in Fellowship Hall. We’re always looking for new members and more ideas. See you the 2nd
New Crafters are always welcome, just drop in! See you the 2nd.
Adult Sunday School will begin Sunday, March 24 and will go through Sunday, April 14.
Next Sunday, March 24, our new adult education class begins following morning worship. The class will meet in the Joseph Room. The theme, “The Road to Resurrection,” will consist of 4 sessions on the Sundays remaining in Lent; the class will then continue each Sunday after Easter. Topics forming the basis of our discussion will be the scripture lesson and sermon for that Sunday. This format will give those attending a common biblical base and an opportunity to share together questions and reflections arising from their shared worship.
Next week, retired United Methodist minister Ron Dunn will be our guest preacher, so he will be joining us for this first class! His theme, “Repentance,” will be based on the Gospel of Luke, Chpt. 13, vss. 1-9.
For those planning to be in the class, although not imperative, you are urged you read this passage ahead. Doing so will provide you time to reflect on the meaning of the Bible passage ahead of the class. In the future, scripture passages and sermon themes for each Sunday will be posted in advance, so from week to week you will be able to better prepare yourself for the upcoming class.
We’re excited that this opportunity for adult education has finally come to fruition! It promises to be wonderful opportunity, not only for shared learning, but also for creating a deeper sense of Christian community among us.
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Silent Retreat
A Silent Retreat is scheduled for the weekend of May 17th. Participants may come three nights, starting on the 16th, or two nights, coming Friday the 17th through Sunday breakfast. It will be held at Mercy Center in Auburn. The time is your own to use, in silence. Delicious meals will be provided, and each person will have a private room, with bed, linens, closet, desk and easy chair. If you are interested, check with the office for registration and further information.
A large meeting of centrist and progressive United Methodists from the U.S. is set for May 20-22 at the United Methodist Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, Kansas.
The question to be asked is a big one: What should become of The United Methodist Church?
“We hope that this will be a diverse group of leaders who will help shape Methodism’s future and whatever comes out of those conversations will be our next steps and strategies moving forward,” said the Rev. Jasmine Smothers, lead pastor of Atlanta First United Methodist Church.
Specific options to be considered include breaking up the denomination or creating a financially smooth exit plan for traditionalist-minded congregations, said the Rev. Adam Hamilton, another organizer, in a blog post.
By a vote of 438 to 384, the 2019 General Conference passed the Traditional Plan, which retains church policy that the practice of homosexuality “is incompatible with Christian teaching” and strengthens bans against same-sex unions and ordination of “self-avowed practicing” gay clergy.
The constitutionality of the legislation will be reviewed by the Judicial Council later this month. But the vote by General Conference, which met Feb. 23-26 in St. Louis, has been greeted with dismay and resistance by many moderate and progressive United Methodists.
Some who had supported the One Church Plan, which would have given conferences and churches leeway on ordination and same-sex unions, have begun to question openly whether the denomination should or can hold together.
Smothers joined Hamilton, North Texas Conference Bishop Mike McKee, North Georgia Conference Bishop Sue Haupert-Johnson, Discipleship Ministries top executive the Rev. Junius Dotson and the Rev. Tom Berlin in convening a series of “UMC-Next” meetings.
The first was in Dallas on March 27 and the second was in Atlanta on April 4. They each lasted six hours and involved about 70 people total, including bishops other than McKee and Haupert-Johnson.
Retired Bishop Janice Huie and the Rev. Gil Rendle, a popular consultant and author on church leadership, facilitated the meetings.
The meetings were closed. Smothers said she did not have permission to share names of those attending.
Hamilton said the groups were racially mixed and included LGBTQ voices as well as representatives of small and large churches.
“They came from different places but what united them was their opposition to the decisions made at General Conference,” he said in his post.
Smothers and Hamilton said the Dallas and Atlanta gatherings led to the decision to have the May 20-22 meeting, expected to draw about 600 people. Ten representatives from each of the 54 U.S. annual conferences will be invited, as well as active U.S. bishops and top executives of church agencies.
In his blog post, Hamilton sketched two main options, assuming the Traditional Plan is retained by General Conference 2020.
One would have centrists and progressives leaving to form a new denomination, a process Hamilton said would need cooperation from traditionalist groups and would likely involve dissolving The United Methodist Church into “two or three new Methodist bodies.”
That would be a lengthy and legally complicated process, Hamilton acknowledged.
A second would involve centrists and progressives staying in The United Methodist Church and supporting a financially-smooth “gracious exit” for traditionalist congregations wishing to form their own denomination, Hamilton said. The UMC-Next discussions are among many that are occurring around the church, given the clear division over how accepting to be of homosexuality.
The Rev. Keith Boyette, president of the Wesleyan Covenant Association, said recently that he and other Traditional Plan advocates have been talking to key supporters of the One Church Plan about the denomination’s future.
In some parts of Europe, United Methodists unhappy with passage of the Traditional Plan have met to consider options.
Dotson led the Atlanta gathering in worship, noting divisions in the early church and echoing Paul’s call for a reliance on God.
“We don’t know the exact nature of Paul’s trouble but we know he made it through!” Dotson said, according to a press release. “In the midst of change, what lies before us is an ocean of opportunity.”
Hodges is a Dallas-based writer for United Methodist News Service. Contact him at 615-742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
On the Sundays during Lent (March 10 through April 7), we will be collecting food items for our food-insecure community neighbors through Interfaith Food Ministry. Sometime at the beginning of the service, children will be going up and down the aisles of the sanctuary with a wagon into which you can place your canned goods or a check made out to NCUMC and indicating IFM in the memo line. A list of suggested items is on the back table in the sanctuary.
And, during the month of March, all monetary donations to the Interfaith Food Ministry (IFM) will be matched up to $42,000. You are encouraged to make a monetary donation during March. Checks need to be made out to Nevada City United Methodist Church with IFM in the memo line. Please bring to church or mail to us at 433 Broad Street, Nevada City CA 95959 before the end of March.
We the undersigned are ordained clergy members of the United Methodist Church. We are either currently appointed as pastors in Nevada County churches or are retired clergy now residing here.
The official legislative body governing our global church is the General Conference, comprised of officially elected clergy and lay persons from around the world.
The issue of homosexuality has long been a matter of conflict within the United Methodist Church, particularly as to whether persons who openly identify themselves as LGBTQIA (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, asexual) can be ordained as clergy and whether United Methodist clergy can preside at wedding services for persons so identified.
Given this division, a special General Conference was convened from Feb. 23-26 in St. Louis to address this controversy and determine "a way forward" for the denomination. More than two thirds of delegates from the United States voted for a more inclusive plan, but the United Methodist Church is a global church, made up of people from varied cultures, and is diverse theologically. After much debate, a plan was adopted by a slim margin to strengthen prohibitions on ordination and marriage ceremonies as mentioned above and to add severe penalties for any violations.
We deplore this decision, which toughens prohibitions against LGBTQIA clergy and all clergy who officiate at same sex weddings. We are concerned on many levels:
- This decision is heartbreaking and painful to our LGBTQIA sisters and brothers. This is contrary to Wesleyan theology as we know and practice it, especially to do no harm. It gives support to those who would bully, reject or harm these beloved children of God.
- This decision damages the church, both laity and clergy, by setting up retributive sanctions without due process. It also increases the forces of division among members of the same congregations, members of the same regional areas, and members of the Body of Christ.
- This decision is based on a position that has already been ruled unconstitutional by the United Methodist Judicial Council. It will set in motion continued acrimony rather than offer an opportunity to celebrate diversity. It does not resolve the conflicts among us, nor move us forward toward reconciliation.
- This decision throws the entire denomination into upheaval as Annual Conferences (regional bodies), local churches, and individuals are forced to face the unhealthy prospects of schism. Attention and energy that could be put to the pressing issues of our day will be spent on institutional preservation and/or separation.
For these reasons we pledge the following:
- We will continue to support and serve as allies to our LGBTQIA sisters and brothers, to affirm the sacred worth of every individual as a beloved child of God.
- We will continue to baptize all who come seeking to live in the grace of Jesus Christ.
- We will continue to perform wedding ceremonies for all who seek a service of Christian marriage.
- We will pursue a path within the institution that ensures full equality of participation and leadership for our LGBTQIA sisters and brothers at every level of church life.
- We will lead our congregations, with God's grace, toward a whole and just world.
We affirm the leadership of the bishops of our Western Jurisdiction, comprised of Arizona, California, Nevada, Oregon, Wyoming, Washington, Montana, Idaho, Utah, Hawaii and Alaska, who articulate and defend our traditional Wesleyan values in support of a diverse and inclusive church.
With sadness, yet in hope of a church made new, we sign below in affirmation that what God creates and calls good cannot be denied or voted away. We shall not back down but will stand for what is right and good in God's embracing love through Jesus Christ. We do not stand alone, but with people around the world who desire to be part of an inclusive Christian fellowship that honors and loves them as does God.
We will work for an outcome that includes justice, mercy and inclusion for all.
Stipulations in the Traditional Plan approved by General Conference 2019 are unacceptable, said the executive committee of The United Methodist Church in Germany, and the church in Germany will not impose the stricter penalties laid out in the plan.
The committee is also forming a roundtable to search for ways to preserve unity.
On the final day of the special session of General Conference in St. Louis, delegates voted to adopt the Traditional Plan, which reinforces the church’s bans on same-gender unions and “self-avowed practicing” gay clergy. It also boosts penalties and accountability for transgressions of those bans.
“Regardless of our own content-related convictions, we have reached the unanimous opinion that the stipulations of the Traditional Plan are not acceptable for our church in Germany,” the group said in a statement released March 9. “The Germany (United Methodist Church) will therefore not follow the chosen way of controlling people in their disposition and imposing stricter penalties.”
The members of the German church’s executive committee emphasized that while democratic decisions must be respected, the far-reaching consequences in this case would not allow the adoption and execution of the decision by the United Methodist bodies in Germany.
The group made the unanimous decision during its regular spring session March 8-9, where General Conference’s actions dominated discussion.
During this Lenten season I’ve been inspired by a quote I found in my wonderful filing system (not!). Unfortunately, it was separated from its author, so I apologize to the source (and if you know who it is, please let me know). This is what I had written down:
When you find yourself in exile (think Babylon, enslaved in Egypt, hiding from Saul), then …
Your worship, spiritual discipline, and education seek to help you:
Practice memory in a world of amnesia
Practice grief in a world of denial
Practice sacrament in a world of technique
Practice generosity in a world of scarcity
Practice obedience in a world of indulgence
Practice hope in a world of despair
The idea of living in exile in our modern times might seem strange at first. I first encountered the idea from Walter Brueggemann, professor of Old Testament. His book “Prophetic Imagination” talks about the qualities of exile – feeling not at home, a stranger in a strange land, oppressed by consumer culture, racism, sexism, unfreedom. At heart it means exiled from Eden where closeness with God was a daily reality, food was abundant, and hearts were peaceful. Our own actions generally lead us into exile – it is no accident that the Devil tells Jesus in the desert that all the kingdoms of the world, their glory and authority, could belong to Jesus since the Devil himself “owns” them and he has the power to give them to whomever he wants. We live in the kingdoms of fallenness and yearn for a home we once knew.
There’s a song we sing from the black hymn book from Psalm 42:1:
As the deer pants for the water so my soul longs after you.
You alone are my heart’s desire, and I long to worship you.
You alone are my strength, my shield; to you alone may my spirit yield.
You alone are my heart’s desire, and I long to worship you.
Humans have expressed this desire to return from our exile for centuries. I love the spring flowers and the Easter rabbit, but what I really long for is the kingdom of heaven that Jesus talked about. That’s what Lent is about.
Calling All Church Artists
The Public Relations Team has chosen to participate in the First Friday Art Walk in Nevada City on June 7 from 5 to 9 p.m. Participating businesses and organizations host artist receptions at various locations around downtown. The P/R Team envisions this event as an opportunity to introduce the church to those in the community who may not know much about us. The church will hold an Open House offering tours of our historic building, church member artist displays, music and refreshments.If you are a visual artist, painter, photographer, graphic artist, sculptor, fiber artist or creator in another medium, you are invited to offer a maximum of two of your personal art pieces for display in Fellowship Hall. We plan to setup the display on Saturday, June 1 so that those who attend worship on June 2 can enjoy the art at fellowship time and then encourage their friends and neighbors to attend the First Friday event on the following Friday, June 7. If you have an art piece or two you'd like to display or questions about the event, please contact Louise at louisemc1937@comcast.net or call her at 265-2222.
Community Connection Team
The Community Connection Team is present to provide caring support for our congregation. Through personal visits, conversations, and cards or letters our team wants to let others know that we care about them. We try to reach members from our church congregation who may need special attention due to a variety of circumstances while also being a resource for community services if appropriate. Above all, this team hopes to be more intentional in caring for one another. Our next meeting is Sunday, May 19th following worship.
