Weekly E-Pistle: 2nd Sunday after Pentecost

6/4/2021

In This Week's E-Pistle, You Will Find:

This Sunday's Service Notes -- "Welcome Back to Church "
Last Week's Service Video -- "Trinity Sunday"
Welcome Home! Preparations for In-Person Worship and Online worship.
Remembering Richard Graham
Strengthen the Church
CJT's Leadership Change
Men's Group Trip to Gilmore Car Museum
An Evening with Dr. Bernie Siegel - June 16
Pride Care-A-Van Coming on June 5 -- Start Your Engines!
Radar Hill Hiking Club Celebrating National Trails Day, June 5
Friendship Hall News
Birthdays & Anniversaries, Prayer Requests, and Financial Stewardship

This Sunday's Service: Welcome Back to Church

Pastor Sal and Director of Music, Peter Black, are looking forward to welcoming you back to church.

This Sunday at 10 AM, we return to in-person services at the church for the first time in 15 months! (See below for all the details). Pastor Sal will be giving an inspiring message on "Hope & Resilience." Plus, there will be special music from Peter Black and Brenda Marcy.

The service will be recorded and then broadcast later in the day on Sunday afternoon on our church's YouTube channel. (Live-streaming coming soon!). No matter how you choose to worship with us on Sunday (either in-person or online), please know how grateful we are for your continued presence and support.

Last Sunday's Service

The First Sunday after Pentecost is known as "Trinity Sunday," when we celebrated the "three-in-one" aspect of God: Creator/Sustainer/Redeemer. For last Sunday's Video Worship service, Pastor Sal was joined by several other UCC ministers who shared their words and prayers with us. Message: Rev. John Dorhauer, UCC President. Music: Peter Black and Jeff Spangler.

Welcome Home!
Preparations for In-Person and Online Worship

For the first time in 15 months, we will be returning to in-person services in the church beginning this Sunday, June 6, at 10 AM. We have installed several medical-grade, high efficiency air-filtration systems in the church and Friendship Hall, as well as several hand-sanitizing stations. Masks will also be available. See thisinformational video for more details.

For those who are not yet ready to return to church, be assured that we will continue to share our services online. For now, they will be recorded on Sunday mornings and then uploaded later in the day to our church's website. We are currently working on upgrading our A/V equipment and getting internet installed in the church, so that we can live-stream the services in the near future. We will keep you posted. Thank you for your patience.

Until then, we recommend that you click the red "subscribe" button on our church's YouTube channel, and click the little "bell" icon, which will notify you whenever a new video has been uploaded. We are so grateful for your continued participation and support.

Remembering Richard Graham

It is with great sadness that we share the news that our church member, Richard Graham, passed away on Monday, June 1, at his residence at American House in Holland. In his many years at Douglas UCC, Graham served as a Sunday reader, a leader on our Church Council, and he helped many people in recovery. During "Joys & Concerns," Graham would often express his gratitude for Lake Michigan and the natural beauty of God's creation all around us. A retired college professor, Graham touched many lives with his wisdom, wit, and gentle spirit. Though Graham did not wish to have a funeral, a plaque in his name will be installed in our church's Memorial Garden later this summer.

Strengthen the Church

Thank you to all who donated to last Sunday's special collection for the UCC's "Strengthen the Church" fund. There is still another week for you donate to this fund, which helps support UCC leadership development, new churches, youth ministry, and innovation in existing congregations. You can contribute to this fund via our online giving page, or you can write a check made out to "Douglas UCC" and mail it to P. O. Box 519, Douglas, MI 49406. Be sure to write "STC" on the memo line. Thank you, as always, for your generous giving.

Creation Justice Team's Leadership Change

Thanks and KUDOS to Sarah Swift for facilitating the work of the Creation Justice Team. We so appreciate her vision and guidance! And welcome back to Eric LeJeune, who will once again facilitate the team's work. We celebrate the dedication of the CJT in working for justice for all of creation!

Men's Group Trip

An Evening with Dr. Bernie Siegel - June 16

Douglas UCC is honored and excited to announce that best-selling author, Dr. Bernie Siegel, will be joining us online via Zoom on Wednesday, June 16, at 7 PM, for an intimate and inspiring conversation based on his new book, "No Endings, Only Beginnings: A Doctor's Notes on Living, Loving, and Learning Who You Are." Please email us at welcome@douglasucc.org to receive the Zoom link for the event.

Pride Care-A-Van Coming on June 5...
Start Your Engines!

The annual Community Pride event is scheduled for Saturday, June 5, at noon. Like last year, this year's Pride event will be a "Care-a-Van" Car Parade from Douglas to Saugatuck. Decorate your car for Pride and join in the parade! Route begins at the corner of Blue Star Hwy and Enterprise Drive, Douglas, near Christo's Roadhouse. Very Special Prizes (see above) will be given for best-decorated car! For more information, follow this event on the Community Pride Facebook page here.

The Pride Committee is also selling T-shirts for $25 apiece for sizes small to Extra large, and $30 for sizes 2X to 4X (please pre-order for smaller or larger sizes, deadline May 10). The color is Heather Blue. Ruth VandenBosch will manage the t-shirt sales and will have a total of 150 shirts available. For pre-orders, email Ruth at ruthvandenbosch@gmail.com. Small Pride flags (and snap-on car flags) are also available for sale.

Radar Hill Hiking Club
Celebrating National Trails Day, June 5

Radar Hill Hiking Club is sponsoring a local observance of National Trails Day in the Saugatuck-Douglas-Laketown area on Saturday, June 5, 2021. Our goals are to inform residents and visitors about local hiking trails, and advocate for trails and conservation. For more information, follow this link to the Radar Hill website.

Friendship Hall News

Photo by Chris Montgomery on Unsplash

Our very last Zoom coffee hour/Online Friendship Hall after months and months of meeting online took place last week. We were full of chat about reopening the church, looking forward to Pride Month celebrations, especially the Care-a-Van on Saturday at noon, with car lineup starting at 11, see the story above! And of course the National Trails day scramble, see that story too! Pastor Sal shared that the Lakeshore Chorus concert is on hold as they await music licensing, and Tuesday Qigong has moved to the Spring Street lawn. Jack Ridl shared news of Robin Wall Kimmerer at Wege Speakers' Series. Here's that Link. And Pamela Chappell invited folks to attend to our friend Sandy Feldman's Facebook posts, where she is sharing her thoughts and her spirit on her cancer journey. Connect with Pam if you'd like to be tagged on Sandy's posts! Online gatherings are planned for a different time in the future. Please stay tuned for that announcement!

Birthdays & Anniversaries

6- Dee Baker & Lin Wisehart, 7- Dan Urquhart, 8- Michael Lynch, 9- Tamara Ritt,
10- Catherine Dienes, Jim Hopkins, Matthew McWebb, 12- Bill Briggs

Birthday and Anniversary cards are a great way we can continue to reach out to one another during this time. If you wish to mail a card to one of our church members, addresses can be found in our Church Directory. If you don't have a directory, please let us know, and we will email one to you.

Prayer Requests

Margaret and Dave Bazany and their daughter, Jennifer; Sarah Johnson Lock; Linda Masten (Mark Reiman's friend); Pam Carr (Debra Carr's sister); Vicki Latham (Ruth VandenBosch's cousin); Sarah Ver Meulen (Susan Fleming's Daughter); Mike VerMerris and all of Luke Burnett's family; Bev Hawkes; Cole Hartman; Walt Lawrence; Shannon Connell; Dennis Konarski and the Konarski family; Mike Sneedon (Peg and Jack Donohue's friend); John Leon (Marjorie Reiman's uncle); Marjorie Reiman; Pamela Chappell; Sandy Feldman; Tim Reineck, Matt Brazys, Suzanne Cook, and Ken Cassbon (friends of Pete Wehle and Pamela Chappell); Richie Czarnowski (Mark Reiman's friend); Dale Lower; Sherri Kanten (Ruth VandenBosch's friend); Michael (a friend of Dan Mack's); Myron (Wendy Hamlin's grandson, Fred Hamilin's great-grandson); Chris Stuart (Virginia Stuart's sister-in-law); Darren Dixon (Beverly and Orie Hawkes' nephew); Mary Elizabeth Loudin (friend of Laurie VandenBeldt); Chris Robinson (Peter and Kathleen Mueller's nephew); Gregg Kirchen (Sheryll and Greg VanPortfleet's friend); Daniel Ver Meulen (Susan Fleming's son); Marcia Sullivan (Jo Cooley's friend); Len Lynch (Kathleen Mueller's brother).

Financial Stewardship

May 30, 2021

Viewers for May 30 Online Service Videos: 590
May Podcast Downloads: 350

Online Donations: $2,527.08
Retreat House Use: $80.00
Strengthen the Church: $50.00
Collection Plate: $435.00

Total: $3,092.08

Thank you!!

Your generous giving allows us to sustain our church community and our mission of service in the world. Please consider giving online, which is easily done by texting your donation amount to
844-931-2849, or sharing through the donate buttons on
Facebook or Instagram, or at our website.