MLK' s I Have a Dream Speech done by 4th grade students

The PBS News Hour broadcast a 4th grade class reciting Martin Luther King Jr's "I have a Dream" speech on Monday.
I thought it was so cute that I put it here in this blog.  Here is the YouTube link; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8_1NYYKixM

Here is the PBS News Hour link: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/social_issues/jan-june11/dream_01-17.html

I like the News Hour version best.
Enjoy.

Jeannette Brown

Daily Devotional and Your Faith

In today's UCC Daily Devotinal (January 15, 2011) talks about acting your faith.  Inviting people to come to church on your Facebook.  Wow!  I have invited people to come and sing at our church on my Facebook.  I no longer have to do that since Mark Miller our new music minister has a following who are already joining our choir.  We may even run out of robes!  That's a good thing.  But what do you do?  Periodically the Rev asks us to bring friends to church, do you do that?  I have already asked people to come to church for musical events and concerts.  You can do that too.  I have attached today's devotional for your review.
Jeannette Brown

January 15, 2011

Evolve

Excerpt from Acts 1:1-5

“In the first book…I wrote about all that Jesus did and taught from the
beginning until the day when he was taken up to heaven, after giving
instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles…”

Reflection by Quinn
G. Caldwell

At some point, Disciples turn into Apostles.

In today’s passage, Jesus evolves the Disciples into Apostles, readying them
to be sent out with a message (see that word “post” in “apostle”?  Just
like the mail!).  I for one am glad they let it happen; if they had chosen
not to change, Christianity would have died when they did.

What stage of Christian evolution are you in?  Do you go to church, try
to live a good life, and leave it at that?  Or do you talk with other
people about it as well?

For the sake of everyone else in the break room who doesn’t know how sweet
faith can be, isn’t it time to stand up to that loud
atheist/fundamentalist/whatever at work?

Or do what one member of my church does: she periodically sets her Facebook
status to something like, “Can’t wait for church tomorrow!  Anybody want
to go with and then get brunch after?”  You’d be surprised how many take
her up on it.  Or you could just be sure your FB profile lists your
religion and a link to your church.  Or you could write a letter to the
editor—explicitly as a Christian—on an issue of the day.  Or…well, you get
the point: be creative.

Do you think Christianity—or your flavor of it—matters enough to be kept
alive, or are you happy to let it die with you?  If the latter, then enjoy
your discipleship.  If the former, it’s time to evolve.

Prayer

God, grant me the Holy Spirit so that I might be strong for the sharing of
your Word.  Amen.

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About the Author   Quinn G. Caldwell is Associate Minister of Old South Church in Boston,   Massachusetts.

Next blog about MLK Day

 

Jeannette

A Prayer for These Days

Because the shooting of Representative Giffords seems to be painted with
undertones of her vote on health care reform, among other things, a prayer by
people of faith who are committed to health care justice seems appropriate at
this time.
We offered this prayer for the national moment of silence on Monday and
continue to pray with these words:
In the sacred bonds of our common humanity, we give thanks for the life
that we share and for our calling to care for each other.  In this time of
national tragedy, grief, and uncertainty, we remember the victims of this
senseless act of violence.  For those who were greeted by death, we pray for
the benediction of holy light and peace.  And for those who struggle to
recover from injuries, we pray for the blessing of healing. May those who hold
all of these persons dear feel the compassionate embrace of their national
family.
We pray also for ourselves, knowing that our most deeply held commitments
to the common good and our concern for our sisters and brothers are being
smothered by our inability to live together in peace. So we ask for
forgiveness, that we may rediscover the ties that bind us together and give us
strength for the journeys of our days. May the darkness and pain of these
moments be transformed into a dawn that invites us into new relationships in
which we not only give voice to our own ideals and passions, but deeply listen
to one another and respect the gifts and viewpoints of others.
In all things, may we be instruments of reconciliation and
compassion. 
Amen.
The above prayer is taken from The Faithful Reform in Health Care e-mail that I receive.  I felt it was very appropriate considering the speech that President Obama made last night at the prayer service.  We must not let that nine year old childs dreams of government down.
Jeannette

Take Action Against Human Trafficking

Take Action Against Human Trafficking!

Across the world and throughout the United States, human beings are forced into labor, exploited in commercial sexual enterprises, and moved across national or state borders against their will, frightened and terrorized into silence.  Trafficking in persons is the 3rd largest illegal trade business around the world (drugs and small arms lead the way).  Women and children make up 80% of those trafficked.
Join us January 11 as we observe Human Trafficking Awareness Day, a time to pay attention to the realities of what is often referred to as modern day slavery.
The 27th General Synod approved a Resolution of Witness, A Call to Awareness and Action to End the Practice of Trafficking in Persons.  It calls upon UCC congregations to utilize a time close to January 11 to become aware of these issues and learn how to become advocates for those victimized by such human rights abuses. 
During the next 3 months, churches will be encouraged to support ratification of the International Violence Against Women Act as one way to advocate for an end to the trafficking of women and girls. Look for more information soon on the JPANet.
As we enter the New Year we invite you to educate yourself and your congregation about human trafficking so we can begin to do this work together!

Resources

Common Global Ministries of the UCC and Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) have excellent materials, including some fantastic ideas for recognizing Human Trafficking Awareness Day in your community, a PowerPoint, Combating Human Trafficking: Responses and Strategies, and other resources including first-hand stories of persons who have been trafficked.
Additional resources can be found at the National Council of Churches' Justice for Women Working Group site. Films with discussion guides are available, such as Lives for Sale, a documentary on immigration and human trafficking produced by Maryknoll and Lightfoot Films in association with Faith & Values Media.  The DVD comes with a study guide.
A four session study guide from Thoughtful Christian (online publishing of adult ed curricula) on sex trafficking, authored by Martha Bettis-Gee, is also available. This study explores the scope of the problem and provides definitions of various aspects that contribute and have led to the spread of sex trafficking.
The above was copied from the UCC website.  I thought it was relevant because of the adult education program that was held on Human Trafficking last fall.
Jeannette Brown

Hallelujah! Ok. Another Post About Music!

The Christmas season is over with all the wonderful music.  Our former Music Director Wayne Bradford wanted Christmas to last all year because he loved the music of Christmas.  I started listening to the music on the local classical music station WWFM 89.5. ( http://www.wwfm.org/ ) It is located in Mercer County Community College and it is a great station.  For those of you out of the listening area you can listen on the web.

In addition, music has been circulating on the web.  You may have seen the link to the Hallelujah chorus that went around to the choir and other people.  Recently the PBS News Hour got into the act with their blog called The Rundown. The title is Hallelujah! A Global Mash-up of Handel's
'Messiah'  http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/2010/12/musical-montage-handels-hallelujah-chorus.html

There is a lot of information about Messiah in this blog including video the Newshour staff singing and links to all the U-Tube videos.  There are also links to Messiah performances on PBS and NPR.

Now about Messiah, I used to sing in the Masterwork Chorus under David Randolph. Since Messiah is a moneymaker (more about that later) Masterwork sang five performances of Messiah a season including two in one day!  When you have sung that many Messiah performances you get a little tired of singing the piece.  In addition, we had to sing it at a rapid pace because professional musician get paid double time after 11PM so we had to end before then.  My favorite song in the piece aside from the alto arias is "The Trumpet Shall Sound".  For one reason is that it is near the end of the piece and for the other reason because of the trumpet.  I would wake up and sit up in my seat to hear whether the trumpet player is going to do a good job or blow it!  (Pardon the pun!)

About Messiah being a moneymaker, there was another PBS story entitled   "Hallelujah!: How Handel Orchestrated a Classic Financial Portfolio " http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/business/july-dec09/composer_12-23.html  The video is there as well as the transcript. In Handel's time, most composers wrote operas. 

"Harvard's Mike Scherer has written a classic on
classical music and economics: "Quarter Notes and Banknotes." Opera
was the road to independence from the patronage of court and clergy, he
says."

However, opera was expensive to produce.

ELLEN HARRIS:
( MIT) "Paying for the orchestral musicians, paying for sets, paying for
costumes. Opera has never been a really good moneymaker. We know this today.

Therefore, Handel decided to write oratorios.

PAUL SOLMAN:
Oratorios, like "The Messiah," required no sets, no costumes, cheaper
singers.

ELLEN HARRIS:
He began using exclusively English singers. So, he had a very different cost
ratio to his performances. And it's only with the oratorios that he began
making really big money

Later on the above article, they talked about the economy of
Britain depending on the slave trade.  Handle got his money out of that
business before it went bust.

So here is the financial side of music as well as the enjoyment side. Incidently for the first time in years I went to a Messiah sing in Princeton with the Musical Amatures.  I enjoyed it because everyone knew the music. 

Now we should do Bach's Christmas Oratorio but that's another story.

Happy New Year!

Jeannette Brown