News

The latest in the Prayer Shawl stories continues with Dottie Ohe, our ULC/LCM secretary. She has been staying with a friend who has M.S. and is walker/wheel chair bound. Dottie’s prayer shawl was so attractive to her that she wanted one, too. Dottie reached out to Lynn, MaryAnn, and myself to ask about how to get one (you take one off the shelf and tell the story about where it’s going). Lynn happened to be knitting a shawl so she finished it up, put fringes on the ends and voila` she got the shawl to Dottie’s friend who loves is!

Our good friends of 8 years, discovered that the husband has a brain tumor, glioblastoma, it’s like melted butter on bread, so it is inoperable. I got a prayer shawl to him as soon as I heard the diagnosis. He is currently in a coma and at home with hospice. There is still hope for a miracle that God heals his brain and brings him back to us. 

Jan Ramelot was unfortunately let go as a contracted worker from American Airlines. She went back to Michigan to visit her daughter during COVID 19 and had some time to knit 2 prayer shawls and her friend and neighbor saw what Jan was doing, and she crocheted one for Jan to bring back with her when she came to Tempe to clean out her apartment. We will miss Jan’s voice in choir and her delightful conversations during coffee, but she knows she is always welcome back here for a visit or to live and return to our community of worshipers and knitters! Thanks for the recent contributions.

I have it on good authority that someone was looking for something to do that was constructive and is teaching himself to knit! Anyone, any age is welcome to the instruction books and supplies to do the same!

Lori Zurcher

Dear Speakers and Listeners:

I have always admired the talent of Mel Blanc. Do you know that name? The late Mel Blanc was the voice of nearly all Looney Toons cartoon characters watched by many generations of fans, including today. Mel did voices from Porky Pig,to Daffy Duck, to  Bugs Bunny and even to the “Beep Beep” of the Roadrunner. While in a coma following a car accident doctors could only get him to talk by addressing him as “Bugs Bunny” and he would respond with the voice of that “Wascly Wabbit.”  He also had a sense of humor: the epitaph on his tombstone is, “That’s all, folks!”

Yes, Mel had quite a talent. Yet, whenever you and I speak whether by voice or writing, do we not many voices speak through us? Have you not ever said anything and then thought, “Gee, that was my Dad or Mom speaking?” How many people helped to shape us and mold our viewpoints! Teachers, family members, colleagues, mentors…so many influences us to the point that their voice can at times be heard in our own.

As you and I confront the reality of COVID 19, no doubt the words and thoughts that we use to respond are some amalgamation of those voices that once influenced us and helped to create who we have become. Suffering Succotash!  

Ah, but this remains the Easter season. Christ is Risen. New Life awaits! That means  you and I have not yet “become.” We are, instead, “becoming.” There are more voices to address us and our time. There are more voices that can yet blend into our speech regardless of our age. That raises the question, “To whose voices do we listen? ” Whom do we want to shape the person we are becoming? How do we wish to respond to more weeks of sheltering and more weeks of uncertainty regarding how this pandemic might shape the future? Do we want to simply respond with fear? With anger? With unfounded certainty? With hope regardless of what the future might bring? Chose those voices carefully. We don’t want to be Tweety, the canary, who constantly sees a “Puddy Cat.” Nor ought we become Foghorn Leghorn, with his overconfident sense of importance.  

With the cacophony of voices addressing us today all claiming to be in the know, you and I need to constantly recall the voice of Jesus; the voice from the sermon on the mount, the voice who pronounced forgiveness, the voice that taught in parables, the voice from the cross and the voice that waled along Emmaus’ road and grilled fish on the beach.  Certainly, “that’s all, folks!”

In Christ’s Risen name

Gary N McCluskey 
Pastor, University Lutheran Church

Under current circumstances, church leaders, committee chairpersons and members, and all our friends and fellow worshipers need to be thinking “outside of the box”.  We will be listing various resources in this sections which everyone may feel usedful.

Coronavirus in Church – A 32 page PDF with wonderful resources for our congregation. Produced by Tithe.ly an alternate merchange account service to our Vanco GIVE+.  Most churches in the ELCA use either one of these services for online giving.

Yes, despite the CORVID-19 situation, there is new life in the community garden. We now have two raised beds.