Prayer Service and Candlelight Vigil for Marriage Equality

Please join us on Tuesday, March 26 at 7 PM as Hendersonville First Congregational Church hosts Community Prayer Service and Candlelight Vigil for Marriage Equality, with a reception following. This coincides with the commencement of Supreme Court hearing on two laws which limit marriage freedom: DOMA or the Defense of Marriage Act, and Proposition 8, a law which overturned a California state court's decision to allow same-sex marriage. Come and show your support of the United Church of Christ national efforts in promoting marriage equality.

https://www.facebook.com/events/515710595159507/?ref=22

http://equalitync.org/action/events/light_the_way_to_justice_hendersonville_vigil

MARRIAGE AMENDMENT-INFORMED DECISION

On the MARRIAGE AMENDMENT Fence?

 

To make an INFORMED DECISION come to

NC AMENDMENT 1:

A Question of Civil Rights

Saturday, April 21, 3 - 4:30 p.m.

Refreshments Following

FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH

United Church of Christ

Fifth Avenue West & White Pine Drive

Hendersonville

828-692-8630                  www.fcchendersonville.org

Learn facts, like how its passage may affect same sex and heterosexual unmarried couples, from this expert panel:

The Rev. Dr. Douglas F. Ottati, Distinguished Professor of Religion and Ethics, Davidson College

Clay Eddleman, M.D., Professor Emeritus, Department of Psychiatry         and Behavioral Sciences, Emory University School of Medicine.

Ms. Rebecca Chaplin, MSW, Gerontologist, local Council on Aging    

Ms. Susan Wilson, Mediator and Attorney specializing in mediation, collaborative law and domestic partnership 

Brian Fitzsimmons, Chief Operating Officer of The Sorin Group

Dr. Ottati will also speak at the weekly Adult Forum Sunday, April 22 at 9:15 in the Fellowship Hall and preach at the

10:30 worship service.

Update From Jim Jolly In Panama

Hello everyone!

It has been a while since a Picasa update chronicling the travels of Atlantis. We are preparing an album but it is not quite ready yet.

However, the Panama Canal system  is ready and we have been assigned Wednesday, Feb. 1 with a 6:00 AM departure from our marina in Balboa on the Pacific side of the canal.  We should get to the first lock, Miraflores, between 7:30 AM and 9:00 AM.

Please join us. How?, you say. WEBCAMS! Just click on this site:http://www.pancanal.com/eng/photo/camera-java.html. Across the top of the page are a series of tabs. The Miraflores tab is a view to the south, toward Balboa, the direction from which we will be coming. The Miraflores High Resolution tab is a view toward the north, the direction we will head after transiting the two chambers comprising the Miraflores locks. At the other end of the canal are the Gatun Locks which we may reach that afternoon if all goes well or the next morning if we have to anchor in Gatun Lake for the night. 

The pictures on the site are of the time-lapse type changing approximately every 60 seconds--now you don't see us now you do as the water level rises. We most likely will share the lock chamber with mammoth cargo vessel. You have to look close to spot small  recreational vessels.

Aboard Atlantis, in addition to Carolyn and I, will be the required 4 line handlers hired for the occasion and an Adviser from the Canal Authority also required and hired. Joining us from Cincinnati, Ohio will be my nephew, Steve, who has been cajoling me to make this trip for the last two years. Steve is also an attorney, well versed I hope, in matters jurisprudence relating to the canal.

As a reminder, a photo of Atlantis, not under sail, is attached.

Take note, if you are able to see us on the WEBCAM, there is a chance we may see you so be careful.

Have fun and practice with the site early.

Jim

Struggle against the status quo continues

Richard Wiedler
Be Our Guest

Published: Tuesday, January 17, 2012 at 4:30 a.m.

Last Modified: Monday, January 16, 2012 at 2:52 p.m.

Page 1 of 3

“I often find when decent treatment for the Negro is urged, a certain class of people hurry to raise the scarecrow of social mingling and inter-marriage. These questions have nothing to do with the case. And most people who kick up this kind of dust know that it is simple dust to obscure the real question of rights and opportunities. … We want and are entitled to the basic rights and opportunities of American citizens.”

Facts

Wiedler is the pastor of First Congregational Church, United Church of Christ, of Hendersonville. He lives in Hendersonville.

Martin Luther King Jr.,

Letter to the Editor, Atlanta

Constitution, Aug. 6, 1946

The above letter was written early on in Dr. King’s quest to gain equality for his African-American sisters and brothers. Sixty-five years later, we are engaged in a similar struggle for civil rights for a minority group of citizens. This minority group feels the pain of discrimination not because of their skin color, as Dr. King experienced, but because of their sexual orientation.

However, our struggle today is not so unlike Dr. King’s; it is a struggle against the same house of cards called “the status quo,” whose foundation is “tradition” and whose walls are the same fear, hatred and bigotry against which Dr. King so powerfully spoke. Dr. King ultimately gave his life so that the truth might cause those walls to fall and the tradition to be washed away by truth, which revealed African-Americans for who they truly are: beloved children of God and U.S. citizens equally protected under the Constitution.

I, not unlike Dr. King, often find “when decent treatment for” homosexuals “is urged, a certain class of people [presently represented by many fear-filled and bigoted members of the State House in Raleigh] hurry to raise the scarecrow” of preserving the sanctity of marriage between a man and a woman, arguing that gay marriage would somehow harm straight marriage. These fear-inducing statements have “nothing to do with the case. Most people who kick up this kind of dust want to obscure the real” issue: treating all of our citizens fairly, equally and justly, period.

Human love is a gift of God freely given. Whom one loves and chooses to spend his or her life with should not be legislated from Raleigh, nor should it be decided by a majority of voters. If two heterosexual citizens are blessed to fall in love, the state blesses their love with the right to marry. With this right of marriage comes innumerable benefits provided by the state (e.g., the right to file income taxes jointly, the sharing of Social Security benefits, being “legal next of kin” in all matters including access to hospital ICUs, along with numerous other financial and legal benefits).

If two people of the same gender are blessed to fall in love and wish to make it a legal relationship through marriage — with all of the benefits that marriage affords — is it right, fair and just for the state to deny them the same benefits afforded two other citizens who happen to be different genders, solely because that has been the tradition?

Years ago, tradition meant that blacks and whites could not drink from the same public drinking fountain, could not use the same public restrooms, could not sit together in the same theatre, could not attend the same schools. Today we whites look back on that time of history with embarrassment and shame. In hindsight, we have no doubts as to the injustice of such bigoted and discriminatory practices enforced by unjust laws.

At present, it is already illegal for persons of the same gender to marry in North Carolina. While I and many other Christians believe this is unjust, to codify this into the state constitution would not only be extraordinarily hurtful to many of our fellow citizens of this great state, but it would be mean-spirited and hateful, causing the further institutionalization of injustice and discrimination not unlike the racist laws and practices a half-century ago that Dr. King fought to overturn.

On May 8, every North Carolinian will be asked to go into the voting booth and decide whether our great state will stand for equality and justice for all people, or if we will “kick up the dust” of our ancestors a half-century ago, further exacerbating the already painful wound of bigotry and discrimination caused by the present law.

During this past weekend, we joyfully and proudly remembered the words and celebrated the life and accomplishments of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. May we truly honor his memory by sending a clear message to Raleigh in May that our esteemed elected representatives have overreached. Let us tell them there is no place in our great state of North Carolina for the practice of bigotry and prejudice, most especially in the State House in Raleigh!

Christmas Memories

Our Christmas Joy Expanded with Our Church Family Welcoming New Members!

Saturday Dec 3rd Holiday Cookie and Book Sale 10:00 A.M. until 1:00 P.M.

"On Saturday, December 3rd there will be a Holiday Cookie and Book Sale in the Fellowship Hall of the First Congregational Church at 1735 Fifth Avenue West from 10:00 A.M. until 1:00 P.M.  All are welcome!  Meet your homemade cookie needs for the holidays!  Buy Fair Trade Coffee and Hot Chocolate at less than retail prices.  Buy  raffle tickets to win great prizes.  Browse through gently read books!  Enjoy complimentary Coffee or Apple Cider, listen to Christmas music and read your newly acquired books,  while you wait for the raffle winners announcement."

FCC Adult Discussion Forum: "The Controversy of Social Justice" "

Hi folks,

This Sunday, October 2, our own Mark Fagerlin will present this important topic. Different factions have different definitions of "Social Justice." What is our definitions and how does it influence our activities? Bring all your ideas and comments. Everyone thought that Mark did an Outstanding Job!!!!

Pat