MVLP “Gather 'Round” E-News - Issue #70May 21, 2021

This is the seventieth issue of our E-newsletter, “Gather ‘Round,” to call us together through the internet to share news and needs and stories with each other.  If you have a tale to tell or a perspective to share, please send it on for the next issue!

The Buildings Are Closed;The Church Is Open!

Back issues of “Gather ‘Round” E-news are available on the Moosup Valley Church website, thanks to our webmaster, Pat Safstrom. Go to moosupvalley.church and click on the tab at the top of the page.

Pentecost: The Coming of the Holy SpiritRead Acts 2:1-21

Fifty days after Easter, on the Jewish festival of Weeks celebrating the spring harvest and the giving of the Ten Commandments, the disciples and other followers of Jesus were hiding out in a safe house in Jerusalem, the cross-roads of the world. They were from all over, devout Jews from every nation – men and women from near and far. Traumatized, afraid. Waiting for something. What was it Jesus had promised before he was killed?

This is a story, of course, and we know that stories take on a life of their own. But it was a significant emotional event, coming on the heels of the Romans’ murder of their beloved Jesus and the disciples’ finding the tomb empty. Something changed for them that morning, and like all such emotional events, it changed their lives and launched the Jesus Movement, the rudimentary beginning of the Christian Church.

Gospel-writer Luke in his “The Acts of the Apostles,” reports a violent wind and people “on fire” with the power of it. No matter who they were, and what part of the world they hailed from, they understood each other. Was it because they were speaking in Hebrew, the language of the synagogue? Or because that kind of energy and excitement needs no words?

Whatever happened that day, people not so different from you and me were empowered to go out and turn the world upside down – in spite of persecution, in spite of imprisonment, in spite of torture, in spite of oppression and death. It all happened at Pentecost. Perhaps it happened because they told each other again the story of Jesus and his amazing life, how he cared for the lame and the lonely, the homeless and the hungry, the poor and the prisoner – no matter who they were and where they were on life’s journey – especially those who had no status, no hope, no future, the least of these in society.

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Perhaps it happened because they caught a vision of God’s view of the world – tongues of fire exciting their minds, tongues of fire warming their hearts – a vision of the way the world should be. And they felt empowered to make it happen, to carry on what Jesus had begun. The prophet Joel’s ancient vision of wholeness was possible, and God was breathing her Spirit of love and power on them, so that they could breathe it out on all the broken-hearted places in this troubled world of ours.

Come, Holy Spirit, come. Burn in us this day and every day.

On the Day of PentecostA reflection by theologian Barbara Brown Taylor

We breathe air that circulated in the rain forests of Kenya, and air that turned yellow with sulfur over Mexico City.We breath the same air that Plato breathed, and Mozart and Michelangelo, not to mention Hitler and Lizzie Borden. Every time we breathe,we take in what was once some baby’s first breath, or some dying person’s last.

When Jesus let go of his last breath – willingly, we believe, for love of us – that breath hovered in the air in front of him for a moment, and then it was set loose on earth. It was such pungent breath – so full of passion, so full of life – that it did not simply dissipate as so many breathes do. It grew, in strength and volume, until it was a mighty wind, which God sent spinning through an upper room in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost.

Moosup Valley Sunday Service Moosup Valley Church holds Sunday Worship by Zoom, at 10:30 a.m. Liturgy literally means “the work of the people,” and at Moosup Valley we take this to heart. Members of the congregation take part in reading, playing, and singing. This Sunday, May 23, we will celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, reading from Acts 2:1-21. Rev. Betsy will reflect on “The Gift of Understanding.” Watch for the link and the Order of Worship bulletin which will be emailed on Saturday morning and will include everything you need to participate, all in one PDF document. Please remember to wear red, the liturgical color of Pentecost.

Rice City Worship Worship at Rice City will be live, in person (with precautions) this Sunday, May 23, at 9:00 a.m. as well as online on the MVLP Facebook page Sunday morning and throughout the week. Pastor Bob also will be observing Pentecost. The Order of Worship will be emailed with Moosup Valley’s on Saturday morning. Mount Vernon Wednesday Evenings

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Mt. Vernon Baptist Church streams a live service on Wednesday evenings at 7:00 p.m. The link: https://www.facebook.com/MVLPspirit/ ?ref=bookmrks ). The Order of Worship will be emailed with Rev. Betsy’s Order for Evening Prayer that morning.

Evening Prayer Moosup Valley holds Evening Prayer, Vespers, on Wednesdays at 7:30 p.m. by Zoom – a brief (20 minute) time of scripture, song, meditation and prayer, a time to give thanks for the day just past and praise to God. As appropriate, we also reflect on questions for the season. If you wish, please bring a candleto light. Let Rev. Betsy know if you would like to sing an evening hymn. It is acceptable to come in your PJs! The Order of Prayer bulletin is emailed early on Wednesdays, along with the Zoom link.

Special PrayersHumanity is like an enormous spider web, so that if you touch it anywhere, you set the whole thing trembling… As we move around this world and as we act with kindness, perhaps, or with indifference, or with hostility, toward the people we meet, we too are setting the great spider web a-tremble. The life that I touch for good or ill will touch another life, and that in turn another, until who knows where the trembling stops or in what far place and time my touch will be felt. Our lives are linked together. No one is an island. -Frederick Buechner

Please reach out and touch …

Rhoda Dexter’s loved ones after her death from several health issues on May 15 .

Mary Joseph who has been moved to Coventry Health Center, Room 225, 10 Woodland Drive, Coventry, RI 02816. She loves to receive cards.

Jeanne Lavoie’s son-in-law Ryan who has finished his chemo and radiation and now prepares for surgery.

Janice Griffiths Reynolds who is recovering from hip surgery at Westview Nursing Home and Rehabilitation Center, Room #122. Cards may be sent to 239 Legris Avenue, West Warwick, RI 02893.

Jim, recovering from knee surgery at home but well enough to join Zoom worship.

Linda Ruth Morten who is preparing for knee replacement surgery on June 18.

All those who have lost loved ones recently: the family of Frank and Natalie Arnold, Bill McGrath, Phyllis Dexter, Michael Lavoie, Rhoda Dexter, and so many others….

Joyce Chase is home and recovering well from open heart surgery.

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Rocky Riccio, still in pain from COVID.

Martha’s niece Rev. Mindy Reed, who is doing better following surgery.

Joan and John’s grandson, Christopher, who is experiencing a difficult time.

Barbara’s cousin Judy who is still holding her own with new treatments for tumors.

Baby Wyatt, born prematurely on January 1 at 24 weeks, is now home, a miracle of excellent prenatal care!

Jean Salemi, recovering from back surgery and awaiting the time we can all be physically together again.

Richard Lucky and Jack Greenleaf, both of whom were well enough to celebrate their baptisms at Rice City.

Carol and Bob’s friend, Kathy, back in the hospital in Boston and knows that she will always have some of the pain that she currently is trying to endure.

Chris Crowther’s partner Jen Villinis, still waiting for a liver transplant.

All those killed and mourned across the country in mass shootings. Pray that we can find ways to address mental illness as well as to rein in our love affair with guns!

Our beloved country in the midst of persistent hostility and division.

Gather ‘Round for Bible Study – Now back on Tuesdays

Rev. Betsy leads Bible Study on Tuesdays at 10:00 a.m. by Zoom, now finishingthe Letter of James, which may have been written or inspired by Jesus’ brother, an early leader in the Jerusalem Church. To receive the Zoom link, contact Betsy.

O Spirit, Spring of Hidden Pow’rA Hymn for Pentecost by Ruth C. DuckSung to the tune UNE JEUNE PUCELLE, a French Folk melody

O Spirit, spring of hidden pow’rthat hallows day and night:You are the force that prods the flow’rThrough pavement toward the light.You are the song that brings release; in prison cell you do not cease.

Refrain: Spring of pow’r, fire of love, giver of life; come, renewing Spirit, come.

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O Spirit of the holy cry for human dignity, you are the pride of head held high before all bigotry. Your rhythm rouses weary feet to move to freedom’s steady beat. Refrain.

O Spirit of undying life, O breath within our breath: You are the witness in our strife that love surpasses death. You are the gift that we desire; anoint our heads with tongues of fire. Refrain.

One Church’s Pentecost Story As told by UCC minister, the Rev. Molly Baskette, Berkeley, CA

[Seventy-nine] years ago this spring, during World War II, FDR ordered 115,000 Japanese-Americans into internment camps; most were U.S. citizens. They were told it was for their own protection, but when they showed up in empty lots to board the busses, American soldiers were standing nearby with bayonets. They were tagged like cattle or property.

They had had only a week's notice to make arrangements for pets, jobs, homes and all their affairs, packing just a few things into one or two small suitcases.

For three years they would live in barracks in some of the most inhospitable places in our country: abandoned race tracks, desert environments far from civilization. When they returned home, some would find their houses repossessed and their jobs given away, leaving them without any means to care for their families.

Some of their children and grandchildren would later ask them: why didn't you resist? They said: what could we do? The U.S. Army was against us! We felt our only hope was to cooperate. The Japanese proverb, "shikata ga nai," "there is nothing to be done," rang in their ears.

At my church, First Church Berkeley, one faithful young woman decided that something could be done. "We can do an inhumane thing in a humane way," she proclaimed, and organized the church ladies to make the church an embarkation point to the camps instead of the empty lot where the government had planned the transfer.

On the day the busses arrived, the church ladies cooked food, fed their Japanese-American neighbors, minded their children while their parents did paperwork, provided clean

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bathrooms, shelter from the sun. Mine and other churches: took on pets, took cherished heirlooms into safekeeping, even became custodians of left-behind houses and properties, paying mortgages and taxes, mowing lawns, making repairs.

My church's gesture was a small one, and a complicated one – was it enabling, or exposing, the injustice of the order? But there is always something that can be done, especially by those with privilege.  __________________________________________

A Closing PrayerEternal Spark, on Pentecost let us celebrate the power of your spirit in creation and in us. You transform us, empower us, guide us, sustain us, and give us hope when we thought all was lost. We are touched by your flames and wind when we are moved to tears or laughter by a play or a book, when we listen to music that rocks our soul, when a friend takes our hand and shows us that love is action and not just a cozy feeling. Clothe our spirits in red and stir our wind chimes to melody today and always. Amen. – Susan Hodge-Parker

Church Offerings may be mailed for: Mt. Vernon to Ron Allen (116 Barbs Hill Road, Greene, RI 02827), Moosup Valley to Pat Safstrom (76 Moosup Valley Road, Foster, RI 02825), or go on the website (moosupvalley.church) and donate through PayPal.Rice City to Robin Petrarca (105 Hopkins Hollow Road, Greene, RI 02827).

Reverend Betsy can be reached at BetsyAldrichGarland@gmail.com or 401-463-8697. Pastor Bob can be reached at revbobh@gmail.com or 401-440-7831.

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