Good Shepherd United Church of Christ

We're a drop off spot for the Food Pantry Christmas in July. This week, July 14-July 20, please donate: shampoo, deodorant, toilet paper, baby wipes, and feminine products. There is a bin for your donations in the breezeway.

We also have a Men's Fellowship meeting tomorrow (7/16) at Brigs for breakfast. They also use this time to collect donations for the Food Pantry.

The mission trip team is gearing up to spend a week at the Hinton Rural Life Center in Hayesville, NC, next week from July 14-19 working on large and small home projects.
Our labor will create safer, more comfortable housing for the community members we work alongside.

Our summer farm-to-church CSA season will begin on July 13 and continue through September 7. It's an opportunity to receive fresh produce and eggs, and it is a wonderful way to provide new markets and relationships with our brothers and sisters of color.

If you missed this year's sign up, keep an eye out for announcements next year! You can also check out Lakay Farm NC

We're a drop off spot for the Food Pantry Christmas in July. This week, July 8-July 14, please donate: oil, sugar, Bisquick, syrup, masa.

There is a bin for your donations in the breezeway. Thanks!

Tomorrow (7/6) our Men's Fellowship group meets at 10:00am in the church kitchen. Bring something to eat and drink and we can have breakfast together! They also use this time to collect donations for the Food Pantry.

We are participating in the Food Pantry Christmas in July. Each week, they will ask for a different selection of items to be donated. They will stop by and retrieve the items weekly. There is a bin for your donations in the breezeway.

This week they are collecting canned chicken, canned mixed vegetables, spices, and condiments like ketchup, mustards, mayo, vinegar, etc.

We are so excited to share the news that Jennifer Durbin Tuffy, a first-year MDiv student
at Duke Divinity School, will serve as our student intern! As intern, Jennifer will have the opportunity to learn and grow in her ministerial identity as well as enrich the faith formation ministry. Today is her first day in her new role. Please join us in extending a warm welcome!

We invite you to join us on this Sunday for the first Good Shepherd games, a light-hearted, Olympic inspired service of fun games, laughter, trivia, and more! This will take place during our regular 10:30 AM worship time.

To prepare for these games...we invite you to bring strips of any cloth you may have at home (If you don't have any, never fear, we will provide some for everyone!). And to show off your team spirit, please wear your Good Shepherd t-shirt or any athletic clothes you may have.

These games are sure to work up an appetite, so after the service, we invite you all to join us for a potluck meal. If you are able, please bring a dish worthy of a true Olympic feast!

We are participating in the Dorcas Ministries Food Pantry Christmas in July! Each week, they will ask for a different selection of items to be donated. They will stop by and retrieve the items weekly from the donation bin in the breezeway.

The first pick-up will be on Wednesday, July 10. Please consider donating if you can. Thanks!

We have had reports of emails and texts supposedly from Pastor Carla asking the recipient for information that may eventually lead to a request for money or gift cards. These are SCAMS. Pastor Carla will NEVER ask for money or gift cards via individual emails or texts. Please do not respond to them or take any action. It is not coming from Pastor Carla, nor is it coming from her phone or email.

If singing is your thing (even in the shower), consider being part of a summer chorale. It’s a short-term commitment; each group will rehearse just two evenings, with rehearsal tracks available for
practice at home. If evening rehearsals are a problem for you, we can work around that.
-Soprano/Alto Chorale: Rehearses Wednesday, July 10 and 24, at 7:00pm; sings Sunday, July 28.
-Tenor/Bass Chorale: Rehearsal dates in August TBD; sings Sunday, August 25

Please join us!

Our summer garden contains peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes, bush beans, butternut squash, and parsley, plus kale that has been growing since February.

Pollinator plants in front of the garden are attracting bees and butterflies that will help in pollinating our garden.

Tomorrow, Saturday June 22nd is Out! Raleigh Pride, 11:00-7:00 PM on/near Fayetteville St. Learn more here. https://outraleighpride.org/

We will share a booth with Community UCC and Umstead Park UCC for a strong presence of UCC ONA churches. We hope to see you there!

UCC Racial Justice Ministries and Join the Movement toward Racial Justice invite you to honor and celebrate Juneteenth this year by remembering and discovering the healing practices that sustained freedom in the bones of our ancestors, before and after emancipation. Through music and prayer, poetry and art, reflection and ritual, may we find a medicine bundle, a poultice, a libation, a Brush Harbor and a clearing, that teach us the sound of freedom, echoing from legacies of healing and singing futures of wholeness.

Join us for a webinar gathering and celebration to:
Explore the rich historical legacy of Juneteenth;
Deepen practices of restorative healing;
Listen and learn from educators, organizers, activists, and next generation leaders.

Click the link in bio to register.

Tomorrow our Men's Fellowship group meets at Brigs for breakfast. Our Men's Fellowship meets twice a month, and they had a great time at their meeting at the church earlier this month!

They also use this time to collect donations for the Food Pantry.

Join us tomorrow, June 15th, for our June Women's Fellowship meeting where we will enjoy a potluck salad lunch & book exchange at GSUCC.

This photo is from our May Women's Fellowship meetings where we assembled 'Period Packs' to help women and girls who experience period poverty. We do great things at our Fellowship meetings!

Over the summer our Wednesday Morning Spirituality group is on hiatus, but people will be informally gathering on Wednesdays under the patio tent at the sanctuary at 11am for brown bag lunches. Everyone is invited to join us!

This past Sunday, during our Recognition Sunday service, we got the chance to honor our upcoming 6th graders and welcome them into the youth group in addition to celebrating and thanking our Sunday school teachers for all of their hard work and dedication to the faith of our children! We are so grateful for our children and youth and all of the love life and love breathe into our church family!

Reminder: Our Annual Congregational Meeting is on Sunday, June 9, directly following in person and online worship service on Zoom.

This is one of two meetings where we take official votes on church business by the voting members of the congregation. Anyone is welcome to attend, but only regular active members will be invited to vote. We hope to see you there!

Religious leaders across Wake County are working through ONE WAKE to develop a strategy to address the crisis of gentrification and displacement impacting tens of thousands of Wake County residents, especially residents of historically Black neighborhoods in Raleigh and municipalities across the county.

Our vision is to partner with our sister organization Nehemiah Housing Development Finance Corporation to create at-scale affordable homeownership opportunities to stop displacement of Black and Brown communities and to build generational wealth.

Currently ONE Wake is building a list of leaders across the county who want to support this vision. You can sign up to show your support through our petition here:
https://www.onewake.org/nehemiah

On June 9th, we will be celebrating our children and youth, as well as those who have been crucial to their faith formation for Recognition Sunday.

At this service, we will recognize our upcoming 2nd graders, 6th graders, high school graduates, and Sunday School teachers. Please join us!

This Sunday we look forward to welcoming back our Faith Formation Director, Lauren Lippincott! Lauren has been working remotely since the beginning of the month, but Sunday she will be with us in person. We are excited to see you again!

Our Annual Congregational Meeting is on Sunday, June 9, directly following in person and online worship service on Zoom.

This is one of two meetings where we take official votes on church business by the voting members of the congregation. Anyone is welcome to attend, but only regular active members will be invited to vote.

We have one item on our agenda: the Slate for 2024-2025 Church Council officers and Ministry leaders. Please join us!

Let us pray to our God:

For those Americans who have given their lives for their country - whose graves we visit and whose lives we remember this Memorial Day; we lift up our grief and pray that they may rest in peace.

For our veterans, whom we have sent to far-off places on our behalf, who have often endured fear, trauma, and sorrow that only you know; we lift up their pain and pray that they may be healed and welcomed home by their families, communities, and churches.

For the those serving under orders this day, especially those in situations of danger or captivity; we lift up their lives and pray that they may receive strength equal to every challenge they face.

For families of active duty servicepeople and families of veterans, and especially those families who will always have an empty chair; we lift up the their hardship and sorrow and pray that they may know your comforting embrace.

For our leaders, who have the power to promote peace and justice or to extinguish life itself from our planet, we pray that they would seek your wisdom and know the humility of Christ.

Just as water wears away the hardest stones, so too may the power of your compassion soften the hardness of our hearts and draw us into a future of justice and peace.

Just as water gives life in the desert and hope to the weary, O God, so too may the power of your love renew our commitment to peace.

Amen.
(picture: Edson's Flag by Maire Watt)

The mission trip team is gearing up to spend a week at the Hinton Rural Life Center in Hayesville NC working on large and small home projects. Our labor will create safer, more comfortable housing for the community members we work alongside.

If you would like to be part of the mission team, there is still time to register. No particular skills are required, just a willingness to work to serve our neighbors in that corner of the state.

If you're not able to join us but would still like to support, monetary donations help make this trip possible. No matter the amount, your financial support will reap benefits that are tangible.

On June 9th, we will be celebrating our children and youth, as well as those who have been crucial to their faith formation for Recognition Sunday!

At this service, we will recognize our upcoming 2nd graders, 6th graders, high school graduates, and Sunday School teachers! If you have a child in one of these categories, please email Lauren, our Director of Faith Formation.

ONE WAKE Call to Action THIS WEEK
Wake County Budget Hearing, Tuesday, May 21, 7:00 PM
& Town of Cary Budget Hearing, Thursday, May 23, 6:30 PM

Join ONE Wake at the Wake County Commissioner budget hearing on May 21 to support funding for the creation of a new, low barrier drop in / White Flag shelter in Raleigh, and to encourage Wake County to coordinate with the City of Raleigh for the creation of a pilot, unarmed community response team to safely assist people experiencing a mental health crisis. Register here: https://www.onewake.org/wake_budget_hearing_5_21_24

Join ONE Wake at the Cary Town Council meeting on May 23 to support the continuation of the Cary Housing Fund at $6 million in FY 24/25, and to support the inclusion of a $30 million affordable housing bond referendum on the fall ballot. Register HERE. https://www.onewake.org/cary_housing_fund_24

Join us tomorrow, May 18, at 12:00pm for our May Women's Fellowship BYOL (Bring your own lunch) meeting where we will put together 'period packs’ for Church World Service.

On Thursday, May 16th at 7:00 PM, join leaders from across Wake County at the ONE WAKE Internal Assembly to hear exciting progress reports and opportunities to further our shared efforts this spring to support affordable housing, public transportation, and mental health access across the county.

During our assembly, ONE Wake leaders will also propose ambitious strategies to organize hundreds of members of our institutions to present our priorities to candidates for Raleigh City Council, Wake County Commissioners, Governor, Attorney General, and Superintendent of Public Schools during a series of non-partisan assemblies this fall.

Please join us!