Park Slope United Methodist Church

Our bake sale was a success! We raised $400 for backpacks for kids at the Palestinian House of Friendship—and, thanks to a donor at , that’s $800 for backpacks! Thanks to the Sunday School, and all who participated 🕊️🎒

Mark your calendars! 📆 We’ve got a busy September ahead!

SEPTEMBER 15th: Bring a sweet treat to sell (or come ready to buy!) at the Sunday School Bake Sale supporting backpacks for kids at the Palestinian House of Friendship. In partnership with .

SEPTEMBER 22nd: Stay after service for a Disability Justice course led by our own Mink Chung! Sunday school families and volunteers are especially encouraged to attend.

SEPTEMBER 29th: Join our Apartheid-Free service as we learn and discuss what it would mean for us as a congregation to move forward with taking the Apartheid-Free pledge.

September 8 “Returning Home” Gathering In Sunday with Holy Communion: Whether you travel far away or see your local surroundings as if for the first time, pilgrimage has long been a spiritual practice, and “journey” a deeply-felt metaphor for our spiritual lives. “Quest” comes from the Latin root meaning “ask, seek.” This series led by Rev. Melissa Hinnen is encouraging us to open ourselves more fully to the curiosity and wonder, reflection and transformation that travelers–not merely tourists–experience when they choose to immerse themselves in soul-widening adventures.

The Sunday School and nursery are back and running! Be sure to bring your backpack for blessing on September 8th!
Register here: https://app.onechurchsoftware.com/psumc/forms/85

The choir returns with special music.
Stay after church for a reception in the garden.

We can't wait to see you!

Rev. Melissa is back from her well-deserved sabbatical! If you see her around Park Slope, join us in celebrating both her rest and her return!

More photos and context from parishioner and Social Action member Kathy McCullaugh. To join our social action committee and join us in more events like this weekend’s, contact the church office.

“The Interfaith Action for Palestine was held to counter and disrput the annual conference of Christians United for Israel, (CUFI), the largest Christian Zionist organization in the US. In addition to lobbying Senators participants held rallies and rituals, disrupted the CUFI proceedings, sang while being arrested, and learned more about Christian Zionism from Muslim and Hindu community leaders, a rabbi and a Christian minister.

Pictured:
Lisa Bender, chair of United Methodist Kairos Response, Mark Harrison, former peace and justice director of the General Board of Church and Society, and me”

Some of our congregants were able to join in the Interfaith Response for Palestine this week in DC; here are some of the people and events they’ve been witnessing. (Colleen Moore, who recently spoke at PSUMC and Ken Spiker, Peace With Justice coordinator) pictured.

Video from our Friday night discussion about "What's Our Christian Response?" We invite you to sit with these words in a spirit of receptiveness.

What's Our Christian Response?: A Conversation about Palestine A conversation about Palestine held at Park Slope United Methodist. Speakers included Eman Rashid, Colleen Moore, and Conor Foley. Opening prayer by Ekama En...

Contemplative Prayer for young adults is every Thursday on Zoom from 8:30-9pm. Come as you are, share what’s on your heart, and rest in the presence of the Divine and one another. See the link in our bio to join.

Mark your calendars! Colleen Moore and Conor Foley recently visited the Holy Land and will be presenting on what they saw and experienced; it’ll be an evening of questioning, discussion, and discerning our Christian response. All are welcome.

This week’s worship playlist comes to you from the MacHanleys and it is 🔥🔥🔥

Listen now: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/68j9GznTEhWOBwjk6DlQm5?si=WdgyVyioTx2_WIfqfALIeQ&pi=u-vsuvRU9lRO-4

Next Monday is the final meeting of our Apartheid-Free group! Grateful to all from PSUMC (and elsewhere!) who have brought such generosity to this conversation. Link to sign up for next week here: https://app.onechurchsoftware.com/psumc/groups/92 If you can’t make it but would like to receive reading materials/syllabi from the group or learn more about apartheid-free, email us at the group link.

Youtube: https://youtu.be/bCnFBNNf5fg FB: https://www.facebook.com/share/v/5aHbHwyFrvRFKbpK/
Be an HB!

Happy pride y’all! Park Slope got to march in Brooklyn Pride alongside Greenpoint Reformed; honored and thrilled to represent our commitment to love and all its infinite variety 🏳️‍🌈🕊️🤍

Thanks all who were able to join our young adult dinner! And much love to the Waters for hosting 🫶 To be added to the YA WhatsApp or email list, message us! We gather every first Sunday.

For our Young Adult Sunday, we sang hymns and spoke prayers asking God to baptize us in a spirit of redemptive truth, giving us the discernment and courage to lead the church, even when she is slow to move or change. Our sermon spoke to the phrase “believe in” that Jesus speaks to Nicodemeus—what does it mean to “believe in” Christ? How can we gesture towards God’s truth rather than letting our hands go limp? Love and gratitude to all involved ❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥

Join our upcoming study group on becoming an anti-apartheid church! Mondays on Zoom—sign up on our website or just DM here. ❤️‍🔥

Crowing about my outfit at Memorial Day observance.

Congrats to Sebastian on leading their first Spirit in the Slope gathering! Join us Monday evenings in Park Slope where we gather to eat a meal together and talk about issues of theology. Check out the church website for upcoming dates—or if you’re interested in leading a session, email the church office!

Happy mother’s day, all! Thanks to Scott, Sarah, and all the others who led service on a day that can be filled with joy, disappointment, love, sorrow, anger, and hope. Spirit is with us in all this and more. Love and thanksgiving to all those in our community who nurture 🤍

Park Slope United Methodist is a community with members, leaders, preachers, and families that are q***r and straight. We as a community have loved, been loved, married, supported, delivered sermons, taught Sunday School, and prayed with, alongside, and as q***r people. Today, the institution of the United Methodist Church finally decided to recognize these practices of community as legitimate. And while we support this recognition, we also acknowledge that it is God, not the United Methodists, that bestows divine legitimacy to our q***r relationships, as well as our straight ones; with or without the Church’s institutional acknowledgment, we have lived and will continue to live in awe and celebration of all the members of our beloved community, fearfully and wonderfully made, no matter what the powers or principalities of the world, and the church, may choose to mandate or reject. We celebrate and uplift the efforts of many to get us to this place of public recognition! ❤️💛💚💙💜

A group of church members have spent the last three weeks meeting and discussing the Kairos letter written 15 years ago by Palestinian Christians to their global church family. Our church family brought a variety of beliefs and opinions to this discussion and were grateful for a space to educate, listen, and commune, amidst and despite our differences. If you’re interested in being a part of the group going forward, reach out to the church office or [email protected]. You can read the letter yourself here: https://www.kairospalestine.ps/index.php/about-kairos/kairos-palestine-document

“It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them who told these things to the apostles. Their words struck the apostles as nonsense, and they didn’t believe the women. But Peter . . .”

A 100 Word Easter Sermon by Rev. Melissa Hinnen

The women are bound together through shared
Trauma,
Grief,
Fear.

With heart-work they
listen to strangers in bright clothes:
“He isn’t here but has been raised.”

These witnesses joyfully declare the good news
only to be dismissed.
Nonsense!

Beloved, don’t stay stuck in your
Good Friday existence.
Friends may roll their eyes.
But new life beckons.

Be like Peter
who takes a risk with urgent curiosity.

Grab onto hope.
Embrace FOMO.
Run with expectation to the empty tomb.
Be filled with resurrection wonder.

Discover that the power of God’s love is not an idle tale!
Christ is Risen! Alleluia!

A 100 Word Sermon for Easter Inspired by Luke 24:1-12

Good Friday Procession followed by worship with the United Methodist Churches of Downtown Brooklyn

“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

A 100 Word Sermon for Good Friday by Rev. Melissa Hinnen

Forsaken
Gun violence
Occupying Forces
Forced Migration

Forsaken
Poverty
Racism
Xenophobia

Forsaken
Dis-ease and Illness
of body, mind, and spirit
without adequate access to treatment.

Forsaken
The Savior, forsaken by a world
that seeks profit over prophets.

Christ, forsaken by those who won’t stay woke;
who look away, deny, and betray.

Forsaken
Sitting at the foot of the cross,
we witness the worst of humanity,
Waiting as hope languishes.

The weight of grief is so heavy.
Forsaken . . . but still here.

Guide us to pour divine peace into your hurting creation.
As we name the pain and trust in redemption.

A 100 Word Sermon on Good Friday Inspired by Matthew 27:27-50

When he rose from prayer and went back to the disciples, he found them asleep, exhausted from sorrow. “Why are you sleeping?”

A 100 Word Sermon in the Garden by Rev. Melissa Hinnen

In the Garden of Gethsemane,
2,300-year-old olive tree roots
are grounded in Holy Land.

Trees bear witness to centuries
of faithful contradiction and complexity.

Nearby Palestinian olive fields are razed.
Destroying livelihoods is a weapon
forcing people from their land.

God’s creation is cut down to stumps.
Like the people of Gaza,
who are annihilated without mercy.

Drops of blood fall to the ground.
Cries of anguish rise out of the rubble.

Christ prays in the garden,
hours before empire arrests him.
His friends fall asleep.
The trees stand vigil.

Don’t look away.
Will you watch and pray?

Rev. Melissa will be posting on Substack during her sabbatical.

A 100 Word Sermon In the Garden Inspired by Luke 22:39-46

Holy God, as we journey through this familiar story, help us to understand it anew. Show us, O God, where we find ourselves in the narrative, and move us toward a more just and compassionate future. Amen

The most recent Spirit in the Slope was hosted by Emmy who guided us in a lively discussion about the existence of hell.
Join us April 18 when Larry leads a conversation about forgiveness. Sign up: https://app.onechurchsoftware.com/psumc/events/7024