Immigration Book Author is Coming

The author of a new book examining the immigration crisis on the southern U.S. border will discuss her experiences at Fauntleroy Church on Monday June 10 at 7 p.m.

Sarah Towle’s book, Crossing the Line: Finding America in the Borderlands, expresses her outrage about U.S. immigration policies and how she believes that they have led to a retreat in commitments to protect human rights. Through a series of interviews and visits to the U.S. Mexico border she describes conditions there, especially focusing on 2018 when immigration officials forcefully separated migrant families from their children.

The book has drawn praise from commentators, including filmmaker Ken Burns who declared “Sarah Towle has obliterated today’s dead-end arguments about immigration and transformed them into riveting, human stories.”

Towle, based in London, is an educator, researcher and writer who can be found online on Substack. The book is being published by She Writes Press with release on June 18.

The talk is being hosted by the Immigration Task Force at Fauntleroy UCC Church and Alki UCC Church.

More information about Towle and her book can be found at https://sarahtowle.com. More information about the talk can be found by contacting Bob Wyss at bobwyss@gmail.com

Guatemala Mission Trip

“Team Fauntleroy” will soon be off to Guatemala to install stoves and water filters in 110 impoverished homes in the Mayan village of Esperanza Blanca Flor.   We have now exceeded our fundraising goals!  Tremendous thanks for the generosity of friends and family of Fauntleroy Church, as well as generous contributions from twelve Rotary Clubs in Western Washington and Los Angeles.  With these excess funds we’ll be able to fund additional needs for the village, including school desks, whiteboards, books for the school library, paint and a tin roof for the school, and various school repairs.  

Seven members or friends of our church will join our team of sixteen people to depart on May 23rd.  We’ll travel to the Hands for Peacemaking Mission House in Santa Cruz Barillas, receive training on stove assembly, and then work in the village for 5 days before returning to Seattle on June 2nd.

We’re grateful for those who have supported us in this journey – it truly takes a village!

Esperanza Blanca Flor

Holy Week and Easter @ Fauntleroy Church

MARCH 24, 10:00AM, PALM SUNDAY WORSHIP 

Worship will begin with joyful palm waving. We welcome all children (and their parents with child-like hearts) to join in a palm processional with the choir. We process down the center aisle with joy, leaving our palm branches on the chancel steps. Then children can return to join their parents in the pews until Sunday School. Children who would like to be involved should look for Carol Gilderoy in the Narthex about ten minutes before worship.

MARCH 29, 7:00PM, HOLY FRIDAY WORSHIP (in-person only) 

We will gather in the sanctuary for a contemplative Tenebrae service to remember the moments surrounding Jesus’ crucifixion. This is a worship of readings and songs, and candles will be extinguished as the service progresses to signify Jesus’ death approaches. Many say that the experience of community in the deepest shadows of this moving worship is what causes their hearts to soar on Easter morning.  

HOLY WEEK VIGIL 

The sanctuary will be open for a Vigil from 9:00PM on Friday, March 29 (Holy Friday) to 3:00PM on March 30. You are invited to choose an hour to “keep watch” during this stretch of time before Easter morning’s resurrection. Materials to help guide some reflection will be available, and someone will be at the church all night for security. Look for an opportunity to sign up during the coffee hour or reach out to Sarah Ackers (sarah.ackers@fauntleroyucc.org).  

MARCH 31, EASTER MORNING WORSHIPS 

Three opportunities to celebrate Easter!  

  • 6:30AM, we’ll join Alki U.C.C. and Admiral U.C.C. for a sunrise service on Alki Beach (look for a bonfire near 57th Ave SW). A simple communion will be served. Rain or shine! Dress warmly.   

  • 9:00 and 11:00AM, identical Easter worship services will take place, with the 9:00AM livestreamed. We’ll transform a simple wire cross with beautiful spring flowers at the start of worship, so bring a favorite flower to add. Both services will include a Time with Children, and we’ll conclude with a joyous rendition of the "Hallelujah Chorus" from Handel's Messiah. Sunday school is available at the 11:00AM service for elementary-age children, and childcare is provided at both services for infants thru age 3 in the nursery.  

EASTER BREAKFAST Enjoy some wonderful Easter fellowship and a delicious breakfast from 9:30-11:00 on Easter morning in Fellowship Hall! Pancakes, egg casseroles, fruit, ham and sausage…! ($10/adults & $5/children suggested donation.) 

EASTER EGG HUNT 

After the 11:00AM worship (about 12:20PM) children are invited to enjoy an Easter Egg Hunt! Our youth will hide lots of eggs filled with treats around the church property. We’ll set aside the narthex/patio area for younger children and the front of the church for older children to enjoy this fun. (Dress for rain or shine!) 

EASTER FLOWERS IN MEMORY/HONOR OF LOVED ONES 

If you would like to give toward flowers used to fill our outdoor flower cross, beautify our breakfast tables, and supplement flowers brought for our wire cross, you can do so online or with a check marked “Easter flowers” + “In memory/honor of NAME.” These names will then be shared in our Easter bulletins if submitted by March 25.   

For Our Neighbors at The Welcome Table

Guests come to the free Saturday Welcome Table in White Center for nourishing food, socializing, and whatever is out on giveaway tables. Our Homelessness Task Force enthusiastically supports this weekly community service by enabling members and friends of this congregation to contribute food, volunteer during the meal, and donate these much-needed items that are clean and in good condition:

  • camping gear

  • linens (blankets, sheets, towels)

  • pants

  • jackets

  • t-shirts (L, XL)

  • sweatshirts/hoodies (L, XL, XXL)

  • socks

  • gloves

  • stocking caps

  • baby wipes

  • laundry pods

  • paper towels

  • toilet paper

  • first-aid supplies

  • full-sized hygiene & menstrual products

  • cough drops & other cold products

The Season of Advent

Join us for the season of Advent at Fauntleroy Church

“How Does a Weary World Rejoice?” is our theme for Advent, drawn from the Christmas song, “O, Holy Night," a song that’s power lies not only in the tidal movements of the music, but in its acknowledgement of hardship and the rejoicing that can rise in its midst anyway. As the song builds, we hear …"a thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices, for yonder breaks a new and glorious morn!” This Advent, we invite you to turn toward Christmas not by turning away from your weariness or the weariness of the world, but by acknowledging it and then exploring where the crescendos of life’s music might be found. Together, we’ll talk about connection, amazement and awe, stories of hope and ritual as elements that can help us and our world find lift and resolution in the hands of the Divine.

The schedule of worship services, events, concerts, and opportunities for service and fellowship is found below. For more details about the season, click here.

Festival of Trees

Our Festival of Trees is being planted this week and next. And with the trees comes a fun opportunity to support our local food banks. Forest wanderers of all ages are invited to vote for their favorites with shelf-stable food items. The polls open Sunday, Dec 3 after worship. There’s no Voter’s Pamphlet for this election, but proper preparation is needed. Please double-check the list below as you prepare to vote.

DOs & DON’Ts

  • Do check your pantry. What foods are your family’s favorites? Include some of these.

  • Do check expiration dates. If a Best Buy date has passed… please don’t donate the item.

  • Do check for opened, damaged or dented items. These aren’t appropriate for the food banks either. 

  • Do consider healthy options and ones that support a variety of diets.

    • All types of non-perishable food items are welcome, but there is a special need for healthier options and ones for those with special dietary concerns, for example – low fat, low salt, gluten free, etc. 

  • Do consider food items for those who need or choose to avoid dairy, soy, nuts or meat. 

  • Do think about hungry kiddos after school and put some easy and healthy snacks in your cart the next time you go shopping.

  • Do consider voting with culturally relevant food items. Both our local food banks serve individuals from diverse backgrounds.

  • As much as we love them and as healthy as they maybe, please do not donate homemade items. The food banks can’t verify the ingredients or the processes used. Do save these items for your family and friends. 

In addition to unstable funding and the growing need for food assistance, another challenge food banks face is WASTE – waste of staff and volunteer time sorting through and disposing of food that is not appropriate to be shared with our neighbors. We can help with this major issue by double-checking our votes before they are placed under the trees. THANKS for your help!

Enjoy the Festival of Trees during coffee hour, after worship, Sundays between 12/3 - 1/7, Wednesday, 12/13 from 7-8pm, and Saturday, 12/16 from 6-7pm, before the Christmas concert. Invite your friends and neighbors to join you too!

We Are An Immigrant Welcoming Church

Fauntleroy Church has been named an Immigrant Welcoming Church by the national United Church of Christ.  Alki UCC, which has been working with us, is working towards this designation also.  Together, we will be celebrating that honor beginning with a film “Which Way Home” Dec. 6 at 6:30 p.m. at Alki.  What does it take to become an Immigrant Welcoming Church? Here is how Fauntleroy Church became an Immigrant Welcoming Church.  It likely involved you.

It begins with our church services.  How many times has a prayer, a song, a mission moment, or a sermon raised the issue of immigration?  It may have been about the three asylum seeking families we have been aiding, the recent mission trip to Guatemala or the wider challenges of immigration. Michael Ramos of the Church Council of Greater Seattle gave the sermon one Sunday in a program organized by the Worship Ministry that was dedicated to immigration.

The news of our immigration work continues in both newsletters and after church service programs.

Perhaps you attended the trivia night last January or the burgers and bingo event in the spring.  Both were fundraisers to aid our immigrant programs.  We have two funds to assist our asylees with housing and legal expenses and many of you have contributed.

The Second Time Sale has offered donations to the asylee families.  The Advent Giving Tree program has made donations annually.  Many church members bought Peruvian food Sundays through the Rico Peru program established by one of our asylees.  The Christmas Tree Festival last year featured a Peruvian Christmas Tree.

Church governance has been significantly involved including Church Council, Finance Ministry. Parish Life, Worship, Facilities and Christian Education.  So has the Homelessness Task Force.

Eighteen months ago the Outreach Mission was closed by church members with the goal of incorporating missional threads into the entire fabric of Fauntleroy Church.  Immigration is one of those designated threads.

In the next six months the Immigration Task Force, working at times with Alki Church, hopes to sponsor programs that celebrate our role as an Immigrant Welcoming Church.  One of our goals is to celebrate that all our families at one time were immigrants, that this is a nation of refugees, and we proudly are continuing that tradition.  Ultimately both Fauntleroy and Alki plan to develop covenants expressing our commitments to immigration issues.

The Immigration Task Force is always open to anyone interested in helping.  Please contact Bob Wyss or Dianne Sprague.

Immigrant Welcoming Church Event

Save the date: Wednesday, 12/6, at 6:30 pm, at Alki UCC.

The Immigrant Welcoming Congregation Core Groups of Alki UCC and Fauntleroy UCC are co-presenting the documentary "Which Way Home" in Anderson Hall at Alki UCC. The evening includes Admiral Theater popcorn and a facilitated discussion. More info soon--but get the date on your calendar. It's the first of several events we hope to offer as we learn more about what it really means to be an Immigrant Welcoming Church.

Guatemala Mission Trip

We’re excited to announce a mission trip to Guatemala, departing Thursday, May 23rd and returning on Sunday, June 2nd! We’ll be assembling 110 stoves and water filters in the impoverished village of Esperanza Blanco Flor, guided by support from the village and local staff of Hands for Peacemaking. We also hope to provide simple toys and school supplies for 135 children. And, we’ll need the support of this whole church to make all of this happen!

The 800 residents of Esperanza Blanca Flor live in 110 homes and primarily support themselves by sustenance farming. Our goal is to supply all 110 homes with $300 stoves that help prevent burns and respiratory diseases, that burn more efficiently to save families time searching for fuel, and that lessen the environmental impacts of cooking with wood fire pits. Please contact Greg Dirks as you consider how you might help either by joining the travel team, getting involved with the significant effort to raise about $40,000 over the next few months, and/or finding other ways to contribute supplies that would benefit these families and especially their children.

Thanks in advance, Fauntleroy Church, for your support on this year’s mission project!

Fauntleroy Fine Art & Holiday Gift Show

This community event will bring a kaleidoscope of color to Fellowship Hall the weekend of Nov. 4-6.  These 16 local artists and artistic crafters will be showing and selling a wide array of work: 

  • Leslee Avery-Beausoliel - hand-crafted soaps 

  • Diane Bellisario - marquetry collages 

  • Tom Costantini - watercolors, prints, cards 

  • Apple Cox - whimsical prints & cards 

  • Gretchen Curtis - hand-knit wearable art 

  • Rance Holiman - everyday sightings in oil 

  • Dianne Johnson - bags, ornaments, quilts 

  • Susan Kemp - fiction 

  • Johanna Lindsay – sculptural beaded jewelry 

  • Kate Lorenzini - fabric, paper, beaded creations 

  • Ryan Miles - aeriums & earrings 

  • Dee Miller - glass art for the garden 

  • Kristen Miller - shadowboxes & quilted usable art 

  • Qui Daz Moede - creative calligraphy 

  • Britt Rynearson - beaded earrings & scarves 

  • Suzanne Uschold - quilted landscape collages 

Whether you’re looking for a child’s gift for grandma, an investment for your home, or nothing in particular, you’ll find it at the show Friday 5-8 pm; Saturday 10 am-4 pm, or Sunday 11 am-2 pm.  

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