“Winning by Losing”
This Sunday, Pastor Dale will preach on the theme “Winning by Losing.” He writes, “On the cross, God in Christ wins against all forms of domination and oppression. God wins by giving. God wins by forgiving. As the choir sings “God So Loved the World”, we will be guided in meditating on the victory of love.”
Join us in person or via Zoom, Facebook or YouTube Live.
Sunday service begins at 10:15AM.
To join Sunday Worship via Facebook, log onto your Facebook account and search for the ‘Lake Merritt United Methodist Church’ page or click here.
To watch the live stream of our service on YouTube, click here.
2024 Lent Worship Series
Witness at the Cross
March 3, 2024
The Soldiers
John 19:23-24
Luke 23:47
*
March 10, 2024
The Beloved Disciple
John 13:23
John 19:26-27
*
March 17, 2024
The Women
Mark 15:40-41
*
March 24, 2024 | Palm / Passion Sunday
Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus
Mark 15:42-46
*
March 29, 2024 | Good Friday
7 p.m. Tenebrae Taizé service
*
March 31, 2024 | Easter Sunday
Easter and Membership Celebration
Mark 16:1-8
Please read ALL of the ANNOUNCEMENTS!
February Food Distribution
Do you have some time to spare this weekend? We could use a few more hands on Friday from 10 – 11 am, or Saturday between 8 and 10:30.
Sign up here for the Food Pantry Distribution
For more information, contact your Connectional Ministries Team at liftconcertoakland@gmail.com
Support for Kathleen and Wayne
As Kathleen recovers, let’s support Kathleen and Wayne Bell through this mealtrain! Delivered takeout or homemade food is perfect. Click here for more details and to sign up for a meal.
Gentle Yoga
Feb 29th at Lake Park UMC
Gentle yoga classes will return to Lake Park next Thursday, February 29th; a leap-year treat! I can’t promise much leaping but plan to offer some basic yoga poses and restorative postures that will open the heart, mind, and soul! Questions? Props are available, you just need your own yoga mat! Call Kathleen Bell at 510-333-7480.
Membership Class with Pastor Sunae
March 10th & 17th
Do you wish to become a member of this diverse, inclusive and welcoming community at Lake Merritt United Methodist Church? We invite you to attend two session membership class with Pastor Sunae on March 10 and March 17 in the Wesley Conference room. Would you fill out the membership form and give it to the ushers?
Liberation Theology in Palestine & Beyond
A 5-week Lenten study
How do we read the Bible against the current reality in the Holy Land? What is the covenantal relationship between God, people, and the land? Who are God’s chosen people? What do Palestinian Christians—who belong to the oldest Christian community in the world—have to say about all of this?
Join this 5-week Lenten study of Christian liberation theology featuring readings by Palestinian pastors and theologians, including Rev. Dr. Mitri Raheb and Rev. Dr. Munther Isaac. This study is sponsored by Friends of Wadi Foquin and led by Rev. Ken Schoon with readings selected from his recent course taught at the Graduate Theological Union.
Sundays, 1:30-3pm at Lake Merritt UMC
February 25; March 3, 10, 17, and 24
Register
here to sign up and receive the readings.
SAHA Community Meeting for Affordable Housing Development
6pm Tuesday, Feb 27th
Join Satellite Affordable Housing Associates (SAHA) to learn more about their affordable housing development on East 12th Street, just around the corner from Lake Merritt UMC. Learn more and share feedback about their proposed community design updates. Click here to view the flyer.
6:00-7:15 pm, Dewey Academy (Multipurpose Room), 1111 2nd Ave., Oakland, CA 94606
Please read ALL of the ANNOUNCEMENTS!
Ash Wednesday Taizé Service
5 p.m. Wednesday, February 14
Join us in the LMUMC sanctuary for an early evening Ash Wednesday Taizé service to begin the season of Lent. The imposition of ashes is a reminder of God’s grace as we come into the presence of the One who is always forgiving, always merciful, always compassionate, always loving.
Super Bowl Sacking Cold Challenge
Warm Clothing Drive
While we all huddle in our homes as we are hit by storm after storm, let’s help our neighbors stay warm as part of our Lake Lunches. This Sunday, February 11th, please bring in warm clothing, sox, hats and mittens, and hand warmers to church. We will have a shelf set up to receive all donations. You may also bring in items to the documentary screening of “A Rising Tide” on Thursday, February 15th.
Film Screening of Local Documentary on Homelessness
6 p.m. Thursday, February 15
Thursday, February 15, all are welcome to LMUMC for a free screening of the documentary film “A Rising Tide: A Look at Homelessness in Alameda County.” We will have a free soup and salad meal at 6 pm followed at 6:30 pm by a screening of the 90-minute film. At 8 pm join a discussion on how we can respond in new ways as a church and community. Invite your friends and register at this
link.
Virginia Turner’s 100th birthday celebration
February 18th after worship
You are cordially invited to Virginia Turner’s 100th birthday celebration! Join the church community and Virginia’s friends and family after worship on February 18 in the Stark Fellowship Hall.
Circling Up for Peace
We are individuals who desire to connect with others in our church family to listen, share, and offer support in the face of the ongoing violence Palestine and Israel. We were grateful to share some of the ongoing conversation and support we’ve been offering one another during this time of crisis with the broader church family during fellowship hour on Sunday, January 21. Thank you to Rev. Ken Schoon, our guest preacher, for his reflections on how these events abroad connect to us here in Oakland.
This circle of conversation and action is open to all who are seeking space to expand understanding, to grieve, to connect and share personal experiences, and to those who may want to act in solidarity in a variety of ways individually or as a collective. We acknowledge the multiple perspectives and commit to listening to one another as an act of love. If you would like to connect, please complete this form or reach out to any of us: Sherri Elinson, Linda Weingarten, Becky Dean, Raja and Jane Sliheet, Dan Strauss, and Rev. Dale Tremper.
Liberation Theology in Palestine & Beyond
A 5-week Lenten study
How do we read the Bible against the current reality in the Holy Land? What is the covenantal relationship between God, people, and the land? Who are God’s chosen people? What do Palestinian Christians—who belong to the oldest Christian community in the world—have to say about all of this?
Join this 5-week Lenten study of Christian liberation theology featuring readings by Palestinian pastors and theologians, including Rev. Dr. Mitri Raheb and Rev. Dr. Munther Isaac. This study is sponsored by Friends of Wadi Foquin and led by Rev. Ken Schoon with readings selected from his recent course taught at the Graduate Theological Union.
Sundays, 1:30-3pm at Lake Merritt UMC
February 25; March 3, 10, 17, and 24
Register
here to sign up and receive the readings.
Interfaith Gospel Choir Concert
7 p.m. Sunday, February 11th
The Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir returns to the legendary Freight & Salvage in Berkeley for its 9th Annual Black History Month Celebration this Sunday, February 11 at 7 pm.
A history lesson through song, OIGC presents a variety of music, from traditional to contemporary gospel, and performs Negro spirituals with an authenticity not often found outside of the South. Experience the music and energy up close and personal in an intimate space. See a familiar face (Dan Strauss) on stage! Tickets for this fan-favorite concert are going fast – get yours today!
https://secure.thefreight.org/13497/oakland-interfaith-gospel-choir
“Find Joy Purposefully! It is the Water of Life”
“When you do things from your soul, you feel a river moving in you, a joy.” – Rumi
When you were a child, you had unfettered access to wonder, curiosity, joy, and resilience. You splashed in puddles, you danced and laughed loudly. We need this joy, the joy to do the work of justice and love, to live a life in this beautiful, complicated, and hard world.
Siblings, what gives you joy? In The Book of Joy, the Dalai Lama says, “In fact, taking care of others, helping others, ultimately is the way to discover your own joy and to have a happy life.”
Come friends, let’s reflect on joy as one of the pillars to build God’s beloved community here in Oakland being held in God’s fierce love.
Join us in person or via Zoom, Facebook or YouTube Live.
Sunday service begins at 10:15AM.
To join Sunday Worship via Facebook, log onto your Facebook account and search for the ‘Lake Merritt United Methodist Church’ page or click here.
To watch the live stream of our service on YouTube, click here.
2024 January – February Worship Series
Fierce Love
Inspired by the tenets of ubuntu—the Zulu phrase, “I am who I am because we are who we are”, that we are each impacted by the circumstances that impact those around us, and that the world won’t get better until we all get better. In her book, Fierce Love, Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis shares her own experience, of being the first female and first Black minister in her church’s history, of being in an interracial marriage, and of making peace with childhood abuse – illustrates that our human capacity for empathy and forgiveness is the key to reverse a world divided and broken.She lays out the nine daily practices in her book for breaking through tribalism and engineering the change we seek but in our worship, we will reflect on six practices. From downsizing our emotional baggage to speaking truth to power to fueling our activism with joy, it demonstrates the power of small, morally courageous steps to heal our own lives, and our larger communities.
Sharing stories that trace her personal reckoning with racism as well as the arc of her journey to an inclusive and service-driven faith, Dr. Lewis shows that kindness, compassion, and inclusive thinking are muscles that can be exercised and strengthened. She says, Fiercely Love! Love! Period!
Feb 4, 2024 | Black History Month
Find Joy Purposefully! It is the Water of life!
Feb 11, 2024
We Will Get to the Promised Land
Deuteronomy 6:4-9
Leviticus 19:18
Please read ALL of the ANNOUNCEMENTS!
Ash Wednesday Taizé Service
5 p.m. Wednesday, February 14
Join us for an early evening Ash Wednesday Taizé service to begin the season of Lent. The imposition of ashes is a reminder of God’s grace as we come into the presence of the One who is always forgiving, always merciful, always compassionate, always loving.
Super Bowl Sacking Cold Challenge
Warm Clothing Drive
While we all huddle in our homes as we are hit by storm after storm, let’s help our neighbors stay warm as part of our Lake Lunches. For the next two Sundays, February 4th & 11th, please bring in warm clothing, sox, hats and mittens, and hand warmers to church. We will have a shelf set up to receive all donations. You may also bring in items to the documentary screening of “A Rising Tide” on Thursday, February 15th.
Film Screening of Local Documentary on Homelessness
6 p.m. Thursday, February 15
Thursday, February 15, all are welcome to LMUMC for a free screening of the documentary film “A Rising Tide: A Look at Homelessness in Alameda County.” We will have a free soup and salad meal at 6 pm followed at 6:30 pm by a screening of the 90-minute film. At 8 pm join a discussion on how we can respond in new ways as a church and community. Invite your friends and register at this
link.
Virginia Turner’s 100th birthday celebration
February 18th after worship
You are cordially invited to Virginia Turner’s 100th birthday celebration! Join us after worship on February 18 in the Stark Fellowship Hall.
