20 years of ministry to the Yakima Valley

Great news!!! Rainbow Cathedral MCC/UCC has been in ministry to people from all walks of life and all sexual orientations in the Yakima Valley for 20 years. We will be celebrating our 20th anniversary on April 19, 2014, at 6:30 PM with a Pot Luck Dinner in the Social hall of our Church located at 225 N. 2nd Street in Yakima. This on the corner of North 2nd Street and East Lincoln Avenue. Everyone is welcome to come and enjoy this time of socialization and celebration. Come as you are. Our statement of ministry is: Whoever you are and where ever you are on your life’s journey you are welcome in worship here. God did not make a mistake with anyone, we are just what God created us to be; HOLY CHILDREN OF GOD!! Our regular worship time is every Sunday Morning at 10 AM. We believe that with God there is no required conditions or qualifications to be part of God’s love and acceptance. Pastor Bill Poores

ANNOUNCEMENT (February 8, 2014)

ANNOUNCEMENT: Hi, all. Due to the pretty-heavy snowfall tonight, and the difficult driving conditions, we have decided to cancel our worship service tomorrow (February 9, 2014). Stay home, pray for the safety of all, and we’ll worship together again next Sunday (February 16, 2014). God bless! Laura

CELEBRATION

Saturday, October 26, 2013 at 6:3o PM Rainbow Cathedral MCC/UCC will host a Pot Luck Dinner and Game night in celebration of Halloween.  This is a social event and everyone is invited to come and enjoy a time of comradeship and good food.  Please bring a favorite dish to share and of course your appetite.  WE are located at 215 N. 2nd Street (corner of N. 2nd street and E. Lincoln Ave) in the lower level, South hall of the Unitarian Church.  Drive into alleyway behind church and park in parking lot, the Rainbow Pride Flag will be hoisted above our entrance.   

Gospel Concert

On Sunday August 25, 2013 at 10:00 AM, we will be hosting a Gospel Music Concert featuring Ms. Christina Brewer.  Christina grew up in an environment of Gospel music.  Her Parents were members of a Gospel Music Quartet.  Christina is working to make her move into a Gospel Music career.  She has performed as the opening of games for the Seattle Storm on several occasions, singing the National Anthem.  Christina lives here faith to the fullest and gladly shares it in her music, a talent gift from God.  We give everyone a special invitation to join us at Rainbow Cathedral MCC/UCC Church, located at 215 N. 2nd Street, Yakima WA.  (This is on the corner of N. 2nd Street and E. Lincoln Avenue).  We worship in the South Hall, lower level.  There is ample parking be hind church building between N. 2nd St. and N. 3rd St.  Entrance will be indicated with the Rainbow Pride Flag.  Come and enjoy Christina’s ministry in music and join us for a Love Feast/Potluck Lunch, following worship.

Worship for Sunday, June 30, 2013

Good day, everyone. Blessings be upon you.  This Sunday our Gospel lesson comes from John 8:2-11. this is the story of the woman known as “the woman caught in adultery and how Jesus demonstrated an alternative to the environment of catching, surrounding, staring at and holding the special gift of self-righteousness. when the Pharisees and Scribes brought the woman before Jesus stating her sins and quoting the Law of Moses, it was only to try to find something they could hold against Jesus. but Jesus refused to stoop to their level, instead He invited them into a new way of being, into a land of mercy.  the Pharisees and Scribes had forgotten that God is steadfast in love and endless mercy, that there is no judgment n God and that no one is sinless. (reference Exodus34:6). but rather than embrace this invitation to be as God is, merciful and gracious, they turned and walked away.  Jesus bend down and wrote with His finger, as God did on the stones.  He would not hold even the Pharisees in their sin by staring.  After all the accusers were gone, He asked the woman who condemned her and she responded saying “no one”, hopefully this “no one” included herself, because the hardest thing to do is to forgive ourselves.  But Jesus’ response, “Neither do I condemn you” not only applied to the woman, it also applied to us and everyone else.  No one is a mistake.  God did not make a mistake with anyone, we are all what God created us to be; Holy Children of God.

In John 20:23, Jesus tells His disciples, “If you hold people’s sins against them they are held.  If you let them go, then they are released.” This does not confer or infer ecclesiastical power to judge and condemn.  This is a condition that characterizes our communal life.  We can hold each other in our mistakes or we can let them go.  we can be a prison to one another or a source of release.  Which would Jesus prefer?

Living in the land mercy is not easy, we too easily gravitate toward holding in sin.  We have to work at letting go , joining the human race is not as easy as it seems.  remember Jesus taught is in The Lord’s Pray to ask God to “Forgive our sins as we forgive the sin s of others”  The judgment we pass on others will be the judgment we receive.  But thanks to the man who wrote twice, we are forgiven and can for give others.  There is no condemnation in God and should not be in us.  In this light we know the truth that God did not make a mistake with anyone.  We are exactly what God created us to be,; Holy Children of God.  Praise be unto God!

CHANGE OF WORSHIP SERVICE TIMES

On Sunday, April 7, 2013, the time for our Worship Service will be changed to 10:00 AM.  We will still meet for worship in the South Hall in the lower level of the Unitarian Universalist Church at 225 N. 2nd Street, Yakima Washington.  Drive into the alleyway behind the church building between N. 2nd Street and N. 3rd Street.  Parking will be available in the Spaces behind the Mohr Law Office building and also in the City owned parking lot.

Our Cross

“If anyone would come after me, they must deny themselves and take up their crosses and follow me.”

The cross that we are called to carry each and every day is to deny our opinions, our own self, and even our friends, in order to care for the children of God that others judge and cast out. It is not being the kind of martyr killed by Roman authorities for speaking about Christ.  It is not about going from door to door as the evangelist and Apostles did.  It is about choosing daily to love as God loves, to care for the strangers, the so called “welfare bums” convicts and all those seen as undesirables.  It requires loving all these peoples as we love our coffee or tea buddies, card partners, traveling companions, even ourselves.  It is risking the disapproval of our friends because we won’t join in their judgment and condemnation, but instead seek to bless those criticized. It involves knowing, that we will have to change, forget what is easiest for us and choose to do what is the good, true, and loving things.

Let us be like Christ and deny ourselves, take up our crosses and follow in the path of God, that leads to resurrection and eternal life, as well as wholeness and equal justice and love for all of God’s good creation.   Amen?

 

Everyone is welcome here

God is a God of love and peace, not one of law and wrath.

I know that those who take the Bible as the inerrant word of God will say that it shows God bringing judgment and punishment on those who were disobedient.   I say to them that the fact is that the Bible was written by error prone humans given to the legalistic mindset.  And as such is not inerrant, although it was inspired by God.

The Bible was not dictated by God, as one would dictate to a stenographer and the Bible has to be studied and understood within the confines of the prevalent attitudes and historical conditions at the time it was written.

All too often legalistic Christians dwell on the passages seemingly of condemnation and judgment, instead of the words of Jesus in the Gospels that speak of love. The writings of the Apostle Paul and others are not the Gospels.  There are only four gospels and they all agree that Jesus spent His time extolling love and not law.

Christianity, as I understand it, is to be based on the Gospels and the love they stress.  Isn’t the good news of the Gospel is that God is love and welcomes everyone without conditions of any kind.  The “whosoevers”.

Jesus talked of other sheep not of that sheep pen that He would bring at that day.  Could these other sheep be in the other communities of faith that legalistic Christianity declare to not be of God?

I firmly believe that God has and has always had a witness in all expressions of faith.

Tolerance verses Celebration

We hear more and more about “tolerance” when it comes to the LGBTQI community.  The unrealistic phrase of “Love the Sinner, hate the sin”  is constantly being flouted by those who incorrectly believe that they have the mind of God and want to more justify their “salvation” by condemning to hell those who do not lock step with them in their legalistic, fundamentalic view of God.  Please show me the Biblical basis for this thought pattern.  All I can find in the Holy Writ is that God is a all loving God and makes no distinction within His/Her creation.

Most people are of the mind that they will “tolerate” people of a different sexual orientation, as long as they “keep their place” and be content with the crumbs that fall from the table.  Being raised in the Southern States, this was a common reference to People of Color.  The truth is, that if you really study and understand the Gospels, JESUS NEVER WENT ANYWHERE THAT HE WAS ONLY TOLERATED, JESUS ONLY WENT WHERE HE WAS CELEBRATED.  I, for one, refuse to accept “tolerance”.  If you cannot celebrate me, as the Holy Child of God that I was created to be, then don’t bother with tolerating me!!

Should anyone be seeking a Christian Worship Community that celebrates each and everyone as the Holy Child of God they are, then look no farther.  We, the community of believers at Rainbow Cathedral MCC/UCC, celebrate a person, we do not subscribe to the theory of “tolerance”.  Come and visit us and experience the liberty of celebration in the Love of a God who is all acccepting and also celebrates each part of God’s good creation.  GOD DOES NOT “TOLERATE”, GOD “CELEBRATES”!

Whoever you are and where ever you are on life’s journey you are welcome here!

Father’s Day

Happy Father’s Day to all.  A Father is not always biological, any Person whose has had an influence on a chld’s life and developement fits the catagory of father, whether brother , uncle, step-father, even ladies who have flled in for the father influence.  Rainbow Cathedral Metropoltin Community Church and United Church of Christ at 225 N. 2nd Street in Yakima will be hosting a pot luch meal in honor of Father’s Day at 5 PM on Sunday June 17, 2o12.  Everyone is welcome to join us in this time of celebration.  If you would like you can bring your favorite dish to share, but this is not required. Come and enjoy good food and great fellowship and stay to worship with us.  All are welcome. Whoever you are and whereever you are on life journey you are welcome here.   Pastor Bill

 

Pentecost vs Pentecostal

Tomorrow is Pentecost Sunday. I will be preaching a unique sermon about Pentecost and the birth of the Church.  Everyone is invited to come and hear this unusal sermon and experience our radical welcome.  I am sure you will find a warm friendly place for you to express your individual walk of faith as you walk your personal faith and life journey. “Whoever you are and wherever you are on life’s journey, you are welcome here.” Come and give us the honor of worshiping with you and experience God’s unconditional love and radical total acceptance of you, just as you are. “God did not make a mistake with you, you are who God created you to be. A Holy Child Of God.  We worship at 6:30 PM each Sunday in the lower level of the Unitarian Church at 225 North 1st Street (corner of N. 1st St. and E. Lincoln Ave). Just follow signnage to sanctuary.

Hear Ye! Hear Ye!

Our monthly second Sunday pot luck dinner will be this Sunday May 13, 2011 (Mother’s Day), at 5 PM.  Everyone is welcome to come and dine with us.  If you wish you may bring your favorite dish to share, but is not required.  This will be a great time of socialization and good food.

Come and experience a warm radical welcome from a open and affirming congregation, where there is no judgment and each person is allowed to walk their personal spiritual and life journey.

Whoever you are and whereever you on life’s journey, you are welcome here.