Please join us for the next Clergy Dialog on December 8th at Temple Judea at 10:30 am.

Our program will focus on the multifaceted work of our community’s chaplains and how their work enhances our faith community.

Special guests:
Rev. Patricia Wilson , Director of Pastoral Care and CPE Supervisor at Jackson Memorial and Chaplain, US Reserves

Rabbi Frederick Klein, Director of Jewish Chaplaincy, Greater Miami Jewish Federation

Rev. Diane Hudder, Bereavement Services Managaer and Chaplain, VItas Innovative Hospice, Inc.

Rev. Ronald G. Perkins, Chaplain for Seafarers House, Port Everglades

With blessings,

Rev. Laurie Kraus
Rabbi Judith Siegal
CoChairs, ClergyDialog
PS TO VIEW THE FILM CLIPS OF OUR BEAUTIFUL 9/11 COMMEMORATION, GO TO MCCJ’S HOME PAGE: www.miamiccj.org

During the summer season, vacations and other activities may take you away from our regular worship at RPC.  Please remember that our ministry and mission never take a vacation.  There are a few ways you can make your Faith Commitment if you are away fromRiviera during the summer months.

1. Write a check and mail it to Riviera Presbyterian Church, 5275 Sunset Drive Miami, FL 33143.  Please label it “Offering or Pledge”
2. Electronic Bill Pay – setup a payment using the “electronic bill pay” feature of your bank’s online service.  The church will be in receipt of a paper check by mail if you are unable to attend Sunday service.

Please bring contributions for the food pantry, every Sunday someone will come through the congregation during the offering collecting contributions (food and/or money) for the food pantry.

2011 – 2012 Planning Calendars are now available.  $7 each.  Please call the church office to reserve your copy or pick up a form on the back table in the sanctuary.  We only have 1 copy left.  First Come First Served.

Volunteers are needed for Nursery duty for the month of July and August.  We need two persons per Sunday.  Sign up sheets are on the back table.

If you would like to hear your favorite hymn during a worship service this summer, please send us an email atrivierachurch@bellsouth.net or sign up on the clipboard in the sanctuary.

Please note that there will not be any Wednesday Bible Study during the month of July.

While Laurie is in Kenya pastoral care will be provided by Stephen Sapp, Jacqueline Rhoades and Deacons.  Please contact church office for phone numbers if needed.

New Date for Cabaret: Mark your calendars, update your Smart Phone – Cabaret has a new date: Sunday, September 25 and 6:00p.m.

Lectionary for Sunday, July 17: Genesis 2 and 3 selected texts; Romans 5:12-21

Sunday July 17th Sermon Title: “Lessons from Genesis 1:  The Ruined Garden” by Rev. Dr. Stephen Sapp  - Response by Tracey Schoenblatt

What are a few of your favorite things? Sunday, August 14th at 5:00 p.m. we will be having a Sound of Music sing-a-long in the sanctuary.  Please bring snacks and finger food to share. Suggested donation $5 per person or $15 per family group.  Come in costume if you wish and be prepared to sing – a- long with Maria and the Von Trapp children.

Along with our continued mission needs ­food for the food pantry, socks for the homeless, toiletries for the family and single food bags ­we also have to pay our liability, workers compensation and windstorm insurances. As in all our activities, lives will change because of the summer, so as your life may slow a bit over the summer months, please remember that our ministry and mission never take a vacation.

There are several ways you can make your Faith Commitment if you are away from Riviera during the summer months: Mail us your offering. Please make checks payable to Riviera Presbyterian Church.

Electronic bill pay ­Set up a payment using the “electronic bill pay” feature of your bank’s online service. The church will be in receipt of a paper check by mail if you are unable to attend Sunday services.

Please remember that we are still collecting electronics for the recycling program. You may de­posit the electronics in the recycling bin outside the Fellowship Hall on the south side.

We are also collecting ­used toner cartridges, canceled stamps, Food for Education labels, cell phones, hotel toiletries, white cotton socks please bring these items to the church office or leave them in a bag labeled ­”For Church Office” ­in the sanctuary on Sunday.

–Barbara Prieto

Please remember that Per Capita is due by June 30th. Per Capita is $31.30 per church member. If your teen has been confirmed at RPC he/ she are members. Any questions, please contact me.

Presbyterian News Service
by Jerry L. Van Marter

LOUISVILLE – Three members of the National Response Team (NRT) of Presbyterian Disaster Assistance arrived in Tucson, Ariz., within 48 hours of the Jan. 8 shootings there that killed six and injured 13, including U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.

PDA’s NRT trio was the only national religious community responder to serve in Tucson in the immediate aftermath of the tragedy.

“We can be grateful to a denomination with the vision to equip, train and deploy faith leaders into arenas of human-caused violence,” said the Rev. Laurie Kraus, pastor of Riviera Presbyterian Church in Miami, FL. Kraus has served on PDA’s NRT since its inception in 1996.

She was joined in Tucson by fellow NRT members Rick Turner, a member of John Knox Presbyterian Church in Greenville, S.C., and the Rev. David Holyan, pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Kirkwood, Mo. — who at the invitation of Presbytery de Cristo began immediately to offer support and encouragement to pastors, congregations and the presbytery as they responded to the crisis.

Turner, Kraus and Holyan — all volunteers — represented the “first response” by PDA to de Cristo’s appeal for help, said the Rev. John Robinson, PDA’s associate for U.S. disaster response.

“Typically more members of our team, including mental health professionals with trauma recovery training, will make more trips to Tucson over the next months, or perhaps years as the congregations and community move through their own recovery,” Robinson wrote in a letter to Linda Valentine, executive director of the General Assembly Mission Council.

“Our team is often asked to provide ‘Compassion Fatigue and Care for the Caregiver trainings’ as well as consultation on what to expect as the churches and community absorb the impact of these events,” he stated.

And as is often the case, the rewards of PDA’s efforts flow back and forth between the helpers and those being helped.

“On Sunday morning (Jan. 9) as I listened to sermons by colleagues in Tucson reflecting on the aftermath of the tragedy and the commemorations of MLK weekend, I was struck as I always am, by the integrity, authenticity and vulnerability of faith leaders who step into the pain and chaos of a human caused disaster with words of honesty and calls for the church’s meaningful participation in the healing of the community,” Kraus wrote to Valentine.

“It is one thing to lead as one has been trained in the ordinary seasons of a congregation’s life,” she continued. “It is another to step into the disorientation of sorrow, anger, confusion and need that inevitably follows in the wake of human caused disasters — feelings that faith leaders share, and that are magnified by their willingness to listen, care for and respond to their people and their community.”

In a “minute for mission” she offered at Southside Presbyterian Church in Tucson that morning, Kraus said that PDA’s first intention in responding to such disasters is to refresh and reinforce the power of love and presence that pastors and congregations spend so generously for their community’s healing.

“I told them that all Presbyterians were touched, as well, and sending their power of prayer and presence through the NRT and by their participation in the One Great Hour of Sharing offering to support the healing work being offered through the Presbyterian and interfaith community in Tucson,” Krause said.

As pastor of First-Kirkwood, Holyan has experienced first-hand the devastation caused by mass violence. On Feb. 7, 2008, a gunman killed five people — including the congregation’s director of lay ministries — at a Kirkwood city council meeting.

“On Feb. 8, 2008 a pastor from Florida, a member of PDA’s National Response Team, sat with me in my office, offering me, the staff, the congregation and our community hope in the midst of our chaos,” Holyan recounted. “… I don’t remember much of what was said that difficult weekend, but his presence was for me and many others a visible witness to the love of God in Christ ‘in a blue shirt,’” he said.

Now, Holyan continued, “as a member of PDA’s NRT I find myself sitting with those whose lives have been devastated by human-caused disasters. I’m the one in the blue shirt inscribed with the words ‘Out of Chaos, Hope’ (the PDA motto). By the grace of God, the heartache and horror has been transformed into wisdom and compassion and the willingness to serve others who find themselves in unimaginable situations.”

He says that his involvement with PDA “continues to be a work of redemption — for me and the congregation I serve. It is a sacred privilege to come alongside others in their moment of need and remind them of God’s love for us all in Christ as a member of PDA’s NRT.”

Redemption is certainly what those in Presbytery de Cristo experienced, according to Presbytery Pastor/Stated Clerk the Rev. Sue Westfall, who wrote to Robinson thanking PDA “for the extraordinary assistance, wisdom, experience and expertise that Rick, Laurie and David provided this community in the aftermath of Tucson’s tragedy.”

Noting that one of Tucson’s PC(USA) congregations suffered a fatality and an injury in the shootings, Westfall said the NRT “immediately began providing counseling, consultation and support not only to our Presbyterian community but also to the wider ecumenical/interfaith [community] as we came together to coordinate efforts to respond.”

Westfall added that “the American Red Cross even pulled them in to help with trauma counseling and support as the memorials and funerals were held throughout the week. In short, they ministered to the Presbyterian community and the whole Tucson community in a very significant, capable, and visible way.”

“On Feb. 8, 2008 I became aware of what it means to be Presbyterian and why I am so proud of our denomination,” Holyan said. “We are connected and we care when it matters most. Last week, it was a privilege to offer, along with Laurie Kraus and Rick Turner, the connection to and the care of the people of God to those reeling in the aftermath of the shooting in Tucson. Thank you all for the privilege of serving on PDA’s National Response Team.”

PDA is always looking for new NRT members, Robinson said.

“We are particularly looking for additional racial/ethnic members in order to bring greater diversity to the team and strengthen our ability to response in a variety of communities,” he told Presbyterian News Service.

The process starts with self-nomination — the application is on the PDA Web site. When PDA has enough applicants, PDA sponsors a discernment weekend, in which applicants, NRT members and staff together determine whether a certain call to serve exists.

“We have found this to be a very helpful process,” Robinson said.

NRT members take a week of training of their choosing each year in disaster response, crisis response or spiritual care. They also commit to a one-week annual meeting and two weeks of field service annually, though Robinson noted many give more than two weeks of service each year as responses are needed.

NRT members also provide training in their own presbyteries, serve their local and state volunteer disaster response organizations, assist presbyteries and congregations in developing disaster plans and speak on behalf of the One Great Hour of Sharing Offering.

More about the Tucson NRT members:

• Rick Turner, a long-time National Response Team member, has represented PDA with FEMA and several other national volunteer organizations active in disaster response ministry. A retired businessman who also served as a South Carolina Park Ranger, Turner brings financial and business skills to his NRT work as well as familiarity with federal government policies and procedures.
• The Rev. Laurie Kraus was pastor at Riviera Church when Hurricane Andrew struck South Florida in 1992. She is a part-time seminary professor in Miami, and has been PDA’s principle theological interpreter for National Response Team annual meetings.
• The Rev. David Holyan joined the National Response Team last year, shortly after dealing with the Kirkwood shootings and experiencing first-hand the ministry of NRT in the midst of that tragedy.

• October 10 “Across the Great Divide: Rejoining Soul and Role”
The poet Rainer Maria Rilke wrote – take your practiced powers and stretch them out until they span the chasm between two contradictions…For the god wants to know himself in you.

Sign up sheet for Holy Grounds in on the back table. If you would like to bring something please email the church office and Richard Jimenez-Alicea at jimenezalicea@msn.com with what you are bringing (if possible) and for what Sunday you would like to bring it. We hope to have all the Sundays for the remainder of 2010 covered. We would love to have 2 to 3 people to provide goodies for each Sunday. Sign up sheet is on back information table.

After reading all the Surveys that were turned in when we did the series “Sharing Food Together” the overwhelming responses were for healthier foods, labeling of ingredients. With that in mind please remember this for when you prepare or purchase items for Potluck Lunch this coming Sunday, October 3.

###

Food Pantry needs: – canned fruit, canned vegetables, family size cereal, pasta, pasta sauce, complete pancake mix, pancake syrup.

The Administration Division is looking for people to join this group. If you are interested see Donnie Hanson, Lee Popham or Barbie Prieto.

Volunteers are needed for the Tag Sale on November 6 and for sorting on November 5th. Please contact Richard Jimenez-Alicea at 954-655-0961.

Remember in your thoughts and prayers….
Henry Kunce and family (Henry is recuperating at home), David German (recuperating at home) Julia Prida (ultrasound found a large mass in her kidney

Lectionary Reading for Sunday October 10, 2010:
Psalm 66:1-12, Jeremiah 29:1-7

· Stewardship Division is looking for a person who has investment experience to join the Division. Speak to Janet Peterson or contact the church office.

FYI – when the church provides lemonade it will be Crystal Light and the iced tea is unsweetened.

Download: 2010-10-RPC-Newsletter.pdf (PDF)

When you see these people remember to thank them for helping to make Riviera Presbyterian Church a church that is ministering by reflecting the path of Christ.

• Richard Jimenez-Alicea for coordinating once again a wonderful church picnic.
• Allison Anderson for faithfully preparing communion elements each month.
• Karl Brester and Danny Ricardo for coordinating the Ping Pong Tournament during the church picnic. Congratulations to Stanley Schoenblatt who won first place and Oscar Posada who won second place.
• Larry Peterson and Annie Peterson who staffed the barbecue grills at the picnic.
• Tracey and Stanley Schoenblatt who helped with the water play at the picnic.
• Lee Popham who loaned us his ping pong table.
• Zach Schoenblatt, Maxx Schoenblatt, Nicole Prieto, Donnie Hanson, Dan Dixon, Rey Prieto and Richard Jimenez-Alicea who helped set up tables and
  chairs and then take them back.
• Chuck Hannemann who preached on May 2nd.
• David German and Richard Godbeer who are working very hard in the preparation of the church grounds for the Memorial Garden.

This summer, we propose taking a little of that time for nurturing friendships while we’re still in place, working day to day.

Why not consider gathering with Laurie and with a few friends from church for lunch, once a month? No agenda except friendship…no program except enjoying one another. We’ll set up one in the Coconut Grove area and another on a different date in the Doral. If it works, we’ll keep it up. In June, let us know if you’ll join us on:

• Thursday, June 3, at Green Street Café in Coconut Grove at noon
• Thursday, June 10 in the Doral (place to be determined), at
  noon. Please email Laurie or the church office for the Green Street
  lunch. And Laurie, the church, or Richard Jimenez-Alicea for the Doral lunch.

If you can gather a few more folks in an area not easily accessible
to either place, we can add a third feast… talk to Laurie if that possibility interests you. Hope to see you come summer!