United Lutheran Church-Oakland, CA
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  • Home
    • About United Lutheran Church
  • About Us
    • Church Staff
    • Nursing Home Ministry-Pastor Ned O'Donnell
    • Members' Blog
    • Picture Page
  • Our Outreach
    • Rafiki Preschool in Tanzania
    • Giving is Receiving
    • Community
  • News & Events
    • Upcoming Events
    • Church Calendar
  • Rental Space
  • Virtual Sunday Worship

Cast your vote on November 6th and let your passions and convictions be heard!

10/30/2018

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Brothers and Sisters, 
 
Remember that United Lutheran Church of Oakland is a polling place, and we are just days away from our day to vote.  Polls open at 7 am and close at 8 pm. Please come out and bring a friend and make your voice known!
 
We hope that those of you who attended the Oakland Mayor's Candidate Forum last month on October 9 found the experience helpful as you navigate your robust ballots of measures and propositions, and utilize ranked choice voting to select candidates in Oakland and Berkeley.  We sure loved participating with you.   We were 90 people strong!!
 
Locally, we have pressing issues facing us: homelessness, rocketing health care costs, a filthy looking city, sub-optimal city services, a crisis of trust in our elected officials and local law enforcement agencies, record displacement an ill-effect of gentrification, under funded and overwhelmed schools, and so many of our families and neighborhoods traumatized beyond belief because of repeated reckless violence and injustices.   
 
We must demand better.  Please participate in finding and sustaining solutions.  
 
Cast your vote on November 6th and let your passions and convictions be heard!
 
Join us in holding our elected officials and city agencies accountable. Be on the look out for the follow-up to the Town Hall meeting we had last June.   Unfortunately, the August National Night Out conversations with local leaders did not yield any progress to the issues we presented in early summer.  We will host a Town Hall Meeting in January 2019. 
 
Although I am lifting up local issues, this week has witness horrible actions throughout our country.   
 
Donald Trump sounded a dog whistle when talking about the caravan of immigrants fleeing horrible conditions in Honduras. At least 14 pipe bombs were mailed to leaders who have publicly disagreed with Donald Trump's rhetoric. The President is actively reversing gains made in the Gay, Lesbian and Transgender struggle for equality, and 11 people were killed in a senseless shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue in  Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. 
 
Our entire Congress has refused to speak against this polarizing and short-sighted leadership, and too many are supporting regression of hard fought won civil and human rights, environmental protections, and making light of ugly white nationalism and incendiary rhetoric against women, immigrants, and people of color. 
 
We must do better. 
 
We must speak against hate. 
 
We must remove leaders who will not stand up against this divisiveness and bigotry and replace them with leaders who have integrity and who will lead with courage for all of us.
 
Get up and get out, and encourage your friends and loved ones across the country to vote on November 6th!
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The Seven Principles of Kwanzaa

12/27/2017

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​The Seven Principles of Kwanzaa, an African American celebration which was first celebrated in 1966-67 over the days of December 26 to January 1, Include:
 
·  Umoja (Unity): To strive for and to maintain unity in the family, community, nation, and race.
·  ·  Kujichagulia (Self-Determination): To define and name ourselves, as well as to create and speak for ourselves.
·  ·  Ujima (Collective Work and Responsibility): To build and maintain our community together and make our brothers' and sisters' problems our problems and to solve them together.
·  ·  Ujamaa (Cooperative Economics): To build and maintain our own stores, shops, and other businesses and to profit from them together.
·  ·  Nia (Purpose): To make our collective vocation the building and developing of our community in order to restore our people to their traditional greatness.
·  ·  Kuumba (Creativity): To do always as much as we can, in the way we can, in order to leave our community more beautiful and beneficial than we inherited it.
·  ·  Imani (Faith): To believe with all our hearts in our people, our parents, our teachers, our leaders, and the righteousness and victory of our struggle.
·  ·  I first started celebrating this Holiday Season with my dearest friends back in 1992 and have continued to do intermittently with friends and loved ones from all walks of life, gender, identity, ethnicity, age, and faiths. I feel truly blessed to have been introduced to this celebration that honors the present, past and future with such truth, humility, boldness and love! 
 
Happy Kwanzaa to you and your loved ones!
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Be the person that your dog believes you to be!

12/27/2017

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​My Pastor has given me a delightful piece of advice that I would like to share.  I need to do this as we celebrate Jesus Christ's birthday, the Winter Solstice, and the coming of the New Year.  But most of all, I need to share this advice after the Republican Party has just approved a tax bill that is expected to harm millions of Americans and a President Trump that just announced $4 billion dollars in new missile purchases to keep America safe as he re-enlivens our Country as am international war monger.
 
Be the person that your dog believes you to be!
 
Well, my dog (FooFoo Strawberry) thinks that I am kind; that I will always keep him fed, clean and walked. My dog thinks that I will protect him from dangers and reward his loyalty. My dog thinks that I am valuable.
 
So to fellow critically thinking, conscientious and socially committed people, I say.
 
"Be kind and let your kindness not be confused for defeatist acceptance.  Kindness stands up for human dignity and demand justice for our country and humanity everywhere! So, let's stand up and not give up!
 
As we keep our family and friends fed and cared for, let's give what we can to the stranger in need and welcome them to our table.  Every small gesture is actually a huge gift to the universe and mankind!
 
As we protect our loved ones from harm, let's join the ground swelling community movements here in the Bay Area that values all human life!
 
And, let's reward ourselves and others twith kind words, encouragement and let’s take a rest from being grumpy!"
 
That's what my FooFoo Strawberry expects from me.
 
What does your dog expect from you?
 
Let's work together in making ourselves "the us" our dogs most expect. See you at ULC! 
 
PEACE Out!
 
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    Carla Dartis

    Council President, Member of the East Bay Lutheran Parish Youth Program Advisory Board and United Giving Is Receiving Committee

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United Lutheran Church of Oakland
8800 Fontaine St.
Oakland CA,  94605
Phone:
510.569.0689
Fax:
510.569.8432
Email:
unitedlutheran@sbcglobal.net

​Pastor's Email:
unitedlutheran@sbcglobal.net 
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