Call to Worship - You are invited to light a candle in your home to welcome the presence of the Holy Spirit
Good Day for a Good Day - El Dorado
Welcome - Stephen Folds
All Who Are Thirsty - El Dorado
Passing of the Peace: Through the act of passing the peace of Christ, we offer our sincere desire to love our neighbor.
You are invited to greet one another in the live stream chat on Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook.
TOP 5 ANNOUNCEMENTS
VENMO: You can find us here: https://venmo.com/LAFirstUMC
PAYPAL: https://paypal.me/LAFirstUMC
SQUARE:https://checkout.square.site/pay/be673aef7fcb424e98387016d184e57d
A Sermon Series for Epiphany: Back to Basics
January 29: Blessed Are Those, UWF Sunday, Eutha Hankinson, preaching
February 5: You are the Salt of the Earth and the Light of the World
February 12: First Be Reconciled
February 19: Transfiguration - Listen to Him!
All who need a meal on Sunday, young and old, are invited to come sit down at the table with us for a hot, catered breakfast to get their day started! Our volunteers will be acting as servers, so that all who come join us have time to sit and enjoy their breakfast
LA First UMC is starting this ministry with the hopes of helping to fill the need for hot meals served on the weekends when most meal-providing services are closed in DTLA.
LA First UMC's Sunday Breakfast Ministry
Sundays 8:30-9:30am Pacific Time
Outside, at the picnic tables, in the parking lot on the South East Corner of Olympic and Flower
Next to Villa Flores located at 1020 S Flower St
Update to Volunteering Process
In order for the hour to run smoothly and efficiently, Debbie has planned to have jobs for 6 volunteers each week. Don't worry there are plenty of Sundays to sign up for the rest of the year. Please reach out to Debbie to get on the volunteering calendar. She can be reached at debbie@lafirstumc.org. Once you are signed up to be one of the 6 volunteers for a given week, Debbie will send out an email the Friday or Saturday before your volunteer shift to confirm your participation.
OFFERING: To make a donation to support the Monterey Park community, please
use your phone camera to capture the QR code to the right; or click on this link:
COMMUNITY RESOURCES:
LA Homeless Services Authority Winter Shelters Are Now Open Through March 31st
Shelters operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Call 211 for a referral. https://www.lahsa.org/winter-shelter
Registration is no longer required for the monkey pox vaccinations now available for eligible residents.
For information and updates on monkeypox, visit ph.lacounty.gov/monkeypox
COVID Testing:
You can get your digital vaccination record: myvaccinerecord.cdph.ca.gov
healthvana.com or carbonhealth.com
LA City is now offering free testing, without appointments at City-run sites. Find a site near you: Coronavirus.LACity.org/Testing. For additional COVID-19 resources: Coronavirus.LACity.org/Resources
Vaccines:
Flu Shots: Getting a flu shot is fast, easy, and convenient. Get yours today: Call 2-1-1 or go to: https://admin.publichealth.lacounty.gov/media/FluSeason/index1.htm
Covid Testing:
Getting tested is now easier than ever with LA County's Pick-Up Testing Kits program. Visit ow.ly/tfIu50Hsnh5 for a list of locations where you can get a kit at no cost. The program will allow residents to pick up a PCR test kit & return it at designated locations. Results will be available within 24-48 hrs.
LA City is now offering free testing, without appointments at City-run sites. Find a site near you: Coronavirus.LACity.org/Testing
For additional COVID-19 resources: Coronavirus.LACity.org/Resources
You can get your digital vaccination record: myvaccinerecord.cdph.ca.gov
healthvana.com carbonhealth.com
LA County is bringing the COVID-19 vaccines to homebound residents. Need to get vaccinated at home? Call the LA Public Health Vaccine Call Center at 833-540-0473 between 8 AM and 8:30 PM, any day of the week, for assistance.
Need a ride? Uber and Lyft are providing free rides to and from vaccination sites. Don't have the apps? Call 833-540-0473 to book your ride.
There are several vaccine sites set up by Carbon Health that you can check: https://carbonhealth.com/
LA County: http://www.publichealth.lacounty.gov/media/Coronavirus/vaccine/index.htm
Orange County residents and workers: Register for a vaccination appointment at https://othena.co
CALL TO PRAYER: Just A Closer Walk With Thee - El Dorado
Joys and Concerns: We believe that the best way to bear our burdens is to share them with one another. You are invited to share your joys and concerns so that our community can hold these things in our hearts as we lift them to God together.
You are invited to share your prayers in the Facebook Live Chat, or on the YouTube Live chat.
United Women in Faith: Organized for Mission - An Installation Service
Leader – Eutha Hankinson: 2 Timothy vs 1: Line 6 – ”For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you …”
Welcome to you as leaders for United Women in Faith. You stand in a long line of women dedicated to making a difference.
Officers: We celebrate and witness the United Women in Faith’s historical commitment for over 130 years to ministry and offer our ministry to support women and children and youth.
All: We are here to celebrate and witness as women organized for mission. We will strive to develop a creative, supportive fellowship to undergird our historical commitment to our ministry with women, children, and youth.
Eutha Hankinson: As elected leaders of the local United Women in Faith, you become part of the local leadership of more than 25,000 local units in our country.
Officers: We celebrate our connectional system. We honor the trust and stewardship entrusted to us through our offices.
All: The organized unit of United Women in Faith shall be a community of women whose purpose is to know God.
Eutha Hankinson: Your pledge to service and pledge to mission link you, as a local United Woman in Faith, with more than 50,000 congregations around the world.
Officers: We celebrate the global sisterhood and brotherhood made possible through mission. A light set upon a hill cannot be hidden.
All UMW: Those who experience freedom as whole persons through Christ cannot hide their light under a bushel.
Eutha Hankinson: God of mission calls us to a renewed discipleship as followers of Christ.
Officers: We pledge ourselves to renewed discipleship as followers of Christ.
All: We pledge ourselves to renewed discipleship in Christ to expand concepts of mission through the global ministries of the church.
Eutha Hankinson: As a token of your commitment to the Purpose of the United Women in Faith, please light your candles.
As you light your candles, I am reminded of the awesome commitment spiritually, monetarily, and with humanitarian actions in support of the United Methodist Women to mission. In 2020, United Women in Faith provided over $9 million to further the causes to help women, children, youth and men.
We affirm this major contribution of yours to mission here and around the world. Let the light from your candles, your lights so shine that they may glorify God.
Officers & All: We can do all things through Christ who strengthens us.
Eutha Hankinson: May the God of our foremothers who sustains us in this mission continue to bless you, keep you, and nudge you to greater possibilities. Amen.
All: Amen.
First Reading: Psalm 62:8, NRSV - Eutha Hankinson
Trust in him at all times, O people;
pour out your heart before him;
God is a refuge for us.
Selah
Scripture: Proverbs 3:5-6, NRSV
Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
and do not rely on your own insight.
In all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make straight your paths.
One: This is the Word of God for us, the people of God.
All: Thanks be to God!
Sermon: To Know God is to Trust God - Eutha Hankinson, Preaching
Holy Communion
Invitation to the Table: As we understand the Body of Christ to be inclusive, we understand God’s table of grace and fellowship can extend into our homes. As you’re able, bring your own elements to this time. Bread, Juice, Coffee, Muffins… the Body of Christ is comprised of wonder and mystery. Today, we celebrate that God can reach us where we are, even if we are not together.
The Great Mystery of our Faith
All: Christ has died
Christ is risen.
Christ will come again.
The Lord’s Prayer
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name,
thy kingdom come, thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory,
for ever and ever. Amen.
CLOSING SONG: Be Thou My Vision - El Dorado
Benediction Remember:
God is with you,
God is for you,
God refuses to be God without you.
And may all of God’s people say: Amen.
LA FIRST UMC LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT - authored by Tom Grode, affirmed by LA First UMC’s Church Council on July 13, 2021
We Acknowledge the Tongva people as original caretakers of this land and their ancient village Yaangna, what we call Downtown Los Angeles.
We Acknowledge the many Native Americans who moved Downtown to Bunker Hill due to the Indian Relocation Act of 1956 as “the 'old' Bunker Hill was effectively scalped by urban renewal in the 1960’s.”
We Acknowledge the work of Skid Row Housing Justice activists in the 1960's and 70's to keep the low income hotel housing in Skid Row from suffering the Urban Renewal fate of Bunker Hill.
We Acknowledge the Native Indigenous peoples of Los Angeles, their special relationship to Mother Earth, and their hospitality, inviting us into that special relationship.
We Acknowledge the patience, kindness, and compassion of Mother Earth.
We Acknowledge our beginnings as a church in 1853 when Methodist leader Adam Bland was sent to evangelize the "rowdy and incorrigible” Southland.
We Acknowledge our relationship with Biddy Mason, one of the Matriarchs of early Los Angeles, and a member of Fort Street Methodist Episcopal Church (the first name our church bore) before she began First African Methodist Episcopal (FAME) out of her home, one of the spiritual pillars in Los Angeles for many decades.
We Acknowledge Biddy Mason as the Patron Saint of Downtown Los Angeles, an enslaved woman who fought for the freedom of all who were enslaved. She utilized her training as a midwife to buy land and used her wealth to help others in need.
We Acknowledge the words of Jesus "to whom much is given much is required" as a blessing for us to live out: the legacy and reality of owning the largest piece of undeveloped property in South Park.
Welcome to Tongvaland, Pamela J. Peters
We Acknowledge the land of Downtown Los Angeles - more than a dozen unique and dynamic neighborhoods - as land the eyes of the world look towards for leadership and solutions to the challenges facing all humanity.
We Acknowledge the mission of the United Methodist Church as founded by John Wesley: to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.