S-kehg Si’alim!

(“Good morning” in

Tohono O'odham)

The Newsletter of Southside Presbyterian Church

317 West 23rd Street, Tucson AZ 85713 www.southsidepresbyterian.org

Palm Sunday, April 9 9:30 a.m.

Join us for the Procession of the Palms as we lift our voices up in singing, “Hosanna!”

Maundy Thursday, April 13 5:30 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. Join us for a special Maundy Thursday service designed for all ages. You are invited to drop in for a light soup dinner between 5:30 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. in our Fellowship Hall. Following dinner we will move to the Kiva and hear the story of

Jesus’ last night with his friends. We will wash feet and share communion with one another. We especially encourage our littlest friends to attend this tactile and experiential worship service.

Good Friday, April 14 7:00 p.m. Join us as we gather as a community around the cross and hear Jesus’ 7 last words. We will focus our hearts around song, the lighting and extinguishing of candles, and prayer.

Easter Sunday, April 16 Easter Sunrise Service — 6:00 a.m. Join us for our annual Easter Sunrise service

as we renew our baptismal vows and celebrate the good news of the Resurrection.

The youth will provide a breakfast following the Sunrise Service.

Traditional Easter Service — 9:30 a.m.

APRIL

2017

Building the Future of Southside! Our beloved Southside home is in need of renovation and expansion. In order to continue

meeting the needs of our members, our neighborhood, and our social justice efforts, we must

tear down and rebuild the fellowship hall, build a new commercial kitchen, add classrooms

and offices, and make other long-needed improvements.

Imagine inviting people into a space that is intentionally created for

community, hospitality, and service. A welcoming space designed for all generations to

support community, worship, education, and social justice ministry. This shared vision is

important for the future of our church. The budget for the building and renovation project is

$1.95 million. With more than $800,000 in commitments already in hand,

we believe we can meet this goal. But we must do it together.

Everyone brings different gifts, and everyone can contribute to this campaign in a

meaningful way. Just like our church, there is a place for everyone at the table. Whether you

can contribute sweat equity, in kind materials, small gifts or large, your gifts are needed and

welcome. Please consider making a capital pledge above and beyond your regular giving

to the church’s operating budget – a pledge that is generous and meaningful for you and

your family.

Please watch your mail in the coming weeks for a campaign brochure and pledge form. You may mail your pledge form to the office,

or bring it to Commitment Sunday on April 9, 2017.

Josefina Ahumada, Doug Larson, Jean Rooney, Prill Kuhn, Teena Cross, John Fife, Alonzo Morado, Mark Rein’l-Bautista, Debbie Bergman, Alison Harrington

Worship Committee

Your worship committee has operated more in "ad hoc" mode for the past several weeks. We've had every good intention of meeting, and our schedules, along with the need to respond to the new administration, have conspired against us. We are still trying to identify a day and time during the month that will work for most committee members. While our regular meeting time is the first Wednesday of the month, we may be looking to possibly meeting on Monday evenings.

We are always open to input and involvement by new folks, so please talk to Mark Rein'l-Bautista, elder for worship, of your interest and availability.

Regardless, our small group has managed to furnish English and Spanish readers for each service, and Mark has worked with Pastor Alison and our music director, Ms. Dorothy Reid, to select and rehearse special music to lift our praises to God and continue to minister in song to our congregation.

One particular challenge each year is finding palm branches for decorating both the inside and outside of the Kiva for Palm Sunday. Please contact Mark if you are interested in

gathering or installing the palms, and if you are aware of a supply of palms. The branches should be between 4 and 6 feet long,

and we typically need about 30 branches.

Welcome to the family Selena Denise!

It was our joy to baptize you on March 12 -- we promise

to love you and nurture you in the faith!

Welcome Selena Denise Chavez!

Cross Streets Community Celebrates 20 Years

The creation of this small community began over twenty years ago, it has grown immensely in order serve our neighbors in need in the Barrio of West Ochoa. Our focus has been rooted in

Matthew 25. Our community thereby serves Jesus’s command by providing a welcoming community of, by and for the very people who have been publicly criticized, shoved out of sight,

and denied minimal human dignity.

Here we have a communi-

ty that encourages engagement and

communication with peoples from all walks of life, some who have no

home with others who live in the affluent suburbs.

To celebrate our 20th anniversary, we had a big party in the east parking lot on March 25th.

We celebrated a productive 20 years; to move forward for the next 20 years, we critically

need the church construction. Also, have learned to make significant changes in the lives of our community members, we need to engage with our elected representatives through our voting

and directed communication to make sure that the poor are not voiceless.

With flags, banners and colorful table clothes; Michael McDonald, the CEO of the Community Food Bank, was the key note speaker. The Mariachi Aztlán de Pueblo

(about 25 students) from Pueblo High started our program, during

lunch, the very colorful Baile folklórico group danced.

The celebration concluded with the steel drum group (25 students) from Tucson High School. During this great

music, we had wonderful hot food and served over 300 plates. This

party was a great success due to the many Southsiders who volunteered

their time in so many ways.

Eco Corner - “a science guy” speculates about global Climate change

I have known Jeremy Eddy since he was a little kid, growing up in Palo Alto, California. He graduated from Brown University and spent several years teaching science at the San Francisco School. He is currently living in Oakland with his wife, Cathy, and their two young sons.

Jeremy comes from a family of Presbyterians who are interested in the intersection of science and religion. While exchanging Christmas cards this year, I asked him what he thought about our chances of keeping global temperatures from rising more than 2 degrees C. (a stated goal of the Paris Climate Agreement) now that Donald J. Trump was about to assume the presidency.

I never expected such an extensive and interesting reply – answering my question and commenting on the “mixed bag” of our possible future.

Hi Greg,

Good to hear from you, and good questions!

Regarding the 2 degrees thing, it’s truly a mixed bag. I think Trump and his cronies will do various significant and depressing things to promote fossil fuels industries, but I think meanwhile the larger background momentum is truly in favor of renewables. Major solar power contracts around the world are coming in at $0.03/kWh and below, which is cheaper than any other form of energy in the world, including coal. China just announced $360 billion (!!) of new investment in solar and wind. Just that investment alone will continue to bring the cost of those 2 renewable energy technologies down even further and will make them powerfully competitive globally. Nevertheless, even with very high growth rates it will take time.

Also, we badly need our transportation stock to switch to electric vehicles across the board, while transforming our electricity production to 100% renewables. So, I see all of this positive change happening, based on straightforward economic self-interest, i.e. without the need for a progressive political sea change, with a rapid increase coming over the next 10-20 years, but just slower than I want to see it.

Meanwhile, I fear that the rates of warming, sea level rise, and ocean acidification are going to continue to surprise us in terms of being faster than anticipated. Scientists, by their nature and by reputation, tend to be conservative in their statements, so even the largely alarming news from the science community may underrepresent how drastic the story is. I think we will see complete melting of the Arctic ice cap into longer and longer stretches of time in the summer.

That’s crazy; just sailing across the North Pole from Russia to Canada, etc. I think we’ve locked in dramatic sea level rise and ongoing ocean acidification for many years with dire consequences to our ocean ecosystems. I think we’ve locked in decades of excruciating and terrible drought in the American southwest and various other regions of the world. I think as people get clonged on the head with these various realities, there will be a sharply rising increase in public outcry for political leaders to do something about it, and the response will be to emphasize both emissions reductions (way later than necessary) and various adaptations such as sea walls and desalinization plants and the like.

Meanwhile, unfortunately, I worry we will see unstoppable momentum to conduct a geo-engineering style response to warming; in other words, there will be a global effort to put a bunch of particulate matter into the sky that reflects more of the sun’s rays and lowers global temperatures somewhat. This will be effective in the short term, but with totally unknowable impacts on dominant weather patterns and so forth.

Despite all the challenging news on this front, I believe we will see a global change in people’s thoughts and associations with the climate and with our basic responsibility for stewarding the planet. I think that we will be pleasantly surprised by how quickly we can achieve positive change once this qualitative change has taken place. I see the Paris climate accord as, in essence, a demonstration of this sea change having importantly started to take place.

Men’s Retreat April 28 - 30

Rocky Point, Mexico $70 per person

Contact: Bill Captain 850-0254 for more information

with a pot luck lunch to follow. Join us here at Southside to celebrate as

Pastor Alison receives this year’s Human Rights Award.

Please contact Teena Cross tvcross44@yahoo.com with any questions or if you would like to register.

Walk-ins are welcome.

Church Women United in Tucson Human Rights Celebration

“Kindling New Fires of Hope” Saturday, April 8, 2017

8:30-11:30 a.m.

BORDERLANDS THEATER presents…

Shooting Columbus March 29 - April 8

La Pillita 420 South Main Avenue

A Memorial Service for Dr. Dorothy Clare Massalski Celebration of Her Life and Work : An Evening of Music, Poetry and Remembrance.

Tuesday, April 4 at 7 p.m. in the Kiva

The ALLEN Family invites all Members & Friends of The KIVA. The Service is intended to be a Gift, Consolation, and Up-Lift to the Fellowship for their courtesy and kindness extended to Dorothea through the years. Professional performers will offer selections from various musical Genres suggesting her Life's sojourn : West African Drumming, New Orleans African-American Funeral Tradition, Classical Guitar, and Classical Piano & Voice . A proper Presbyterian "Witness to the Resurrection" is to be anticipated in the approach to All Saints Day, 2017.

Within 20 years, I believe extracting and burning fossil fuels will be seen globally as a completely selfish, destructive, and counterproductive thing to do.

Getting back to your more specific question about 2 degrees Celsius, I think we’re going to blow past that, but we may be able to stabilize at ~3.5 degrees C and then start heading back down without truly spiraling out of control. I think the consequences will be profound, but I think humanity will survive and will be transformed in the process toward a deeper and more institutionalized sense of our complete and utter dependence on intact natural systems.

These days I have a newfound respect for grassroots activists who put themselves in front of tractors and who stop pipelines and so forth. I think these actions are changing the conversation in important ways. I’m also heartened by the court case that a bunch of kids in Oregon recently won against the federal government, essentially suing for their right to intact natural resources. That case will most likely make its way to the Supreme Court, and if the justices are in the pocket of the fossil fuels lobby they will need to say no, you don’t have a right to natural resources and a future livelihood, in order to beat the kids’ case. It will get international attention, and it may serve as a kind of critical social crucible and conversation about our collective social, political, and market response to this issue.

What are your thoughts?

Jeremy Greg Lewis: elder for ecology

Eco Corner, continued

Another award for Pastor Alison! In honor of International Women’s Day, Sojourners named Alison one of the “10 Women of Faith Leading the Charge Ahead.”

Follow the link below to read the responses of these ten women leaders when asked about their personal hopes, faiths, fights for justice, and how their

womanhood surrounds and informs those parts of them. https://sojo.net/articles/10-women-faith-leading-charge-ahead

Sunday Morning Bible Study of the Gospel of John Led by Charles Miller

March 26 John 5:31-47 April 2 John 6:1-15 April 9 John 6:16-31 April 16 Easter (no class) April 23 John 6:30-59 April 30 Men’s Retreat (no class) May 7 John 6: 60-71 May 14 John 7: 1-24 May 21 John 7: 25-44 May 28 John 7: 45-53 (Memorial Day) June 4 John 8: 1-11 June 11 John 8: 12-30 June 18 John 8: 31-47 June 25 John 8: 45-59

All are welcome!

We were remiss that we haven't already formally and properly acknowledged a

great event in the life of our congregation. No, it's not a graduation, or a wedding,

or the birth of a baby--- even more exciting perhaps ---

our very own HERBERT LEE got

a hole in one.

Herbert claims it was the work of the Holy Spirit. The jury is still out on that one -- but however it

happened -- congratulations Herbert Lee!