Category Archives: News

April preachers at Beloved: Sunday nights at 6 pm

As Beloved continues our search for a pastor, we will welcome incredible guest preachers from our community to share wisdom, guidance, and encouragement for our lives.

Join us Sunday evenings at 6 pm for the message, the company of Beloveds, and the music of our own Beloved Community Orchestra!

Sunday, April 3rd: Rev. Katie Nakamura Rengers

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Rev. Rengers is associate rector for outreach and young adults at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church. You may have seen her in action at The Abbey, our neighboring coffee shop, or during our recent Palm Sunday processional!

Continue reading April preachers at Beloved: Sunday nights at 6 pm

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Holy Week and Easter at Beloved: Join us Sundays at 6 pm!

Beloved is welcoming a series of guest pastors during this holy season.  We are also celebrating in several joint services with neighboring congregations, including fellow UCC churches, for many holy week observances.

We hope to see you Sunday nights at 6 pm – and throughout this holy week – to share in the message, music and joy of Beloved!

Continue reading Holy Week and Easter at Beloved: Join us Sundays at 6 pm!

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Beloved Community Church seeks pastor

Beloved Community Church (UCC) is an open and affirming, vibrant church comprised of mission-oriented congregants in Birmingham, Alabama. Our small, diverse congregation is honored and proud to serve as sanctuary for people who have not felt at home in traditional churches while encouraging people from all walks of life to grow in relationship with one another and with God.

We welcome all people who join us in worship as our Beloveds and have a regular attendance of approximately 40 people. Sunday evening worship includes inspiring pastoral teaching and soulful music from our Beloved Orchestra followed by food and fellowship.

Whether it be through our Care Team Ministry that provides support for congregants in need, our Brown Bag Ministry that feeds 50+ families each month, our Family Promise Ministry that helps provide food and shelter for homeless families, or our willingness to stand in solidarity with immigrants seeking better lives, Beloved cares about our congregants and our community in word and deeds.

We are looking for a teaching pastor, who is informed and responsive to community needs, able to coordinate and energize lay leaders to fulfill mission responsibilities, able to maintain administrative duties and assist in growing the church, all while embodying our Beloved Community Church covenant:

With the help of God

We will walk together

In the ways of Jesus,

Creating a community

And striving for a world

Where no one is an outcast

And no one is a stranger,

Where all people are

Celebrated as precious children of God,

Where we joyfully share

With one another

Hope for the living,

Comfort for the dying,

Dignity for those in struggle,

And freedom to ask and to

Seek and to grow more fully

Into the persons

We were created to be.

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February preachers at Beloved (6 pm Sunday nights)

As we search for a new pastor, we will hear from guest preachers each week. Please stay tuned to our email newsletter for weekly updates on who will be preaching and what all is happening at Beloved Community!

Sunday, February 7th: Rev. Chris Hamlin

Sunday, February 14th: Mark Kelly

Sunday, February 21st: Rev. R.G. Wilson-Lyons

Sunday, February 28th: Rev. Dollie Howell Pankey

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Lent at Beloved

 


Dear Beloved:

Will you submit a Lenten Reflection?
We send out a daily writing by our Beloveds during Lent, and they are as varied as are our Beloveds. There are no rules or boundaries on the kind of thing you can write – just something that you’ve been pondering, wondering about, something that inspires you, gives you hope or keeps you going.

Some people write poems, letters, songs, reflections on the daily scripture or a favorite scripture, or share a story of how they have experienced the presence of God in the heights or depths or ordinariness of their days. Click here for the daily lectionary.

We would love to hear from each of you during the 40 days of Lent (Feb. 10th-March 24th).

Please let Palmer Maxwell know what day (or days) you would like to write, and send what you have written, created or found. He will take it from there. It will be such a blessing to hear your voice among the choir of Lenten Reflections!

Please sign up here to receive the Lenten Reflection daily via email.

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99 Films Presents Gaining Ground: Tuesday, Feb. 16th, 7 PM

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On January 19, we screened “Holding Ground: The Rebirth of Dudley Street.” This is the followup of that award-winning documentary about community vision, struggle, and change in the Roxbury Neighborhood of Boston. We will continue the discussion about the development of one of the most successful community land trusts in the nation, and how the City of Birmingham can learn from Dudley Street.
Led by Susan Diane Mitchell, founder of Birmingham’s first ever community land trust, the Dynamite Hill-Smithfield Community Land Trust.

Magnolia BBQ and Fish will have a hot dog stand out front.

$5 suggested donation.

RSVP and more info on Facebook.

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What’s Ahead for Beloved: 2016 Ministry + Mission

Dear Beloveds,

Last night we said farewell to our Beloved pastor Angie Wright, and we are so thankful for all of you who were able to be there with us. For those of you who missed it, we will be sharing the video soon.

We will have the following guest preachers over the next month. We hope to see your face, hear your voice and give you a warm embrace!

Sunday, January 17th: Jennifer Sanders preaching
Sunday, January 24th: Sally Harris preaching
Sunday, January 31st: Leah Clements preaching

 

The ministries and work of the church are still run by lay leadership including church council and care team. The church and its people will continue our mission while the search committee goes about its business of finding a new pastor.

Below, we have listed 3 ministry opportunities at Beloved: Care Team, Family Promise and Brown Bag ministry. These opportunities span every day of the week and most hours of the day – so everyone should be able to find some hours in the week that might work for you. With the upcoming Martin Luther King Day of Service, this week is a great time to connect and commit yourself to some of these opportunities.

Continue reading What’s Ahead for Beloved: 2016 Ministry + Mission

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99 Films Presents Holding Ground: Tuesday, Jan. 19, 7 pm

Holding Ground flier

We hope to see everyone after the New Year at Beloved for a screening of the documentary, “Holding Ground: The Rebirth of Dudley Street,” facilitated by Carol Judy from the Clearfork Valley in Tennessee. Carol is a Rural Development Leadership Network Fellow, and former resident and leader of the Woodland Land Trust in Tennessee, one of the oldest community land trusts in the country.

This award-winning documentary is about community vision, struggle, and change in the Roxbury Neighborhood of Boston, including the development of one of the most successful community land trusts in the nation.

RSVP on Facebook.

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Farewell, Rev. Angie! From our parting service.

From the sermon delivered by Rev. Mary Bea Sullivan on the Sunday of Angie’s departure:

In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters.

And that wind/ruah/breath of God has blown in and through the people of God from the beginning of creation. Its Wisdom guided the People of Israel… Swept over Mary, carrying the Word made Flesh Swept over the early disciples of Christ as they gathered that Pentecost morning, accused of inebriation, but in fact, they were drunk with the Spirit.

That same wind of God swept over a young mother,  Angie Wright, who chose to go to seminary, not to become a pastor OR preacher, but to to study and figure out what exactly she believed! She thought she would always do social justice work, that her “call” was to do that work in the context of the church, and not to be a pastor. She was so convinced of this, she even tried to get out of taking a required preaching class.

But ruah, breath of God stirred in Angie’s heart a wind that could not be denied. Angie, as one unique manifestation of the image and likeness of God, could not deny the stirrings of the Spirit.

Continue reading Farewell, Rev. Angie! From our parting service.

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Farewell, Rev. Angie! Thursday, January 7th, 5:30 PM

Farewell Party

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