Spiritual Life
6A
Thursday, April 8, 2021
HIGHLIGHTS
Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-day Saints
Zion Lutheran Church
Submissions
LA GRANDE — The Church
of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints’ “Come, Follow Me”
lesson for the week of April 12
covers the fi rst revelations to
the early saints when they were
commanded to “gather” in Ohio.
This was the beginning of
a westward migration, driven
by opposition, that would ulti-
mately take them to Utah many
years later. These revelations, as
recorded in Doctrine and Cov-
enants Sections 37-40, were
received by Joseph Smith in
December 1830 and January
Churches and faith-based groups are encouraged to submit Highlights for the Spiritual
Life page by 4 p.m. Tuesday for publication Thursday. Submit by email to news@
lagrandeobserver.com (with Highlights in the subject line).
1831, just a few months after the
church was offi cially organized
on April 6, 1830, and created a
great test of the faith of these
early members.
Meeting times for various
wards are changing as church
leaders continue to work toward
restoring the worship services
we were familiar with before the
onset of COVID-19. Members
should contact their ward lead-
ership for updates on the local
schedule.
St. Peter’s Episcopal Church
LA GRANDE — St. Peter’s
Episcopal Church will not wor-
ship in-person Sunday, April 11,
due to COVID-19.
The congregation will not
gather in person until at least
late April.
LA GRANDE — The worship
service at Zion Lutheran Church
Sunday, April 11, begins at 9 a.m.
COVID-19 precautions will be
in place, including masks, social
distancing, and there will not be
a coff ee hour. Those planning to
attend are asked to RSVP to the
offi ce via email or phone by noon
Saturday.
Faith Lutheran Church
LA GRANDE, ENTER-
PRISE — For the Second
Sunday of Easter, Faith
Lutheran Church’s sermon will
use the Gospel of John chapter
20 in which Jesus makes his
appearance sharing with them
“Peace be with you.” These
words were followed with evi-
dence that he had resurrected.
Further peace was announced
with the forgiveness of sins
through another method that
he instituted. Jesus was patient
with the troubled disciple
Thomas and provided a blessing
for all of us with the words
“Blessed are those who have
not seen and yet have believed”
(John 20:29b).
Services in La Grande
begin at 10 a.m. and at 2 p.m.
in Enterprise.
Holy Week muted but joyful for world’s Christians
Faith leaders call for
Easter baskets to be
end to Senate fi libuster Christians around the
blessed.
The Associated Press
By LUIS ANDRES HENAO
and MARIAM FAM
Associated Press
WASHINGTON, D.C. —
A coalition of faith leaders
and activists on Monday,
April 5, demanded the elim-
ination of the Senate fi li-
buster, wading into a crucial
debate in Washington with a
50-50 Senate and President
Joe Biden eyeing ambitious
legislation on expanding
voting rights, stemming gun
violence and other proposals
that face opposition from
Republicans.
Led by prominent pro-
gressive pastor the Rev.
William Barber and other
ministers, the group spoke
out against the arcane
procedural tactic, which
enables a single senator to
halt action or votes. Some
senators are arguing for
changing or scrapping
the rule, and faith leaders
lent their support both
online and in person out-
side National City Chris-
tian Church in Washington,
D.C., where they held signs
and chanted: “Don’t fi li-
buster democracy.”
“Today we come because
we as clergy — pastors,
imams, rabbis, people from
the Hindu community and
the Muslim community —
are challenging the immo-
rality of the fi libuster,”
Barber said. “We can no
longer have an impover-
ished democracy because
a minority group of sen-
ators want to shut down
open debate and shut down
bringing issues to the fl oor
(that) address the crit-
ical issues that face us as a
people in this nation.”
The fi libuster, he said,
has a history of being used
to block civil rights bills as
well as environmental pro-
tection and labor laws.
As the U.S. and Con-
gress have turned more
partisan, the fi libuster has
become a key weapon in
what is often described as a
procedural arms race in the
Senate. Year by year, more
and more senators threaten
to wage fi libusters to block
legislation. Overcoming fi li-
busters can take weeks.
Even without a senator
holding the fl oor, fi libusters
have forced senators into
all-night and weekend votes
to advance legislation, as
happened during passage of
the Aff ordable Care Act.
“We can’t have a small
minority of people using the
fi libuster so that we don’t
deal with voting rights, we
don’t deal with living wage,
we don’t deal with health
care,” Barber said ahead of
the event. He is a leading
civil rights activist and
co-chair of the Poor Peo-
ple’s Campaign, a nonprofi t
modeled on Martin Luther
King Jr.’s organizing work.
Jim Winkler, presi-
dent and general secretary
of the National Council of
Churches, said the fi libuster
was “long used by avowed
racists” who repeatedly
wielded it as a “weapon to
kill any progress to secure
voting rights and civil
rights.”
“The fi libuster must
never again be used as a
threat in order to kill leg-
islation,” he said. “It is a
cowardly tactic designed
to forestall progress for the
good of the nation.”
Senators and others
who favor keeping the fi li-
buster tradition argue that
it’s a way to ensure the
minority party has sway. It
takes 60 votes to overcome
a fi libuster, which typi-
cally would need bipartisan
cooperation. The cumber-
some practice also keeps the
Senate moving at a more
deliberative pace as they say
the founders intended, com-
pared to the House.
Proposals circulating in
Washington would keep
the fi libuster but lower the
threshold for overcoming it
to 51 votes, making it easier
to enact Biden’s agenda over
GOP opposition.
Any changes to the fi l-
ibuster will be diffi cult,
especially calls to abolish
it, because changes would
require Republican sup-
port and some Democratic
members of the senate are
reluctant as well. Biden has
indicated he might be open
to some changes, such as
requiring the senator fi li-
bustering a piece of legisla-
tion to be actively speaking
in the chamber.
globe celebrated Holy
Week in face masks and
observing social distance
guidelines as the corona-
virus pandemic dramat-
ically altered the Easter
season for a second year.
In places with ongoing
concerns about the spread
of the virus, which has
killed nearly 3 mil-
lion people worldwide,
state-mandated lockdowns
meant empty or virtually
empty celebrations where
people normally would
gather en masse.
In the Vatican, Pope
Francis presided over
the Via Crucis or Way
of the Cross ceremony
in a barren St. Peter’s
Square. In Quezon City,
the Philippines, roads and
churches were deserted
on Good Friday after reli-
gious gatherings were pro-
hibited in metropolitan
Manila and four outlying
provinces.
But in Israel, which
has implemented one of
the world’s most aggres-
Plenty of celebrations
were held remotely due to
health concerns, such as
a Passion Play staged on
a rooftop in a poor neigh-
borhood of Rio de Janeiro
on Good Friday for resi-
dents to watch either via
livestreaming or from
their balconies.
Where services did
take place indoors, pas-
tors and parishioners were
often careful to maintain
a safe separation, and dis-
infecting measures were
taken in at least some
houses of worship. In a
church in Madrid, women
wearing veils known as
“mantillas” prayed in
socially distanced pews.
It was a muted Easter
season in Spain, with Holy
Week processions again
canceled by authorities.
Emblematic of a pandem-
ic-altered world, a shop
in the southern city of
Seville was selling cloth
face masks emblazoned
with images of Jesus and
the Virgin Mary.
Rick Rycroft/Associated Press
Actor Timothy Watkins carries a cross during his portrayal of Jesus Christ
in a reenactment of the Journey to the Cross in Sydney, Australia, on
Good Friday, April 2, 2021. Christians observed the death and resurrec-
tion of Jesus Christ during Holy Week and Easter Sunday, either in per-
son or virtually depending on local concerns regarding COVID-19.
sive vaccination pro-
grams, many public places
including religious sites
have been allowed to
reopen.
Warming tempera-
tures with the onset of
the Northern Hemisphere
spring made outdoor ser-
vices an attractive option
for many.
At beaches in New
Jersey and Los Angeles,
people greeted the dawn
in Easter sunrise services.
On the lawn of a Penn-
sylvania church, and in
the shadow of palm trees
at a Las Vegas cemetery,
parishioners in folding
chairs took communion
and prayed.
And in the main
square of Transylvania,
Romania, Roman Cath-
olics stood in long rows
spaced 6 feet from each
other waiting for their
Grande Ronde Hospital and Clinics proudly welcomes:
Jennifer Hoffman, FNP-C
To the GRH Urgent Care team as a Family Nurse Practitioner
Nurse Practitioner Jennifer Hoffman joins the GRH team from an urgent care facility in Peoria,
Illinois. She is a Midwest native and grew up on a small hobby farm, caring for many kinds of animals
throughout her upbringing. She loves the outdoors, including fishing, camping, hiking, hunting,
boating, and skiing, and fell in love with the western united states many
years ago. After a recent vacation to mountains in the area, she and her
family concluded it was time to plant some new roots “out west”.
Jennifer enjoys working in urgent care, particularly the variety and
challenges that the field presents. She is passionate about her work,
meeting patients where they are at in their healthcare journey, and treats
everyone as if they were her own family. She looks forward to building
new memories in beautiful Eastern Oregon. Join us in welcoming
Jennifer and her family to Union County!
GRH Urgent Care
Jennifer Hoffman, FNP-C
10303 S. Walton Road, Island City • 541.962.7845 • grh.org/urgentcare
Northeast Oregon Directory of Churches
Cove United
Methodist Church
1708 Jasper St., Cove, OR
North Powder
United
Methodist Church
390 E. St., North Powder, OR
JOIN US... Catch the Spirit!
First Christian
Church
(Disciples of Christ)
901 Penn Avenue 963-2623
lgdisciples@gmail.com
Worship
10:00 a.m.
Worship: 9:00 a.m. Cove
Worship: 10:00 a.m. N. Powder
~Join us at The Lord’s Table~
SUMMERVILLE
BAPTIST CHURCH
LA GRANDE UNITED
METHODIST CHURCH
Sunday Services:
Sunday School & Adult Bible Classes
9:45AM
Children’s Church & Worship Service
11:00AM
Family Worship Service
6:00PM
Wednesday:
Prayer Mtg, Children’s Bible Club, Youth
Group 7:00PM
A church for your whole family
Visit us at summervillebaptistchurch.org
“OPEN HEARTS, OPEN MINDS, OPEN DOORS”
1612 4th Street – 963-2498
Pastor Taylor Gould
For service information go to
www.lagrandeumc.org
GRACE COMMUNITY
LUTHERAN CHURCH
The Place
62848 Philynda Loop in Island City
“We are called to Serve”
Sunday School for all ages - 9:00 am
Sunday Worship 10:00 am
Phone: 541-568-4230
grace.lutherancove@gmail.com
Zion Lutheran
Church
(an ELCA church)
902 Fourth Street,
La Grande, OR
(541) 963-5998
9:00 am - Worship
10:00 am - Fellowship & Refreshments
10:30 am - Classes
Pastor: Roberta Smythe
www.zionlagrande.org
Imbler
Christian
Church
440 Ruckman, Imbler 534-2201
www.imblercc@gmail.com
Sunday Services
9:00 a.m.
10:00 a.m.
Sunday School
Worship Service
Services
This
Week
La Grande Seventh-day
FIRST LANDMARK
MISSIONARY BAPTIST
CHURCH
Adventist Church
A Place where hope is found in Jesus
Join us in Fellowship & Worship
Saturday all age classes 9:30 am
Saturday Worship 11:00 am
1812 1st St. La Grande
Pastor Dave Tierce • 541-605-0215
2702 Adams Avenue, La Grande
963-4018
lagrandeor.adventistchurch.org
Learning for Today and Eternity
Little Friends
Christian Preschool/Childcare 963-6390
La Grande Adventist Christian School
K-8th Grade 963-6203
We use the King James Version Bible
109 18th Street • 963-3402
Sunday School 9:15 a.m.
Sunday Worship 10:30 a.m.
Sunday School - 10:00 am
Worship 11:00 am
Sunday Evening Bible Study - 3:00 pm (Effective June 10)
Wednesday Evening - 6:30 pm
“Where you can find TRUTH according to the scriptures”
www.flmbclagrande.com